What is usually a rather pedestrian dish, Milligan has raised to an art form, offering the region's ubiquitous, bewhiskered fish in fried, grilled and blackened versions that put most other restaurants' renditions to shame. Milligan is one of those people who worked in enough local restaurants to realize that he could have his own place specializing in a particular style of cuisine and do it better than others were doing. He opened OBCC in 1993 and hasn't looked back. I spent about a year looking out the window at Old 78 and wondering where the customers were. Then things picked up and got really busy and we've been busy ever since.
People just keep coming to the restaurant.
I'm feeding more people than I ever dreamed of. But not on Tuesday night, which was when several friends and I drove down to Olive Branch to visit the restaurant. If a hushpuppy could be said to exemplify a sense of purity in purpose and execution, one of these is that hushpuppy, close to weightless, nicely flavored, spicy without being incandescent, unadorned with corn or peppers or other extraneous matters. An appetizer from the menu that we enjoyed was a basket of fairly spicy fried chicken strips, another item that's usually fairly pedestrian but saved in this instance by freshness, hearty flavor and an absolutely nongreasy quality. Milligan's light touch is what makes his fare so good.