Author Archives: Robert

Grab a broom and a dustpan because I am about to drop some names. My friend Marty Stuart, country music legend, multi-instrumentalist, curator, fellow Mississippian, and all-around great guy, and his friend Ken Burns the world’s finest documentarian— alive or dead— are supporting a project called Honor Your Hometown. I was honored to have beenContinue reading “Honor Your Hometown”

It’s been a little over a year since Julia Reed was taken from us— much too soon— after a long, sometimes public, always brave battle with cancer. I can’t remember the first time I met Julia. It was either at a party in her French Quarter home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, or atContinue reading “Julia”

“RSJ’s Andouille-Stuffed Carpetbagger Steak” Photo Credit: Joey DeLeo From the book “New South Grilling” by Robert St. John, Hyperion 2007 I had a very long, storied, and notorious college career but I ended up right back where I was born, in Hattiesburg as a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. I started my freshman yearContinue reading “Steak Night”

I am a regular. Always have been, always will be. If I am in town, I regularly eat breakfast at 7:00 AM at table number 19 in our breakfast-lunch café, The Midtowner. I am here every morning along with the usual cast of morning regulars. Restaurant concepts such as these thrive on regular customers. SomeContinue reading “Friends”

For the past 22 plus years I have written this column on Monday mornings. I usually get to my office early, close my door, turn on some classical music, and spend the next hour or so pounding out 1000 words. This is the way I’ve done it— week in, week out— never missing a week,Continue reading “Trying To Reason with Hurricane Season”

One never knows where the restaurant business will lead. Though I do know, if a restaurateur stays in the business long enough, he or she gets to the point to where there’s a surprise around every corner. This morning I will be heading out to Las Vegas. I won’t be taking a gambling junket orContinue reading “The Capri”

For the past 22 years I have written this weekly column, 1000 words a week, 52 weeks a year, never missing a week. Those 1,100,000+ words are typically written about food. Though I call an audible on occasion when it comes to travel, family, or some type of culinary oddity. Having been in the restaurantContinue reading “Extra Table 2021”

They say, “You can never go back.” I don’t know who “they” are, but last week I actually went back, and in a big way. Some may dream of fame and fortune, others of worldly riches and material things. I just wanted to ride in the Wienermobile one more time. Eighteen years ago, I spottedContinue reading “The Return of the Wienermobile”

When I am leading tours, especially in the Italian region of Tuscany, I’m always amazed at how much history we pass on a non-descript road without ever knowing what we are missing. On a seemingly simple one mile stretch of road outside of our friend’s villa in the remote Tuscan countryside one passes historic tombsContinue reading “A Different Kind of History Lesson”