Sometimes, amid the chaos of life, a pattern emerges.

A while back when I invited readers to recommend their favorite spots for gumbo, Doc’s Seafood Shack in Orange Beach was a popular pick. No surprise there, it’s a seafood shack. When I wrote about meat-and-threes, people told me Doc’s was worth considering, which was a little more surprising – though it’s not unprecedented for a down-home seafood place to offer a killer blue-plate lunch. Most recently, we invited readers to recommend the best places for fried chicken in the state – and once again, Doc’s got some love.

Oh, and Doc’s also made Southern Living’s recent list of the 10 best restaurants in Orange Beach. So the cat is fully out of the bag, if it was ever really in it.

I may be a little slow on the uptake, but even so it gradually became clear that Doc’s was worth a visit. Because whatever they’re doing down there, they seem to have created a legion of loyal fans.

There’s a newer Doc’s that serves seafood and steaks closer to the beach, but I paid a visit to the classic Doc’s, the seafood shack, which is right at the corner of Canal Road and Baldwin 161, a major connector to Perdido Beach Boulevard.