New Orleans native reopens Waveland restaurant 20 years after Katrina: 'Our Hubig's pie'

An hour after doors opened Thursday, nearly every table at chef Rickey Peters’ revived restaurant in Waveland, Mississippi, was filled with locals and plates piled high with fried artichokes, ciabatta sandwiches and barbecue shrimp.

It had been a week since the return of Rickey’s on Coleman , but seemed as if it never closed. Mayor Jay Trapani sat at a corner table and ate lunch with his family. Peters occasionally stepped out of the kitchen to greet old friends, exchanging handshakes and brief remarks, while servers took orders in soft Southern drawls.

The popular restaurant served New Orleans fare for nearly six years until Hurricane Katrina dismantled it in 2005. But locals never forgot the classic dishes made by Peters, a Chalmette native trained by famed chef Paul Pruhdomme. They