A longtime Durham burger joint is being revived as a NC seafood shack
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- Jean’s By The Sea will open early 2026 in the former Wimpy’s Grill on Hillsborough Street.
- The 800 sq ft footprint will include a 350 sq ft dining room and about 30 indoor seats.
- Menu will focus on NC oysters, Calabash fry baskets, sandwiches, draft beers and drinks.
When you slurp an oyster out of its shell or taste a delicately fried shrimp, the vast and endless sea doesn’t really feel all that far away.
So even Hillsborough Road in Durham will soon seem dockside, as an old school burger joint is transformed into the city’s newest seafood shack.
Jean’s By The Sea is opening early next year in the former Wimpy’s Grill space in Durham, offering indoor seating for the first time in decades.
Owned by Kate Elia, Jean’s is inspired by North Carolina’s great coastal seafood tradition, of beachside shacks and fried shrimp and fish served with a seabreeze.
“Some of my favorite places are the seafood shacks we have in North Carolina,” Elia said. “There’s a really strong fondness with El’s and Big Oak drive-ins. I thought we could offer that very familiar food, the fried fish baskets and sandwiches, plus ceviche tostadas and raw oysters that go a little beyond the shack.”
A new shack
With an opening slated for early 2026, Jean’s will be a casual counter-service restaurant with about 30 seats inside, a mix of booths and stools, and room for another 100 on an expansive outdoor patio filled with picnic tables.
Wimpy’s Grill closed in 2019 after 32 years in business, serving up popular biscuits and burgers and attracting TV attention from the likes of “Man v. Food.” Wimpy’s was followed by similar concepts Blake’s Grill and Durham Filling Station, but Jean’s will finally take the cozy A-frame building in a new direction.
“I was looking for a place that could provide a more community environment, not a restaurant in a strip mall or parking lot,” Elia said. “Finding this building was the perfect combination of a sprawling outdoor area in a neighborhood. And it’s in a building that has this great tradition, that brings an X factor.”
In building Jean’s, Elia and her family cleared out overgrown wisteria and poison ivy and largely gutted the kitchen, expanding the building from 650 to 800 square feet, with a 350-square-foot dining room.
Decades in food
Jean’s By The Sea will be the first restaurant of her own, but Elia has spent her career in many corners of food and wine, working summer harvest in California wine country, learning winemaking, importing bottles, being a cheesemonger in New York, even wine journalism.
“The through-line for 20 plus years has been food and wine,” Elia said.
Jean’s is named after Elia’s mom who was herself named after her aunt.
“We really loved it as a name, it felt really comforting,” Elia said.
What’s on the menu
Jean’s will be open for lunch and dinner, serving North Carolina oysters and classics like peel-and-eat shrimp. While the heart of Jean’s may be oysters, the soul will be sandwiches and Calabash-style fry baskets. Jean’s also plans a riff on the Filet-O-Fish with hoop cheese.
Given the giant patio, Jean’s aims to be family friendly and the kid’s menu will hold some fun surprises, Elia said. There aren’t specifics yet, but there could even be a kid-friendly snack tower--maybe.
On the drinks side, look for simple, crispy beers, including two on draft, small family-grown wines and a cocktail menu heavy on tequila and mezcal.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 4:09 PM.
