The Original Dooger’s restaurant was opened on February 18th 1983 in downtown Seaside Oregon by Mary and Doug Wiese. There were only 44 seats at the time. Doug otherwise known as Dooger did all the cooking while Mary did the prep work. In may of 1983 food critic Richard Nelson did a favorable write up of Dooger’s for the Oregonian. Business started to take off and the expansion began. In 1987 the Wiese’s expanded into the vacant lot next door. This resulted in nearly doubling the seating capacity to approximately 80 diners. In 1988 Dooger’s was one of the early establishments to go Non Smoking.
Dooger opened a second location in Cannon Beach in 1989. Located in Mid-town, the restaurant is accross the street from Hallmark resort, who previously operated under the name Surfview Too, and then Cade’s. Jeremy Toliver is the manager of their Cannon Beach Location.
In 1994, Dooger bought out Mother Mary’s half of the restaurant letting her retire at long last.
The Long Beach restaurant opened in 1995. Dooger sold the business to long time manager Barry Craft and his wife Barbara in 2005..
The Warrenton Dooger’s was opened in 2004 on the property of the Youngs Bay Plaza
and is Managed By Brad Campbell.
I believe the part of the business that gives us the most satisfaction is the fact that we currently employ a number of employees who have been here for over 20 years, and 10 year employees are almost to numerous to count.
Dooger and Mary Jean Wiese have two children, Carnegie (look for the Carnwich on the menu) and Elie (look for Spaghellie).
