The Moultrie Fire Department reported to a fire at Dalton’s restaurant at 10:45 p.m. Monday night. 

MOULTRIE, Ga. – After a June 7 fire damaged the Rowland Drive location of Dalton’s restaurant, the owners are working to open a location in downtown Moultrie to continue serving customers.

Kelly and Amy Dalton, owners of Dalton’s and Dalton’s Express, shared their plans on the restaurant’s Facebook page on Thursday, June 23.

The new location will be called, “Dalton’s Downtown” and will be located at bottom of the old Colquitt Hotel.

“We signed a lease with Mr. Hal Carter, to rent the restaurant and the Colquitt Hotel,” Kelly Dalton said in an interview Friday. 

Dalton explained that his grandparents had a restaurant at the Colquitt Hotel from 1967 to 1972 called The Plantation House. 

“They leased the whole building and ran the hotel,” he said. “Then they had the restaurant, and they did southern cooking and buffet-style there.”

He said they plan to set up the new location very similar how Dalton’s on Rowland Drive was arranged.

Once the Rowland location is back up and running, the atmosphere may change at Dalton’s Downtown, Amy Dalton added. 

“The plan is once the location at Rowland Drive opens, this one will change to waiter-waitress serving style,” Kelly Dalton said. 

He said some of the menu items might change as well, but those changes won’t happen until potentially next year. 

Since there is no drive-thru at the new location, Dalton’s Downtown will be offering a curbside pickup option along with call-in orders. There will be a cash register and employees strictly dedicated to the new service. 

“We’re going to try to make it as convenient and efficient as possible,” Kelly Dalton said. 

The new building will be located at 1 N. Main St. in Moultrie. There will be three entrances to the building including the Main Street doors, the lobby and the back door of the hotel. There are also 75 parking spots in the back of the building.

Amy Dalton said that the City of Moultrie is considering adding additional lighting to the back area parking lot so that once there are more customers the lighting will be better. 

As far as the Rowland Drive location, the isolated fire caused smoke, heat, and water to damage the entire building. 

“The whole building from front to back has to be gutted,” Kelly Dalton said. “They will determine once they get in if the structure is sound. If the structure’s sound, the outside will stay the same and all the work could be done on the inside.”

Their options are to be determined. 

“They may say the brick and frame is not up to code, so we don’t know yet what will happen,” Amy Dalton said. 

They said they had video footage of the outlet spark that caused the fire. 

“Not 10 minutes after the employees were on the video camera,” Amy Dalton said. “You can see it throwing sparks out. It got it all”

Dalton’s Downton is expected to open between Aug. 1 and mid-August. 

Until then, the couple will be doing cosmetic updates inside of the building. 

“We are changing the awnings on the front of the building, and then our signage will go up,” Kelly Dalton said. “Other than that, it’s basically all cosmetics.” 

Amy Dalton said, “We just want to thank the community, one for the support they’ve been given us at the Express location, and we’ll look forward to seeing them, once we get this one open and going.”

The restaurant’s other location — Dalton Express,1885 Tallokas Road — is still open and running.