MARSHFIELD – For as long as they can remember, brothers Chuck and Mitch Haddad have worked at their family’s seafood restaurant in Brant Rock, Haddad’s Ocean Cafe.
They grew up above the original restaurant and started helping out when they were 8 or 9 years old.
“We waited until we were big enough to get to the sink,” Mitch Haddad said.
After 87 years under the management of the Haddads, the restaurant will soon change ownership and be transferred to the Table Nine Hospitality restaurant group.
Haddad’s operated a smaller restaurant for 75 years before the brothers built their current two-story restaurant in 2012, which seats nearly 400 people and also includes an event space.
History of Haddad’s Ocean Cafe in Marshfield
Chuck and Mitch’s grandfather Louis founded the restaurant in 1937 and ran it until his death in 1959. Then their father George and their uncle Hal Haddad took over the business.
When George Haddad died in 1986, the restaurant passed to his three sons, Chuck, Mitch and George. George was living abroad and Mitch had just finished business school when Chuck asked him to help out at the restaurant for six months. Since then, he and Chuck have run the restaurant together full-time while George became a teacher.
“Once it gets into your blood, it stays there forever,” said Mitch Haddad, 64. “Everyone thinks the grass is greener on the other side, but there’s something to be said for being your own boss.”
“There was a lot more good than bad,” added 66-year-old Chuck Haddad.
For 75 years, the restaurant was housed in a small space outside its current location on Brant Rock Esplanade. Mitch Haddad said the building had a lot of charm, with sloped floors and a bar that stretched 14 feet from end to end.
“After a few drinks the floors were level again,” Mitch said with a giggle.
But more frequent storms and rising sea levels took their toll. While they were able to claim one flood damage claim for the restaurant from 1937 to 1978, they claimed 22 from 1978 to 2012. The brothers decided it was time to build a new building that would be taller and bigger to accommodate more customers.
In 2012, they opened their current 1,200 square meter, two-story restaurant with a capacity of nearly 400 people – four times the capacity of the original restaurant – an event space and two decks.
“There are no event spaces in Marshfield, so we’re incredibly busy,” said Chuck Haddad. “In the summer, we have 140 people on the payroll.”
Chuck Haddad said the current bar alone would not fit in the old restaurant and that the height of the current restaurant’s ground floor matches the ceiling height of the original space.
Why doesn’t Haddad stay in the family?
The brothers said the original plan was to run the restaurant in the new space for 10 years and then pass the baton to the next generation. But after helping their father run the restaurant for more than a decade, Chuck and his two sons said they had no interest in taking over the restaurant, and neither did Mitch’s children.
“We’re here 80 hours a week and they didn’t want those hours,” said Chuck Haddad. “We’ve run it well for many years.”
The brothers said they have plenty of stories to tell over the years and have served everyone from local fisherman to U.S. senators.
“You make friends. Half the people we see here went to high school with us,” said Chuck Haddad. “It’s multigenerational, and as big as the city is, it’s still a small town. An unusual number of people stay in the city.”
Both Chuck and Mitch Haddad said they have no plans to leave town, but are looking forward to more free time with family.
New owners will continue the Haddad tradition
Table Nine Hospitality and its partners Chuck Hitchcock, Jeremy Scanlon and Joseph Queally are in the process of buying Haddad’s Ocean Cafe. The group also owns Assembly in Quincy, which it bought last year.
To the relief of long-time customers, the new owners said they plan to keep almost everything the same, from the restaurant’s name to the menu and staff.
“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel,” said Hitchcock. “We know we have big shoes to fill.”
TJ O’Connell, who previously worked as food and beverage manager at Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club in Brewster, will take over as general manager. He has already started working at the restaurant, getting to know the staff and customers and learning the ins and outs of the operation. Mitch Haddad plans to stay at the restaurant for a year and Chuck Haddad plans to stay until September.
“We’re impressed with what the Haddads have done here, and we’ll continue to do it with little updates here and there,” O’Connell said. “They’ve done something that can’t be easily replicated.”
O’Connell said the current transition, in which he and the owners work side by side with the Haddads, is “unprecedented” in the industry.
The new owners also plan to continue the long tradition of supporting community events and organizations, such as hosting the annual Marshfield Cops for Kids with Cancer fundraiser and the Marshfield Education Foundation’s annual St. Patrick’s Day 5K run.
Jessica Trufant can be reached at [email protected].
