Photo by Kelli S. Hewett
Cahaba Heights resident Chloe Kidd is the new owner of the iconic seafood restaurant Ocean in Birmingham’s Southside.
Earlier this year, 24-year-old bartender Chloe Kidd was slinging drinks at an Auburn college bar. Today, she’s the owner and operator of Ocean, one of Birmingham’s longstanding seafood icons — and almost no one saw it coming.
“I didn’t tell anybody,” said Kidd, a 2019 graduate of Hewitt-Trussville High School and resident of Cahaba Heights. “Everyone’s like, ‘Huh? You did what?’”
Instead, she did what she’s been doing since childhood: set a goal, worked the problem, did the homework. Then, she used a nest egg and bet on herself — no partners, no backers, no inner restaurant circle.
“I stick out in this industry, in this city, like a sore thumb,” Kidd said of the male-dominated profession. “I just find my own way to make things happen.”
She fuels herself on ADHD stubbornness, plenty of challenges and the thrill of being underestimated.
Kidd, who was 7 months old when Ocean opened in March 2002, grew up in a family business environment.
Her late father, Alan Kidd, owned Cowboys gas station along U.S. 280, as well as Jack Rabbit car washes and other businesses. At 6 years old, she was on a milk crate running the Cowboys register.
“I loved it,” Kidd said. “I was a good kid, and I wanted to do the work.”
By 16, that work ethic came with a grown-up anxiety.
With her first paycheck from the Polo outlet store in Leeds, she called her mom in a panic.
“My paycheck is less than $500,” Kidd told her. “I need a $5,000 paycheck. How am I going to retire?”
She laughs at it now, but that “panic equals action” wiring has never really gone away.
“I’ve always compared myself to 50-year-old men running multimillion-dollar businesses,” Kidd said. “I’ve always felt behind. It’s just been a panic from a young age.”
That’s the headspace she was in after another late bartending shift when she pulled up a listing on BizBuySell.com: an award-winning Birmingham restaurant for sale, name withheld.
She reverse-searched the clues, realized it was Ocean, built a PowerPoint for her financial advisor, walked into his office with hastily upgraded business clothes and hairstyle, and secured a loan.
“I always wanted to do something important,” Kidd said. “I wanted to feel special, I guess.”
Longtime Ocean employee and its new executive chef Jahaad Jackson said he’s already seeing her ambitious vision come to life.
“New energy, new vigor brings a lot more gusto to get stuff done,” Jackson said of Ocean’s youth infusion. “I see it as a strength.”
In June, Ocean was recognized by DiRōNA, the Distinguished Restaurants of North America, for exceptional fine dining and by Wine Spectator for noteworthy wine offerings.
“Ocean is not just mine; it’s everything that it’s been so far,” Kidd said. “It belongs to the people. I want to give this place a new life, but I don’t want to erase what it was for everybody. You can still feel like home — except we’ve had an update.”
