Natchez, MS

Last week I drove from IN to MS with my parents to go see my brother, sister in-law and most precious baby girl ever - Morgan Grace (my niece!). Andy flew down from NY and Marcus picked him up in Baton Rouge.

This was my second trip to Natchez. It is cute little down in the South and the South is alive and well! During my first trip Marcus and I ran a 10K Race. That was a great way to see some history and the old antebellum homes. We were excited to show Andy around.

Marcus and Kyndee just moved from their very cool loft condo in downtown above the coffee shop to a beautiful spacious home just outside of town. Morgan is mobile and she demanded more room to crawl and very soon walk about! Frodo also appreciates the space so he run away from Baby Morgan's grabby hands! Andy and I were very comfortable in the spare room with a King Bed and Mom/Dad stayed their favorite room on the waterfront across the river.

Okay...the food in Natchez is all about being fried - catfish, biscuits, mushrooms, chicken - if it is edible it can be fried. Since my parents are on a life-style change and trying to eat healthy we didn't go crazy with the local fair!

Biscuit and Blues is a local restaurant that does serve the best biscuits. We all had to have at least a half of one with the Apricot Butter - yummers! B&B of course has fried chicken and catfish as favorites but we steered toward the just as good but not fried Po Boys - the chicken Po Boy is fantastic. There are several sides to choose from - the sweetest and most southern choice is the Sweet Potato casserole - brown sugar on top. With that for a side we passed on the bread pudding.
315 Main Street
Natchez, MS 39120-3461
(601) 446-9922

The Natchez Food and Wine Festival was the weekend we were down there. It is an annual event and since there is not a lot to do in Natchez during the very hot summer days we decided to attend one of the events. Kyndee and I love wine and we chose to do the Cheese and Wine tasting. It was $45 a person - so $90 per couple. It sounded a bit steep but since it was at the Dunleith Plantation we thought we would get a tour of the house, taste a bunch of wines, have a little bit of food and then spend some time in the bar downstairs. Well....that is not what Southern Wine and Spirits had in mind. We came in to the restaurant area sat down and while they passed out four very small pieces of cheese with four grapes we listened to a life info commercial. A man showed us how to use a knife we could purchase online (not there) to cut fruit into edible displays. We were not served any fruit (outside of the 4 grapes) nor could we purchase the knife - only a CD of his commercial. Then we were served four wine tastings. It was long time to sit through each weak description of the wine and cheese. At the end we wanted to buy a bottle or even a glass of the wine we liked the best - not an option! So...for $45 we got an info commercial, for pieces of cheese the size of a nickel and less than a glass of wine. VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!

After that we left Dunleith Plantation and headed to a Monmouth Plantation for a real glass of wine! The garden area is beautiful - despite the heat - we had to walk around some. The boys smoked a cigar outside. The waiter was so great and negotiated a piece of bread pudding from the chef (we were two hours too early for dinner). Monmouth has the best bread pudding in Natchez, MS. Not disappointing at all!
36 Melrose Avenue, Natchez, MS 39120.

Andy and I are looking forward to driving down to Natchez again in October. We will bring some Trader Joes and Whole Food goodies for Kyndee to cook up (the finer things in life!).