For many longtime Fairhope residents, the white farmhouse at 63 South Church Street is woven into their own family histories: the Christmas lunches, the anniversaries, the wedding receptions. Today, The Fairhope Inn is enjoying one of the best chapters in its long life, thanks to an owner who bought it because she wanted to fix the building and a chef who changes the menu every week based on what is fresh and in season.
A September 2025 visit with owner Paige Dawson and Chef Caitlin Horne told the story of how a 1906 farmhouse became one of downtown Fairhope’s signature dining rooms and a statewide award-winning bed and breakfast.
A 1906 Farmhouse With a Long Memory
The farmhouse-style home was built in 1906, just over a decade after Fairhope was founded as a single-tax colony on the bluffs of Mobile Bay. In 1988, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the federal government’s official list of buildings, sites and districts considered worthy of preservation for their historical or architectural significance.
Before it became an inn, the property was a private home, and residents who remember the early 1980s recall a couple living there and a video rental store, Ultra Video, operating at the back of the property, where locals rented VHS tapes for movie night. In 1998, the property was converted into a restaurant and bed and breakfast, becoming one of the first fine dining establishments in town.
For years afterward, it served as a “special occasion” restaurant for many Fairhope families, the kind of place people chose for birthdays, anniversaries, holiday lunches, business meetings and wedding receptions. Longtime general manager Jeffrey Mog became well known for his calm demeanor and expertise; at least one grateful mother of the bride credits him with keeping her sane during an October 2012 reception.
An Owner Who Came to Renovate
Paige Dawson, a native of Gadsden, Alabama, often visited friends in Fairhope, and dinner at the Fairhope Inn was usually on the agenda. With a career in construction and property development, she fell in love with the building and wanted to “fix it.”
“I never thought of becoming a restaurateur. I have no background in the restaurant industry, but I really wanted to renovate the building,” she said. Dawson moved to Fairhope in 2016 and got to know Mog.
The opportunity arrived when Mog told her that the owner, Tyler Kean, was ready to sell, and suggested the two of them collaborate to take the inn to the next level. “It was a leap of faith, buying a restaurant with no experience, but Jeffrey knew all the ins and outs, so in March 2019, it became mine. We closed for renovations 4 months later, and in 100 days, the place was completely renovated.”
Renovating a building on the National Register brings its own considerations. Owners of historic properties generally aim to preserve the character-defining features that earned the listing, such as rooflines, porches, windows and original materials, while updating kitchens, plumbing, electrical systems and guest rooms to modern standards. Completing that kind of work in about 100 days is an ambitious timeline for any building, let alone one more than a century old.
Surviving the Shutdown
Dawson expected challenges, but she did not expect a pandemic. The COVID-19 shutdown in the spring of 2020, less than a year after the renovation, was frightening for a new business owner. Restaurants across Alabama and the country were forced to close dining rooms, pivot to takeout and navigate constantly changing health guidance, and many independent restaurants never reopened.
The Fairhope Inn survived and moved forward. “The back of the house (kitchen) was not what I wanted it to be, but the front of the house (servers, bartenders, hostesses) has always been great. Some of them have worked here for years,” Dawson said. Then the inn found Chef Caitlin Horne, and business took off.
That continuity matters in hospitality. Veteran servers and bartenders carry a restaurant’s institutional memory: they know the regulars, remember anniversaries and favorite tables, and set the tone for new hires. For an owner coming from outside the industry, a seasoned front-of-house team and an experienced general manager provided a foundation to build on while the kitchen found its footing. It also helped the inn hold its place in a Fairhope dining scene that has grown considerably more competitive over the past decade, as new restaurants have opened downtown and across the Eastern Shore to serve a fast-growing population and a steady stream of visitors.
Chef Caitlin Horne: Cooking Is Chemistry
Horne grew up in Baldwin County in a family of good cooks. Her parents, Pat and the late Richard Horne, are well known locally for their cooking, and Caitlin has said she has been interested in food since she was a little girl, learning from her family, cookbooks, the Food Network and plenty of trial and error.
She earned a degree in biochemistry from Loyola University New Orleans, and while living in one of the world’s great food cities she worked for Susan Spicer at Mondo. Spicer is one of New Orleans’ most celebrated chefs, a James Beard Award winner best known for her French Quarter restaurant Bayona; Mondo, in the Lakeview neighborhood, is her more casual neighborhood spot. The science background is not as far from the kitchen as it might seem. Cooking is, after all, chemistry.
Her first restaurant job was at a Middle Eastern restaurant in New Orleans. “My first restaurant job was at a Middle Eastern Restaurant in New Orleans, where I watched and asked questions. I fell in love with the cuisine,” she said. Today, regional influence is her calling card, drawing on Italian, French Creole and Middle Eastern traditions, among others.
A Menu That Changes Every Week
At the Fairhope Inn, Horne creates specials and changes the menu every week, always working with fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. “I want our customers to say that they can’t wait to see what she is cooking today,” Dawson said.
When Horne heard the tomatoes were especially good at McKenzie Farm Market, the longtime Baldwin County produce stand, she turned them into individual tomato pies with scratch-made crust, a dish that won rave reviews from diners. On her late father’s birthday, she made peach pie with homemade vanilla ice cream for dinner service in his honor.
Her inspiration, she says, comes from constantly thinking about food: what she is craving, what is in season, what she has read in cookbooks and what she remembers from childhood. Her father’s trout amandine recipe is a constant on the menu, though she changes the fish depending on what she can source locally, a common practice among Gulf Coast chefs who work with the day’s catch rather than a fixed species.
Fall is one of her favorite seasons to cook, with brown butter, pecans, apples and sweet potatoes coming into play. She is also known for a smoked pumpkin curry soup, made by smoking a whole pumpkin on her grill. Followers on social media know she often cooks late at night, documenting the process and posting the finished plates.
Seasonal cooking suits Baldwin County well. The county’s long growing season and many farms supply local kitchens with tomatoes, sweet corn, peaches, satsumas, sweet potatoes and more across the year, and diners on the Eastern Shore have come to expect menus that reflect what is growing nearby.
Award-Winning Hospitality
Dawson says the staff gets along famously, with Horne taking the lead in the kitchen. The inn’s side of the business has earned recognition as well. The Fairhope Inn was voted the best bed and breakfast in Alabama by Alabama Magazine and was nominated in a national magazine’s South’s Best awards in the Alabama bed and breakfast category.
A bed and breakfast in the heart of downtown also gives guests an easy way to experience Fairhope on foot. Church Street is a short walk from the shops, galleries and restaurants of the downtown core, and a little farther to the bluff, the Fairhope Municipal Pier and the bayfront parks where locals gather to watch the sunset over Mobile Bay.
Planning a Visit
- Address: 63 South Church Street, Fairhope.
- Restaurant hours: As of September 2025, the restaurant served lunch and dinner Thursday through Saturday and brunch on Sundays; confirm current hours before visiting.
- Brunch highlights: Horne makes homemade cinnamon buns and apple fritters for Sunday brunch.
- Menu: Specials change weekly based on seasonal, local ingredients, so each visit can be different.
- Stay the night: The inn operates as a bed and breakfast within walking distance of downtown Fairhope.
For those who have celebrated milestones in its dining rooms over the years, the Fairhope Inn holds a special place. With a builder’s eye behind the renovation and a chef who treats food as her love language, it may be better now than it has ever been.