Doug's Hoagies is back in new 5-story Dover building

DOVER — Doug Colwell was nervous to re-open his business during a pandemic, but found himself flooded with customer support when officially opening recently in a new five-story Fourth Street building.

“We were so surprised at how busy it has been,” Colwell said, describing fast-paced customer response as he offers take-out only service for now. “It’s been wild.”

Colwell’s mother, Darlene Colwell-Ellis, owned the original Fourth Street property, buying it in 2007 to allow her son to move the restaurant into his own space after renting since 2005.

Doug’s Hoagies temporarily closed last summer while the old building was demolished, replaced by the new mixed-used building, and officially reopened July 22. The building is now called Fourth Street Depot, and it contains two vacant commercial spaces and 20 apartments, 15 of them vacant. The building also houses Colwell-Ellis’ real estate office.

Colwell-Ellis said she always had dreams to transform the building, and the new building will allow for a more efficient space for Doug’s Hoagies to grow.

Doug Colwell and wife, Alicia, have been the only staff in the shop since the business reopened. Colwell said although they are incredibly grateful for the amount of customers, it is difficult running the shop with only two people.

“We’d love to bring new members on board,” he said. “The problem is not many people want to work in this environment right now. We could literally hire someone to exclusively pick up the phone. Once lunchtime starts, it’s constantly ringing.”

Colwell said along with a grand re-opening, he thinks the shop being exclusively take-out is an appealing option.

“I think in the COVID-19 environment, people want good food for take-out. People can sit down, but we don’t depend on sit-down customers and that’s important for our business during this time.”

Alicia Colwell said she thinks an important part of the re-opening process was keeping previous customers in the loop by frequently updating social media.

“We kept our customers up to date over the course of the year we were closed and tried to post a variety of content about our progress on Facebook,” she said. "We originally talked about reopening June 1, so every couple days or week we’d post to keep our followers updated.“

One of the most satisfying things, according to the Colwells, is when customers walk through the door and say, “So glad to have you back,” or “We’ve missed you."

“We have a lot of regulars, but we also have a lot of new faces,” Alicia said.

Colwell said aside from planning, the construction was done in 11 months.

“I was here on the site every day, digging holes in the ground to putting walls up, Sheetrock, etc. Some days were actually pretty fun,” he said. “I took the month of August off to work on that, and got married in October … our family had a lot of stuff going on during that demolition process.”

“Along with the building, we added in sidewalks around the building, benches, and paving,” said Colwell- Ellis. "We had support from other businesses around us, and they helped us a lot in reaching the city and state requirements for the building. We think this project not only benefits us, but the city of Dover.”

“This seemed like the last little piece of downtown Dover that hadn’t been renovated and revitalized. The old building was built in 1902, and was like a shed,” added Doug Colwell.

Colwell-Ellis said she couldn’t be more proud of the new building, especially having Doug and his family restaurant be a part of the “legacy.”

Colwell said his biggest advocate is the Dover community.

“Without the loyalty of the community, we wouldn’t be here at all,” he said. “Their support and enthusiasm for our food allows our shop to continue to grow.”