Saltbox Seafood Joint

Seafood Restaurant, Restaurant, Southern Restaurant in Durham, NC

Address

2637 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd, Durham, NC 27707, Durham, NC, 27707

Phone

(919) 237-3499

Website

saltboxseafoodjoint.com

About Saltbox Seafood Joint

Seasonal North Carolina seafood, cooked fresh and kept simple — "Good Fish, That’s the Hook."® There is no fixed menu: what is available depends on what North Carolina fisherfolk have landed, so the board is handwritten on a chalkboard and changes daily. Across the year that means blue crab, grouper, striped bass, oysters and yellowfin in spring; black sea bass, Spanish mackerel, shrimp and triggerfish in summer; croaker, southern flounder, mullet and spot in autumn; flounder and bluefin in winter. The format is plates or rolls — your fish or shellfish either fried or spiced griddled, with "S.S.J." slaw, crispy seasoned potatoes with peppers and onions, and a lemon wedge; the roll comes soft, buttered and toasted. The signature side is Hush-Honeys®, fried cornmeal fritters glazed with honey, salt and pepper. Drinks are Ricky’s Good Tea sweet or unsweet, Lemon Crush Punch, or "The Goodie" — half of each — plus local and domestic beer and cider. Dessert is Ms Norma’s Lemon Pie. Indoor and outdoor dining, and the fully equipped food truck goes out for rehearsal dinners, reunions, company parties and anniversaries. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 8pm.

Ricky Moore opened Saltbox Seafood Joint in October 2012 in a converted hot dog stand on North Mangum Street in Durham’s Old Five Points — 205 square feet, drawing on classic American fish camps and waterside seafood shacks, and on the hawker stalls of Singapore. A former Army cook with decades of fine dining behind him, he built the place on a single idea: that ordinary, simple food can be extraordinary if it is executed at the highest level. A food truck followed in 2014, and in 2017 he opened a 2,200-square-foot restaurant on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard; the original stand closed on 22 August 2021 when its ten-year lease ran out. The recognition came steadily: Best New Restaurant from The News & Observer in 2012, a Saveur feature in 2013, Southern Living’s Best Cheap Eats under $10 in 2014, one of Eater’s South’s 38 Essential Restaurants in 2017, Best Seafood Restaurant in the Triangle from Indy Week readers four years running from 2019 to 2022, and $25,000 from Discover’s Eat It Forward campaign for Black-owned businesses in 2020. In 2022 he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast and was named The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Year; in 2025 he was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef nationally. He wrote the Saltbox Seafood Joint Cookbook for UNC Press, now in its second edition, and the restaurant marks Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Thanksgiving and Veterans Day with dishes of their own.

Services

• Indoor and outdoor dining
• Daily-changing menu, handwritten on a chalkboard
• Catering — rehearsal dinners, family reunions, company parties and anniversaries
• Fully equipped food truck for events
• Digital and in-person gift cards
• Saltbox Seafood Joint Cookbook, second edition — signed copies available to pre-order

Photos