The menu at this new MS Coast restaurant is just one page, but it’s filled with surprises
Ocean Springs has its share of upscale restaurants and laid-back taverns, yet The Garage at Cash Alley is unlike any other place in the downtown.
It’s already a standout with its canopy roof that marks it as a former filling station. The front of the building opens to Government Street. On days when the weather is nice, the garage doors roll up to let the warmth of the pedestrian Cash Alley into the restaurant and bar.
Step inside and step back to the 1970s, when life was easier. Drinks came in cans. The Christmas music playing is sung by old friends Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. At the wrap-around concrete bar locals and tourists chat while watching sports on TVs.
The menu is one page and stuffed with dishes many people have never tried before.
Instead of nachos, The Garage has Loaded Totchos — layers on a base of their own made tater tots of beer cheese, RC Cola barbecue, onions, peppers, tomatoes, green onions, pulled pork and candied jalapeno.
The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and for those craving a late breakfast, the Loaded Breakfast Totchos are made with fried pork belly, sausage, eggs and cheddar cheese.
Simple, easy food
Owner Will Taylor already has two other restaurants in downtown Ocean Springs, Glory Bound Gyro Co. and The Lady May. The idea behind The Garage was to “put together a concept that we felt the street needed — simple, easy,” he said, “a small place that talks to customers.”
That’s why the menu has fried bologna sandwiches, something many kids were raised on. The Garage gives the sandwich a tasty twist by adding their own bacon jam to the slab of bologna, topped with cheddar cheese and served on Texas toast.
“We make our own jam from scratch,” said manager D.J. Branning, cooking it down “low and slow with all the spices.” They bottle it and sell it at the restaurants and online, he said, long with their pickles.
The favorite sandwich probably is the Diablo, he said. “I make all the pork barbecue with RC Cola,” he said, and sends some home to his dad every Christmas. The meat is topped with slaw and sweet fire pickles.
The Dawghouse lineup
One section of the one-page menu is devoted to the all-beef brisket hot dogs served with traditional mustard and onions — or with toppings that surprise.
Like the Deviled Egg Dawg, topped with deviled egg salad and candied jalapeno.
“Everybody who has tried it say it’s unbelievable,” Taylor said.
Their bacon jam transforms a hot dog and their Breakfast Dawg is topped with pork belly strip and egg cooked to choice. Their Comeback Dawg is another surprise, with pork belly, pepper jacked, grilled onions, comeback sauce.
On the tables are their own Greek or Cajun seasonings and a box of shop towels to help carry the theme.
Food on the move
Downtown Ocean Springs draws locals and out-of-towners throughout the year. “I’ve met people from all over the world,” Branning said, along with local characters, like the guy who showed up to play pinball at The Garage with a rooster on a leash.
With so much happening downtown, the drinks and several items on the menu are designed to sip and eat on the go.
Chicken or Spam on a stick are among them, and when the dishes are fried it’s in beef tallow, Branning said.
The desserts for all three of Taylor’s restaurants are created by pastry chef Bridgett Beesley, who started making moon pies at The Lady May and then added ice cream sandwiches for a sweet treat on the go. She’s now developed cheesecake on a stick, in flavors like strawberry crunch and triple chocolate that she routinely changes.
Just like in the 1970s, whiskey sours are a thing and the screwdrivers are made at the bar with a machine that fresh squeezes the oranges.
More to come
Taylor came to Ocean Springs in 2018 and said, “I fell in love with the town.”
He opened Glory Bound Gyro Co. that year, based on the restaurant he founded in Hattiesburg in 2009 and later expanded to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Lady May opened in downtown Ocean Springs in 2021, during the pandemic.
Next year he plans to go back to franchising the Glory Bound franchise.
The concept is “fun, unique and different,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got to get it out there a little bit more.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 11:01 AM.
