Original Oyster House to offer free ‘Never Forget’ lunch to first responders

The Original Oyster House restaurants will honor Mobile and Baldwin County law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies with a free “Never Forget” lunch at its Gulf Shores and Mobile Causeway locations on Friday, Sept. 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The 13th annual Never Forget Lunch was created by the Original Oyster House to recognize the first responders who risked their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor all first responders for their service. Each year on the anniversary, the two restaurants open their dining rooms to the men and women who wear the badge, ride the ambulance and fight the fires across Alabama’s two coastal counties.

In memory of the Sept. 11 victims, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers will be on hand at the Mobile Causeway location to collect blood donations, and will also screen eligible donors for COVID-19 antibodies. All collected blood will be distributed to local hospitals, turning the anniversary observance into a direct contribution to the region’s medical supply.

Local attractions will also be on site to pass out free or discounted tickets, and iHeart Media will support the event through public service announcements, extending the reach of the remembrance across the Gulf Coast’s radio audience.

A coastal tradition on a solemn anniversary

Thirteen years of Never Forget Lunches have made the event one of the Gulf Coast’s most consistent tributes to first responders. The anniversary of the 2001 attacks carries particular weight for fire and rescue personnel, who lost 343 New York City firefighters, along with dozens of police officers and paramedics, in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

Restaurants and businesses across the country mark the date in various ways, but the Original Oyster House’s observance has become a fixture on the Alabama Gulf Coast calendar, drawing officers, deputies, firefighters and medics from departments on both sides of Mobile Bay. For many participants, the lunch doubles as an annual reunion — a table full of colleagues from different agencies sharing a meal on a day that unites them.

The event’s format is simple: first responders present themselves at either location between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and are served a complimentary meal by staff who spend the day hosting the people they would otherwise be serving in emergencies. The restaurants’ staff have embraced the role over the years, making the lunch as much a gesture from the business and its employees as a promotion.

Two waterfront landmarks

The Original Oyster House has two locations: 3733 Battleship Parkway on the Causeway in Mobile, and 701 Gulf Shores Parkway in Gulf Shores. Both offer waterfront views and have served the area as family restaurants for more than 35 years, making them among the longest-running independent restaurants on the coast.

The Mobile Causeway location sits on the scenic span across the northern end of Mobile Bay, alongside the landmark strip of seafood restaurants that lines Battleship Parkway near the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The Gulf Shores restaurant serves the beach tourist corridor that anchors Baldwin County’s economy.

Hosting the event at both sites ensures first responders from throughout the two-county region have a location within reach, whether they work the streets of Mobile, the municipalities of the Eastern Shore or the beach communities of south Baldwin County.

The blood drive connection

The partnership with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers adds a dimension of practical service to the day. LifeSouth is a nonprofit community blood bank serving hospitals in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and its collections supply the transfusions that trauma centers, surgical suites and cancer units depend on daily.

Blood collection on Sept. 11 carries symbolic resonance: the attacks of 2001 produced long lines of Americans waiting to donate blood, an instinct that became part of the national memory of that day. Channeling that instinct into a scheduled drive at the Mobile Causeway location links the anniversary to a need that never expires, since blood has a limited shelf life and hospitals require constant replenishment.

The COVID-19 antibody screening offered to donors reflected the pandemic era in which the event fell, adding a data point of value to donors at no cost. All blood collected during the event is distributed to local hospitals, keeping the benefit within the communities that gave it.

Community support across the coast

The free and discounted attraction tickets distributed on site weave more of the community into the tribute, giving first responders and their families inexpensive ways to enjoy the coast’s entertainment offerings. Participation by local attractions has been a recurring feature of the event, reflecting the region’s habit of supporting its public-safety personnel through small, tangible gestures.

iHeart Media’s public service announcements carry word of the lunch across the company’s Gulf Coast radio stations, reaching an audience of listeners who might not otherwise know the event is happening. Media partnerships of that kind have helped the Never Forget Lunch grow from a single-restaurant gesture into an annual observance with participation from across the coastal community.

The event also arrives at a time when first responders along the Gulf Coast have carried an unusually heavy load, balancing the demands of a hurricane-prone region with the pressures of the pandemic response. The lunch offers departments from Mobile and Baldwin counties a moment of recognition in the middle of a working day.

How to take part

First responders — law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies from Mobile and Baldwin counties — can receive their free lunch at either location on Friday, Sept. 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Mobile Causeway restaurant is at 3733 Battleship Parkway, and the Gulf Shores restaurant is at 701 Gulf Shores Parkway.

Members of the public who wish to participate in the day’s service element can donate blood at the Mobile Causeway location, where LifeSouth Community Blood Centers staff will screen eligible donors and collect donations for local hospitals. Donors do not need an appointment, though arriving early in the window helps the flow of the drive.

For the Original Oyster House, the 13th annual lunch continues a tradition the family restaurant began as a way of saying thank you — a plain meal, served with gratitude, on the date when the nation remembers the first responders who gave everything in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field.

Serving the coast for more than 35 years

The Original Oyster House opened its doors on the Gulf Coast in the early 1980s and has grown into one of the region’s most recognized family restaurants, known for its fried seafood platters, gumbo, oysters and waterfront porches where diners watch the water while they eat. Its longevity on the Causeway and in Gulf Shores has made it a shared memory for generations of local families and visiting tourists alike.

That long tenure has also given the restaurant deep roots in the coastal community’s civic life. Independent restaurants that survive hurricanes, recessions and shifting tourist markets tend to become gathering places by default, and the Original Oyster House has used that position to host and support community causes over the decades.

The Never Forget Lunch is the most visible of those efforts. Thirteen consecutive years of hosting — through the staff’s own schedules, food costs and the logistics of serving hundreds of guests — represents a sustained commitment rather than a one-time gesture, and the event has become part of how the restaurant marks its calendar each September.

First responders on Alabama’s Gulf Coast

The personnel the event honors work across a two-county region with distinctive demands. Mobile County’s largest city operates a full complement of police and fire services, while Baldwin County — geographically one of the largest counties in Alabama — spreads its sheriff’s deputies, municipal officers and volunteer and career fire departments across a sprawling area from Bay Minette to the beaches.

Paramedics and emergency medical crews from regional ambulance services connect the whole system, responding along the interstate corridors, the Causeway and the beach highway. Together, the region’s first responders handle everything from everyday wrecks and medical calls to hurricane evacuations and coastal storms, work that few outside the professions fully see.

The Sept. 11 anniversary gives the public a yearly occasion to consider that work. On the coast, where many residents can name the officer, deputy or medic who showed up for them in a hard moment, the Never Forget Lunch translates that gratitude into a plate of food and a handshake.

An anniversary the coast keeps

Across Alabama, Sept. 11 is marked each year with ceremonies, moments of silence and memorial stair climbs, but few observances are as informal and as warm as a restaurant opening its doors for a free meal. The lunch’s longevity has turned it into a coastal institution in its own right — an event first responders plan around and one that families in the area know to expect each year.

The combination of remembrance, meal and blood drive gives the day a full arc: honoring the fallen of 2001, feeding the responders of today, and sending the collected blood to local hospitals where it will save lives along the Gulf Coast. For the organizers, that arc is the point — remembrance made useful, gratitude made tangible.

The 13th annual Never Forget Lunch runs Friday, Sept. 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at both Original Oyster House locations, with blood donations accepted at the Mobile Causeway restaurant and free or discounted attraction tickets available at the door while supplies last.