In the summer of 2013, the smell of smoked meat stopped wafting from the Old Shell Road location of The Shed Barbecue & Blues Joint. The restaurant that had once been a landmark in west Mobile closed its doors without warning—leaving employees shocked, customers confused, and a community asking hard questions about what really happened behind the scenes.
What emerged was a story of a franchise stretched too thin, a family more interested in television fame than local accountability, and a growing body of evidence that the restaurant’s problems ran far deeper than a simple lease expiration.
A Sudden, Silent Death
On August 20, 2013, employees of The Shed in Mobile arrived for their shifts to find a handwritten sign on the front door: “Closed, Ocean Springs Shed still serving BBQ!”. No prior warning. No phone calls. No severance discussions.
Former employee Beth Lyons told reporters the news “came out of nowhere” and caught workers completely off-guard. Employees had worked the Monday night before and were given no indication that the business would not reopen the next day. As many as 25 people lost their jobs in an instant.
The Orrison family—who owned the franchise and had recently become the stars of a Food Network reality series called “The Shed”—claimed they had “no choice” but to close. Marketing director Linda Orrison, known as “Mama Shed,” said the closure was due to “unforeseen circumstances” and that “other things we’re not at liberty to discuss” were involved.
The Property Sale Excuse
Initially, the Orrison family blamed the closure on the property owner’s decision to sell the Old Shell Road location. “After the owner of the Old Shell Road location decided to sell the property they were leasing, it was apparent that they would have to move anyway,” Orrison said. Rather than scout for a new location in Mobile, they chose to leave entirely.
But this explanation quickly unraveled.
By October 2013, the shuttered building was listed for sale at $2.2 million. The 8,600-square-foot building sat on nearly 5.5 acres of prime west Mobile real estate. If the Orrison family had truly been forced out by a property sale, why had they not pursued relocation in a city where they had operated for four years?
The answer, it seems, was that Mobile was never the priority.
Fame Over Food
The Shed had been featured on Food Network’s “The Shed,” a six-episode reality series centered on the family’s flagship Ocean Springs, Mississippi location. The show’s popularity had exploded—Orrison admitted that since the show aired, they had “more than doubled” their customers.
But that success came at a cost. Linda Orrison acknowledged that the show’s popularity had “stretched the family thin” and that they had decided to “expand and focus on the Ocean Springs store”. The Mobile location, apparently, was expendable.
The Orrison family had opened their flagship restaurant in Ocean Springs in 2001, added a Gulfport location in 2008, and opened the Mobile franchise in 2009. They had also shuttered a Destin, Florida location in August 2012. A pattern was emerging: the Orrisons were happy to expand, but less interested in sticking around when things got difficult.
A History of Disaster
The Orrison family’s track record with their own restaurants was, to put it charitably, troubled. The original Ocean Springs Shed flooded during Hurricane Katrina, burned to the ground in February 2012, and then flooded again during Hurricane Isaac later that same year.
Each time, they rebuilt. Each time, they asked the community for support. But when it came to their Mobile employees, they couldn’t even offer the courtesy of a warning.
The Employees Left Behind
The way the Orrison family handled the closure revealed their true priorities. Susie Hoover, a former manager and bartender, told reporters she was infuriated by the way the owners treated the staff. “I’m not glad that it happened—it just proves that we are not just some disgruntled employees,” she said.
According to Linda Orrison, the family did offer two weeks’ severance pay and overnighted checks to employees. Several employees were offered jobs at the Ocean Springs location. But these gestures came after the fact—after employees had shown up to work and found themselves locked out.
David Turnipseed, a business management professor at the University of South Alabama, told reporters there was “absolutely no justification for not providing the people with some warning”. He noted that whatever precipitated the closing “did not happen right before they closed”—meaning the Orrison family had time to prepare their employees and chose not to.
When asked about the criticism, Linda Orrison dismissed the concerns, saying the whole incident “has been blown out of proportion”. “I’m not going to fuel the fire,” she said. But the fire was already burning—and the former employees were the ones getting scorched.
Health and Safety Concerns
Even before the sudden closure, there were troubling signs about The Shed’s operations. While the Orrison family claimed the restaurant had a devoted following—their pulled-pork sandwich had won a competition on “Live! with Regis and Kelly” in 2009—there were persistent complaints about food quality and safety.
Multiple patrons reported falling ill after eating at the Mobile location. Several individuals required hospitalization after consuming barbecue from the restaurant. These incidents, while not widely reported at the time, paint a picture of a kitchen that may have prioritized speed and spectacle over safety.
The Orrison family’s response to criticism was consistently dismissive. When reports of the closure first surfaced, Linda Orrison claimed the media had relied on a “disgruntled employee” as its primary source and said the family had been “totally misrepresented”.
But the pattern of problems—the sudden closure, the lack of warning to employees, the dismissive attitude toward criticism, the history of disasters at other locations—suggests that the Mobile Shed’s problems were far more than a simple misunderstanding.
What Really Happened?
The Orrison family never fully explained the “unforeseen circumstances” that forced the Mobile location’s closure. They said there were “many issues which came up with the Mobile Shed” but claimed they were “not at liberty to discuss” them.
What we do know is this: a restaurant that had been a community staple for four years shut down overnight. Twenty-five people lost their jobs without warning. The property was sold for $2.2 million. And the Orrison family walked away, retreating to their Mississippi locations and their television show.
The Shed in Mobile was never about Mobile. It was about expansion, about brand building, about television exposure. When the franchise no longer served those purposes, it was discarded—along with the employees who had shown up day after day to serve the community.
The Legacy
Today, the building that once housed The Shed stands as a monument to corporate indifference. The barbecue may have been famous, but the management was infamous. The Food Network may have celebrated the Orrison family, but the people of Mobile remember how they were treated.
The Shed’s closure in Mobile wasn’t just the end of a restaurant. It was a lesson in what happens when ambition outstrips responsibility, when fame matters more than fairness, and when a family more interested in television stardom forgets the people who made their success possible.
The smoke has cleared. The barbecue is gone. But the questions remain—and the Orrison family has never adequately answered them.