Where locals go for seafood at Topsail

Hap Alexander tells a story about a pirate who came in from the sea, settled down and started making an honest living running a trading post and a pole barge ferrying customers back and forth between what would become mainland Pender County and Topsail Island, just offshore.

In the story, the spot where the reformed thief launched his skiff became known as Sears Landing – after the pirate himself – and Alexander kept the name when he tore down an old fish house on the site and built his first sit-down restaurant there.

If it’s a fish tale, it’s one of many thousands that Alexander must have been served up in the 14 years Sears Landing Grill & Boat Docks has stood near the mainland end of the swing bridge that carries N.C. 50 across the Intracoastal Waterway.

Dozens of restaurants compete for tourists’ attention when Topsail Island’s population swells during the summer season, but locals often slip back across the bridge to Sears Landing when they crave seafood for lunch or supper or a plate of French toast for breakfast.

“If I have visitors come from out of town, this is where I bring them,” said Alicia Breyare, especially if her guests are looking for more than the standard fried shrimp and flounder. Sears Landing is one of few places locally to offer soft-shelled crabs, a leggy delicacy more common in warmer places than southeastern North Carolina. Sashimi-grade tuna, served rare, is also on the menu. Hush puppies are not.

“My wife and I traveled a lot, and we would try things at other restaurants, and if we found something we really liked, we’d figure out what was in it and come back and make our version of it,” Alexander said. “We’d just keep messing with it until it tasted good.”

Alexander’s travels and his taste buds often took him to the Caribbean and the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the menu at Sears Landing reflects the flavors he found there. A subtle coconut milk crab soup he invented is a popular appetizer, along with the West Indies Seafood Rolls, a plate of five deep-fried twirls of fish, shrimp, crab, cream cheese, chopped bell pepper and spices.

Other specialties include crab cakes and grilled scallops. Plates come with a square of cornbread and a choice of sides, which might be collards, cheese grits, fried plantains or grilled asparagus.

Every table gets a tray of the restaurant’s four signature sauces: house-made tartar and cocktail, plus the sweet-tangy Bimini or the sharper Island sauce.

When Alexander launched Sears Landing, it was a departure from his two earlier, walk-up eateries, Hap’s Grill in Salisbury and The Beach Shop Grill in Topsail Beach. He later sold each to former employees, and Hap’s, essentially unchanged 30 years later, remains a hot dog institution in Alexander’s hometown.

For Sears Landing, Alexander wanted a dining room where customers could relax, enjoy a beverage from the full bar and savor the scenery along with the food. An open kitchen gave Alexander the opportunity to greet customers as they came in, and a wall of windows in the main dining room gives every table a view of the water.

Diners also can sit outside on an upper porch or a lower deck. Dog-friendly picnic tables are available. A dozen rocking chairs overlooking the waterway ease the disappointment of having to wait up for a table on a busy Saturday night.

Many restaurant patrons come to the place the way a pirate might have traveled: by water. Docks behind Sears Landing give boaters a place to tie up with water and electrical hookups for overnight stays, and guests can shower in the restaurant bathrooms. With construction underway on a new, high-rise bridge that will replace the swing span, it will only get easier for boaters to stop in. Their arrivals and departures give diners already seated at the restaurant a little extra nautical flavor.

A little over a year ago, Alexander sold Sears Landing to longtime employee Callie Paul so he could retire to Virginia, where he now raises sheep and serves as an adviser to the new owner.

Paul said she has no plans to make major changes.

“It works,” she said. “Why mess with it?”

Paul credits Alexander with creating a workplace where the people who bus the tables and wash the dishes are valued as much as the most experienced wait staff and those who sign the checks. Many of the staff have worked at the place for years.

“It’s never felt like work,” Paul said. “It’s just a fun place, where the people are really nice, and everybody helps everybody else out.”

The first page of the menu welcomes customers and brags not on the food, but on the staff, as being the best around.

“If your employees are happy, your customers will be happy,” Alexander said.

To make sure families are happy, the restaurant offers children’s plates of fried shrimp, chicken tenders and grilled cheese sandwiches.

The restaurant is open every day, from “8 a.m. until.” The long hours allow Topsail visitors some flexibility, which they’ll need if they’re trying to fit in a lot of the activities available on the island.

Besides the beach, local attractions include the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center (www.seaturtlehospital.org); the Surf City Pier; Soundside Park in Surf City; Missiles and More Museum in Topsail Beach; Topsail Skating Rink; and water activities such as boat tours, kayaking, canoeing, jet-skiing and paddle-boarding. On Thursdays in June, July and August, there is a craft sale at 802 S. Anderson Blvd. in downtown Topsail Beach (topsailcrafts.weebly.com).

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Where locals go for seafood at Topsail."