Foley, Ala. – (OBA) – The Doc’s Seafood family is expanding up into Foley with the latest restaurant operated by Gulf Coast business icon Richard Schwartz. That means family, the extended family of employees – many working with the Schwartzes for 30 years or more.

Richard restarted that atmosphere when the Doc’s Seafood Shack in Foley opened on Sept. 8. Wife Sally, daughter Jill and sons David and Jimmy are again along for the ride.

“We hired 130 people in three days, 140 including the managers,” Richard said. “Everybody said you can’t find people to work in Foley but we’ve found some of the most pleasant and best workers ever. And, they are happy and they’re not faking it.”

As with his many restaurants since he started in the early 1980s, when he first took over Hazel’s Drive Inn, the site of the iconic Doc’s Seafood Shack in Orange Beach today, he fostered that same family feeling when hiring was done for the Foley location.

“As far as my philosophy of running a restaurant it’s still the same,” 83-year-old Richard said. “I like to be surrounded by strong, nice people and in this case, I’ve hit a home run. We take care of people. We have held sessions with them and introduced them to the way we feel. We want things to be family. Some of them said, ‘You know, you weren’t kidding. This is family.’ And they are happy and they’re not faking it.”

About 10 days after first opening, Richard sat in a bustling restaurant talking about the new location and about his experiences through the years running mostly seafood restaurants but also an Italian restaurant, a buffet restaurant in Hazel’s Nook and even a pizza place way back in the day. The Foley restaurant opened on Sept. 8.

“We had two sweet little old ladies that came in at 10:45 that day and we said, ‘Come on in,’” Richard said. “Then I took a picture with ‘em.”

The recent sale of Hazel’s Nook to the owners of Duck’s Diner prompted the effort to build the Foley location.

“On July 1, I sold Hazel’s Nook,” Richard said. “I asked David and Jimmy if they wanted to build another restaurant. Earlier, I had asked them that and they said no. After I sold Hazel’s Nook, I said ‘OK, do y’all want to build a restaurant there in Foley?’ They said yes. So, that’s when we got to rolling and that’s how this restaurant got started.”

This is the second restaurant Richard has built from the ground up the other being Hazel’s Family Restaurant or the current location of Cactus Cantina on Perdido Beach Boulevard. That was two years before Orange Beach incorporated. And, 43 years later, Richard found a different environment than the early 1980s.

“People asked me when did I intend to open this place up and I said March 1 because the last restaurant I built, I started working on it in January and opened it on May 20,” Richard said. “I started work on this restaurant on July 11, 2024. That’s when I found out that I was no longer in Kansas. The difference was this time I had to get an architect, then I had to get a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, HVAC, and all that stuff takes time.”

And, though it’s only the second he’s had built, there most likely won’t be another.

“This is my last restaurant,” he said. “This is it for me. I’m 83 years old. I have loved it, my wife has loved it. We’ve always had something to do and I’m tired of that. There are other people younger than me that were smart enough to have done it and have nothing to do.”

Among the restaurants Schwartz has owned either by himself or with partners were Franco’s Italian Restaurant, Bubba’s Seafood House, Hazel’s Family Restaurant and Hazel’s Nook. There were as many as 12 he had a hand in at one time.

He’s now down to three, the iconic Doc’s Seafood Shack in Orange Beach that originally called Hazel’s Drive Inn, Doc’s Seafood and Steaks on beach road and now Doc’s Seafood Shack in Foley. Doc’s is named after Richard’s dad who was a dentist.