Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls will serve its final rolls at St. Johns Town Center on Tuesday, closing the doors on its 22-month run in Jacksonville. The Maryland-based chain announced the closure on social media this past Sunday, thanking customers and encouraging them to stop by once more before the shutdown.
The St. Johns Town Center location, at 4668 Town Crossing Drive, Suite 105, officially opened on October 23, 2024, taking over a storefront near LensCrafters and Fidelity Investments that had previously housed Tossgreen, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The chain, founded in 2014 by former restaurant seafood buyer Dan Beck, built its menu around wild-caught Maine lobster served on buttered, grilled split-top buns alongside a broader New England-style lineup, as reported by WhatNow. Beck named the business after his son Mason and has acknowledged adding “Famous” to the name in 2014 purely as a marketing move to suggest a long-standing, multigenerational brand, the Jacksonville Daily Record notes.
Signs that the closure was coming had surfaced well before the announcement. The Town Center storefront was already listed online for sale or lease as of July 24, 2026, roughly a month before the official word came down on social media, per a posting reviewed by the Jacksonville Daily Record. It was the second Mason's location in Northeast Florida, following a shorter-lived run at Durbin Park in St. Johns County that closed in late September 2025 after less than ten months in operation, despite a $135,000 interior build-out.
A Pattern of Retreat in St. Johns County
The Town Center closure lands on Tuesday, ending a location that had served the Jacksonville market for nearly two years. Menu prices there reflected the premium positioning of the concept, with lobster rolls starting at $22.95, crab rolls at $19.95, and shrimp rolls at $18.95, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported. Those price points come amid broader cost pressure across the wholesale lobster supply chain; Maine lobstermen earned an average boat price of $5.85 per pound in 2025, but inflation, fuel costs, and freight charges have squeezed margins heading into 2026, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Even as it pulls back from Duval and St. Johns counties, Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls remains a growing national brand, with 44 locations across 14 states, Washington D.C., Italy, and London as of August 2026. Its remaining Florida footprint includes Fernandina Beach, Estero, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Panama City Beach, per the same Jacksonville Daily Record account. WhatNow also notes the chain has expanded into markets including Arizona, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and Miami.
Where Lobster Fans Can Still Get Their Fix
For Northeast Florida diners who don't want to give up their lobster roll fix, the chain's Fernandina Beach location at 708 Centre Street will keep serving as the region's sole remaining outpost. That restaurant opened November 18, 2023, as the company's 28th national location, set inside a restored historic downtown building, according to the Fernandina Observer.
The exit adds to a run of turnover in and around St. Johns Town Center. Sugar Factory American Brasserie, at the nearby Markets at Town Center, permanently closed in June 2026 after state health inspectors cited 21 violations, a shutdown Hoodline previously reported. That closure followed a broader wave of Jacksonville restaurant exits driven by rising food and labor costs, a trend Hoodline also detailed in its coverage of downtown closures earlier this year.
Despite the churn, national fast-casual brands keep circling St. Johns Town Center. Sweetgreen secured a city build-out permit in May 2026 for its first Jacksonville location at 4624 Town Crossing Drive, a sign that the shopping complex still draws demand even as some tenants struggle to make the math work. Mason's team, in its closure announcement, thanked the community and its customers for their support during the location's run, according to WhatNow.
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