- November 22, 2024
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After
Before. Photos by Lydia Hamel
Jimmy Hull still fishes every day, supplying food for the restaurant.
Hull's Seafood Kitchen is located at 111 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach. Photo by Lydia Hamel
The original dining room at one of Ormond Beach’s most popular restaurants, Hull’s Seafood Kitchen, was remodeled last month, with new windows, an expanded kitchen, new artwork and handicap accessibility.
The remodeled dining room, 111 W. Granada Blvd., opened on Feb. 5.
“Look at it: It’s modernized, easier to clean, refreshing to look at and way more comfortable,” owner Jimmy Hull said. “And the floors are even now, too, which makes it safer.”
The new look is another step in the restaurant’s evolution. After 27 years of supplying fresh seafood to local businesses and the community, the economic crisis created an opportunity for Hull. With little experience of his own, he opened Hull’s Seafood Kitchen in 2008 as a counter service, not knowing what was to come down the road.
“We were just starting, and already really busy with takeout, with only a couple little tables,” Hull said. “And these really important people, from all over the area, were eating their fish sandwiches in this little, hot and smoky kitchen.”
The increased demand led Hull to begin expanding to the first dining area that had remained the same for 14 years.
“I took one step at a time: baby steps,” he said. “Counter service, baby steps to this dining room” — which regulars call the O.G. dining room — “baby steps to the next dining room and so on and so on,” Hull said.
One common concern from customers is a lack of parking at the restaurant, and in the future, Hull wants to add additional parking. But he doesn’t dream small; he dreams big.
“The next baby step is a pretty big one — a parking garage,” Hull said with a laugh.
When Hull is not attending to his business, you will find him on the water fishing or crabbing.
“I remember when I had my first employee, and that freed me up a ton,” he said. “Gave me a chance to get things going, and start crabbing some. Soon after that I had another employee. Now so many years later, I have almost 100 employees.”
His passion for fishing is no secret, as you still will find him to this day, 40 years after originally opening Hull’s Seafood, personally bringing fish to be sold daily.
