Energetic and creative couple is stirring things up in South MS with new restaurants
Butcher Baker restaurant and market just opened in Ocean Springs and The Charcuterie Maker is soon to follow.
“We thought it was clever,” Michael Paoletti said of the play on “butcher, baker and candlestick maker.” He and his wife, Stephanie Paoletti, operated “The Lot” in downtown Ocean Springs and operate Food Booze Hiccups catering and a growing collection of hospitality businesses around town.
Butcher Baker is a restaurant and meat market. Sweet Enchantments is a stand-alone bakery that also supplies the fresh breads, breakfast pastries and desserts for the new restaurant.
Good thing the businesses are just a few storefronts from each other at Thorn Avenue Shopping Village, off Bienville Boulevard in Ocean Springs.
Some days the husband-and-wife team barely has time to meet, except when they can pop into one or the other’s business.
And they are only going to get busier. The Paolettis are preparing to debut two more restaurants this spring when OS 1515 food hall opens in downtown Ocean Springs. The Charcuterie Maker and Sugar Cubed bakery shop will be spin-offs of Butcher Baker and Sweet Enchantments.
The place to go
“We want this to be a community, local-driven spot,” Michael said as he opened Butcher Baker for the day. The restaurant has energy, carried in brightly colored furniture, along with classic touches like pressed tin on the bar face.
They’ve had a good mix of ages and people who he said stop in for a coffee and breakfast pastry, who pick up a quick lunch or come by for happy hour and cocktails made with fresh-picked Louisiana strawberries that are also used as dinner ingredients.
The restaurant is open this week for happy hour and dinner Wednesday and Thursday, then will welcome sweethearts with a feature a prix fixe menu for Friday and Saturday on Valentine’s Day weekend.
The restaurant then will operate with a rotating seasonal menu, serving breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner, and weekend brunch.
On the menu
Customers should be prepared to find local favorites like pimento cheese and crackers, along with surprises like bone marrow or octopus with pistachios as they scan the menu of small plates, big plates and happy hour food.
Seasonal ingredients are used in small plates like smoked Mississippi oysters along with bone marrow made with local Stone Creek Wagyu beef, Louisiana strawberries and Surfside onion bread using wheat beer from South Mississippi’s Chandeleur Brewing Company. Among the other small plates are French onion caviar dip and fresh bread with seasonal compound butter.
Smoked paella with Gulf shrimp and smoked Mississippi oysters is one of the big plates on the menu along with duck confit pizza.
Happy hour snacks could be beer battered Wagyu corndogs with pickled jalapenos or a butcher selection of a meat, a cheese and accouterments. They make their own hot sauces and a variety of pickles that also are for sale at the restaurant.
Michael is a native of Ocean Springs and his bar is stocked with Mississippi liquors used to make craft cocktails, along with a selection of wine and beers.
Butcher and bakery fare
A display case inside the restaurant is filled with prime meats, like hogs from Boots to Roots Farm and Pearl River Pastures, beef from Oxford, and cheeses from Tennessee, and Paoletti said more local products are on the way.
“Breakfast is more like a grab-and-go,” he said, with fresh croissants, scones and breakfast sandwiches like a chorizo biscuit. “We’re making bacon in house,” he said, “so we’ll have that as well.”
While Butcher Baker just opened, Sweet Enchantments has a following of customers who drop by for a Mardi Gras pastry tart, a variety of cupcakes or Maui cookies made with oats, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, and is both vegan and gluten free.
“We make all of that,” Stephanie said, along with rye, sourdough and other breads, their own ice cream and sorbets, croissants, cinnamon rolls, biscuits and English muffins. The extravagant Sweet Enchantment desserts add a decadent touch to dinner at Butcher Baker.
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
