Mo's Restaurants are a restaurant chain located on the Oregon Coast and headquartered in Newport, Oregon. Mo's restaurants serve primarily seafood and have long been noted for their New England style clam chowder and their own locally raised oysters as well as for their casual and friendly atmosphere.^[1]

Named for their original owner, Mahave "Mo" Niemi ( once described as "the stuff of legend in Newport")^[2] , Mo's first opened on the Newport bay front in 1946 as "Freddie & Mo's"—a 24 hour restaurant that served the local loggers and fisherman such fare as spaghetti and steaks. Niemi's business partner Freddie Kent became ill a few years later and she bought out her partner's shares of the restaurant. In the following years Mo's served more and more seafood, the clam chowder recipe evolved over time as the cooks would vie with each other to produce a better version.^[3][4]

Over time Mo's would become a favorite, not just of locals, but of tourists and celebrities as well. Mo's second husband, retired fisherman Kaino "Dutch" Niemi along with friends often gathered at a table contributing to the cozy atmosphere of the restaurant.^[3] Great-granddaughter of Mo, Gabrielle McEntee-Wilson recalls in an interview "Granny Mo" saying (in regards to Mo's popularity) "The hippies discovered Mo's" during the 'sixties. According to McEntee-Wilson "It (Mo's) wasn't a concept—it grew on its own and changed over time."^[4]

Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and other cast members of the film Sometimes a Great Notion (based on a novel by Ken Kesey about a dysfunctional family of Oregon coast loggers) ate there during location filming. Mo is in one scene as an extra, her scene was filmed in Newport's Old Bay Inn, (renamed the The Snag in the film). Mo and her father once owned the Inn in the early 1940s.^[5][6]

Oregon Governor Tom McCall and Senator Mark Hatfield and other Oregon politicians have eaten there as well there as well. In 1973 Audrey McCall wife of the Governor arranged for the spouses of the Governors attendingthe Western Governors' Conference to have lunch at Mo's on the waterfront.^[7]

Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel also visited the restaurant while he was campaigning for the Democratic Party 1968 Oregon primary election.

The original Newport Mo's has a garage door front wall. One day a customer accidentally left her car in forward gear instead of reverse while leaving and crashed through the front wall. Mo consoled the woman, telling her they would install the garage door so she could "drive in anytime". On warm sunny days the door is opened transforming Mo's into a sidewalk cafe.^[2]

Over the years Niemi opened additional Mo's , one across the street from the original in Newport overlooking the bay (Mo's Annex) and Mo's West at Otter Rock. The original Mo's has also been remodeled and expanded several times, in addition to the restaurant the building now houses the clam chowder factory which provides the base for the restaurants which is also sold online and is distributed to grocery stores in several states. Over the course of a year, the factory will make over 500,000 pounds of fresh chowder.^[8] The factory will process one ton of bacon a week and one ton of potatoes per day.^[9]

The original restaurants and chowder factory are family owned and operate as Mo's Enterprises. In 1970 Mo partnered with another Newport business owner Tom Becker to purchase an oyster farm and formed a company that would become known as Newport Pacific Corporation. This company now operates additional Mo's in Florence, Lincoln City and Cannon Beach. Several of Niemi's surviving family serve on the board of directors of Newport Pacific.^[10]

In 1999 Mo's clam chowder was served at a Smithsonian Institution luncheon honoring "Best American Regional Foods".^[3]

In 2001, owner of Mo's Enterprises Cindy McEntee was named the Small Business Administration's Small Businessperson of the Year for Oregon and was the first runner-up (of four nationwide nominees)for SBA's National Business Person of the Year. She was lauded during the Oregon presentation "for continuing a tradition of great food and outstanding generosity to employees, customers and community. (McEntee) demonstrates that commitment to serving fellow human beings is the path to business success".^[11]

Rogue Ales, an Oregon craft brewery, also headquartered in Newport uses a portrait of Mo on one of its Ale label designs (Half-E-Weizen, originally named Mo Ale) and they include this dedication on each bottle: Brewed in honor of Mo & Dutch Niemi whose spirit indelibly shapes the vibrant daily life of the Newport waterfront and our entire community.^[12] Niemi was instrumental in bringing Rogue to Newport."^[13]

• McEntee, Cindy (2005). Mo's on the Waterfront-Tradition Turned Legend. Book Publisher's Network. ISBN 978-1887542197.

• Mo's Restaurants Homepage

Mo Niemi is remembered not only for running her restaurants as "family",^[1] but also for helping other businesses and the people of her community. Jack Joyce, CEO of local Newport craft brewery Rogue Ales, recalled in an interview that Niemi told him "If you're lucky enough not to go broke, feed the fishermen" and that whenever fishing was down she fed people for free at her restaurants. Niemi was instrumental in convincing Rogue to open a brewpub in her Newport building because she "always wanted to live above a tavern". Rent was kept low as long as one unusual condition was met: according to Joyce the lease was "fair". "All we had to do was hang that godawful picture of her in her French bathtub—naked.

[[Category:Companies based in Oregon]] [[Category:Restaurants in Oregon]] [[Category:Newport, Oregon]]