Mobile’s in the middle of a restaurant boom.

“It’s by far the biggest we’ve seen. Everyone wants to come downtown,” said Carol Hunter with the Downtown Alliance.

Hole in the Wall, which caters to the O’daly’s bar crowd celebrated their soft opening Wednesday night at their Dauphin Street location.

“We’re literally a hole in the wall,” Manager Matt Lemond said while standing inside the order window next to O’Daly’s. ” It’s like a permanent food truck. You walk up to the window and order your food.”

Rooster’s Latin American Food also opened this week a few blocks over on Dauphin. “We’re trying to do authentic tacos and burritos and such in a laid back environment,” Owner Frankie Little said about the concept he and his wife created.

Ever since Chuck’s Fish House opened last month, they’ve been packed. “Mobile has just been really good to us,” manager John Frye said.

Even in midtown, the new Publix Shopping center will soon be hope to several new restaurants. A realtor at Vallas Realty, who’s overseeing the project, said they’ve had a lot of business owners express interest in the location and 4-5 have already signed letter of intent. She said three of them are major names that we don’t have in Mobile yet, but she can’t say who until they officially sign their leases.

So, .if you find yourself thinking, ‘that’s a lot of new restaurants opening up,” it’s not just your imagination.

Hunter said this is the largest boom they’ve seen since they began tracking downtown property transactions roughly 6 years ago.

“We’re not just seeing properties change hands but vacant properties that have been blighted for years. those are starting to be sold,” Hunter said. “That has a huge impact when those buildings are given new life.”

She points out specifically the block of Dauphin Street where Catholic Social Services used to be located. Now, the storefronts are painted and Chuck’s Fish House is located on the corner.

Hunter said that during the last fiscal year they tracked 90 property transactions, including residential, and this year they’re on track to see more than 140 properties change hands this year.