Well-known restaurateur Robert St. John is planning to build a beach burger joint on the Mississippi Coast that follows a wave of new development in downtown Gulfport.
The concept, called Ed’s on the Beach, will be situated along the water in the Gulfport Harbor on land that has been empty since Hurricane Katrina. The menu will resemble another of St. John’s restaurants — Ed’s Burger Joint in Hattiesburg, Miss. — with some seafood additions. St. John is also planning an open-air bar, concerts and beach volleyball. Opening is slated for March 2028.
Ed’s on the Beach is the latest new development planned in downtown Gulfport, which is undergoing a transformation. A $105 million mixed-use town center with a hotel, shops and luxury apartments is under construction at U.S. 90 and Highway 49 on the beach. A few blocks away, St. John also opened a breakfast and lunch diner called The Downtowner earlier this year, and lines to eat there are regularly out the door.
“We feel excited just to be a small part of that,” St. John said of the downtown revitalization. “It makes perfect sense to us.”
Plans for the restaurant, which will lease city land, moved forward after the Gulfport City Council approved the agreement on Tuesday. Ed’s is also planning to offer beach chairs and cabanas and host a weekend music festival called Ed’s Fest, which city leaders hope will lure more visitors to the Coast.
A menu included in the lease agreement includes frozen drinks, burgers, shrimp and fish sandwiches, and milkshakes. It will be the first beach concept for St. John’s New South Restaurant Group, which is also behind Crescent City Grill, Loblolly Bakery and several other Hattiesburg establishments.
The restaurant will pay the Gulfport Redevelopment Commission more than $33,000 a year to lease the land, according to city records.
The location at the harbor has been empty since Katrina destroyed a restaurant called the White Cap that once stood there. Building on the beach holds deep meaning to St. John, who grew up in Hattiesburg and visited the coast to crab, fish and dine out each summer as a boy.
“My love of restaurants came from the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” he said.
“To come back to the Coast,” he added, “is very special to me.”
