Vintage outboard motors hang on the walls, little cups of horseradish sit ready on the tables and there’s a view of water. You could bring a lot of Lower Alabama residents in blindfolded, and once they glimpsed those few things they’d know exactly where they were.
So would a lot of visitors to Alabama’s beaches. After all, they’ve been coming back here for more than 40 years. The easiest way to spot a newcomer? They might ask what the horseradish is for, even though the ketchup, Worcestershire and Tabasco are sitting right there waiting for you to mix up your own cocktail sauce.
Welcome back to the Original Oyster House, which opened in the Bayou Village Shopping Center in Gulf Shores in May 1983. It had 60 seats then. Now it has 300, though it doesn’t really feel like it: It’s a succession of narrow rooms following the curve of the building as it wraps around a bayou off the east end of Little Lagoon.
Mobile has had its own Original Oyster House on the Causeway since 1985, though it was relocated and rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. It’s a go-to place with plenty of charm, but at the original Original Oyster House in Gulf Shores, you can really feel the history.
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The distinctive decor at Original Oyster House includes an array of vintage outboard motors.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
Joe and Mary Lou Roszkowski and David and Jane Dekle opened their Gulf Shores venue in 1983. In 2016, Joe Roszkowski and David Dekle retired and sold the company to Ark Restaurants, but the important stuff has remained the same.
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And by important stuff, we mean the food and the service.
The Oyster House has a large menu, so it may take a moment to zero in on what you want. But it’s not large in the sense of trying to offer everything for everybody. You can get a grilled chicken sandwich or a burger. The dinner menu features a couple more chicken options and a “chef’s cut” steak.
If you came for seafood, and that should be why you came, you’ve got options galore: You can get shrimp boiled, fried, blackened, grilled, butterflied, baked, popcorned, in shrimp scampi, shrimp au gratin, shrimp florentine or shrimp alfredo. Oysters likewise come in enough different presentations to give one pause, so we’ll just note in passing that the Shell Shocked Oyster Sampler ($24) is a way of coming to grips with most of them. Other options include alligator, crawfish, calamari, crab, mahi-mahi, flounder and Alaskan crab legs, plus any catch-of-the-day specials.
A cup of gumbo is a good place to start at the Original Oyster House.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
Relax. Take a deep breath. You don’t have to eat it all, at least not at one sitting. Let’s make this simple and start with a cup of gumbo ($7). The house blend has a medium-dark color and a flavor to match, with plenty of shrimp and crab. There are other options: The Natchitoches Crawfish Pies ($12 for a half-dozen) offer a few bites each of a spicy crawfish-and-rice filling that will let you know you’re not in Kansas anymore.
James Nail, who has worked at the Gulf Shores restaurant for more than 30 years and who serves as its general manager, can suggest a couple of bestsellers. There’s the Mahi Down on Da Bayou ($29) which tops blackened mahi with fried crawfish tails, tasso and Conecuh cream sauce ($29). Or the Shrimp au Gratin, with shrimp baked in a cheddar and Romano cheese sauce ($20).
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All of the favorites are worthy of investigation. On a recent visit, I opted for the Boardwalk Combo ($22): Flounder stuffed with crabmeat dressing, accompanied by a serving of fried shrimp. It was arguably the perfect pairing, in that it appeased my lowbrow craving for fried shrimp while also satisfying my urge to order something more grown-up. If you want to go all-out on fried goodness, the Fisherman’s Pride ($36) combines a cup of gumbo with fried shrimp, fried flounder, fried oysters, two baked stuffed crabs and a crab cake.
The Boardwalk Combo at Original Oyster House features flounder stuffed with crabmeat dressing accompanied by a serving of fried shrimp.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
Nail suggests the Pleasure Island Stack ($23) as an underrated offering. It’s built a little bit differently than most entrees, stacking fried green tomatoes and blackened whitefish and topping them with Parmesan cream sauce and popcorn shrimp. “It sounds a little strange, but once you eat it, it’s just a great combination,” he said.
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Sides? Get the cheese grits. You have to get the Original Oyster House cheese grits. It’s the law. They are the benchmark. If you like the sound of that, consider the Southern Fried Flounder & Grits ($23) or the Blackened Shrimp & Grits ($23). You also should strongly consider upgrading one of your sides to get the salad bar. At $5, it’s not a small upcharge, but it’s worth it. The Original Oyster House might not have the biggest salad bar on the Gulf Coast, but it’s reliably one of the freshest, with a well-chosen selection of quality toppings.
The service is attentive. Listening to the interactions between patrons and staff, it becomes clear pretty quickly that the Original Oyster House has held on to a lot of long-time employees. In a tourist-oriented market with big seasonal swings in business, that says a great deal.
Order the Crawfish Po-Boy at the Original Oyster House in Gulf Shores and you’ll get a pile of seafood. Trust us, there’s a sandwich roll and toppings buried under there.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
“We have several people that have been here for 25-plus years, 20-plus years,” said Nail. “Myself, I have been here going on 34 years. It’s just a family atmosphere where we look out for each other, we help each other out. Just like any family, yes, we do have our squabbles, but we care for each other.”
That, in turn, underpins something that Nail thinks may be the restaurant’s greatest strength: Consistency.
Patrons return because “they know what they’re going to get, what kind of service they’re going to receive and the quality of their food at a reasonable price,” he said. “That’s what I hear continuously. They keep on coming back because it’s consistent in the quality of service and food.”
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A newcomer sees shot cups of horseradish. A regular sees do-it-yourself cocktail sauce.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com
In context, being consistent isn’t as simple as doing the same thing over and over. Gulf Shores has changed immensely over the past 40 years. Hurricanes have come and gone. The economy has changed. The competition has changed. The seafood marketplace has changed.
Amid all that, consistency isn’t something to be taken for granted. It has to be the product of a concerted long-term effort.
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You’ll never see that effort at the Original Oyster House. But you can feel it in the vibe of the place and taste it where it counts. Why do people keep coming back? Simple: They keep getting what they came for.
The Original Oyster House is at 701 Gulf Shores Parkway in Gulf Shores and 3733 Battleship Parkway in Spanish Fort. For full information, including menus, visit www.originaloysterhouse.com.
The view from one of the dining rooms at the Original Oyster House in Gulf Shores.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com