D.G. MARTIN
Syndicated Columnist
How do you find a home cooking restaurant that is both near an interstate highway and on or near the water?
It is not easy.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about one of them, Holland’s Shelter Creek Restaurant near I-40 and adjoining a tributary of the Northeast Cape Fear River near Wilmington.
There are lots of other great restaurants along our Outer Banks, Crystal coasts, and other coastlines, but, except for I-40, none of the state’s interstates passes near our coastline.
This means that interstate travelers looking for a local eatery near the water are out of luck. Or does it? Our state is blessed with wonderful rivers and streams. Near them I have found a few restaurants that I plan to include in the new edition of my “Interstate Eateries” book scheduled to be published late next year.
If you are interested, read on and I will give you a preview.
Starting hundreds of miles from the coast in Asheville, I visited ‘12 Bones Smokehouse last week. Even if ‘12 Bones had not been made famous by President Obama’s visits there, it would be a “must-see” in Asheville. Co-owner Angela Koh King treated my group to a feast of its signature 12-boned ribs, delicious and addictive, smoked with cherry wood coals. Ribs are the dish President Obama orders from ‘12 Bones every time he is in Asheville. Although it is not visible from the restaurant, I found a wonderful view of the French Broad River just beyond the restaurant’s parking lot. It flows by powerfully, just a few feet away, headed to Tennessee, the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.
Even further away from the coast, west of Asheville near I-40, Clyde Sherrill’s Pioneer Restaurant is near the Pigeon River (named for the extinct passenger pigeons who used the river to guide their migration). It flows into Tennessee where it merges with the French Broad.
Not too far away, near Tryon, just off I-26, you can sit on the porch of the Caro-Mi Dining Room and listen to the rushing sounds of the North Pacolet River flowing by, on its way to South Carolina and the Broad and Santee rivers, and on to the Atlantic Ocean. There are different stories about the source of the Pacolet name. Some say it means “swift horse” in Cherokee. Others say it meant “swift messenger” in French.
Still in the mountains, near I-40 at Judge’s Riverside in Morganton, you can sit on porches that overlook the Catawba River as it runs by. After eating you can take a walk or bike ride on the Catawba River Greenway as it meanders along the river for about three miles, to and through historic Morganton.
Further south, off I-85 near Charlotte, just outside Belmont, is one of the few remaining old-time fish camps remaining in Piedmont North Carolina. Catfish Cove sits on the banks of the South Fork Catawba River.
At the Hillsborough BBQ Company near I-40 and I-85, you can buy a sandwich and cold drink, walk a block or two to the entrance to Hillsborough’s River Walk, and have a picnic on the banks of the Eno River.
In Lumberton, Candy-Sue’s restaurant is only one block from the old Town Commons park, where, as poet John Charles McNeill wrote, the river, “describing a gentle curve and overhung by cypress, gum and maple, shows at its best.”
Further north on I-95, in downtown Smithfield, The Diner, just across the street from the Ava Gardner Museum, is a short walk away from the entrance to Smithfield’s Neuse River Walk along land set aside in 1777 as the town’s “commons.”
Thus, even on the crowded interstates, far away from our coast, there are places near the water where we can eat with the locals.
If you have a favorite eatery close to the water, share it with me at nceateries@yahoo.com
D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Bookwatch,” which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.
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