New Coast BBQ joint is so good that ‘you’re going to eat half’ on the way home
Arkansas Avenue in Gulfport is hardly a well-trodden thoroughfare.
In fact, it qualifies as well off the beaten path, even though it does intersect with the ever busy U.S.y49. The busiest of roadways is where most of our well knownrestaurants can be found, but if Mississippi is culinarily famous for anything, it is back road joints, and McInnis’s 12 Bone BBQ fits thatbill to a tee.
Not only is McInnis’s out of the way, it specializes in a genre that is best known in the hardwoods and rolling hills of northern Mississippi — barbecue. It would hardly be an understatement to say that we suffer a dearth of good barbecue places on the Coast, but McInnis’s is starting changing that sad reputation.
But lets get right to the point.The eatery doesn’t make just good barbecue, it makes barbecue that is so good you are going to eat half of what you bought for your family while driving home. If fact, I had to pull over to the side of the road,find a hot bottle of water that was rolling around on the floorboards, and use it to wash the sticky, sweet BBQ sauce from my hands and mouth. Also had to change my shirt when I got home.
The most adept description of McInnis’s that comes to mind is sassy. This is what owner Sonzie McInnis says about her food, “the ribs are fall-of- the-bone, need no teeth, ribs and the brisket is everlasting melt in your mouth.”Pretty cool, right?
She also told me that she likes “some backyard barbecue with some burnt on it.” She has a point, backyard barbecue is different from that prepared in a commercial smoker.
I asked what the bestsellers were,and she said that the ribs, brisket and pulled pork were the best.Those, of course represent most of the menu.
The $8.62 daily specials are worth a good look (meatloaf, rice and gravy and four other sides,plus a dessert on the day I visited). That, my friends, is a lot of food for $8.62. I did try the rib plate ($10.86), which was four big,and extremely tender ribs, mac and cheese and really good baked beans. The plates lunches come with slices of white bread, but what else would you use to sop up all that homemade barbecue sauce?
Also look for fired fish, fried chicken, turkey necks, pork chops, and more. McInnis’s may be a barbecue joint, but it definitely celebrates the soul food traditions and is exactly what the Coast needs.
If you go
Where: 4301 Arkansas Ave, Gulfport
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday
Phone: 228-314-3150
This story was originally published August 3, 2018 at 12:00 AM.