Feb. 12--OCEAN SPRINGS -- Lunch customers at The Shed today had to bring their own food, eating sandwiches on the tailgates of their trucks, because The Shed burned to the ground early this morning, while barbecue was cooking in the smoker.
Fans were stunned. Some came by to eat and saw the bad news. Others heard what had happened and just came to hang out with fellow enthusiasts who liked the funky eatery that served nationally acclaimed barbecue in an atmosphere befitting its name. The food there was served with blues music and fun.
One person standing along the yellow police tape that cordoned off the burned structure, lamented, "It was our home away from home."
But employee Elsie Shannon said she expects the restaurant will be "slinging Q by tomorrow."
The parking lot saw an all day parade of people, beginning at 7 a.m., said employee Lisa Armstrong.
Brad Orrison, 35, who owns the business with his sister, was called to the scene while it was engulfed. He said they got the call at 2:05 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m., it had burned to the ground.
Among those in the parking lot this afternoon were people who had seen a rerun of the Food Network's "Diner, Drive-ins and Dives" featuring The Shed and driven over from New Orleans; two women from Clearwater, Fla., who stopped on their way to the casinos and dozens of Shed Heads, avid fans who consider themselves family.
Donations were already coming in -- kitchen equipment, money and stuff to hang on the walls when there are once again walls to hang things on.
Orrison said Bob Taylor, from a Biloxi restaurant, stopped by with a drill to attach a new piece memorabilia to the burned front door, a yellow and blue advertisement for Lowe Brothers PAINTS.
"I had to hold the door to keep if from falling in, while he put it on," Orrison said.
But it's a symbol to Orrison and others that The Shed will rebuild and fill again with offbeat objects.
"It almost feels like I'm at a funeral," said Chris Davis.
"This thing had such a heart beat, it is almost like a funeral," Orrison said, looking at the rubble.
The little barbecue started about 10 years ago just off Interstate 10 at Mississippi 57. It grew from a 300-square-foot shed that Brad and sister Brooke Orrison Lewis built themselves to a seating capacity of 910, serving 4,500 people a week.
The annual gross at the little place is in the millions of dollars and it has expanded to locations in the region.
The fire was an intense one, scorching the tops of 50-foot pine trees nearby.
Orrison said the Fire Departments in the area responded en force and worked hard.
He said they had shoulders and brisket in the big smoker cooking through the night, which is the custom.
"The firefighters took me back to the smoker and we opened it up and the brisket and pork shoulders were perfect," said Orrison. "Usually we take them out at 4 in the morning. It was like 4:30 and they had the fire out enough to where we could get back and open the smoker and sure enough there was the most tender pork waiting, as if nothing had happened."
Firefighters told him the temperature of the fire was super hot, while the smoker cooks at only 225 degrees.
He said the equipment somehow kept out the extreme heat, while continuing to cook.
Looking at tables full of meat covered by aluminum foil, he lifted the corner of one package and pulled off a piece.
"This is the last pulled pork cooked at the original Shed," he said.
"But no doubt, we'll rebuild."
He said they will do it one crooked nail and board at a time.
"We went through Katrina and survived it and we'll survive this," he said.
"We just started a new chapter, started another set, bought another guitar," said Orrison. "Hopefully, it will be rebuilt with things people bring us, finds in dumpsters. If you've got any used 2 x 4's or tin lying around the house, bring it. I'm gonna need some help. That's why that building was so nostalgic. It was built by the community in the first place.
"When someone hung a dollar bill up, they didn't give me that dollar, it was theirs. People have come back over the years looking for those dollars. We're gonna need people to bring dollar bills to hang up."
Orrison said the firefighters who responded "made me proud to live in Jackson County. They were protecting it like it was theirs. I know it sounds weird to say 'thank you', but a true heart-felt thank you to all of the firefighters who helped."
Sun Herald updates this story as more information becomes available.
Copyright 2012 - The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.
