The Hattiesburg native lost his dad at age 6, and while his mom couldn’t play football or go hunting with him and his brother, she figured she could learn how to fish.
“So, she purchased a little fish camp down on the Pascagoula River, and we spent summers and a lot of the rest of the year down there,” St. John recalls. “That’s really where my love of seafood came from.”
Now an accomplished restaurateur with several establishments in his hometown, he fondly recalls eating at local institutions like The Friendship House. St. John has now set his sights on Gulfport, where he plans to transform the historical Triplett-Day Drug Co. building into The Downtowner — an eatery imbued with charm and nostalgia.
“When you walk into The Downtowner, it’ll feel like that place has been there since 1948,” he says of the restaurant, which he hopes to open in August. “We want to open the most Gulfport restaurant ever in Gulfport, Mississippi.”
“When you walk into The Downtowner, it’ll feel like that place has been there since 1948,” he says of the restaurant, which he hopes to open in August. “We want to open the most Gulfport restaurant ever in Gulfport, Mississippi.”
REVIVING A LOCAL LANDMARK
The Downtowner will have some commonalities with another of St. John’s eateries: The Midtowner in Hattiesburg. The concept of a community café is one that resonates deeply with the restauranteur.
“Somewhere along the way, we stopped opening those, and we got into theme restaurants and all these other things,” he says. “Nobody really opens just a place … where everybody in the community can go eat — young, old, black, white, rich, poor, guys with their names stitched into their work shirts, nurses, physicians and sorority girls with Greek letters on their T-shirt. It’s, it’s everybody in the community, and that’s what we do. That’s what we did at the Midtowner.”
The Triplett-Day property, located at the corner of 14th Street and U.S. 49, proved to be ideal for St. John’s purposes. The local landmark, once a beloved pharmacy, soda shop and diner, shuttered in March of 2020.
“We love that location,” St. John says. “It, in my mind, is perfect because of so many people working in that area within four or five blocks — perfect for breakfast and lunch. And then on weekends, we’ll do some trade at night and early dinner.”
MOUTH-WATERING MENU
Future patrons of The Downtowner can look forward to what St. John calls “real breakfast” — nothing fancy or overwrought — including scratch-made biscuits, delicious pancakes and butter made with buttermilk sourced from a family farm in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Lunch will consist of Southern classics like meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, butter beans, cornbread and more.
“The one different thing we’re going to do in Gulfport is that we’re going to open at least Friday and Saturday night,” St. John says. On those nights, the restaurant will serve the kind of seafood that he grew up loving — such as stuffed flounder, broiled fish, trout almondine, fried shrimp and fried oysters.
While they eat, customers will be surrounded by historical images of Gulfport and feel like they are experiencing something special from a bygone era.
“We want to keep the heritage cuisine of the Coast alive,” St. John says. “And you know, a lot of times, the newer isn’t always the better.”
FEEDING THE COMMUNITY
The core values of St. John’s company are hospitality, quality, consistency, cleanliness and community, he says, “and we plug into the community in a big way.” This includes adopting a local school, which he plans to do in Gulfport.
“I have a lot of friends there, and so I look forward to being there and being a part of the community and plugging in and getting to work right away,” he says. St. John’s philanthropy also includes Extra Table, an organization committed to fighting hunger in Mississippi.
Although St. John has a large restaurant portfolio in the Hattiesburg area, including The Midtowner and Crescent City Grill, he’s thrilled that a Coast concept more than a decade in the making is coming to fruition.
“Glad it is finally happening,” he recently shared via Facebook. “Can’t wait for y’all to join us!”