The First Captain D's Sold Much More Than Seafood

Fast food and fast casual restaurants devoted to fried seafood may not reach the giddy commercial heights of their burger- and chicken-hawking counterparts, but they've carved out a neat niche for themselves all the same. While not every chain lasts (pour one out for Arthur Treacher's), there's always Long John Silver's — and what American city center would be complete without a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company?

Then, of course, there's Captain D's, a reliable presence across the Southeast that offers all sorts of fried fare for the usual seafood chain demographics: fish lovers, pescatarians, and Catholics during Lent. But although Captain D's has always served seafood, that wasn't always its sole specialty. Unlike British chip shops, which generally serve broadly popular offerings like burgers or steak pies alongside fish and chips, most American chains just serve seafood; in a pinch, they'll offer chicken tenders. The idea of a place like Long John Silver's or Captain D's serving hamburgers just feels wrong. It would be like getting pizza from KFC. And yet, when Captain D's first opened, that's just what happened.

On August 15, 1969, a businessman named Raymond Danner – who founded another chain in the Southeast, Shoney's, alongside Big Boy licensee Alex Schoenbaum – opened Mr. D's Seafood and Hamburgers in Donelson, Tennessee. By this time, there were loads of burger joints across America, and there were plenty more to come. (Case in point: Mr. D's opened exactly three months before the first Wendy's.) Seafood, on the other hand, was a novelty in an inexpensive, casual dining setting, and Mr. D's quickly grew in popularity.

By 1975, Danner prepared to expand the franchise nationwide, and he had just the rebrand in mind to maximize his success. He took burgers off the menu and focused exclusively on seafood, changing the name of the franchise to the more jauntily nautical "Captain D's." It was clearly a good move: the franchise expanded rapidly throughout the '70s, and there are now over 500 Captain D's across the country (but still mostly concentrated in the Southeast, where it all began).