John & Susan Andrews, The Andrews Team, Re/max of Gulf Shores at Peninsula

09/20/2026

We love this establishment!

Another sign that old Downtown Foley is becoming a completely different place

If you haven't been through Downtown Foley lately, you might be surprised by how quickly the restaurant scene is changing.

One of the newest additions is Half Shell Oyster House at 118 West Laurel Avenue.

The Foley restaurant opened June 24, 2026, bringing the Gulf Coast restaurant group's oyster-and-seafood concept into the historic downtown district. The South Baldwin Chamber announced the opening in June, and the restaurant's official site now lists the Foley location as open seven days a week.

This isn't another Highway 59 strip-center restaurant, either.

It's right in Downtown Foley, where an increasing number of restaurants and businesses are giving people reasons to park the car and spend time in the old commercial district.

As the name suggests, oysters are a major part of the menu. Half Shell serves raw oysters along with several baked preparations, plus seafood, steaks and other dishes. The Foley restaurant also serves brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

The current hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

What's interesting to longtime locals isn't simply another restaurant opening.

It's where these businesses are opening.

For years, a lot of South Baldwin County's explosive commercial growth followed Highway 59 south toward the beach, spread along County Road 20 or clustered around newer developments. Now Foley's older downtown is getting significant attention of its own.

Waffles R Wild recently opened its second location downtown, Half Shell arrived this summer, and the city's new 40,000-square-foot public library opened nearby after moving from its previous location.

The Foley some of us remember and the Foley of 2026 are starting to look very different.

But this time, some of the growth is heading back toward the old center of town.

09/16/2026

If you haven't been paying attention to the north side of the Intracoastal Waterway, you might want to start.

Gulf Shores is slowly creating something there that looks very different from the beach-centered town most people know.

The city announced this month that another phase of improvements to East 2nd Street is moving forward as part of the larger Waterway Village project.

And they're doing a lot more than repaving the street.

Plans include completely reconstructing East 2nd Street between East 22nd and East 23rd avenues, adding on-street parking, new sidewalks and upgraded stormwater infrastructure.

Then comes the part that could really change how the area looks.

The project calls for new pedestrian and street lighting, irrigation, medium and large trees, planting beds, turf, benches, planters and trash receptacles. Landscaping improvements will extend through additional portions of East 2nd Street on both sides of the new pedestrian bridge area.

The ultimate goal is a connected "complete street" running from East 22nd Avenue to Waterway East Boulevard.

This is part of a much bigger transformation.

Waterway Village is being developed as a walkable district along the Intracoastal Waterway, rather than another strip of development designed almost entirely around cars.

And once you remember what this area looked like years ago, the change becomes even more dramatic.

For generations, visitors thought of Gulf Shores as Highway 59 leading straight to the beach.

Now the city is trying to establish another gathering area around the waterway itself.

Restaurants.

Public spaces.

Walking connections.

Landscaping.

The pedestrian bridge.

And more improvements coming.

Gulf Shores' next "downtown" might not actually be down by the Gulf at all.

It might be growing beside the Intracoastal.

09/16/2026

Here's one of the newest buildings coming to Gulf Shores, and as of this week, it's almost finished.

The city's new Justice Center on Medical Village Boulevard is now approximately 95% complete.

The facility will bring the Gulf Shores Police Department, Municipal Court and jail operations together at one centralized location.

And this isn't a small project.

The city says the development includes renovation of a 44,000-square-foot building for police operations and municipal courts, along with new detention and fleet-storage facilities.

As of the city's September 9 update, crews were working through final inspections, permits, mechanical and electrical commissioning and the remaining punch-list items.

The target?

The Police Department and Municipal Courts are expected to begin moving in around the end of September 2026.

It's another side of Gulf Shores growth that tourists rarely think about.

When a city grows, it doesn't simply need more hotels and restaurants.

It needs police officers.

Courtrooms.

Firefighters.

Roads.

Schools.

Utilities.

And facilities capable of serving a permanent population that is much larger than it was only a few decades ago.

The city's own 2026 budget notes that Gulf Shores' population has tripled since 2000.

That's a staggering amount of change in just one generation.

So while this building probably won't appear on anybody's vacation itinerary, it tells an important part of the modern Gulf Shores story.

The little beach town grew up.

And the infrastructure behind it is having to grow up too.

09/01/2026

Impressive!

09/01/2026

Romar Beach is named after two men who could not be bothered to think of anything fancier. 🏖️

Spurgeon Roche and Carl Martin homesteaded this stretch of Orange Beach around 1924. Roche. Martin. Ro-Mar. That is the whole etymology, and there is an Alabama historical marker on site to confirm it.

What those two men were sitting on is hard to picture now. Their homestead ran roughly three miles of Gulf front, from what is now Gulf State Park east to Highway 161. Three miles of beach, two families, and effectively nothing else.

Getting to it was the real work. There was no road. Roche and Martin cut their own access track down from Canal Road and built a wooden bridge over the freshwater lakes to reach the beach. That track is still there. It is called Power Line Road now, and thousands of people a year drive it without any idea they are on a homestead trail two men cut by hand.

Hurricane Frederic took Carl Martin's house in 1979. 🌀

The Roche house survived. In 1991 Jerry Gilbreath turned it into the first Gulf side bed and breakfast in Alabama, and the Original Romar House has been welcoming people ever since. A 1920s homestead house that outlived the worst storm this coast ever took is still standing there between the towers.

One more piece of the same story. Lake Shelby, over in Gulf State Park, carries the name of the Shelby family, who were caretakers on that homestead. Half the place names between Gulf Shores and Perdido come from the handful of families who were stubborn enough to live out here when there was no reason to.

Everything on this coast has somebody's last name buried in it if you dig a little.

09/01/2026

Do not step into the Gulf. Slide your feet. 🌊

Stingrays are not hunting anybody. They are bottom animals that rest in warm shallow water and bury themselves in the sand, partly to ambush prey and partly to keep from being eaten. In late summer the surf zone is full of them, and they are almost completely invisible.

Nobody gets chased by a stingray. People get stung because they put a foot down on top of one.

The shuffle is the whole fix. Instead of picking your feet up and stepping down, slide them forward along the bottom. The vibration and the contact push the ray out from under you before your weight lands on it, and it swims off. The barb is a reflex to being pinned, not aggression.

That barb is a serrated spine on the tail wrapped in venom-bearing tissue. A sting is two injuries at once, a laceration or puncture plus envenomation, and fragments of the sheath very often break off in the wound. The pain is severe and throbbing. 🩹

The first aid that actually works is heat. Get out of the water, rinse the wound, remove anything obviously loose, and immerse the injury in hot water between 104 and 113 degrees for 60 to 90 minutes. Heat breaks the venom down and it is the main thing that touches the pain. Then get it looked at, because retained fragments, infection and tetanus status all need checking. Anything to the torso, neck or face, or any systemic reaction, is an emergency room trip.

On the flags, keep this straight. Purple means marine pests are present, and it is most often flown for jellyfish. The official wording does not name stingrays specifically, so do not count on a purple flag to warn you about them.

Shuffling costs nothing and looks a little silly. So does a barb in your ankle on the second day of vacation.

06/18/2026

05/25/2026

05/17/2026