DISCOVER GARY’S DOWNEAST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT IN ARAPAHOE, NC
by Suzanne Gwaltney, SRES Realtor/Broker CENTURY 21 Sail/Loft Realty, Oriental, NC
Gary Hardison serves up the best local seafood in his restaurant located nearby the Minnesottt Beach Ferry. Gary’s is a great place to eat lunch or dinner and is convenient to the YMCA Camps, Seagull and Seafarer, and Camp Don Lee as well as the Minnesott Beach Golf and Country Club, Gary’s New England clam chowder is some of the finest chowder I have ever tasted and his local fresh shrimp are lightly breaded and perfectly fried or broiled. His other delicacies include downeast crab cakes, huge whiteflish, delicious soft shell crabs, friend green tomatoes, and key lime pie. For tuna lovers, Gary’s grilled tuna is mouth watering.
Gary opened his first restaurant “Granny’s”, located in a trailer in New Bern NC where he sold burgers, fried flounder and fried shrimp. Two years later he moved to Arapahoe and started Gary’s Downeast Restaurant in a setting next door to his childhood home. In 2005 he converted his dad’s old gas station next door into an oyster bar. The oyster bar is open from September through March. It is always a treat to eat fresh local seafood at Gary’s, prepared to perfection.