5 things to know about Ocean Bay Seafood in Kinston
1. Ocean Bay Seafood opened after COVID-19 hit as a food-to-go restaurant.
Jack Zhang shut down his family-owned Jacksonville seafood restaurant in the midst of COVID-19 last year and started a lucrative carryout business.
His family’s carryout-business model showed success, and the idea to open an Ocean Bay Seafood Restaurant in Kinston, serving mainly as a food-to-go hub with Styrofoam plates and plastic forks and knives, began.
“It was a fancy restaurant. That’s what we started in Onslow County,” Zhang said. “When COVID came, we shut down the dining and did carryout only. We were not even open, and we had a lot of customers.”
By Free Press staff
Editor’s note: This story is No. 7 in a series looking at the top 10 stories of 2020 for The Free Press, counting down from 10 to 1 from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1.
The Boiler Room Oyster Bar has permanently closed in Kinston, but its sister restaurant and neighboring Chef & the Farmer will become “stronger” than ever in one building.
Vivian Howard, owner of the Chef & the Farmer fine-dining restaurant and the Boiler Room, recently made the decision to close the popular oyster bar amid the COVID-19 crisis and to combine both restaurants inside the Chef & the Farmer.
“I ultimately made the decision to close the Boiler Room because we have struggled to run two juggernaut restaurants in a small town forever,” Howard said. “It’s so much more flexible with the Chef & the Farmer with the dining room, kitchen, event space, and wine shop. We will not open the Chef as it was before. We have decided to combine the efforts and the Boiler Room’s menu to make it