Dewey Destin's duplicates on the harbor

At Dewey Destin’s Harborside, the past is alive and well.

A photo on the wall shows Destin harbor in 1944: Hundreds of yards of scrub and sand, a few scattered buildings and piers, all south of a two-lane U.S. 98. Other photos show Dewey Destin in childhood, surrounded by siblings and relatives; Clement Taylor, the community’s first school teacher; and Maurice and Orie Marler, who owned the 1928 harborfront house that opened as Destin’s newest restaurant last month.

“I think the theme of the whole place is old Destin,” Dewey Destin told The Log.

The logistics of running a second restaurant in addition to Dewey Destin Seafood on Choctaw Bay are demanding, Destin told The Log, but business has been steady, and it gives him room to expand that his bayside operation didn’t have.

“We were becoming terribly crowded, people were having to wait an hour in line,” he said. “We were hoping we could spread out a little and not make people wait so much ... We wanted to give ourselves a little space to expand.”

When the owners were alive, Destin said, he and his kin were over at the house frequently.

“This is where we used to go fishing every day,” he said, indicating the spot to the east where the Destin Fishing Marina now stands. “The site was owned by Spence Brothers, out of Niceville; they leased it to use because we sold them the great majority of the fish we caught over there.”

The restaurant’s 31-year-old chef, Jim Shirah, said he also has ties to the house, as the nephew of Orie and Maurice Marler on his father’s side, and the great-nephew of Orie on his mother’s side. A photo of his mother’s from the 1970s shows the harbor behind the house, with oak trees on the marina site.

“I grew up on the fishing boats, the net boats,” Shirah said. “As a kid, there was always something going on here: The boats were down here, we used to keep our boats here ... I’d come up to the house when I was hiding from dad.”

“We made him our slave when we were in the fishing business,” Destin said with a laugh.

“That’s the only reason they have kids,” Shirah shot back.

Shirah said that after the state banned net boats in 1995, he went to culinary school in Panama City, then the south of France, and launched an award-winning career as a chef, and with his Catering To You service. Although he said he loves all seafood, he admitted a particular fondness for crab.

“Seafood is my life,” Shirah said. “I just enjoy what I do.”