New Restaurants Downtown Gulfport to Try This Summer

Walk 25th Avenue on a Thursday evening this July and the sidewalk math has changed. Two of the storefronts that sat quiet for a stretch are lit again, and a third address near Cowan Road is about to flip. None of these are new buildings. That is the interesting part.

The wave of restaurants arriving in and around downtown Gulfport this year shares a pattern the press releases have not quite named: the operators keep choosing addresses with a prior life. A 65-year-old pharmacy. A shuttered bistro. A waterfront kitchen that closed last August. If you already live here, you have driven past every one of these buildings a hundred times. What follows is a short field guide to what is inside them now.

The Downtowner, in the old Triplett Day Pharmacy

The most talked-about opening of early summer sits inside a building most Gulfport residents can picture with their eyes closed. The Downtowner officially opened its doors, welcoming its first guests and serving food from a kitchen in the old Triplett Day Pharmacy building, which operated in Gulfport for 65 years. Doors opened on June 9, 2026.

The operator is Robert St. John, and the menu leans into that phrase he keeps using in interviews: heritage cuisine. For St. John, this is his 27th restaurant and his first on the Gulf Coast, a destination he said he has dreamt of coming to. The interior treatment matters if you have any nostalgia for the drugstore soda fountain that used to occupy the space. "This is going to encapsulate memories from as early as 1900 Gulfport all the way up until the 80s and 90s in recent times," Patterson said. "So it's going to be not only a great place to eat because the food's going to be fantastic, but it's also going to be fun to walk around and kind of see that this cafe is going to be all about Gulfport."

Practical note for anyone who has an attic full of Gulfport ephemera: those involved with The Downtowner are asking for any pictures or trinkets that highlight Gulfport history to feature in the restaurant. To bring pictures, email Jarred Patterson at [email protected].

Neighbors Tap & Table at 1307 25th Avenue

If you have scrolled TikTok in the last two years you have probably met Matthew Bounds without realizing it. Matthew Bounds has built a loyal fan base by celebrating Gulf Coast flavors and the community. Now, that passion is leading YourBarefootNeighbor to open his first restaurant: Neighbors Tap & Table.

The address is one many locals will recognize. Bounds is taking over the old Downtown Bistro space on 25th Avenue. When renovations are complete, he says the restaurant will offer small plates, good pours and a big community. The specifics for anyone plotting a Friday: Neighbors Tap & Table, 1307 25th Avenue, is welcoming guests starting Saturday for lunch, dinner and late night bites. There's even an after-dark happy hour coming for service industry workers.

The service-industry happy hour is worth flagging on its own. Gulfport's restaurant workforce has not had many late-night landing spots downtown, and a room that is designed to fill after 10 p.m. changes the rhythm of the block.

Bacchus on the Bluff, and what is happening on Cowan-Lorraine

The third opening is not technically downtown, but it is close enough that residents on both sides of the tracks will feel it. Jourdan Nicaud is opening Bacchus on the Bluff at 8813 Lorraine Road, an area that has become more popular in recent years as a slew of development brings new housing, dining and shopping to the Cowan-Lorraine Road corridor.

The building has a recent history. Jourdan Nicaud is opening a third Bacchus restaurant location in the old Flamingo Landing building on Bayou Bernard off Cowan Road near the beach in Gulfport. Flamingo Landing itself had a short run. The restaurant will replace Flamingo Landing, which closed in August after two years in business. The original Bacchus is a Pass Christian fixture, with a second location already in Ocean Springs, so this becomes the concept's easternmost Gulfport outpost.

A quick reference for the block

Three openings, three reused envelopes, three different operator profiles. A national-scale restaurateur on his 27th concept. A social-media chef on his first. A regional owner extending a proven brand into a third market. The building stock is doing the connecting.

What the pattern tells you about downtown Gulfport right now

Here is the small argument this post is built around. The three most-covered restaurant openings in Gulfport this year each moved into a specific existing building rather than a ground-up shell. That is not a coincidence, and it is not just sentiment. It says something about where downtown Gulfport is in its cycle: the building inventory has enough character and enough foot traffic for experienced operators to bet on it, and the cost math of renovation-plus-story is beating the cost math of new construction in this pocket. Anyone who has watched a strip like this go from "quiet" to "hard to get a table" in another Gulf town knows what the second act looks like.

For a resident, the practical takeaway is simpler. You now have three new dinners to try inside a roughly ten-minute driving radius, and each one comes with a story you can tell the out-of-town friend sitting across from you. That is not nothing on a Tuesday in July.

A note on the US-49 corridor

Not every 2026 opening is downtown. The new Cook Out location in Gulfport is finally open. The restaurant is located at 11464 U.S. 49, in the old Moe's Southwest Grill location. It opened on June 23, 2026. If you have teenagers, you already knew. Cook Out is a popular Southeastern fast-food chain known for large portions, affordable prices, signature Cook Out trays, and 40+ milkshake flavors. The US-49 commercial strip has always played by different rules than 25th Avenue, and the reused-envelope pattern happens to hold there too, though the story is thinner: one national chain slot handed off to another.

How to plan the week

A rough weeknight sequence for a resident who wants to actually try all three of the downtown-adjacent openings before Labor Day:

1. Early week, low-key. The Downtowner for a heritage-cuisine dinner in the old pharmacy. Bring a photo for the wall if you have one.
2. Mid-week, late. Neighbors Tap & Table for small plates and the late-night happy hour on 25th. Best if you follow Matthew Bounds' feed and want to see whether the room matches the videos.
3. Weekend, drive. Bacchus on the Bluff on Lorraine Road once it opens, ideally paired with a walk along Bayou Bernard while the light is still on the water.

The through-line, again, is buildings with a prior chapter. If you have been in Gulfport long enough to remember the soda fountain at Triplett Day, or a plate of something at Downtown Bistro, or a sunset at Flamingo Landing, this summer is quietly a chance to compare the memory to the replacement.

Selling into a market where the block is changing

One last thought for neighbors on the fence about whether to list this year. Restaurant activity is a lagging indicator of foot traffic and a leading indicator of buyer interest in walkable pockets. When operators of this caliber pick your zip code, the story a listing tells about "walk to dinner" gets easier to write and easier to price. That is a conversation worth having before the next season, not after.

If you are curious what your home is worth in a Gulfport where downtown just added three dinner reservations to the map, Glenn-Marie Fitzgerald can help you read the block-by-block picture, not just the headline number. Get Your Home Value — Start Here.