"It's just real food for real people. It's the cuisine my grandmother made."
That's how chef Robert St. John described The Downtowner, his new diner inside downtown Gulfport's old Triplett-Day Pharmacy building, on the day it opened this June. It's a modest line for a restaurant with a bigger backstory than it lets on. St. John has opened 26 restaurants before this one, scattered across Mississippi. This is his first on the Gulf Coast, and he put it in a building that had sat as a fixture of downtown Gulfport for 65 years before this project brought it back to life.
Meanwhile, just north of I-10 on U.S. 49, a Cook Out opened the same summer in a former Moe's Southwest Grill, and locals no longer have to cross into Alabama or drive to Hattiesburg for a late-night tray. Both openings are real news. Neither is surprising on its own. What's worth noticing is where each one landed, because 2026 has drawn a pretty clean line through Gulfport, and if you live here, that line tells you something useful about where to look for what's next.
The pharmacy building's second act
The Triplett-Day building had been a fixture of downtown Gulfport, the kind of address longtime residents mention by what used to be there rather than an address. Construction on turning it into The Downtowner began in May 2025, and by the time it opened its doors on June 9, 2026, the building owner, Ryan Goldin, said the best way to sum up the transformation was simply "Wow."
New South Restaurant Group's Jarred Patterson framed the project as more than a menu. The intent, in his words, was for the space to encapsulate Gulfport memories going back to 1900, while also functioning as a place people would actually want to walk around in. That's a specific bet: that a heritage diner inside a rehabbed downtown storefront gives residents a reason to linger downtown rather than just pass through it.
The waterfront got a second new address too
The Downtowner wasn't the only notable opening downtown-adjacent this year. In March 2026, Bacchus on the Bluff opened along the Gulfport waterfront with seafood, steaks, pork chops and cocktails. It's the third location for brothers Jourdan and Field Nicaud, who already run Bacchus restaurants in Pass Christian and Ocean Springs. That matters because it means a small, already-successful regional group chose Gulfport's waterfront as its next expansion, not a strip mall or a highway outparcel. Two different owners, two different concepts, both chose Gulfport's water side of town in the same calendar year.
Not every new sign points toward the water
Cook Out's arrival tells a different story about a different part of town. The chain took over the old Moe's Southwest Grill building at 11464 U.S. 49, a stretch of highway corridor just north of I-10, a zip code and a mindset away from downtown's harbor blocks. It's a useful, popular addition. It's also a fast-food chain in a commercial strip, the kind of opening that happens because a national brand identified traffic counts, not because it's building a downtown identity.
That's the split. Downtown and the waterfront are where locally rooted, chef-driven, story-attached restaurants are choosing to open. The highway corridor is where the drive-thru chains are landing. Neither is better. They're just answering different questions, and knowing which is which saves you a wasted trip when you're deciding where to go for a Friday night versus a fast Tuesday dinner.
Jones Park is running two different calendars this year
The clearest evidence of that downtown pull isn't a restaurant at all. It's Jones Park, the 60-acre harbor facility with a 319-slip marina, promenade walk, splash pad, and amphitheater stage that's anchored downtown Gulfport for years, named for Joseph T. Jones, the entrepreneur who helped co-found the city and build its seaport.
Jones Park has always carried Gulfport's biggest tourist draw. It serves as Cruise Central for Cruisin' the Coast, the coastwide car show that opens onsite registration there on October 4 this year, drawing collectors from well outside the county. It's also the annual site of the Gulfport Harbor Lights Festival every Christmas, a tradition tied specifically to the park itself.
What's new in 2026 is what else is filling that same park, for the first time and clearly aimed at residents rather than visitors passing through on a road trip.
| Event | 2026 Date | Status | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi Gulf Coast Book Festival | August 8 (just held) | Inaugural | Local, free, family-oriented |
| Cinema in the City | August 21 (upcoming) | Recurring city program | Local, family-oriented |
| Cruisin' the Coast (Cruise Central) | October 4 (upcoming) | Long-running | Regional and out-of-town |
| Gulfport Harbor Lights Festival | Christmas season | Long-running annual | Local and visiting |
The Mississippi Gulf Coast Book Festival is the clearest signal, and it just happened this past Saturday. It's the first one the coast has ever had, organized by Lashunda Mitchell, who built the event after the loss of her son led her to write her own book. More than 50 authors showed up for the free event, which ran 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with pop-up bookstores and children's activities alongside them. That's not a tourist draw. That's a park hosting something built specifically for the people who already live nearby, on a weekend when nothing was pulling outside visitors in.
What the split actually means for your weekend
None of this requires much driving if you're already downtown. The Downtowner sits inside the pharmacy building on the same blocks Jones Park anchors, and Bacchus on the Bluff is a short drive along that same stretch of Gulfport waterfront. The park itself now gives you a reason to show up on a random Saturday in August that has nothing to do with a car show or a Christmas light display.
If you're planning a weekend around what's actually new this year, the pattern holds up:
- Grab breakfast or lunch at The Downtowner, where the counter seating still smells like a fresh build-out.
- Walk or drive the short distance to Jones Park for whatever's on the calendar that week, whether it's a splash pad afternoon or an outdoor movie under Cinema in the City.
- Close the night at Bacchus on the Bluff for a waterfront dinner that didn't exist before this spring.
- Save the highway strip, Cook Out included, for the nights you actually want fast and easy rather than an event.
That's the version of Gulfport that's changing right now. The tourist calendar, the car show, the light festival, still runs on its own decades-old schedule and still matters. But the newer, smaller, more local layer, the pharmacy diner, the waterfront newcomer, the first-ever book festival, is clustering along the water side of town, built by and for the people who already call this place home rather than the people passing through it.
If you've noticed downtown feeling different this year, you're not imagining it. It's not one big change. It's several small ones that all happened to choose the same few blocks near the harbor.
Team CeejaySells, led by Charlotte Johnson, has spent years watching which corners of the Northshore and Gulf Coast start to shift before the rest of the market catches on. If you're curious what a changing downtown means for property values nearby, or just want a local's take on where Gulfport is headed next, reach out anytime. We're always glad to talk shop, no transaction required.
