Angela Garris has only been serving up her Calabash-style seafood for a few months, but she’s developed a strong following for her shrimp and grits and crab cakes, among other menu items.

“I’d worked on getting my catering trailer for a few years, but I finally started that and this space became available,” said Garris, owner of Salty Shores Seafood.

“You’ve been talking about this a long time,” said chef John Hankins.

The duo met while working for Captain Stanley’s Seafood, both working their way up through the food chain before branching out on their own. Garris moved back to Wilson about five years ago and saved to open her food truck.

“I had certain locations I’d set up,” she said. “I often went to the Twice the Ice by U.S. 264 and the Pelican’s (Snoballs) on N.C. 58, plus I was in Bailey every Friday night. I’m actually getting some of my Bailey customers in here.”

Meanwhile, COVID ground business at Hankins’ two ventures — a trucking company and a seafood catering business — to a halt, so he jumped at the opportunity to help Garris.

“I’ve known seafood all my life,” Hankins said. “Calabash is a very small town, but people go there from all over to eat seafood. I am from Bolivia, which is about 10 minutes away, so I know all about the Calabash style.”

The lightly breaded seafood is fried and served crispy. Garris said her menu has filled a void in Wilson, noting the community has “nothing like this.”

“Like the fire marshal said, ‘If you’ve got good food, it doesn’t matter where you are because customers will come,’” Garris said. “Because of COVID, it is mostly takeout, but I would like to hire more staff when it picks up and offer sit-down service.”

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays at 1120 Tilghman Road on the end of the American Gas station building. Follow @SaltyShoresSeafood on Facebook to see a full menu and find out about daily specials.

EXTRA! EXTRA!

KFC is North Carolinians’ favorite chicken restaurant, according to a recent TOP Data Study. The company says it found KFC ranked highest in 14 states following analysis of nationwide visits to chicken restaurants, but Zaxby’s, Popeyes and Chick-fil-A were the next choices for residents in the Tar Heel state.

“While visits to fast food restaurants are down by 23%, fried chicken has only seen a 6% reduction, outperforming burger and taco chains, which have experienced a downturn of 15%, and pizza chains are down 21%,” according to a press release.

Construction is nearing completion of Wilson’s new Popeyes restaurant. Crews are transforming a shuttered mattress store in front of Big Lots on Raleigh Road Parkway into the popular Cajun chicken eatery. Company officials have not returned requests for information about hiring or an opening date.

Got an idea for news to include in next week’s Main Street Minute? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at 252-265-7821 or bhandgraaf@wilsontimes.com.