All Aboard the Mardi Gras Express

A night out in Gulfport is now just a train ride away

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With the August 16 launch of the $200 million restored Gulf Coast Amtrak line—now dubbed the Mardi Gras Service—you can find yourself beachside, sitting at a James Beard award-nominated restaurant, or wandering through new museums as easily as you can say “all aboard.”

Going east and west, the journey from New Orleans has stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, Mississippi before a final destination in Mobile, Alabama. The transportation option is affordable ($15 one way, $59 for business class), and fun—a literal joyride.

“This project has been more than fifteen years in the works,” said Knox Ross, chairman of the Southern Rail Commission. “We haven’t had service since before Katrina. It’s exciting for the region, with a positive effect on tourism every stop of the way.”

Embark

On a recent weekday at 7 am at the Union Passenger Terminal Amtrak train station in New Orleans, it felt like a party. The station was busy, full of clusters of girlfriends laughing and chatting, couples pulling rollaboards, and laptop toting business travelers getting a jump on their workdays.

Although the New Orleans station is not the fanciest, it offers all the basic services: a ticket window (something none of the smaller stations have), a sandwich shop, and vending machines. The best thing about the space is a spectacular wraparound mural by LSU art professor Conrad Albrizio. Unveiled in 1954, the public art project illustrates the state’s history in four sixty-by-eight-foot panels hopscotching over 400 years of Louisiana history. Looking up is a great way to pass the time until the conductor makes his famous call.

Journey On

The train, with a shiny new locomotive engine car on each end, can bring up to 150 passengers, their luggage and, with advance notice, golf clubs and even pets in carriers on the journey. The café car, which includes booths popular with card players, offers soft drinks and basic booze, snacks, and a few New Orleans-flavored bites like pralines, Moon Pies, Zapp’s chips, and muffuletta wedges.

Although all the cars have plenty of leg room, folks who opt for the business class car enjoy soft drinks and coffee free of charge.

Leaving the station in New Orleans, views start with streetscapes that from this vantage seem somehow unfamiliar (“Wait, is that St. Bernard Avenue?”) and snapshots of the Seventh Ward and New Orleans East, neighborhoods reframed by the click of the rails.

Soon, city gives way to marshes and sweeping coastal views, the scenery unspooling before us. The train passes over bay bridges, with water extending on each side. Folks along the way are all smiles, where waves are offered from beach bars and fishing boats. Even a cheerful guy in waders raised a hand in greeting, the other gripping a fishing pole.

Step off the Station

In Gulfport, the station is just a few blocks from Hotel Vela and Austin and Tresse Sumrall’s Siren Social Club restaurant, which they opened last Halloween and is reason enough to jump on that train. After dropping bags at the hotel (the morning train arrives before check-in hours) it’s time for exploring.

The Mississippi Aquarium, just a few blocks away, showcases aquatic wildlife both local and not, placing an emphasis on the Gulf and its inhabitants. Promising to be “the window to the waters of Mississippi, the Gulf Coast, and beyond,” the aquarium has large indoor exhibits, along with a colorful bird aviary, touch tanks for the kiddos, an otter habitat, and more. The main wow factor can be observed in a 360-degree plexiglass walkway that allows visitors to literally walk on water, observing sharks, sting rays, and other marine life from every angle. Little ones are treated like VIPs, with pint-sized viewing portals built just for them.

Afterwards, lunch at the nearby Murky Waters Barbecue offers the likes of waffle fries loaded with slow and low-cooked pulled pork and burnt ends with sides of collards, all portioned for the famished. The restaurant backs up to Fishbone Alley, an artsy street made bright with public art, cafés, and live music in the evenings.

After some chill time at the sixteen-room hotel, with its sleek retro vibe, the speakeasy awaits. McComb native Sumrall’s first culinary foray on the coast was the gorgeous Gulf-to-table restaurant White Pillars in Biloxi, which has earned him two semi-finalist nominations for the James Beard Best Chef South Award.

"I think more people are looking for short and easy trips to make, and the train definitely fits that bill. As the weather gets cooler, I predict it will bring even more business both ways.” —Meagan Duncan, the general manager for the Hotel Vela and the Siren in Gulfport, Mississippi 

When the prospect of Siren Social first came on their radar, Tresse, a Gulfport native, admits she was skeptical. “Gulfport isn’t the most bustling place for dining and nightlife on the coast,” she said. But, “the train is certainly going to help. There’s tons of potential here. Our place has become a destination—it feels like you’re on vacation here.”

Maybe it’s the thrill of what’s behind that nondescript door off the lobby—a portal to a world of Jazz Age-sipping and global dining. Start with a drink in the intimate bar area or outside on the lush patio. Although the cocktail menu is tiki-centric, the olive & pearl is a not-to-be-missed take on a dirty martini. Anchovy-infused Chopin, dashi-kombu brine, caviar stuffed olives, a hint of Calabrian chile oil, and a raw oyster sporting olive mignonette on the side adds up to epic.

[Read about another train adventure—this one takes you out West: "Riding the Rails to Beaumont—Natural beauty everywhere you turn on this trek to Texas"]

For dinner, the chef offers sophisticated riffs on coastal seafood classics, along with swanky options like the Beef Wellington. Start with warm, salted yeast rolls with whipped satsuma butter and any of the house made pastas—the ravioli two ways with vodka sauce is divine. The 1,000-layer potatoes drizzled with basil pesto have their own siren call, as do the east and west coast oysters, three grades of caviar service with all the accoutrements, and an outstanding seared scallop dish adorned with caviar beurre blanc. Prices are on par with other fine dining experiences—with drinks, figure about $100 per person, although if restraint is possible, a glass of wine and a dish of excellent pasta runs around $30. Drinks and dinner are served Tuesday through Saturday from 5 until 10, making Siren ideal for happy hour, a sexy date night, or a late night bite. Not much was happening downtown after dinner on a Wednesday, but I wasn’t sad to stay at Siren for my drink on the patio. The Social Club is no doubt a game changer for Gulfport—only emphasized by the newfound access brought by the train.

“We definitely have had some more guests make their way over on the train,” said Meagan Duncan, the general manager for the Hotel Vela and the Siren. “It’s so convenient. I think more people are looking for short and easy trips to make, and the train definitely fits that bill. As the weather gets cooler, I predict it will bring even more business both ways.” Duncan, whose past experience includes working in New Orleans at Hotel Chloe, said they hadn’t counted on the Mardi Gras Service’s impact when opening the hotel. “We are so lucky to have Siren and The Hotel Vela so close [to it], I know we’ll benefit.”

On the way back to New Orleans the next morning, the anticipatory mood prevailed as a handful of locals lined up for the trip home, or to visit the Crescent City. Valerie Yarbrough was one of them, a Gulfport resident giddy with the idea of taking her very first train ride. “I’m sixty-two and this is my first time,” she said. “My girlfriend got on in Pascagoula. We’re going to explore New Orleans for the day and eat lots of good food. Can’t wait.”   

amtrak.com/stations/nol.