At Simply Better Seafood, the focus is on fresh

• Tell us about your place: Jason Brockus, a combat disabled veteran, opened Simply Better Seafood in February in Raeford. Adam Tampe is the restaurant’s head chef and manager. “We wanted the restaurant to look like one of the fish houses off of Cape Hatteras,” Brockus said. The restaurant’s sea-loving decor includes boat props, photographs and fishing gear, enabling you to almost feel the gentle breezes blowing in from the coast.

Brockus has been harvesting, handling and preparing fresh seafood for most of his life, he said. “I’ve fished in waters all over the world,” he said. He began the business as a small specialty wholesale distributor for seafood restaurants in Southern Pines and Charleston, South Carolina, and then built his own restaurant so he could run it his way, he said. “The seafood comes from sustained fisheries that have never been chemically treated or altered in any way. It’s simply better,” he said.

• Specialties: Made-to-order, fresh seafood is the house specialty. “Ninety-nine percent of the seafood we carry is sourced directly from commercial fishermen operating between Wanchese and Wrightsville Beach,” Tampe said. “We catch many of the fish that we carry, so we control all of the seafood from the source to your plate.”

The fish market has a separate menu, but the cooks will happily prepare anything from the market. The fresh fish includes white perch, rainbow trout, flounder, snowy grouper, North Carolina catfish, Scottish salmon and more.

“Shrimp and conch fritters, fried to perfection, is one of our specialties,” Tampe said. The fritters are served with a traditional island sauce for $12. Other popular appetizers include the crab cakes, the black peppered-crusted seared tuna and the prosciutto wrapped shrimp.

• Most popular dish: The blackened fish tacos, the crab cake, the seafood etoufee, chicken Maryland and the Sorry Charlie seared tuna are the most popular items, Tampe said. “The fish tacos are the biggest seller.”

An order includes four flour tortillas filled with seasonal flaky fish, blackened, and topped with homemade cilantro lime slaw and aioli sauce with a side of fries for $15.

Desserts include key lime pie.

• Why should diners eat here? “We do seafood simply better,” Tampe said.

Alison Minard

Simply Better Seafood

• Address: 231 Flagstone Lane, Raeford (Stonegate Village; enter through Stonegate Village access, next to Lumbee River EMC)

• Contact: 910-479-3520; Simplybetterseafoodco.com; Facebook

• Hours: Monday through Friday, opens at 11 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, opens at noon, with flexible closing hours.

• Type of food: Seafood restaurant and market. The menu includes fresh shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, calamari, oysters and fresh caught fish, as well as steak, chicken, kielbasa and vegetable spaghetti. Also serves beer and mixed drinks.

• Price range: $9 to $26