By Staff
staff reports
Closing the doors of his popular restaurant David's Catfish House last Saturday was a bittersweet moment for Atmore's prominent business owner, Robert Faircloth.
Faircloth, however, did not waste any time before reopening the doors to the restaurant's new 6,000 square foot facility following a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce held Tuesday morning.
When Faircloth announced the purchase agreement he had made with Walgreen's in April, he told employees to expect a down time of two weeks from the time the original David's location closed and reopened in the new state-of-the-art facility.
Faircloth continued to pay his entire staff during the transaction, enlisting a majority of his employees to assist in the moving process and setup of the new restaurant.
While Faircloth declined to talk about leaving the building where his restaurant career began in 1968 with the opening of the Ponderosa and the advent of the exclusive Party Burger, he couldn't conceal his excitement over his new location adjacent to Davidson Lane off Main Street.
Faircloth anticipates a good crowd this week. The new building will
accommodate 263 people opposed to the 125 seats in the old facility.
in numbers,” Faircloth said. &#8220Our staff seems to be just as excited about
the new environment as we are. We have been getting a lot of comments from
people through the moving process and are hopeful that everyone will be
pleased.”
Faircloth sponsored a cook-off event for everyone involved in the building
and moving process of the restaurant Monday night giving all of his
employees a trial run in their new surroundings.
this point. We included the contractors, sub-contractors and all the vendors
that we could.”
The new Walgreen's will be located on the 2.3-acre plot that the current
David's Catfish is located on. The site has 360 feet of frontage and is 400
feet deep. It stretches from the David's Catfish House sign next to Dollar
General, which is located on the right side of the property, to Barnhills,
on the other side.
it well,” Faircloth said. &#8220It will really change the landscape here. They
have several different tiers of stores and the tier they're building here is
a tier 2, which is the next to their largest store.”
The Great American Loan building will also be relocated as part of the sale,
according to Faircloth.
going up here over the next few months,” he said.
Faircloth said he believes the change is not only a positive step for his
family, but for the City of Atmore as a whole.
Atmore,” he said. &#8220Walgreen's really carries a full line of merchandise and
I think they're the next best thing since K-Mart in my opinion. It sure
would be nice to keep people in town buying stuff up.”
Walgreen's is currently in the process of permitting and finalizing the
Alabama Department of Transportation restrictions.