Triplett-Day Drugstore was a Gulfport institution: you could get a prescription filled and grab a stool at the lunch counter in the same trip. Unpretentious, useful, built for the people who actually lived here. That address has been waiting a long time for something worthy of it. The Downtowner is it.
The new team took the corner's history seriously enough to name one of their meeting rooms the Triplett-Day Room — a direct nod to the family and the pharmacy that occupied this space for generations. That's not decor. That's acknowledgment.
Walk in and the walls are covered floor to ceiling in black-and-white photographs of Gulfport — people, places, decades of this city laid out flat. A vintage postcard-style mural across the back wall reads "Greetings from Downtowner, Gulfport, Miss." Tin ceiling, globe pendant lights. The whole thing feels earned rather than assembled.
The counter is the heart of the operation. Blue swivel stools, a long marble-top bar, and an open kitchen where you can watch every ticket. Gulfport pennants and a mounted marlin hang above the pass. Sit there on a weekday morning and you'll hear half of downtown catch up on the week.
They're open Monday through Sunday, 7 to 2. Hot breakfast and plate lunch. The menu placemat prints "Air Conditioned" at the bottom — a callback to the era when that was something worth advertising. Order the chicken and waffles: crispy fried chicken piled on a golden waffle, honey drizzled over, fresh berries and syrup on the side. It's the kind of plate that makes you slow down.
The placemat says it plainly: "Everyday food in an extraordinary town." Gulfport has always had places that feed people without making a production of it. The Downtowner plants itself squarely in that tradition — and the Triplett-Day Room is right there to remind you why the tradition matters.
For more on the Gulf Coast restaurants that have kept this city fed for generations, read our feature on White Cap — nearly 100 years of Gulf Coast seafood.