When Dan Hawkins decided to open a seafood restaurant in the mountains, folks laughed at him.

But now, 50 years later, the Pisgah Fish Camp just outside of Brevard is still going strong.

[upbeat music] - We are a family seafood restaurant, founded in 1968 by our father, Dan Hawkins.

He came here to the county in 1948.

Got to know people fairly quickly.

So, he and a business associate were traveling down in the Charlotte area and they stopped to eat at a fish camp.

Upon leaving, his friend said, "Dan, you should open one of these in Brevard."

And he did.

[upbeat music] - We're on the doorstep to the entrance to the Pisgah National Forest.

Lots of waterfalls, some of the finest camping, fishing to be found.

It's a beautiful area and where you experience all the seasons.

So, anytime of the year that you choose to come, there's gonna be an appeal that will draw you here.

Obviously, it's started out as fried food driven, but over the years, you know, we have acclimated to other things.

And we do have the basics that we started with, but we've also, we do a lot of grilled red grouper, shrimp and grits items that people wouldn't necessarily associate with a fish camp.

- I started just like everybody in my family, we started as kids.

You know, my dad started the restaurant, gosh, almost 60 years ago now.

We were 10 years old, cooking hush puppies back in the kitchen.

That was my first job.

- We started with household refrigerators, and I was 12 years old.

So, every day after school I'd come down and wash dishes until we got done.

So, that's basically the start of the the Pisgah Fish Camp.

We have a very extensive menu.

We have combination plates.

The most popular would be flounder, the calabash-style shrimp.

We have catfish, we have rainbow trout, we have grouper, we have salmon, we have gulf shrimp.

We try to source our items as much as we can locally.

- I've been coming to Pisgah Fish Camp as long as I can remember, which is at least 55 years.

It's like coming and having dinner with family.

And if you want greens, like collared greens, this is the place.

With the hush puppies, oh man, that is out of this world.

And today, I'm probably going to have oysters, recommended high.

- The Fish Camp is not just a business in Brevard, it's one of the cornerstones of the community.

Also, and this comes from my dad, his attitude always was that we have to be part of the community.

We can't just open our doors and serve people fish.

We have to be involved in the civic life of the community, the charitable life of the community.

We have to try to do everything we can every day to make Brevard a better place.

And that's something that my brother and my sister and I try to do.

[upbeat music] - I'm 74 years old, and I have eaten at the fish camp, oh, I guess since I was in my early twenties.

They are like family.

It has always been one of Brevard's landmarks I would say.

[upbeat music] - We've been blessed with the longevity here of 55 years.

And we see customers come in and folks that work here know their name, know their children if they're sick, if they're having issues or just things going well in their life that someone knows something about them.

And to be able to come in and share that around a table while having a meal, I think we've been blessed to be able to provide that table for that.

- This is a chowder, a chicken corn chowder.

They make their soups so dang good.

I just ordered shrimp and grits to follow this.

The staff here are so sweet and they're so good at their job.

You feel welcome here.

- The cooks are excellent, the service is beyond reproach, and the people that own it are just good people in this community that work in this community to make it a better place.

- Doing things for your friends, and that's kind of been our approach all these years, you know?

And it started with dad, that was dad's biggest thing, 'cause he loved people, and he loved to make people happy.

He loved to see people, and we do too.

- The upper wall here has a quote that said, people said that he was crazy for coming this far out of town.

And that refers to Dad when he came out of Brevard, and three miles out at that time was a long way.

They didn't think he was going to survive down here in the boondocks of Pisgah Forest.

We managed to make it work.

- Pisgah Fish Camp is at 633 Deaver Road in Pisgah Forest, just outside Brevard, and they're open daily for lunch and dinner, beginning at 11:00 am.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 877-3129 or visit them online at pisgahfishcamp.com.