Bacchus in Biloxi is heading for the beach

Jourdan Nicaud is about to trade one great restaurant location for another as Bacchus in Biloxi becomes Bacchus Biloxi Beach.

Nicaud is buying Pelican Wharf on U.S. 90 from fellow restaurateur Rob Stinson and plans to open there in mid-June.

He’s an astute businessman and isn’t abandoning the Bacchus in Biloxi location at U.S. 90 and Caillavet Street, between the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino and MGM Park. It’s already a popular place with casino employees and he intends to rebrand it to their liking, as Barroom, A Burger Bar. The restaurant and bar will come with an adult arcade and billiards hall, and feature specialty cocktails from historic New Orleans, he said.

His restaurant on the beach along Biloxi’s restaurant row is getting a whitewash for a new look, and new features that will add to the experience.

“The view is unbelievable,” he said, and he intends to make the most of it with an oyster grill on the deck and a daiquiri bar. Down below, customers can get their toes in the sand at the sand pit, watching volleyball tournaments and listening to live bands, all flavored with crawfish and seafood boils.

“Eating oysters, drinking daiquiris and looking at the sunset — it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said.

The new restaurant will have the same creative menu that makes dining at Bacchus in Biloxi memorable. Pork Chop Monday and Fat Tuesday celebrations each week — with half-off oysters at the bar and happy hour all day — also will move to the new restaurant. So will his gumbo pasta with Gulf shrimp, crispy duck wings and the list of steaks, seafood and Cajun bites.

Customers of Pelican Wharf may see some familiar faces at the new restaurant.

“We’re going to be absorbing some of Pelican Wharf’s staff and bringing our staff over,” Nicaud said. The new Bacchus will employ 50 people.

Nicaud, who is still in his 20s, started in Gulfport building what is becoming a restaurant empire. He has restaurants in Pass Christian, Biloxi, Ocean Springs and Oxford, and last week opened a Bacchus in Madison.

That empire, which he calls Bacchus experience (www.bacchusexperience.com) will get a new twist Memorial Day Weekend, when Hotel Pass Christian makes its debut. The hotel, with balconies overlooking the beach and marina, is on Scenic Drive just north of his Bacchus on the Beach restaurant. Adjacent to the restaurant he’ll be making a splash with a new Sand Bar.

“It’s something I always wanted to do,” he said. The restaurant empire took off, he said, thanks to his family who pitches in and his “unbelievable” employees.

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Bacchus in Biloxi is heading for the beach."