Many Mobile Bay dining establishments, from the humble drive-in to a white-linen-tablecloth place, play a part in the lives of locals. People become friends, make business deals, share secrets, get engaged, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, break up, have first dates and even first kisses within the walls of these places.
Sometimes, it’s the simple things that make a restaurant memorable. Anyone who attended Fairhope High School prior to Jack Ellis’ restaurant closing in 1980 can tell you a story or two about how they skipped school, slipped over to Jack’s for a great cheeseburger or shrimp po’boy, then (not always successfully) took a circuitous path back to school. Several former FHS students and friends of Jack’s had a lot of comments and memories to share with each other online.
FHS alum Bobby Green wrote, “There was an ad in the school newspaper that read ‘Skip On Over to Jack’s.’ Ate lunch there 28 school days in a row with buddies. The Dyers, who owned the gas station across from Jack’s, turned a blind eye to the skippers.” But one fateful day, as Green went into Jack’s with buddies James Waters, Russell Cowles and Alan Lipscomb, there was the entire coaching staff of the football team. He added, “They did let us eat lunch before they busted us.”
Simple memories like these stick with you for a lifetime and always bring a smile. Take a walk with us through the good times and meals of days gone by along the Eastern Shore, starting with a cocktail and some pool.
According to digital Fairhope Courier records, the first mention of Dale’s Cocktail Lounge was back in October of 1953. It originally started as a pool hall in the 1940s, according to Catherine King, archivist with the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation. “The Cue, as it was called,” King reminisced, “opened to women in 1948, and announced an all-woman pool tournament the owner hoped to host that year.” This announcement was in the Fairhope Courier in the April 22 edition. “The owner, Dale Raddcliffe, was quite an entrepreneur, and his nickname was ‘Shorty,’” King said. One record mentions the installation of air conditioning to the restaurant, which surely drew in more patrons. Dale’s was also well-known for their steaks. It was located on Fairhope Avenue at what is now Julwin’s, which opened in 1961.
The Tea Tile was a popular tearoom that was in Fairhope during the 1920s and 1930s at the corner of Fairhope Avenue and Church Street. Its slogan was “Where every bite is just right.” Legend has it that the tea “Constant Comment” debuted and got its now-iconic name there. Regardless of its factuality, a bit of local folklore often adds to the fondness of a place.
The Parker House was another popular eatery in Fairhope. Besides being a successful “meat and three” restaurant, they also sponsored a softball team, which had a favorable season in 1947. Phyllis Parker Horne’s parents (Lee and Ethel) ran this restaurant located across from the old high school (where Fairhope West Elementary School is today). It was a motel as well as a restaurant. Horne, a veteran teacher who taught at Bayside Academy for 39 years, remembers growing up in the restaurant business. “Prior to the Parker House,” she said, “my dad had The Blue Light, a restaurant that started out as a gas station [at the northeast corner of Section and Volanta].
“Dad built [The Parker House] in 1945,” she said, “opened it in 1946 and the motel in 1950. At one point in the 50s there was also a drive-in on the side of the restaurant.” She added, “Dad never bought anything ready-made. He bought a cow to make his beef dishes, shucked his own oysters and made everything from scratch. One of his specialties was pies, especially coconut pies. My late husband Darryl turned that building into our home, and we lived there for more than 20 years. In the 70s, he added onto the motel. We sold it around 2002.” Like so many “restaurant kids,” Horne learned early on the value of treating people well and living the Golden Rule. “Everything was about customers,” she said. “They came first, and everybody had to be happy.”
The Central Restaurant was owned by World War I veteran Walter K. Byers, who also served Fairhope as Justice of the Peace. According to the Fairhope Courier edition of August 21, 1952, that year he ran against incumbent T. J. Klumpp for the office of mayor, a bid for which he was unsuccessful. Central Restaurant was located where the Bone and Barrel is now; in its day it had a large neon sign and was painted pink. Central was famous for its chicken and steak dishes, but also offered homemade tamales, a rarity in Alabama in the 1940s. A lady named Eve Oliver ran The Central for many years.
Saratoga Trunk was near the corner of Fairhope Avenue and Church Street, a two-story next to the old cinema (Magnet Theater) downtown. The structure itself had been the location of many businesses, including The Tumble Inn, the Wilson House, Royal Hotel, Boston Café, the Norton House, Dixie Hotel and then Saratoga Trunk. As a restaurant, the latter, run by Gina and Tim Mulcahy, had a reputation for excellent, New Orleans-style seafood and quiche dishes. Since its opening in 1979, The Saratoga Trunk was very popular in the 1980s, with a locally famous musician, Jack Normand and his Dixieland Jazz Band, often performing there. They had special menus and entertainment during Arts and Crafts weekends.
From her shop The Fairhope Store on De La Mare, Lisette Milham Normann reminisced about growing up in the restaurant business. “My grandfather, Wallace Wright Milham, opened The Yardarm and the marina in the late 60s,” she said. “He also bought an historic home at the northwest intersection of Fairhope and Summit avenues and made it into a guest house.”
In 1976, Milham also opened The Square Rigger and built what is now Kingfisher’s next to Normann’s mother’s and grandmother’s antique store. “We lived in what we called The Fairhope Hotel [The Yardarm Guest House], back in the 1960s [now the Summit Street Inn]. When the Grand Hotel had overflow guests, they sent those extra people to us.” The Square Rigger’s delightful fare garnered rave reviews in Ford Times and Southern Living magazines.
Growing up in the two restaurants, Normann helped out “all the time” at one or the other. “I would get off the Bayside bus and work with Miss Shep, rolling potatoes and peeling shrimp. I had a snack bar stand at the Yardarm and worked for a dollar a day,” she says.
From the casual restaurant goer who stopped by just a handful of times to the dedicated regular who marked their weekly visits on their calendar, patrons of the restaurants of yesteryear were shaped by their visits. The eateries of the Eastern Shore became part of the story of locals’ lives and remain so long after they have gone and exist only in memories. Now tinted with nostalgia, these restaurants call back to simpler times, warm experiences and good food shared with loved ones.
Special thanks to the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives, longtime Fairhope resident Claiborne Schley Walsh and historian and author Alan Samry for their help and information.
