A Mississippi Coast restaurant featured on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ is closing
They’ve been written about in USA Today. Guy Fieri from The Food Network featured them on “The Best of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” and Forbes Magazine named Darwell’s Cafe on East First Street in Long Beach a Top 10 restaurant.
And on Sunday the Coast classic, known for its live music and outdoor dining, will close.
“My health is good but legs/feet are in bad shape,” Darwell Yeager Jr., better known as Papa Darwell, posted Friday on Facebook. Oct. 11 will be the last day of business, but this weekend there will still be live music and his Creole cooking and a chance for those Cruisin’ The Coast to drive by and bid farewell.
“We’re going to have a big time all weekend long,” he said.
Darwell, who said he will be 67 on his next birthday, said he’s had some very back wrecks years ago as a professional motorcycle flat-track racer and has been battling those old injuries for years while working on his feet at the restaurant.
“Now it’s time to get well and rethink a plan for the future,” he said. “I love people. I love Long Beach and the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I plan on coming up with something to stay involved — in some way — for the rest of my life.”
The restaurant, going into its 16th year, drew customers with “real food for real people,” and its Southern Gospel music on Sunday nights. Among the favorite dishes were his shrimp creole, seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee and Angel Hair Yum Yum, his soup and homemade brownies.
“I met so many wonderful people,” he said. “The Coast is such a unique place. I’ll never leave.”
Darwell added, “I know I will stay involved in art and music and promoting our paradise we call ‘The Coast.’”
He’s considering teaching painting classes, doing custom picture framing and hosting special events once he gets medical attention and some time off, he said.
He’s passed on his skills in the kitchen to his son Darwell Yeager III, who operates Darwells Happiness Cafe in Forest, Mississippi. His father calls him an “amazing creative chef and a cooking prodigy.”
