Still Smokin’ After The Fire At The Shed

A beloved restaurant and bar along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, known for its award-winning barbeque, burned to the ground on February 12, 2012. But it lives on despite that.

The only portion of The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint left standing was the original, tiny shed building that owner Brad Orrison built from, as he said, “stuff that I found.” Today, even that shed is burned and unusable.

The Shed posted on its Facebook page: “SHEDHEDS! We WILL rebuild and we WILL start slingin some QUE! The Original Shed may be gone, but it’s alive and well in the hearts and bellies of everyone that walked through those doors over the last 10 years.”

And that is indeed true. We visited The Shed this weekend and saw the charred remains of the old buildings…

…as well as what has temporarily been built to replace it.

One version of their logo now features flames around the happy Shed pig.

Ironically, last year The Shed was featured on the Food Network’s “Best in Smoke” TV show.

There’s still smoke there now, but not so much from the blackened ruins as from the new makeshift kitchen where pork, beef, sausage and chicken are slow-cooked over a wood-burning fire.

As their official website now says, “The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint Ocean Springs is open—in fact we never stopped smokin! We just had a slight meltdown. The Shed has setup ‘tempanent’ ShedStyle for temporary and permanent facilities down by the bayou so come Get Fed! Our hours are from 11 am – 9 pm 7 days a week and we still have music on Friday and Saturday. Check out our YouTube Channel or our Facebook page to keep up to date. We will see you soon!”

Yep, blues music still plays through the speakers, the stage for the live music is now relocated at the old boat ramp on the bayou,…

…the beer is nice and cold, and the BBQ is as good as ever.

It all tasted and felt just as good to be there as the other times we enjoyed The Shed, when we took the pictures below:

Watch this YouTube video to take a tour of The Shed.

Luckily, it’s still a great time to get fed at The Shed!

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Wildfire near Walt’s Barn in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park

Firefighters put out a wildfire in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park near Walt Disney’s barn this afternoon.

A wildfire broke out early this afternoon in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park near the L.A. Zoo and the Gene Autry Museum.

The fire at one point was burning towards the area in the park where Walt Disney’s barn and the Los Angeles Live Steamers area is, just east of the Travel Town area. The wildfire began at 12:40 pm on five acres in the park’s northwest corner near the Travel Town Museum. All 4,000 zoo guests and several animals were evacuated from the zoo. The fast-moving wildfire burned 25 acres of the park before the blaze was contained by more than 200 firefighters from 32 city fire companies plus county, Burbank and Glendale fire companies.

Walt’s barn is okay and no one was hurt. It isn’t known at this time what sparked the blaze.

We’ll be at Walt’s barn Friday afternoon, Lord willing, and post to this blog from there.
Update: The fire was on another side of a large ridge which had trees cut down from it, acting as a fire break. There was also an earthquake centered in Orange County when we were in California the last week of July — and luckily the earthquake didn’t do anything to harm Walt’s barn or the items inside of it.

Firefighters surrounded the blaze, declaring it knocked down about 3:40 pm. No structures were damaged.
Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Congratulations to all the firefighters who kept this wildfire from spreading further and possibly damaging Walt’s barn!