Starkville, MS is the home of Mississippi State know for agriculture, engineering and veterinary medicine. The culture is uniquely southern. It’s also home to some really good eating.

I’m beginning to understand just how seriously the south takes its sweet tea. As any southerner that spends more than 5 minutes with me will corroborate, I’m a northerner born and raised. I don’t understand sweet tea. It’s basically brewed tea with a lot of sugar served cold. I’ve made this at home in the north, we made it growing up in the north. Nothing special, just brewed tea.

Sweet tea is special to the south. Apparently the key is adding the sugar while the tea is hot. The sugar is so important that you get funny looks when you order unsweet tea. My co-workers make sport of of watching waitresses’ and unsuspecting bystanders’ reactions when I order unsweet tea. It’s a conversation killer, sometimes the whole room goes silent. I’m told that unsweet tea like the parsley that comes with steak: every restaurant serves it, no one would consider actually drinking it.

It is nice that every restaurant serves good quality brewed tea. We don’t get that up north.

It also turns out that in Mississippi I’m the one with the accent.

Starkville is a good eating town. I’m working with locals so I’m getting the inside scoop on restaurants. Of note, Mississippi is known for its farm raised catfish. Cajun food is also common. So far the only local beer I’ve found is Abita.

Here’s a restaurant round-up:

Oby’s: casual dining, great cajun food. Try the catfish sandwich, crawfish sandwich, avoid the alligator sandwich. Alligator is exactly as you’d expect: tough, gristly and tasteless. The Rotel and chips are a southern thing I’d not heard of. It’s basically spicy queso and tortilla chips.
Oby’s
662-323-0444
504 Academy Rd.
Starkville, MS

Richey’s: Steaks, seafood. This is a restaurant your grandparents probably took you to. It’s very traditional, mostly meat on the menu, a prominent and pretty good salad bar. The windows were completely covered by patterned frosted glass. The food’s on the expensive side but excellent. I had a NY strip steak rare. I’m not a huge read meat eater but I enjoyed it. Try the fried crawfish tailis just because you’ve never seen them on the menu.
Richey’s
662-324-2737
513 Academy Rd.

Dark Horse Tavern
Dingy low ceilinged bar with pretty good pizza and Abita Turbodog on tap. Try the pizza. The Abita is either unusually potent or I was unusually worn out from the trip. I had an 8″ pizza, 2 turbo dogs and I barely made it back to the hotel room before passing out. The overhang as you enter reads “Continuing Education Since 1995.” They sell t-shirts that read “Never Graduate.”
Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern
662-324-3316
410 Mlk Jr. Dr (off route 12, behind the ‘Regal Inn’)
Starkville, MS 39759

Rosey Baby: Billed as cajun cuisine, they were closed perhaps permanently when I headed over for dinner. The sign out front read “Closed for Spring Break” but it’s finals week. The locals were noticeably shaken when I told them it was closed. It’s worth checking to see if they’re back.
Rosey Baby
662-324-1949
300 S Jackson St
Starkville, MS 39759-3348

Mugshots: I understand this to be the best burger in town. I have not eaten there but the building is pure southern frontier town. I’m going to try to stop in before I leave.
662-324-3965
101 N. Douglas Conner Street
Starkville, MS 39759