After this weekend, the slice of the Caribbean, with resident alligator Willie and dining decks overlooking the river, will slip away.
Sunday, October 26, is the last day for owners Don and Joann Worner at Huck’s Cove Grill on Bayou in Gautier. They sold the restaurant to a local buyer who owns another restaurant on the coast.
It is the third waterfront restaurant to close or change hands in three months. Tiki Bar & Grill in Gautier and Flamingo Landing in Gulfport closed in August.
Huck’s Cove will be open for a while with the same staff, food and look while the new owner makes renovations.
“Sad” is how they describe the end of the era that began in 1999. on October 19, when he purchased a restaurant on the West Pascagoula River. They recently totaled $10 million, which they have since invested in the business and community, the college kids and local workers who worked there, the entertainment groups and the many people they fed.
“We’re kind of an icon of Gauthier. Like a yacht club that everybody can belong to,” Don said.
Times are changing, and it’s hard for a small restaurant to survive, he said, especially when owners spend half the year watching the weather.
A touch of the Caribbean greets customers at Huck’s Cove in Gautier, where porch swings and rocking chairs provide a fun place to sit while waiting for a table or after dinner.
“It’s time for us to retire,” Don said.
“It’s a younger man’s business,” Joann said.
Another taste of paradise
The restaurant will still be open Friday through Sunday for one last visit, with a Veterans Poker Run on Saturday.
The restaurant is known for its burgers and seafood, and they’ve added coastal favorites like fried green tomatoes, gumbo and fried dill pickles.
The BaDaBing Burger at Huck’s Cove in Gautje is a favorite.
“We tried to make sure that no other restaurant served the dish,” Joann said, as if she were the first to add gator tail to the menu.
Customers will have another couple of days of great weather to dine on the water, but Sunday, their last day, is forecast to be wet.
The stormy weather seems to match the history of the place. The couple bought the waterfront restaurant from Beau Speed, a Gautier pharmacist who in 1996 opened Huck’s Cove and brought their taste of the tropical Caribbean experience to South Mississippi.
The building had just been hit by Hurricane Georges prior to the sale and had been repaired.
“We’ve always built backwards,” Don said, rebuilding the building, piers and decks that were ripped away by tropical storms and flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina’s waterline is marked above the restaurant’s window, among the license plates, photos of celebrities who have eaten there, and wallpaper of memorabilia.
The water line from Hurricane Katrina is marked on the walls of Huck’s Cove in Gautje 20 years later.
Warners said they own most of the license plates. “We traveled a lot,” Don said. He was from Ocean Springs, and when they were ready to settle down on the coast, they were looking for a place that reminded them of the Bahamas, where they spent a lot of time.
Detached and friendly
Customers can board their boat or map to 3000 Oak St. to reach Huck’s Cove. Alternatively, they can follow the local directions to turn off Highway 90 at the bridge and hang a right just past the cemetery. It then passes through a separate toilet building, just like in the Bahamas, to an entrance with a porch swing and out onto the decks.
People just find the restaurant. “We wanted to go somewhere on the water,” said two customers from Cleveland, Ohio, who were dining on the deck with their dogs after visiting the alligator. Manatees have also been known to swim up to Huck once or twice.
The final toast to Huck’s Bay Gautje is from Lisa Simpson and Jeffrey Saylors from Florida.
“I love this little place,” said Lisa Simpson, who wants the new owners to keep the menu and restaurant the same. She and Jeffrey Saylors visit every time they come to Biloxi from Florida, and she always orders the same thing. “I don’t get crabs in West Palm Beach,” she said.
With the new owner taking care of the building and the history of Huck’s Cove, the Worners will no longer have to face storms six months out of the year.
“We’ll still travel,” said Don. “Just enjoy life.”
Mud and sea grass from the barrier islands and the Mississippi area covered nearly every inch of Huck’s Cove after Hurricane Katrina, inundating Gautier’s restaurant at 300 Oak Street with more than 12 feet of water. It was rebuilt and reopened to survive more storms and COVID.
Huck’s Cove Restaurant is located in Gautier at the mouth of Mary Walker Bayou and the West Pascagoula River.