Rouses_May-June-2018

FAMILY LETTER

On the Cover Fried Catfish & Crawfish Étouffée on page 48 Cover Photo by Romney Caruso • • • MY FAVORITE RESTAURANTS ON THE GULF COAST Coastal, Gulf Shores You have to try their Buffalo Cauliflower appetizer — It’s smoked in-house, lightly breaded and fried, and topped with a not-so-spicy buffalo sauce and blue cheese crumbles. And they have an amazing dry-aged steak selection. Don’t forget to save room for dessert; there’s an ice cream milkshake bar that my kids love. SALT at Sanroc Cay, Orange Beach These folks feature fresh-caught local fish — red snapper, grouper, triggerfish, sheepshead, swordfish and more — plus Bayou La Batre shrimp and Alabama oysters. On any given day you can choose from up to 10 varieties of local oysters. The menu changes often, but the picture-perfect waterfront view is thankfully always the same.

My Favorite Time of Year May and June kick off summer, which is one of my family’s busiest times of the year. There’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, of course.My two daughters and my godson have birthdays in May, and my son’s birthday is in June.That’s a lot of cake! With the kids out of school, my family will be spending a lot of time at the beach and on our boat, some of our favorite summer pastimes. It’s red snapper season, and any chance I get I’ll be deep-sea fishing along the Gulf Coast. I cook snapper fisherman’s style, on the half shell, or deep-fry it whole in a black iron jambalaya pot. Prep is easy: Clean and scale the fish, then make two diagonal cuts on each side. Batter and deep-fry it in about two inches of hot oil. Check the cuts for doneness. Summer is a season of great bounty on the Gulf Coast, and our produce buyers do a great job of sourcing local seasonal produce including blueberries, watermelon and corn, all in season now. My favorite, though, are Creole tomatoes — and lucky for me, they are everywhere. I eat them on salads and sandwiches, but mostly diced and drizzled with Rouses Balsamic Vinegar. We opened our sixth store in Lower Alabama last month, and we’re opening our seventh, in Orange Beach, this May. Over the years we’ve had hundreds of requests to come to Orange Beach.We just needed to find the right location.This store is great for locals and vacationers alike. If you’re heading to the Alabama Gulf Coast or Florida Panhandle, come make your groceries or get your beach supplies at Rouses. Donny Rouse CEO, 3 rd Generation

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