MOBILE — In 2021, Cedric Hudson celebrated his 35th anniversary working at the Original Oyster House on the Mobile Causeway. He is the longest tenured employee at either of the restaurant's locations.
For the past 35 years, Hudson has worked 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a voting machine tech for the Mobile County Elections Department in west Mobile. Afterward, he drives to the Causeway to clock in for the dinner rush.
Born and raised in Mobile, Hudson was the second oldest of four brothers. As a senior in high school, he became a bag boy at the local grocery store.
When Hudson graduated high school, his mother, who worked for Mobile County, helped him get his second job.
Hudson has worked for Mobile County for 36 years. As a voting machine technician, he prepares, tests and confirms the voting equipment runs correctly. He is on site to troubleshoot any issues on election day. His parents and two younger brothers have since died, but he has a surviving brother and other close family members in the area.

Hudson's cousin worked at the Original Oyster House when it first opened on the Causeway and told Hudson they were hiring. Joining the Oyster House in 1986 as a dishwasher, he was promoted to cook after only a few months.
Hudson has experienced the restaurant's growth and success as well as the flooding, tropical storms, hurricanes, the BP oil spill, a relocation after Katrina and now the pandemic.
On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast causing catastrophic devastation. The record storm surge ravaged downtown Mobile and the adjacent Causeway. The surge all but eradicated the first floor of the restaurant leaving only enough structural support to keep its second story from falling through. The building was a total loss.
Before Katrina destroyed the restaurant, which was located only a few miles west of its current location, the restaurant offered two dining areas, one upstairs and one down. The upstairs served stuffed shrimp, stuffed flounder and other signature dishes. Fried and steamed seafood was the common fare downstairs as well as a featured oyster bar. Hudson gained his footing cooking upstairs. He also helped lay some groundwork for operations.
Today, Hudson says the set up on the line is similar to early days, with three to four cooks teaming dinner hour, depending on how busy it is. Masks and other COVID mandates have made restaurant work more difficult especially in a hot kitchen, he said. But even after a full shift at his day job, Hudson shows up. He does admit to getting tired at times.
The Original Oyster House has two locations, 3733 Battleship Parkway, on the Causeway in Mobile, and 701 Gulf Shores Parkway on the Original Oyster House Boardwalk in Gulf Shores.