Mark White likes to ask a simple question of himself: how many people have you helped along the way? For the man behind Moe’s Original BBQ locations stretching from Orange Beach to Downtown Mobile, the answer is tied up in hurricanes, an oil spill, a pandemic and a stubborn belief that a dark, overlooked street in Daphne could become a destination. The story of how White built his corner of the Moe’s Original BBQ family along the Alabama Gulf Coast is as much about perseverance as it is about pulled pork.
This is the second chapter of White’s journey, picking up after he left the ski slopes of Vail, Colorado, where Moe’s was born, and came home to Alabama. What followed was a string of restaurants that grew, in his words, organically, and a long-planned Daphne complex designed to bring together everything he had learned.
Starting Over in Orange Beach After the Storms
White arrived on the Alabama coast at a hard time. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had battered the Gulf Coast, and many small businesses in Baldwin County’s beach communities never reopened. In 2006, White found one of those casualties: a barbecue joint in Orange Beach that had not survived the storms.
Together with the three original Moe’s partners, Mike Fernandez, Ben Gilbert and Jeff Kennedy, White bought the equipment and leased the building where Porky’s BBQ had once operated. It became the first Moe’s Original BBQ outside of Colorado.
“Orange Beach was the first Moe’s Original BBQ store outside our little fairytale in Colorado,” White said. “The partners gave me a 25% stake, and we opened on a shoestring budget. We operated on a residential 4-burner electric coil burner and fried wings in a crawfish pot on the back porch. We had lots of friends who came in to help out.”
The shoestring start fit White’s approach to life. “I’ve always worked to purchase the things I like to do,” he said. “Skis, snowboards, kayaks, whatever.” Orange Beach had only a couple of thousand permanent residents at the time, he recalled, so locals ate at Moe’s often. The food was good, people liked it, and White began looking for the next opportunity.
“It made sense that people who were dedicated to the Moe’s concept and committed to me would make good co-owners and operators as we grew,” he said. That philosophy of promoting from within, turning dedicated employees into partners, has long been part of how Moe’s expanded across the South.
Along the way, White’s personal life was taking shape as well. On April 25, 2009, he married his wife, Angie, whom he first met in Colorado. The couple kept their house in Vail, and White notes with a smile that Angie still gets 30 days of skiing in every year.
An Old House in Edgewater Heights Becomes the Daphne Moe’s
The Daphne location began with Angie spotting an old house near Bayfront Park with a for-sale sign poking out of a pile of live oak leaves.
“The first time I saw it, it had that vibe and feel of an old BBQ joint,” White said. “A guy had started to build a restaurant but ran into trouble, so I bought and finished it, and we opened in 2009.”
White has learned a good deal about the property’s past. The area is known as Edgewater Heights, and he describes it as a historic African American waterfront community that once sat on a dirt road. According to what White has been told, the matriarch of the community, known as “Big Mama,” lived in the house that became Moe’s. She looked after people in the neighborhood, watched their children and hosted fish fries. Local lore, White says, holds that a little moonshine might have been available out back, and that a small building in the rear may once have rented rooms by the hour.
The location was obscure and not well traveled, and White is often asked why he chose it. His answer is straightforward. “The food is consistent, the price is right, and we ran it like a saloon,” he said.
Music was a big part of the draw. White, a lifelong music lover, began booking blues acts, pointing to the North Mississippi Hill Country blues tradition that he connects to the roots of bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers. “We booked the bands that I wanted to see and hear, but I had to adjust a lot over the years to serve our demographic,” he said.
The Oil Spill and a Discovery in the Delta
Just as the business was finding its footing, disaster struck again. The Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010 sent oil into the Gulf of Mexico for months, and the resulting BP oil spill brought tourism along the Alabama coast to a near standstill.
“When the BP Oil Spill happened in 2010, everything in Orange Beach stopped,” White said. “Life as we knew it was over. We were doing everything we could to keep it going. We worked as many side hustles as we could find, and fed many of the cleanup crews working the oil spill.”
It was also during that period that White discovered the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, the vast network of rivers, bayous and swamps at the head of Mobile Bay that is often called one of the most biologically diverse places in North America. The discovery stuck. White, Angie and their son now live on Bay Minette Creek in Spanish Fort.
Downtown Mobile: A Door Closes, Another Opens
White’s move into Mobile came through his love of music. Because of his knowledge of the industry, he was asked to serve on the Performing Arts Board at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, the historic 1927 movie palace that anchors the city’s downtown entertainment scene. Moe’s also handled catering for some Saenger events.
That connection introduced White to Tony Atchison, who owned the Dauphin Street building where Red or White now operates. Atchison had a vacancy and approached White about opening a Moe’s there.
“I loved it at first sight. I told Tony I was ready to sign a lease and write a check,” White said. But Atchison had another restaurant interested in the space and needed to check with them first. The other restaurant committed on the spot. Disappointed, White sent Atchison what he describes as a “nice” email saying he would have been the best tenant Atchison ever had.
Atchison, who White says knows everybody, then introduced him to Wendall Quimby, owner of the property at Dauphin Street and Springhill Avenue. The site sat on the Mardi Gras parade route and had room for both a restaurant and an event space in the back.
“I leased it on the spot,” White said. “We’ve hosted every kind of party imaginable. Reunions, business events, school events, receptions, birthday parties, bride’s maid parties, you name it. This store has been the top revenue store of all the Moe’s Original BBQ stores for several years, none of which would have been possible without an incredible team and great partners.”
Foley, West Mobile and the Pandemic Lifeline
White expanded into West Mobile and Foley at about the same time. The West Mobile building had previously been a fast-food restaurant with a drive-thru window, a feature that proved invaluable when COVID-19 arrived in 2020.
“Customers could order and drive through safely to pick up their order,” White said. “At the other stores, it was a bit more complicated. We offered a program where a customer could choose to purchase a second meal to give to a first responder or essential worker. When we had 20 meals purchased, we would deliver them to a group. This caught on, and all the Moe’s locations adopted the program throughout the system. It kept us in business.”
The pandemic also changed White personally. As people around him struggled, he began listening each week to podcasts by Dr. Kevin Elko, a nationally known sports and performance psychologist. “I listened every single week,” White said. “I’ve always felt I was a leader from my time in sports. People didn’t know what was happening or what to do about the pandemic. I was talking people off the ledge.”
He started forwarding Elko’s “Monday Morning Cup of Inspiration” messages, first to friends and then to employees. “I was a little apprehensive about what people would think at first. I haven’t been a perfect person by any stretch,” he said. “I figured, if I was hungry and thirsty, then other people were hungry and thirsty for some positivity, perspective, and encouragement, too.”
A New Daphne Complex Years in the Making
Back in Daphne, the neighborhood around the original store was changing. White credits Stark Irvine with an early vision to revitalize the area around Bayfront Park.
“It was a dark street then, and when I opened the Daphne store, people told me it was a terrible idea,” White said. “As lots came up for sale, I purchased several and just stockpiled them. Then the city of Daphne embraced the idea of a revitalization project for the area that included a boardwalk, an amphitheater, paving, and widening the streets to create a destination for outdoor entertainment.”
White said the street beautification project cost around $15 million. When the city’s plans called for parallel parking because there was not enough land for perpendicular spaces, White donated 10 more feet of his property along the road so the city could fit more parking. He also noted that the city’s redevelopment plans included acquiring the former Thomas Medical Center building near the Publix shopping center for renovation into a new recreation center.
The new Moe’s, built next door to the original house on Bayfront Park Drive, was on the drawing board for about three years. White said it was his chance to incorporate the best features of all his restaurants.
“I’ve always retrofitted buildings, and this was my opportunity to incorporate the best of everything from our stores,” he said. “We’ve designed several large event spaces and a drive-through window, with lots of covered outdoor seating on our open patio. The kitchen is large and efficient, with lots of sinks and additional refrigeration. We will have two smokers in case one goes down. Angie suggested we add a second-story bar and deck, so we did.”
The plans for the new building were finalized and the move from the old house next door was set for spring 2025.
Reflecting on the Road Behind Him
White spoke about his story while returning from his uncle’s funeral in Oklahoma, and the trip left him in a reflective mood about the obstacles he has faced.
“When it looked like the road was being pulled up from underneath me, it really wasn’t. It was the foundation being laid for success,” he said. “Looking back 45 or 46 years later, I can see it now.”
He is candid about his teenage years, including time at Bradford Health Services, which he jokingly calls “summer camp,” where he worked to get his life in order. “It was a good experience. I learned to trust and have faith, and how to deal with the next bump in the road,” he said.
At its core, White said, his journey is about food. “Cooking was as natural to me as throwing a baseball or making a tackle on the football field,” he said. “When you run a restaurant, you wear a lot of hats. You are a dad, a big brother, a police officer, and a counselor. At any given time, we have 100 to 150 employees. I want to help them be better humans, better leaders, better everything.”
These days, his role looks different than it did when he was frying wings on a back porch in Orange Beach. “It’s less about cooking and more about leading and mentoring,” he said. “I love the outdoors and want to help young people. I still like to have fun, but I had no plan or vision when I started my journey. I look at life differently now.”
He even has an idea for Sunday mornings at the new store. “I want to have church service at the new store on Sundays, like they have at Flora-Bama for all the non-perfect people like me,” he said, referring to the famous Sunday worship gatherings at the Flora-Bama Lounge on the Alabama-Florida line.
White does not sugarcoat his past, and he will readily admit he was a handful growing up. But the perseverance that carried him from a borrowed stovetop in Orange Beach to a string of busy restaurants across Mobile and Baldwin counties has become its own kind of message for anyone still searching for their path.
What Regulars Order at Moe’s in Daphne
For all the history, what keeps customers coming back to the Daphne Moe’s Original BBQ is the food. Longtime regulars point to the restaurant’s ribs, pulled pork and chicken, served with both a red sauce and an Alabama-style white barbecue sauce, along with wings that fall off the bone. Smoked turkey and smoked sausage are lesser-known standouts, and the restaurant has long offered whole smoked turkeys with pans of sides for Thanksgiving and catering for events of all sizes.
Moe’s is also known for rotating daily specials alongside a standard lineup of barbecue sides, with specials that vary by location and often lean on local favorites. At the Daphne store, rotating specials have included:
- Meatloaf Monday, served with sides such as butter beans, mashed potatoes with gravy and cornbread
- A Nashville hot chicken sandwich made with chicken thighs on Tuesdays
- Brisket on Wednesdays and Sundays
- A Thanksgiving sandwich on Thursdays
- Blackened mahi on Fridays
- A fried catfish sandwich with marinated slaw, and collard greens when they appear on the specials board
The restaurant has also hosted weekly trivia on Wednesdays and live music on Friday nights. Because specials, hours and events can change, diners should check with the restaurant for the current menu and schedule.
The Moe’s story itself dates to 2001, when the founders started their roadside barbecue stand in Vail and then opened in Edwards, Colorado. The brand has since grown to dozens of locations, many of them opened by former employees who worked their way up into ownership, which is the same path that brought White to the Alabama coast. The Daphne restaurant is on Bayfront Park Drive, near Bayfront Park on Mobile Bay.
The founding story traces back to Mike Fernandez, who learned to smoke meats as a youngster from an older family friend named Moses Day, the man the chain is named for, and whose grandmother passed down recipes that still shape the side dishes. Fernandez and two University of Alabama friends started the Vail roadside stand in 2001 with no income to speak of, opened a second store in Edwards, and watched the brand grow to roughly 60 stores nationwide. The growth has stayed largely organic: college graduates who started out working the line have grown into owners, and the map now stretches from Vail and Edwards to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, New Orleans — opened by two young employees who cut their teeth in the Colorado corporate stores — Destin, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and six locations along the Alabama coast, including Orange Beach, Foley, Downtown Mobile, Airport Boulevard, West Mobile in Semmes, and Daphne.
The Daphne store keeps a full weekly rhythm. Meatloaf Monday returns with butter beans, mashed potatoes and cornbread; brisket appears Wednesdays and Sundays; a Thanksgiving sandwich lands on Thursdays alongside a fried catfish sandwich with marinated slaw; blackened mahi shows up Fridays; and a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich made from chicken thighs debuted on Tuesdays. Wednesday is Trivia Night, live music fills Friday evenings, and 92-ZEW hosts bingo nights from time to time when the Downtown Mobile store is booked for a private event. The restaurant also caters events large and small, from kids’ athletic nights to whole smoked turkeys with pans of sides for Thanksgiving. The Daphne address is 6423 Bayfront Park Drive, Daphne, AL 36532.