Perfectly golden sweet potato biscuits, a fixture on the menu since original owner Gail Umphlett opened the restaurant in 1984, have become famous in this corner of northeastern North Carolina.
These are doughnuts as they were intended to be made and eaten. They’re fresh off the fryer, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and most notably: glazed and topped to order.
A fried croissant fresh from the kitchen at Burney’s Sweets & More practically glows under a halo of glaze — like a doughnut, but a little bit more everything. Crispier on the outside. Softer on the inside. And a more perfect vehicle for all kinds of fillings: cream cheese, chocolate, lemon, blueberry.
The spot with some of the best cheese biscuits on the Outer Banks has an identity problem. Its official name is Stop Quik. Some call it Miss Helen’s. To most people, it’s Biscuits N’ Porn.
Dip. Dunk. Drizzle. Over and onto fried chicken, hamburgers, and, of course, pancakes, waffles, and anything with a bready texture, the better to absorb the sugary, buttery, palomino-pony-colored “craft syrup” that is Baker’s Kitchen’s signature condiment.
The cheese biscuit, a restaurant original based on the owner’s mother’s recipe, was added in 1979 and is made with a two- to three-ounce piece of hoop cheese that’s shredded, formed into a ball, and wrapped in biscuit dough. Split the biscuit open with a fork, and the plate fills with a puddle of melted cheese.
Ah, yes, their famous biscuit. That would be one of the enormous biscuits that put, and keeps, Flo’s on the map of great Tar Heel breakfast joints. Flo’s serves cathead biscuits, so named because they are the size of a cat’s head. Given that Flo’s biscuits are the size of an outstretched hand, that’s one mighty big cat.
To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
