Saturday: the marquee lights up on Reynoir Street for the first time since 2018.

Good Tuesday morning from The Seawall. The Saenger opens this Saturday.

June 6. 170 Reynoir Street, Biloxi. The Homecoming — the grand reopening performance — is two hours, all ages, and the moment the building has been pointing toward since a volunteer crew got in there with brooms and polishing cloths in May. Director Anthony Starcher has called it a celebration of the theater's history: 50 years of performances, shows, and Gulf Coast memories under that roof, distilled into one evening. Nataliya Molsbee opens with Ave Maria. Tickets are still available at biloxisaenger.com via TKOtix.

This is the issue we've been building toward. We've been counting down since mid-May, and now we're two days out. The full preview is below.

But the Coast doesn't pause for a marquee. Also this week: Butcher Block Steak House & Bar opened in Bay St. Louis on the restaurant corridor that's been filling in fast. Riverdance 30: The New Generation is at the Beau Rivage through Sunday — Thursday through Saturday night, Sunday matinee. And on Waveland's South Beach Boulevard, a 5-bed beachfront estate just came down $200,000.

That's the week. The full guide is below.

Tuesday 6/2 — Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 4 PM, then a chance of storms after 4 PM. High near 82°F · South wind 5–10 mph shifting west in the afternoon. Rain chance: 80%. Rainfall totals ¼–½ inch possible.

Wednesday 6/3 — Showers and thunderstorms likely overnight into Wednesday. Cloudy. Low around 75°F · East wind ~5 mph. Rain chance: 60%.

Thursday 6/4 — Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 4 PM, then a chance of storms after 4 PM. Some storms could produce heavy rainfall. Cloudy, high near 82°F · South wind 5–15 mph.

Bottom line: This is a wet week — 80% rain Tuesday, heavy storms possible Thursday. Plan indoor activities Tuesday. Saturday's Saenger opening is an evening event, and the weekend forecast looks to improve after Thursday's system moves through.

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If last week was about introducing ourselves, this week is more about getting into rhythm.

And the rhythm right now looks pretty Coast-like: a little activity, a little local color, and a few reasons to leave the house before the weekend gets away from you.

Saturday, June 6 · 170 Reynoir St, Biloxi · Ribbon Cutting 5 PM · Showtime 7 PM · All Ages · 2 Hours · $25

Tickets: tkotix.com/product/the-homecoming/ · Also at biloxisaenger.com

The Biloxi Saenger Theatre has been dark since 2018.

That's eight years since a crowd walked through those doors and took their seats. Eight years since the lobby hummed before a performance, since the lights dimmed and the stage lit up. The building sat quiet through a lot of Coast history in that stretch — storms, a pandemic, the slow rebuild of downtown Biloxi's commercial corridor.

It opens Saturday.

The Homecoming is exactly what the name promises: a celebration of the theater's own history. Co-directed by Anthony Starcher and Rafe O'Neal, with musical direction by Sandy Starcher, the show features the Biloxi Civic Orchestra and spans fifty years of performances the Saenger has hosted — a little bit of something for everyone who has ever sat in those seats. Nataliya Molsbee opens the evening with Ave Maria by Franz Schubert. The full two-hour program is a retrospective of the Saenger's own history — the shows, the genres, the decades.

Doors and ribbon cutting at 5 PM. Showtime at 7 PM. Tickets are $25 and still available at biloxisaenger.com. If you've been waiting for a reason to go downtown Biloxi on a Saturday evening, this is the one that only happens once.

After Saturday, what's next at the Saenger:

The venue is also open for private rentals. This isn't a one-night story. The Saenger is back as a functioning theater.

Do: Drive by before Saturday. The marquee has been updated. It's worth seeing.

Bay St. Louis has been doing the slow, quiet work of becoming a genuine dining destination. The Depot District, the Old Town stretch, the galleries on Main Street — it's building a town that people drive to, not just pass through.

Butcher Block Steak House & Bar is the latest entry on the corridor. The concept is exactly what it sounds like: hand-cut steaks, fresh Gulf Coast seafood, and a menu that takes both seriously. The signature is the redfish étouffée — a dish that plants its flag squarely in the Louisiana-Gulf Coast tradition — alongside what the kitchen calls the "Almost Famous" smash burger, which suggests they've been workshopping it long enough to have opinions.

A dedicated steak-and-seafood house in Bay St. Louis fills a real gap. The town has been building its lunch and brunch traffic for years; Butcher Block is the kind of dinner anchor that keeps people in town after sunset.

Where: 126 Blaize Avenue, Bay Saint Louis, MS 39520 · (228) 363-6328 · 11 AM–9 PM daily

Online ordering: butcherblocksteaks.com

Why we picked it: New, Hancock County, not yet covered in The Seawall. Same ownership as The Blind Tiger.

⚓ Hancock · 🦀 Harrison · 🌊 Jackson

⚾ Biloxi Shuckers home stand — Keesler Federal Park, Biloxi. The Shuckers are back home after their Columbus road trip. Tue 6/2 through Fri 6/5 vs. the Montgomery Biscuits — first pitch 6:35 PM each night. Four mid-week games under the lights at the ballpark. biloxishuckers.com for tickets.

🎣 Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic — Golden Nugget Casino & Hotel, Biloxi. The largest sport fishing tournament in the Gulf, running through Sunday June 7. Multi-million dollar purse, elite offshore teams competing for marlin and pelagic species. Thursday June 4 at 10 AM: the MGCBC Boat Parade — decorated offshore fishing boats parade into the marina. Free to watch from the Golden Nugget waterfront. One of the most underrated spectacles on the Coast each June. mgcbc.com.

🎭 Riverdance 30: The New Generation — Beau Rivage Theatre, Biloxi. Thu 6/4 + Fri 6/5: 7 PM · Sat 6/6: 2 PM and 7 PM · Sun 6/7: 2 PM matinee. Tickets ~$50+ via Ticketmaster. The 30th-anniversary touring production runs the same week as the Saenger reopening. Check Beau Rivage box office on age policy.

🚢 Ship Island Excursions — daily from Gulfport. 9 AM and noon. Adult $30 · Child $20 · Senior/Military $28. msshipisland.com.

🍋 21st Annual Red, White & Blueberry Festival — Ocean Springs. Sat 6/6, 10 AM–2 PM · 1000 Washington Ave · Free. Free vanilla ice cream with blueberries and strawberries, blueberry vendors, cooking demos, and the Fresh Market running concurrently at the same location. Go in the morning, load up on blueberries, and be in Biloxi by evening. Ocean Springs Chamber: 228-875-4424.

🌅 Ocean Springs Fresh Market — Sat 6/6, 9 AM–1 PM. L&N Depot Plaza, downtown Ocean Springs. Running concurrently with the Blueberry Festival. Go early.

🎨 Ocean Springs First Friday Art Walk — Fri June 5. Washington Avenue galleries open. Free. Every first Friday of the month. The warm-up for Saenger weekend if you're in town Friday night.

🎨 Frida Fest Headpiece Workshop — The Arts, Hancock County, Bay St. Louis. 405 Blaize Ave · Fri June 5, 6–8 PM · $30 members / $35 non-members. Artist Lisa Liggett leads a class building floral headpieces — all materials provided, all levels welcome. Register at hancockarts.org.

📚 Howard Hunter & Jason Berry at 100 Men Hall — Bay St. Louis. 303 Union St · Fri June 5, 7–9:30 PM · Free (RSVP required). Book launch and conversation with journalist Jason Berry — Conversations with Jason Berry (Univ. Press of Mississippi). Berry broke the Catholic Church abuse story nationally. Pass Books on-site. RSVP at 100menhall.com.

🥬 Diamondhead Farmers Market — Diamondhead. 5000 Diamondhead Circle · Every Friday, 9 AM–1 PM. Recurring weekly market. Local produce and vendors. Also runs the first Saturday of each month.

If you’ve got something happening in Jackson, Harrison, or Hancock that should be on the radar next week, send it over. The goal is to make this sharper every issue.

Freddie Mac PMMS — week ending May 28, 2026:

Rates barely moved last week. The 30-year has been stuck in the 6.5% range all spring. Hurricane season opened June 1 — if you're under contract on a coastal property, get your wind/hail coverage bound this week. The binding window tightens when any named storm enters the Gulf.

Short answer: don't plan around a rate move that isn't here yet.

Rates in the mid-6% range are historically normal — the 2020–2021 era was the anomaly. Coast inventory is at a multi-year spring high, giving buyers negotiating leverage. A buyer who accepts 6.5% today can often buy the rate down with seller concessions. And hurricane season just opened — coastal insurance binders are the clock that matters more than rates right now. Get your wind/hail coverage confirmed before any named storm enters the Gulf.

Got a Coast real estate question? Reply to this email — we answer one a week.

Waveland sits at the far western end of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where South Beach Boulevard runs along the sound with a quieter stretch of waterfront than the casino corridor. It is not a town that comes up often in this column. It should.

518 South Beach Boulevard is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom, all-brick beachfront estate — 5,907 square feet in the main house, plus a 950-square-foot two-story guest house with its own two beds, two baths, kitchen, living area, and private garage. The rear deck leads to a resort-style pool. Each of the five bedrooms has its own en-suite bath. Two primary suites — one per floor.

It came down $200,000 on May 19. It is now listed at $899,900.

A beachfront property on the Mississippi Coast with a guest house, a resort pool, and nearly 7,000 combined square feet under $900,000. The Katrina legacy in Waveland is real — the town was devastated in 2005 and rebuilt hard — and a fully renovated all-brick estate at this price point reflects both the town's resilience and the current market's patience.

This is the house you show people who say the Gulf Coast can't compete with Florida on value.

Where: 518 S Beach Blvd, Waveland, MS 39576 · Direct beachfront · Hancock County

PET ADOPTION OF THE WEEK

This week: Cocoa and Mocha.

Two Shih Tzus, both male, both three years and eight months old. They came into HSSM together. They are bonded — which means the shelter will only place them as a pair. You're not adopting a dog. You're adopting the friendship.

Shih Tzus were bred to be close to people — lap dogs, companion dogs, house dogs. They're small, low-shedding, gentle, and completely devoted. Cocoa and Mocha have spent their whole lives with each other. They know how to be a team. They know how to share a couch. They know how to make themselves at home. All they're missing is the home.

The right situation has room for two small dogs who will collectively weigh less than most backpacks and will collectively require more attention than you thought you were signing up for. That's not a warning. That's the pitch.

Go meet them both. Ask for Cocoa and Mocha.

🐾 Humane Society of South Mississippi · 2615 25th Ave, Gulfport · (228) 863-3354 ext. 3809 · [email protected]

🐾 Hours: Tue–Fri 10 AM–5 PM · Sat 10 AM–4 PM · hssm.org

LOW TIDE LAUGHS

A Coast newsletter should probably make room for at least one thing that doesn’t ask anything from you except a smirk.

So we are.

Chick-fil-A is coming to the corner of Highway 90 and 603 in Waveland. The Gulf Coast is already preparing. This week's Low Tide Laughs reports from the scene.

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A FEW LOCAL LINKS WORTH KEEPING HANDY

If you want to go deeper by county, keep these local sites handy:

Jackson County MS
https://www.jacksoncountyms.com

Harrison County MS
https://www.harrisoncountyms.com

Hancock County MS
https://www.hancockcountyms.com

That’s part of the larger idea here too. The Seawall shouldn’t just point at itself. It should help connect people to the broader local web that already exists across the Coast.

SPONSOR

Cornerstone Numismatics works with collectors and buyers looking for coins, currency, bullion, and real numismatic expertise. If you want trusted guidance in the coin world, this is a name worth knowing.

See you Thursday — the day before the Saenger opens. We'll have the full weekend guide ready, including everything happening on the Coast for opening weekend.

— Rob
The Seawall