Fans of The Mayflower restaurant in downtown Jackson won’t have to wait long to enjoy daily lunch specials and great seafood again.

Hunter Evans, 34, who was recently nominated for a 2024 James Beard Award and owns the nationally known restaurant Elvie’s, bought the historic restaurant in April. After some cleanup and remodeling, he and business partner Cody McCain expect The Mayflower to finally be ready to open in the next few weeks.

Evans gave the Clarion Ledger an overview of the construction this week, and workers from Caraway Construction were working feverishly to install the original but remodeled cabins and make touch-ups in several places.

Caraway has worked with many restaurants in the area over the years, including the new Amerigo’s in Flowood, Saltine in Fondren and Char in Jackson.

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“We’re getting plates and getting the finishing touches,” Evans said as Mayflower staff and construction workers went back and forth to finish off final details. “Hopefully next week we can start testing and going through recipes to get the staff used to the food, the wines and the cocktails. The big stuff, the construction, is essentially done.”

There have been many rumors about the Mayflower closing in recent years, but the restaurant, opened in 1935 by George Kountouris and John Gouras, has maintained its place among the best in Jackson over the past few decades under the leadership and management of Jerry Kountouris.

It still served one of the best lunch dishes ever, and the grilled redfish with lump crab meat or the veal cutlets with cream sauce were still a calling card.

Evans said he and the team wanted to ensure the Mayflower retains its historic identity in the future.

Inside, everything will stay true to the history of the restaurant, which has been featured in films such as “The Help” and “Ghosts of Mississippi.” Even the new light fixtures will be adapted from old photos Evans’ team found in the building.

Evans said the biggest challenge he faced on the Mayflower was the scope of the work, which involved cleaning and redesigning the building from top to bottom based on what the building looked like 50 years ago. Over time, the false ceiling was put in. Evans and his team raised the ceiling back to its original height and were able to preserve the original molding.

“We basically stripped everything out and rebuilt it as fresh and true to the original as possible,” Evans said.

Evans has also taken over the building next door, demolishing a wall to get there, and will use it as event space and for parties. He said he has no plans to use it as additional seating for the original restaurant.

“If you want to know the truth, it started with the only way to go to the bathroom at the Mayflower was upstairs,” Evans said. “So we were able to take over the building next door, use the downstairs bathrooms and use the main room as an event space. So we’ll soon be taking reservations for companies that want to use it for meetings and for people who want to have holiday parties, rehearsal dinners and things like that with Mayflower food.”

One of the things you’ll notice as you walk past the front of the building is the change that’s taking place just inside the window. The bins will hold the day’s fresh seafood and oysters on ice for everyone to see. This work is almost complete.

“You can sit at the bar and eat oysters and fish like you can in the rest of the restaurant, but this is a nice place to showcase the fresh seafood we’ll be using,” he said.

The health inspection has been done and they are waiting on a few other things, like the liquor license, which Evans expects in the next few days.

“It may not look like it, but we’re close, really close,” he said. “It’s exciting. I won’t give a day yet, but we’re close. Two weeks, I think.”

Downtown Jackson

Evans said the rescue of the Mayflower was proof that the central business district was alive and well.

“We hope that this way we can show everyone in the city center that we are committed and consciously want to be part of the city,” he said. “Hopefully this will bring new momentum and more energy to this part of the city. There are so many players and so many businesses. We just want to bring some fresh air.”

When come

Once the restaurant reopens, opening hours for lunch will be Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Ross Reilly is a business and development writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or 601-573-2952. Follow him on the X-Platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger: The Mayflower in Jackson is almost ready to open