Ground Zero Blues club is a delicious restaurant, too. The menu is wacky and magnificent.
There has been a lot of buzz recently about the grand opening of Ground Zero Blues Club in Biloxi, and every bit of the fanfare true.
I have visited a few times, including a stellar lunch there recently, and I can’t tell you how cool and funky this place is. The old Kress building was gutted and reconstructed, and it has a lot of open space. Three-stories tall, the building is also airy.
There is a large stage and dance floor, and the facade of a juke joint on the west wall, plus lots of blues and Delta memorabilia. There are about a dozen tables and two bars with plenty of bar stools. Very, very cool.
The menu was put together by Chef Demetrio Marquez (Chef D to friends) and he nailed it. A famous blues club just can’t have an everyday, run-of-the-mill menu. To get the right feel, it’s got to have just the right touches of classic Southern Coastal, Delta and a bluesy feel too, and that is exactly what Chef D delivered.
With just a quick look at the menu, I fell in love. The Crossroads Club is a great example funkiness you’ll find at Ground Zero. It’s made with fried bologna smoked turkey, bacon, Swiss, pimento cheese and all the trimmings. It is a mad, wacky sandwich and it is absolutely delicious. Southerners have been combining bologna and pimento and cheese for ages, but I have never seen a restaurant with the bravado to put it on the menu.
Another stunning creation by Chef D is the Delta Taco. They are made with Johnny cakes (think of a tortilla made with cornbread batter) filled with smoked pulled pork, haystack slaw, spiced pickle onions and “git back” sauce ( a take on the Delta’s famous come back sauce).
Chef D is proud of his kitchen team, and they are making everything from scratch, from the ten-hour smoked pulled pork, the BBQ sauce and their own pork skins (called hogg hides). As always, I am a big fan of the small plates and side dishes. I just loved the Delta potato salad, haystack slaw (Chef D’s coleslaw), sweet potato casserole and collard greens. There is also a pretty amazing banana pudding, served in a mason jar and big enough for a meal by itself.
In a nod to Biloxi, Chef D also offers a Fofo Barq’s root beer float.
Ground Zero Blues club is the show case of a blooming downtown Biloxi. Its going to be a hangout for locals and my money says the tourists visiting the casinos are going to walk overt for a bite to eat and to see a show.
If you go:
Address: 814 Howard Ave., Biloxi
Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m to 9 p.m.; closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Phone: 228-910-6600
