The doors at Barracuda Taco Stand's Second Street location in Bay St. Louis have gone dark for the season, with a handwritten sign breaking the news to regulars and no word yet on when — or if — the taco shop will return. Founder Brett Jones has confirmed the closure came after Labor Day, but he has not explained what led to the decision.
According to NOLA.com, the restaurant's Google listing now reads as temporarily closed, and Jones said the company is “evaluating our options” for the location, which sits near antique shops, Creole Creamery and Mockingbird Cafe. The Bay St. Louis outpost had served customers since late 2024, part of a broader expansion for the New Orleans-founded brand. Jones told the outlet that Barracuda is grateful to the Bay St. Louis community for its support during that run.
Freshly made flour tortillas have been a hallmark of the taco stand's menu, a detail captured in photos by Ian McNulty. Before the closure, the Bay St. Louis shop had pushed hard to build year-round demand: it expanded to a seven-day schedule and rolled out a daily breakfast taco menu in March 2025, according to a post from the location's own Barracuda Taco Stand Bay St. Louis Facebook page.
A Pattern of Closures Along the Waterfront
Barracuda isn't the only name to vanish from Bay St. Louis's dining scene this year. Murky Waters closed in Bay St. Louis in 2026, and so did Tripletails Restaurant, a waterfront seafood staple on South Beach Boulevard that had anchored the city's coastal entertainment district for more than a decade before shutting down in January, according to Brandon 042. Bay St. Louis restaurateurs have pointed to food costs as a persistent challenge, per NOLA.com's reporting.
The city's dining economy runs on a steep seasonal curve — Bay St. Louis fills with visitors each summer and grows noticeably quieter once winter sets in. U.S. Census Bureau data shows the city has a resident population of just 9,284 and a poverty rate of 17.9%, leaving a thin permanent customer base to sustain restaurants once the tourist crowds thin out, per figures cited via Wikipedia.
Squeezed From Every Direction
Industry leaders say the math has gotten harder for small coastal operators across the board. Pat Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, said coastal restaurants struggle to hold onto kitchen and service staff during peak season because they can't compete with the wages offered by regional casino resorts, according to Rain Residential. Casino hotels along the Mississippi Sound draw heavily from the same local food-service workforce that small restaurants depend on.
On top of labor costs, alcohol supplies have been scarce amid distribution backlogs at Mississippi's state-run warehouse in Gluckstadt, as reported by MPB. Those pressures leave operators facing higher food and labor costs and difficult decisions about menu prices.
Lower Price Points Winning Out
Not every concept in town is struggling equally. Coastal market analysis from Rain Residential found that lower price-point casual eateries, including The Blind Tiger in Bay St. Louis, posted record spring sales even as higher-ticket and seasonal concepts wrestled with overhead. The contrast underscores the advantage affordable pricing can offer some casual restaurants when higher-ticket concepts face overhead pressures.
The timing of Barracuda's closure comes just ahead of Cruisin' the Coast, southern Mississippi's largest annual tourism draw, which makes a major stop in Old Town Bay St. Louis every October. The car show has grown from 374 registered vehicles in 1996 to more than 10,300 in 2025, generating $36.1 million in regional economic impact, according to Cruisin' the Coast. NOLA.com describes the event as drawing thousands of visitors from around the country to the Gulf Coast.
That shoulder-season boost is part of a much bigger tourism picture for the state. Mississippi generated a record $12.4 billion in direct visitor spending across 45.5 million travel visits in 2025, supporting more than 137,000 jobs, per data from Visit Mississippi. The contrast is stark: even as the state's tourism economy sets records, small independent restaurants in towns like Bay St. Louis are being squeezed by the very seasonality that makes those numbers possible.
For now, Barracuda's four other locations — in Uptown New Orleans, Algiers Point, Baton Rouge and Huntsville, Alabama — remain open as usual, Jones said. Founder Brett Jones opened the original Tchoupitoulas Street taco stand in New Orleans in 2019 before expanding across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Whether the Bay St. Louis location reopens remains an open question the company has yet to answer.
