Page 54 - Play Coastal Mississippi - Spring, 2025

DINING
Southern Roots & Modern Takes Dinner | Coastal Mississippi & RPF Media
COASTAL MISSISSIPPI SERVES UP NYC
It was a Coastal Mississippi culinary takeover when Chef Alex Perry, his wife Chef Kumi Omori, and Master Cicerone David Reese rolled out their incredible culinary and brewery artisan skills in The Big Apple.
Visit Mississippi partnered with Coastal Mississippi, Visit Jackson, and Visit Oxford to host the James Beard Foundation’s Southern Roots & Modern Takes dinner in New York City earlier this year.
Perry and Omori’s incredible Coastal culinary artisan skills, coupled with Reese’s beachy brewery mastery, helped generate buzz around Coastal Mississippi’s dynamic restaurant, bar, and lounge scene, which blends time- honored traditions with innovative creativity.
“I loved meeting all these people I’ve just never had the chance to meet before,” said Reese, Owner and Brewmaster of the Fly Llama Brewery in Biloxi. “We were all in New York talking about our dishes and products and discovered we are all using Two Brooks Rice Farm. Here’s
this great rice farm in Sumner that’s been providing us all rice for a while now. It was just a surreal, aha moment that means Mississippi is growing some phenomenal rice.”
Reese holds the prestigious title Master Cicerone, an accolade only a handful of people worldwide can claim, and the only one in the Magnolia State. He is one of 28 globally who have achieved the Master Cicerone status, which requires an extraordinary understanding and distinctive expertise in beer as well as an excellent ability to evaluate and describe flavor.
Reese created the Fly Llama Amber Coastal Lager that paired beautifully with a Collard Green Wellington with Wild Mushrooms, Two Brooks Farm Rice, Puff Pastry, and Potlikker created by Chef Hunter Evans, Co-Owner of Elvie’s Restaurant in Jackson.
And the best part, in March, the Amber Coastal Lager joined Fly Llama’s other draft drinks. You’ll find almost 40 beers, seltzers, and non-alcoholic drinks on tap.
54PLAYCOASTALMISSISSIPPI I SPRING2025
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Story by Cherie Ward