Lartigue Fresh Seafood Market is a family owned and operated business that specializes in locally caught seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. The business was founded in 1979 by Paul and Larry Lartigue.

My father Paul Lartigue, Jr. and his family were raised on Dauphin Island Parkway, and lived on Mobile Bay, and we are natives of the area. After being influenced by the local commercial fishing industry for a number of years, my father and uncle decided to open their first seafood market. They researched the Mobile area and discovered a prime location at 4503 Old Shell Road in Mobile, Alabama, also known as Spring Hill.

After three years of being in business, my father bought his brother Larry’s half of the business. My uncle Larry then opened another seafood business on Moffet Road in Mobile, Alabama. After being in business for approximately four years, my uncle sold his seafood business and retired.

In 1986, I attended Clark College in Newton, Mississippi, on a baseball scholarship. My brother Roger attended the family business. It became apparent to me that I was needed to work in the family business. As a result, I decided to leave college and commit to the family business as a career.

In 1988, my dad decided to buy out Gulf Stream Seafood that was located on Cottage Hill and Schillinger Road in Mobile, Alabama. The business was stable but it was not growing at the pace comparable to the Old Shell Road location. As a result, the family business decided to relocate the Gulf Stream business to Gulf Shores, and renamed the business Lartigue Fresh Seafood Market Incorporated; the Old Shell Road location being Lartigue Seafood Incorporated.

In addition, my parents decided to purchase a duplex condominium in Gulf Shores. They remodeled the front and created a small seafood market and they remodeled the back into a private residence. My brother Roger and I ran the business in Mobile for eight years.

After seven years of doing business in Gulf Shores, and seventeen years in Mobile, my parents are considering retirement. After a family board meeting in September of 1997, it was decided that my brother Roger would acquire the Mobile store and I would acquire the Gulf Shores location.

My brother and I have a strong purchasing power in the seafood industry. Even though the businesses are separate, we still share the process of purchasing large quantities of fresh seafood. This enables us to purchase the freshest shrimp, crab meat, and fish on the Gulf Coast. Currently, we also have the opportunity to do business with seafood suppliers in four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama.

In addition to selling seafood, our business has progressed into creating many seafood specialty items such as stuffed crabs, stuffed fish, stuffed shrimp, shrimp creole, seafood gumbo and much more. We sell these products from our USDA Board of Health approved kitchen.

Now it is the end of the year 2000 and we have outgrown our present location in Gulf Shores. In 1997, I purchased a commercial lot on Highway 182 in Orange Beach, Alabama, for the purpose of relocating our Gulf Shores store.

We have built and moved in our new market and business is doing well. So come by and visit and experience the real deal in fresh and steamed seafood to go.