In 1966, my brother did his senior architectural thesis on the redevelopment of Dauphin Street in Mobile. Fast forward fifty years and the transformation is almost complete. We caught up with Charles Morgan, owner of Chuck’s Fish, Five Mobile, and El Papi Mexican on Dauphin Street to get his thoughts on Mobile’s future. First, a little bit about Charles.

Charles grew up in Atlanta and attended the University of Alabama. While earning his MBA, he also got his boat captain’s license and started running an offshore fishing boat for a Birmingham company. This led him to Destin, Florida where he opened the now famous Harbor Docks restaurant on the Fourth of July with 6 picnic tables on the outside deck. All he sold was oysters and beer. That was forty-three years ago, and it rained. At the time, there were only six restaurants between the Destin bridge and Sandestin, a 10-mile stretch. 

Dharma Blue, his second oldest restaurant located in Pensacola, is forty years old. Charles and his business partner, Cris Eddings, now own and operate restaurants throughout the south, especially in college towns, including Tuscaloosa, Athens, and Tallahassee. A new restaurant will soon open in Montgomery. Camille’s at Crystal Beach in Destin is named after Charles's mother. He credits a lot of their success to an unstructured management style. Each restaurant is managed with “a light touch.” It’s a different approach and says their restaurants enjoy one of the highest employee retention rates in the industry. “We offer a livable occupation,” he says.

In addition to starting and running restaurants, Charles has a restaurant wholesale seafood business, Harbor Docks Seafood Market, that supplies all his restaurants and others with freshly caught fish from local waters. He started this business over 40 years ago with a single boat, and now sources seafood from 152 different boats along the coast. Yoshie Eddings, Cris’ mother, is from Toyoko and introduced sushi to their restaurants many years ago. She is still teaching and training their sushi chefs today.

When asked what he looks for in choosing a site for a new restaurant, Charles says, “Young people today want to live in town. They want walkable communities and to Uber to restaurants and places that aren’t near where they live. They would trade their car for their iPhone if forced to choose.” He likes cities that people have forsaken. He enjoys being part of the rejuvenation process and prefers a slower pace with a good workforce. Over 80% of his restaurants are in buildings at least 100 years old.

Regarding Mobile’s current state and what Charles thinks is in store for the future, he is very positive. “Mobile is a mid-level city that we think has a great future. It has a well-preserved historical presence, the infrastructure is improving, and livability factors (pedestrian-friendly, safety, services, grocery stores, classic neighborhoods, parks, etc.) are getting better all the time. Getting away from a reliance on tourism and focusing on residential issues surprisingly makes tourism better. Jobs: port, ships, airplanes, service jobs, lawyers, accountants, etc. are all there,” he says.

Charles goes on to say, “The new airport will be the biggest boost to an economy that’s already on the upswing. We like the people, the architecture and the absence of strip centers, the number of independent restaurant operations, and the fact that people are knowledgeable about seafood, all bodes well for the future business climate.” 

A stroll down Dauphin Street verifies Charles’s thoughts. Within Mobile’s entertainment district, there are many good restaurants to choose from as well as live music, theater venues, and a variety of bars that make an evening in this area particularly inviting. Over the past few years, several historic buildings have been converted to lofts, wedding venues, and even a couple of innovation centers to help grow small businesses. 

Thanks, Charles, for your optimistic outlook. The future is indeed bright!

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