Steamed Blue Crabs in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach Area (Ocean Isle Beach: home, to live in)

[mbogneba]

I live in Wisconsin and I miss steamed blue crabs so much. Coming to wrightsville beach mid July with the family and would love to get some. Is there any place that you would recommend? I would not mind driving 45 minutes for it.

Thanks

[le roi]

I know it sounds weird, but I don't know of one restaurant in the area that serves blue crabs. They're abundant in Myrtle Beach, though. A place called Murrells Inlet is probably ground zero for blue crabs. Surely there's somewhere closer than Murrells Inlet, though, it's at least an hour from Wilmington.

[gonetocarolina]

Originally Posted by rubber_factory

I know it sounds weird, but I don't know of one restaurant in the area that serves blue crabs. They're abundant in Myrtle Beach, though. A place called Murrells Inlet is probably ground zero for blue crabs. Surely there's somewhere closer than Murrells Inlet, though, it's at least an hour from Wilmington.

Little River, SC - right at the NC/SC state line, is the home of the "Blue Crab Festival" each year. I'm assuming that the restaurants there would carry blue crab year round, as Murrells Inlet does. Little River is quite a bit closer to Wilmington than Murrell's Inlet, or even Myrtle Beach itself.

One could probably make it from the Cape Fear bridge to Little River in 45 minutes ( on a good traffic day) - or very close to it. However, probably no way near that coming from Wrightsville Beach, and having to go clear through Wilmington to get there first. I would say an hour would be the very fastest you could make it from Wrightsville Beach - again on a good traffic day.

Btw, I used to live in Ocean Isle Beach ( about 10-15 minutes from SC line) - and in the summer it usually took me a good 45 minutes to an hour to get from there to the south end of Myrtle Beach. I think ( not sure ) that Murrell's Inlet is a little south of Myrtle Beach. One time in Memorial Day weekend traffic, it took 2 hours! Of course, this was before they opened the bypass at Myrtle Beach.

Here is a link to a list of restaurants that took part in the blue crab festival this year - with their phone numbers.

Little River Plans for Bikers and Crabs - Myrtle Beach Restaurant News - Myrtle Beach Restaurant News - Myrtle Beach Compass (http://www.myrtlebeachcompass.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=319 - broken link)

[mbogneba]

Thanks so much for replying, and for the suggestions.
Looks like we will be driving down to one of these places for yummy crabs.

[shotmm]

a place in lumina station before the bridge to wrightsville beach serves them when they can get them, usually according to rain, its called stone crab oyster bar, 256-5464

[Quick Enough]

Sorry for the bad news but, I am from Maryland, home of steamed crabs. I now live in calabash, NC. A stones through from Little River. I cannot find any place that has steamed crabs. I have heard of the place in Murrell's Inlet but have'nt been there yet.

We bought some live crabs and steamed them ourselves. They do not taste anything like Md crabs. The water they come from has a lot to do with taste. I even tried Phillips which is famous in MD for crabs. They tasted terrible.

We got the once in Topsail beach, just north of Wilmington, no good.

Good luck to you. If you find a place, please let us know.

The Little River Crab fest was a joke.

[nclandman]

Funny how MD buys a significant percentage of their crabs from NC!! Yup, MD is NC's largest consumer of BLue Crabs

[Quick Enough]

I now MD buys a lot of crabs from NC, and have no problem with that. Taste is always determined by the water. The crabs harvested here come from very brakish water. Crabs harvested up in the Pamlico Sound area are harvested from water that is not brakish. I have an uncle who lives way up on Bell Island. The crabs there taste very good.