At work with: Joey Habit, teacher and oyster bar owner

I was born in Hampton, but grew up in Virginia Beach. My dad, Al Habit, was a legendary high school football coach, starting at Hampton High School before moving on to Princess Anne and Cox high schools.

My story starts with football because it has really been the focal point of my life and, in a way, helped set the stage for what I’m doing now. When my dad was coaching, I went to every practice and every game. I was the manager of every one of his teams. After graduating from Cox in 1983, I went to James Madison on a football scholarship.

When it came time to find a job, I got a break when I was recommended for a football coaching position at Bridgewater College, between Staunton and Harrisonburg. I loved it there, but the pay wasn’t great – it was Division III, a small school. I had gotten married that year, too. I stayed a year before leaving for Chesapeake, where I was hired as an assistant coach at Great Bridge High. I was there for six years before getting the job as head football coach at Hickory High in 1996.

I was Hickory’s coach for seven years – until my dad got sick. He had Alz-heimer’s and I decided to take a couple of years off from coaching to care for him.

After he died, I went back to Hickory – as an offensive coordinator. Not long afterward, they hired one of my former players as head coach. He was in his late 20s – I was in my late 40s. I thought it was time for me to do something different.

I had always wanted to open my own restaurant. For the past five summers, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I’ve run a kiosk at Little Island at Sandbridge – Big Joe’s Beach Grill. That kind of prepared me for the next step.

Before college, I worked at Offshore Raw Bar in Virginia Beach. I’ve also spent a lot of time at D&H Oyster Bar in Elizabeth City. Somehow I got the idea of merging wings and oysters. They kind of go together with a beer.

I’ve also got some entrepreneur in me. My dad’s parents came here from Lebanon in the early 1900s and settled in Edenton, N.C. He had nine brothers and sisters and my dad was the only one who went to college. The others all began small businesses – a motel, a dry cleaners, a cafe, a record store. They owned quite a bit.

I had a little money I had saved and took out a loan from the teachers’ credit union. I also had a small circle of friends who invested in me. They believed I could do it. I’m used to working long hours. When you’re a coach, you do that.

So for two months, I and many of my friends, who helped me for free, worked hard tearing the place apart and remodeling it. We did virtually everything ourselves, from putting in a new floor, to building wood shelves for the bar area. Some firefighter friends of mine created surfboard-shaped, wooden dining room tables. My son designed the logo.

I’m still teaching marketing at Hickory, so this is still a part-time thing for me. Once we opened, I was a little surprised at how much there was to do – way more than I thought. I’m lucky to have a great general manager – Peter Warstler – and if I didn’t have him, I’m not sure I could pull this off.

The reception so far has been great – I’m successful here because of the relationships I’ve developed over the years with my students and players. Some of them are married with kids of their own. One dropped by last night – he has three kids now. I coached him my first year at Hickory.

While we have wings and great local oysters – we get them from the James River, Lynnhaven and the Eastern Shore – we also serve burgers and a first-rate she-crab soup. It’s Pete’s grandmother’s recipe. We’re already getting requests to get it by the gallon over the holidays.

We’re open from 4 to midnight Monday to Thursday, from 3 to midnight on Friday – I do offer a teachers’ appreciation day – and from 11 to midnight on Saturday and Sunday. We always close at 12, though.

My dad used to say nothing good happens after midnight.

– As told to Pilot writer Robert McCabe