Dining a la Pamlico

Gary's Oyster Bar
by Jennifer Allen

Gary ’s Oyster Bar has been a fixture in Arapahoe for 20 years and it is no surprise why. Using only fresh, local seafood — much of it coming from the Pamlico Sound — owner Gary Hardison and employees cook up tasty concoctions that have brought diners from all over eastern North Carolina to Pamlico County.

The restaurant is a quintessential southern seafood establishment with rich wood paneling, dark wood furniture and a few stuffed Marlins.  The bar has a strong hint of Key West attitude with bright white and teal walls, checked floor, and picnic tables with stainless steel tops to make clean up easy. 

Gary expressed how much fun it was for him to design the bar and it looks like it was, even down to the driftwood footrests lining the bar, under the shiny, red stools. 

He rented out that half of the building for years before deciding to dive in and make the bar of his dreams.  He has great pint and pitcher prices, $2 and $5 respectively, and some of the best oysters you can get in a restaurant or bar.

To get started, Gary brought us a cup of his homemade She Crab soup.  I have to admit, this may be the best She Crab soup I have ever eaten. Each spoonful was heaped with fresh crabmeat, and he doesn’t thicken his roux with anything but crab.   The soup was lightly seasoned with green onions, paprika and a few other secret ingredients and not overly creamy. It is worth the trip to Arapahoe for the soup alone.  I wasn’t expecting it to get better than that soup, but it did.

Next on the list was fried shrimp. The shrimp was lightly battered in cornmeal, and then fried in high-quality oil.  You can tell it is high quality because the shrimp actually taste like shrimp, not old grease, and there was minimal residual grease on the morsels.

After the fried shrimp, Gary brought us a plate of boiled shrimp. Something unique about Gary’s boiled shrimp is that he has moved beyond the standard Old Bay seasoning and uses a unique blend of spices with a bit of kick.  The shrimp were cooked to perfection; moist and juicy with the spice mix really bringing out the character of the shrimp.  Gary installed a hand washing station at the bar for his customers, which I used as soon as I was done peeling.

Then came the fried oysters. Lightly breaded and salty, I tried them without any of the standard sauces and, as I expected, they didn’t need any help.  The oysters were deep-fried, juicy and delicious.

Gary makes his own sauces in-house, including tartar, cocktail and his special red sauce for oysters (it sort of reminded me of a Bloody Mary) lent a great deal of spice to the freshly steamed oysters. 

He brought out the final piece of the pie — actually two pieces of pie — one key lime, the other chocolate.  I was beyond stuffed but I knew I had to take one for the team and try them both.  The key lime pie was delightful. He uses fresh key limes in the filling, which was just sweet enough to cut the tartness of the limes, and the graham cracker crust was moist and crumbly.

The chocolate pie was equally delightful and rich.  I have had a lot of chocolate pie, from greasy spoon mom and pop kinds to five star restaurants and they all come with certain expectations; runny and soggy in some instances, silky and decadent in others. I had an idea of what Gary ’s was going to taste like based on the other food we had there and I was right. The chocolate pie at Gary ’s was textured exactly as it should be, rich and smooth without being too terribly sweet.

Gary is a stickler for fresh and local seafood as much as possible in his restaurant and high quality is a top priority, which is evident in the flavorful dishes his restaurant serves.

Though the drive to Gary ’s Oyster Bar in Arapahoe may seem far, it is well worth it, and when you go, be sure to save room for the key lime pie.

Quick Bites

Gary’s Oyster Bar

Address: 7567 Highway 306, Arapahoe

Phone: (252) 249-0633

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday - Sunday; closed Mondays.

Price Range : Appetizers start at $3.95, entrees at $9.95

Payment: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express

  Reservations: No reservations unless large party

2/03/06

See the previously reviewed restaurants on the Restaurant Archive page

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