By By Janet Little Cooper
The much-anticipated move of David's Catfish House from its Main Street location to a new state-of-the-art facility just down the road is finally here.
The family-owned restaurant closed its doors Saturday night as the last customers to be served from the historic location trickled out.
"The plans call for us to be open in about two weeks," co-owner Rob Faircloth said. "As of right now we are ahead of schedule."
Employees were busy Monday and Tuesday loading all of the furnishings, including the kitchen sink into trucks to be transported to the new location.
"Everything, including the kitchen sink is going with us," Faircloth said. "We are moving all of the kitchen equipment as well as all of the booths and other furnishings."
Faircloth said that they would even be taking some of the wood from the original Ponderosa building for old times sake. David's took the place of the popular Ponderosa Drive-In that served residents of Atmore for more than 40 years.
"It is going to be hard for Daddy to walk away from the place," Faircloth said. "He has worked in this spot for 40 years and has a lot of good memories associated with it. We are going to do all we can to help him deal with the heartache of walking away."
The move is bittersweet for the Faircloth's. They will treasure memories of the old, but are looking forward to the new environment for the community.
"This is a great new environment for our customers," Faircloth said. "We hope that they will enjoy it while they will still be able to enjoy the same great food and service."
The environment will not be the only new thing that loyal David's customers will see once the restaurant reopens its doors in its new location. New manager Josh Godwin will greet customers while Travis Harrison and Jarrod Day will join Katie Presley as assistant managers.
"We are fortunate to have a great support staff helping run the business," Faircloth said. "We are paying all of our staff while we are down. They have made us successful and been good to us and we want to be good to them as well. They are all a part of this move. We do not want them to suffer in this transaction."