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ORAL HISTORY

Chris Dupont

Café Dupont

Chris Dupont was born and raised in New Orleans. He found an interest in cooking early on, often preparing meals himself while his parents were working. After attending college at Birmingham Southern on a tennis scholarship, he returned to New Orleans to study under several world–renowned chefs. He made his way back to Alabama in the early 1990s. After working at several Birmingham area restaurants, he purchased a building in Springville and opened his own restaurant, Café Dupont, in 1994. Dupont formed relationships with local growers, and his restaurant in downtown Springville grew more and more successful. In 2003 he purchased a storefront on Twentieth Street North in the Central Business District and moved Café Dupont to Birmingham. He was so early to the food scene downtown, that diners made their way to his two–story historic building in the dark. Dupont had to convince city officials to turn on the streetlights on his block.