Sweet's opened on Government Street in 1942. Around 1971 it moved to a building on Porter Avenue, and it has stayed there ever since. Ron Blanton was stationed in South Mississippi with the Air Force, came back after Hurricane Katrina and bought the bar. He kept the name and the old photos. He also kept the $3 beers, the monthly chicken drop and the Saints games on the screen, according to the Sun Herald's October 15 report on The Collective.
Amy Blanton told the paper they worried when the building went up for sale. The buyers turned out to be Ted and Roxy Condrey, and the oldest bar in Ocean Springs is now part of the newest project on the street.
Across the beach end of Porter Avenue, the same pattern shows up again and again. The new pieces arriving this fall are made from very old Ocean Springs material, and the newest of them are still opening one door at a time.
A bird at the bottom of the street
Start where Porter meets Highway 90, by the Biloxi Bay Bridge. On October 1 the city unveiled a three-dimensional shearwater bird there under its Gateway Sculpture Project, WLOX reported. The City of Ocean Springs and the Walter Anderson Museum of Art worked on it together, and state legislation paid for it.
The artist, Phill Proctor, based the design on Walter Anderson's work. It is one of two gateway sculptures the city planned for the entrances to downtown, according to WLOX's installation report.
The shearwater was chosen for a reason. Julian Rankin of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art told WLOX the bird is "homage to Shearwater Pottery, an almost hundred-year-old small business now. Also, the Peter Anderson Arts and Crafts Festival shares that logo."
So the newest landmark in town is a logo most locals have known for decades. The Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival comes downtown November 7 and 8, and that weekend will be the first time festival crowds walk past the shearwater on Porter.
A campus, planned that way from the first cabin
Head up Porter from the bridge and you reach The Collective at 401 Porter Avenue. The Condreys started it in 2020 with Hotel Beatnik, a "tiny hotel" made up of four modern cabins around a pool.
Roxy Condrey told the Sun Herald that the plan was always bigger than a hotel. "Our concept from the beginning was always to have a campus," she said. She described a place where families can eat, kids have room to run, and people can work out, get a coffee and pastry, and then browse the books.
She also set this end of Porter apart from downtown. In her words, downtown has the busy feel, "Uptown" Porter Avenue is more relaxed, and The Collective feels like a neighborhood.
The new building finished this fall is the piece she called "kind of like the heartbeat" that ties the rest together. It also draws on local history. The Sun Herald reports that its architecture is based on the work of Ocean Springs artist Mac Anderson. The back wall is mostly windows, looking out on the lawns and the community garden.
The Collective calls that garden a permaculture-inspired food forest at the center of the campus. As of mid-October it was already producing a harvest.
What's pouring now, and what's still behind the paper
As of the Sun Herald's October 15 report, the new building was only partly open. Here is where each business stood then, along with what the businesses' own pages list:
- Corktown Wine opened first. It's at 401 Porter Ave., Building A, Unit 3, and has its own entrance at the back. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It's closed Sunday.
- The Book Porter is a bookstore with a coffee shop, grab-and-go food and a wine bar, from David and Heather Denison. On October 15 they told the Sun Herald they hoped to open within four to six weeks, in time for holiday shopping.
- Ashiro, from Alex Perry and Kumi Omori of Vestige, is the restaurant in the new building. The Sun Herald says it will open soon and will include a dining deck.
- Collective Fitness Studio is already running classes. It offers reformer Pilates, strength training, water-bag boxing and a kids' program called Collective Kids.
- Sweet's Lounge sits next to the new building and is now part of The Collective. Plans for its next chapter are still being worked out.
As of mid-October, that left Corktown as the only one of the three new tenants open for walk-ins. Owner Sean Perkins hand-picked about 300 wines, mostly from small family-owned wineries that farm and make wine organically and sustainably. He hopes to double the selection for the holidays.
Corktown also carries a small spirits shelf with regional distillers: Cathead from Jackson, Wonder Bird from Oxford and Kluke from Ocean Springs. Tastings run about every couple of weeks, often with the supplier there to tell the story of the winery. "It's not a formal presentation," Perkins told the Sun Herald.
The Book Porter has more planned than shelves. The Denisons describe an upstairs space for reading and meetings. They plan author visits and other programs on the building's center stage, plus events shared with the other tenants. They are also working with neighbors and regional creators to bring in books, artwork and records.
Ashiro has been "soon" before
The new building did not come together on its first timeline. In April 2025, the Sun Herald reported that the restaurant, bookstore and wine shop were aiming to open together that summer. Eighteen months later, one of the three is open.
What's changed is the building itself. The October report says construction is complete, so the remaining wait is for the businesses to open.
The earlier article also shows what Ashiro is meant to be. Vestige, the couple's downtown restaurant, serves a set menu, and the James Beard Awards named it one of five finalists for best restaurant in the country in 2024. Ashiro is planned as a more relaxed Japanese restaurant. It's named for Omori's hometown, and the menu brings together the flavors of Japan's Tohoku region with Mississippi Gulf Coast ingredients.
Perry described eight to 10 tables, some outdoors, with shared plates in small and larger sizes. One early idea reworks Omori's mother's classic sardine recipe using fried Spanish mackerel. He called the cooking "a lot more experimental" than at Vestige, with "the same level of quality and attention to details."
The Collective's own description goes further. It calls Ashiro "an exploration of the relationship between farm and restaurant, permaculture, sustainability, and community." Sitting right next to a food forest that is already producing, that phrase reads as a plan for the menu.
An evening that stays on Porter
Right now there's already enough open for an evening on uptown Porter without driving to Government Street. By the time the holiday calendar fills up, there should be more. One way to put it together:
- Start at the shearwater at Porter and Highway 90. Front Beach is a short walk away. The Roost, a boutique hotel in a restored historic building at 604 Porter Avenue, is on the same street.
- Walk up to 401 Porter for a bottle or a tasting at Corktown. On Friday and Saturday it's open until 9.
- Step into Sweet's for a $3 beer, especially on a Saints Sunday, since Corktown is closed that day.
- Come back once The Book Porter opens for coffee, the wine bar and author events. After that, Ashiro will round out a full evening on this end of the street.
The rest of the holiday season still happens downtown. The Chamber's 2026 calendar lists the Tree Lighting with Santa at the Mary C. on December 3, Holiday Open House on December 4 and 5, the Silent Light Festival at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art on December 5, and the Discover Christmas Parade on December 6. Uptown Porter is close to all of them.
Ocean Springs has lots of new restaurants and shops. This one stands out because it holds onto history. A 1942 bar keeps its chicken drop, the bird at the gateway comes from a nearly hundred-year-old pottery, and the newest building on Porter follows Mac Anderson's architecture.
As Porter Avenue fills in, how a street changes over a year will shape what homes near it feel like to live in. If you own near uptown Porter and want to know how these changes are showing up in your home's value, The Worth It Group can walk you through it calmly and in plain numbers. Start with a free home valuation.
