Manteo, NC, Restaurants

If you love authentic pit-cooked eastern North Carolina barbecue, this is your place. On Highway 64 close to the Dare County Government Complex, Carolina Bar-B-Que Company serves house-smoked barbecue sandwiches or plates with slaw, potato salad, house-cut fries and hushpuppies. Owner and chef Mike Weaver also offers smoked chicken, burgers, Nathan's hot dogs, fried shrimp, clam strips, flounder and Brunswick stew. Wash it down with lemonade or tea, and finish it all off with a Deep-Fried Twinkie.

Based at Hotel Manteo, Firetender Stone-Oven Cooking & Bar is one of Manteo's most popular restaurants and gathering spots. The setting is moody and cosmopolitan, with dark walls and sophisticated details, yet it's entirely comfortable and cozy, the perfect place for lingering at the bar, intimate dining and gathering with friends. The restaurant is centered around its custom-built stone oven, the source of its incredible stone-oven pizzas. Seating is available at the pizza bar, where you can watch the chefs prepare these specialty delights. The menu also includes chef-prepared small plates, entrees, hearth-fired Skillets (meals served in a cast-iron skillet), kids' offerings and desserts. Firetender has a full bar and is proud to be a taproom for Weeping Radish Brewery, which originated in Manteo and was the first microbrewery in North Carolina. Firetender is open six nights a week for dinner and also serves Sunday brunch with a specially curated menu. Seating is available indoors or outdoors. Free delivery and takeout are available. Above Firetender is a private event space called Embers Room, which can accommodate up to 60 people in an upscale setting.

For locally brewed beers and perfectly accompanying British pub-style cuisine, head to Lost Colony Tavern in downtown Manteo. The tavern offers a wide range of dishes for all tastes, ranging from British favorites like Welsh Rarebit, Fish & Chips, Scotch Eggs, Bangers & Mash and Cottage Pie to burgers, salads crab cakes and shrimp and grits. The Full Moon Crab Dip from this restaurant's predecessor is, blessedly, still on the menu. There's a kids' menu as well. They serve the award-winning beers of Lost Colony Brewery in Stumpy Point along with wine and cocktails. Take a seat at one of the umbrella-covered outdoor tables on a warm day or night or sit inside in the intimate restaurant with a similar view of the streetscape. The outside terrace is dog friendly. The tavern is open for lunch and dinner; call for hours. Dinner reservations are accepted. Live acoustic music and trivia nights are popular here.

A locals' favorite for fresh seafood, Outland Seafood is perfectly situated for picking up fresh, local seafood on your way to the Outer Banks from the west. Located in Manns Harbor, very close to the foot of Virginia Dare Bridge, stop here to pick up crabs, fish, shrimp and shellfish. Depending on the season (because this is fresh-caught seafood), you might find blue crabs, soft-shell crabs and crabmeat; brown, spotted or white (greentail) shrimp; N.C. and Virginia oysters and clams; and fish caught from the local commercial fleets, from yellowfin tuna and mahi mahi to tilefish and grouper to flounder and black sea bass and more. Outland also sells wild-caught Pacific Coast crabs like snow, king and Dungeness crab legs. They'll tell you how to cook your seafood if you need some tips, and they sell the seasonings, spices, breaders and other items that you'll need. Or you can have them steam up shrimp, clams, crabs, oysters or crab legs to take home with you. Stop again on your way out of town and they'll pack up your seafood on ice for taking home and stocking your freezer. They also sell coolers and fishing gear.

Stripers has a great waterfront location at Shallowbag Bay Marina, and they offer plenty of opportunities to enjoy the water views. You can eat on the screened-in deck, on the outdoor patio, in the first-floor bar or in the second-floor restaurant. The views get better the higher you go. Stripers menu includes fresh local seafood, steaks, sandwiches, burgers, salads, pastas and appetizers. The seafood is guaranteed fresh, as the owner has good connections with local fishermen. Some favorites on the menu include lobster bisque, oyster stew, crab dip, crab cakes, cheese-steak egg rolls and sliders. Small and large portion sizes are available. Stripers offers a happy hour with half-price steamed shrimp and crab legs every day from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., and they have a full liquor license and offer beer, wine and mixed drinks. It's open every day for lunch and dinner, with no break between the two. On Sundays they open at 11 a.m. for brunch. In the summer months they offer live music on the weekends. Take-out and catering are available. To find Stripers, turn off Highway 64 in Manteo behind McDonald's.