THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9608290314
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Restaurant Review
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUCK LENGTH: 74 lines
Fishbones Raw Bar and Restaurant was hopping. Again.
Since opening last June in the trendy Scarborough Lane Shoppes in Duck, off N.C. 12, Fishbones has been drawing crowds as eclectic as the menu.
There is the wild: college revelers slurping oysters and microbrews at the bar. There is the innocent: quiet families (well, at least the parents are quiet) enjoying seafood baskets and iced tea. And there is the beautiful: tanned, athletic couples sampling tuna steaks and mineral water.
The mix somehow works, not withstanding the surprisingly small dining area. It was hard to imagine just where they put the live entertainment, a feature that has made Fishbones a hip nightspot for visitors wanting more than just a tranquil Outer Banks respite.
On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, a line had formed out front. The bar was crammed. Several TVs were tuned to sporting events. And reggae music swayed above the loud conversation.
The waitresses looked ready for a break.
For us, things did not start well. We were greeted by a hostess holding a cup of coleslaw that was spilling watery mayonnaise down her arm. With a puddle forming at her feet, she informed us there would be a 20- to 30-minute wait.
We noticed an inviting arrangement of new and empty picnic tables outside on the terrace. So we asked if we could eat outdoors instead. No, she snapped, as if she had answered that question too many times already. This restaurant doesn't serve food on the patio.
Instead of making her life more difficult with questions about what the picnic tables were for - if not dining - we decided to wait. A cold beer from the bar cooled us down. And we were soon seated.
The rest of our experience can be summed up in one phrase: excellent food, poor service.
We started with a combo appetizer from the raw bar, which included oysters on the half shell, steamed clams, crab legs and shrimp ($16.95). We gobbled the fresh seafood in seconds.
Then we tried the conch fritters, ($5.95) a Caribbean delight that sometimes can lose its zing anywhere outside of the Florida Keys or Bermuda. Not here. They were big, doughy and spicy. Just right.
The lunch menu is full of seafood baskets, each economically priced and generously loaded. We got the shrimp basket ($7.95). The shrimp was especially good - nicely seasoned and lightly battered but not greasy or heavy.
I played it safe and ordered a crabcake sandwich ($7.95). The menu said the crab was local, the sandwich ``the best.'' It was indeed tasty - and big. With an order of Cajun spiced french fries ($2.95) and washed down with an icy microbrew, ($3) I almost ran out of room for dessert.
But when we tracked down our waitress, whom we lost after our first request for silverware and napkins, we discovered that the key lime pie ($3.95) was homemade and a house special. So we ordered two.
The high-piled, tangy hunks of pie made it around the table just twice, disappearing under our forks as fast and as often as our waitress.
She was young, inexperienced, probably a college coed who had signed on for a summer job. Fishbones is a cool joint, after all, full of action and flair. Problem is, she forgot why she was there.
Aside from the distracted staff, however, Fishbones has plenty going for it. It has that rare quality of appealing to a wide audience by being different places to different people. It can be a sports bar, a family restaurant, a trendy hangout, a fine dining outing - all at the same time. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Drew C. Wilson
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FISHBONES RAW BAR AND RESTAURANT
Where: Duck, on Route 12, Scarborough Lane Shopp
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.- 3:30 p.m.; Dinner, 5-10 p.m.; Raw bar
open all day.
Other info: Live entertainment in evenings.
Phone: 919-261-6991
Credit Cards: VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American Express by CNB