Log House Gumbo

Jim and Mary Myers were already the best-known restaurateurs in Biloxi, Mississippi, when they opened the Log House on DeBuys Road in 1970. They’d owned and operated the famous Friendship House restaurant, roughly midway between Biloxi and Gulfport, from 1949 to 1964, when they sold it to the Brennan family of New Orleans, one of the nation’s best-known restaurant dynasties. Since then the Myerses had been itching to get back into the business.

With its homemade seafood dishes, Southern hospitality, and built-in gift shop, the Log House quickly became a popular stop for locals, hungry tourists, and anyone else driving along U.S. Highway 90. (Though it looked to be made of logs, the restaurant was cleverly constructed with a faux-log façade to resemble the real thing.)

In 1984 the Myerses turned over the day-to-day management of the restaurant to Susie Wilson, their daughter, and her husband, Jerry. Jim Myers died the following year, and not long after that Mary had a stroke.

The Log House closed in 1989. It sat vacant until 1995, when James B. Watts, Sr., a Chicago businessman who’d made a pile of money as a distributor of industrial chemicals and solvents, bought the restaurant from the Myers family and opened J’s Bar-B-Que there. His restaurant closed after just a few months, and the property once again sat vacant, this time until July 2000, when Mabus Walters, the owner of Dad’s BBQ in Slidell, Louisiana, opened the Log Cabin — a name he chose as a variation on the original — there. His restaurant closed a year later.

In 2002 the Gulf Coast Medical Center in Biloxi, eyeing the unused three-quarter-acre tract next to it for some undesignated future use, a bought the property from Walters for $550,000. It had the Log House torn down on January 16, 2003. In late 2009 the 31-year-old hospital announced that it would be vacating Biloxi and moving somewhere north of Interstate 10.

Print Recipe

Log House Gumbo

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Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• I cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1 quart water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons gumbo filé
• Pinch of red pepper
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• Salt to taste
• 2 1/2 cups okra
• 2 cups canned tomatoes
• 1 pound cleaned raw shrimp
• 1/2 pound fresh crab meat

Instructions

1

In a large saucepan or stockpot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, celery, and green pepper and cook briskly, stirring frequently, until well softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat

2

Meanwhile, prepare the French roux. In a small skillet mix the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil with the flour, and cook over high heat for about 1 minute, until it sizzles. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every minute or so, until the roux is a deep mahogany brown.

3

Add water, bay leaves, ketchup, garlic, gumbo fiIé, red and black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce to the vegetable mixture and Salt to taste. Cook gently until vegetables are done and flavors well blended.

4

Add okra, tomatoes, shrimp, and crab.

5

Thicken with the roux and simmer briefly, adding water as needed, until the seafood is done. Serve over rice.