The Mason Jar by Fatboys Is Closing in West Ashley After 12 Years

A longtime West Ashley comfort-food restaurant is preparing to serve its final meals.

The Mason Jar by Fatboys will close on Sunday, Sept. 27, ending a 12-year run at 2487 Ashley River Road.

Owners Laura Black and Charles Lee opened the restaurant in 2014 and built it around Southern comfort food, Lowcountry favorites and the feeling of eating something that could have come out of a family kitchen. The restaurant became known for dishes including fried chicken, seafood, barbecue, shrimp and grits and other traditional Southern staples.

A Family Decision Behind the Closing

This isn’t being framed as an abrupt business shutdown.

In announcing the closure, Black said the decision came from changing family priorities and wanting more time with her daughter and family outside of the demands of running a restaurant.

After more than a decade of restaurant life, the owners are choosing family dinners, vacations and experiences that can be difficult to fit around the schedule of operating a neighborhood restaurant.

That makes this closing a little different from many of the restaurant closures Charleston has seen recently.

It’s less about disappearing overnight and more about closing a chapter on their own terms.

The Mason Jar Started With a Personal Story

The restaurant’s history also runs deeper than its 12 years on Ashley River Road.

Before The Mason Jar, Lee and Black were involved with Fatboys Lowcountry Cooking and Catering, serving Southern favorites at events, oyster roasts and other gatherings around the Lowcountry. A published history of the business says the catering operation began years before the restaurant and eventually helped lead to the brick-and-mortar concept.

The Mason Jar itself came together after Black and Lee each lost their fathers within a matter of months. According to Black’s account of the restaurant’s beginnings, they used money left to them by their fathers to help open the restaurant in 2014.

The goal was straightforward: create the kind of Southern food that felt familiar.

Over the next 12 years, that turned a relatively unassuming Ashley River Road restaurant into a neighborhood fixture.

Even a Car Through the Building Didn’t End the Run

The Mason Jar has already had to overcome at least one major challenge in recent years.

In October 2024, a vehicle crashed through the front of the restaurant, forcing it to temporarily close while the building was repaired. No one was injured, and the owners made clear at the time that they intended to reopen.

They eventually did — giving the restaurant nearly two more years of service before this final announcement.

There’s Still Time for One More Meal

Unlike closures where customers find out after the doors are already locked, longtime customers still have an opportunity to visit.

The final day is Sunday, Sept. 27.

The owners have also said they’re working to help employees find new jobs as the closing approaches. And some of The Mason Jar’s food may survive beyond the restaurant itself: Black and Lee are reportedly working on a cookbook to preserve recipes from the restaurant.