Owner Sam Kosik used to drive across the state once a week to pick up just-caught fish from the coast. Today, Mother Ocean supplies loyal customers with the freshest seafood every day.
640 Merrimon Avenue
(828) 231-5607
momavl.com
What started out as a small fish stand on the side of a mountain road is now a favorite market and restaurant in the west. Enjoy a classic shrimp po’ boy at a picnic table.
215 Beaver Creek School Road
(336) 977-1827
highcountryseafoodco.net
Piedmont-based seafood connoisseurs know that this market sells the freshest fish and shellfish they can get without catching it themselves.
Open Fridays at 2301 Sandy Ridge Road; visit theshrimpconnection.com for more hours and locations.
This landlocked crew drives to the coast three to four times a week to buy super-fresh seafood straight from the source. Be sure to pick up a peck of oysters.
1209 Farmers Market Drive
(919) 675-2722
localsseafood.com
At this market and café founded by Beaufort natives — who know a thing about seafood — just pick a fish, and the chef will cook it up for you right then and there.
108 North Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
(336) 748-0793
forsythseafood.com
Whether you’re eating in or taking home a steamer pot for a Low Country boil, the owners keep things as fresh as possible.
415 Atlantic Beach Causeway
(252) 247-2430
facebook.com/atlanticbeachseafood
This family-owned market and restaurant within sight of the Pasquotank River sells local fish and shellfish alongside a full menu of homestyle dinners.
309 East Ehringhaus Street
(252) 335-7648
qualityseafoodco.com
Since opening its doors in 1960, this distinctive market near the Neuse River has become a destination for a wide variety of seafood.
336 North Herritage Street
(252) 523-3474
facebook.com/reynoldsseafood
This Outer Banks retailer and restaurant offers a variety of options like fried lunch favorites on the porch and wild-caught fish for your dinner.
3711 South Croatan Highway
(252) 441-7412
austinseafoodco.com
This decades-old mainstay, located where the White Oak River splits, has sent many a snapper, flounder, pound of shrimp, and bushel of oysters out the door.
104 East Corbett Avenue
(910) 326-4468
facebook.com/clydephillipsseafoodmarket
Download a PDF of this checklist and others at ourstate.com/checklists.
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.
For the owner of The Country Biscuit, welcoming diners is the fulfillment of a decades-long dream. And diners’ dreams come true when they try the glazed biscuit doughnut holes.
Black bears are the embodiment of North Carolina’s adventurous spirit, immense and wild.
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.
