Former seafood restaurant is sold. Look who’s coming back to the MS Coast in its place

The sale of the former Shrimp Basket restaurant on U.S. 90 in downtown Ocean Springs closes Friday to make way for the return of 4-Bulls butcher shop on one side of the building and a restaurant on the other.

“We really want it to be a place people can come and have an experience,” said new owner Joseph Mason. His goal is to have the butcher shop open in time for the Peter Anderson Festival in early November and the restaurant to follow in early 2025.

“No less than five or six people a week are asking us to come back,” he said. He purchased 4-Bulls last year and moved it to a retail shop he opened at his farm in Grand Bay, Alabama, where he also raises and processes livestock.

What will make his Ocean Springs venture different is the meat for the butcher shop and restaurant will come right from the source — his Mason Hills Farm.

“It will be a true farm-to-table experience,” he said.

How it all happened

The former owner of 4-Bulls opened the shop at The Inlet housing community in Ocean Springs in 2020, as COVID raged.

At the same time, COVID prompted Mason to make major life changes.

“I wanted to leave Mobile and move to the country,” he said.

He bought a 200-acre farm that he since expanded it to 250 acres. He sent a year learning how to raise animals. When he heard from local meat processors it would take a year to get on their schedule, he opened his own processing facility, he said, so he could provide quality, clean beef.

He now is the only USDA inspected plant locally, Mason said. Others are inspected by the state. “We are federally inspected,” he said.

This allows his farm to control everything from start to finish, he said.

Mason Hills Farm brands

Mason bought 4-Bulls in Ocean Springs in late 2023 and moved the retail to his farm at exit 4 in Alabama.

In four years, he’s built his business to offer eight trademarks and brands, “4-Bulls being one of them,” he said,

Ocean Springs will be his first restaurant and first retail shop away from the farm.

He is looking to franchise the 4-Bulls brand and the Ocean Springs store will show it can be done, he said.

The butcher shop will sell Mason Hills grass-fed and grain-finished beef, from a steak to a side of beef. The farm also provides Southern Gentleman bacon, pork and other products; Rooster Ridge chicken; Durock pork and wagyu beef.

Mason Farm makes its own Rangers dog food, named after one of Mason’s dogs, and a new line of Herschel hamburgers, named for his father to honor him and give him a legacy brand.

To enhance the flavors, the farm has its own seasonings and just launched a line of barbecue sauces. The butcher shop will have meals to go, like mac and cheese with their pork sausage and bacon.

Mason says he plans to sell premium grills and smokers at the shop and host wine tastings and other events at the restaurant.

He’s already making a difference in the community, as a faith-based, Christian organization, by hosting Smoke on the Farm Oct, 11-13 and raising money for a local nonprofit.

“This is a calling more than it is a job for me,” Mason said.