Locals Oyster Bar expands to Durham

Locals Oyster Bar will open its second location on Friday at the Durham Food Hall.

Posted 1:18 p.m. May 28, 2020 — Updated 1:18 p.m. May 28, 2020

Kathy Hanrahan, Out

and

About editor

DURHAM, N.C. — Locals Oyster Bar will open its second location on Friday at the Durham Food Hall.

The hall is located at 530 Foster St. in the Central Park district of downtown on the first floor of the Liberty Warehouse. It houses 10 mini-eateries and two bars in the 15,00 square-foot space. The venue also has private event spaces.

Since Durham Food Hall's dining areas aren't open to the public, people can place orders online for pickup at Locals Oyster Bar. On Saturday, the business will have a booth selling fresh seafood outside at the Durham Farmers Market.

Durham Food Hall vendors announce opening dates

Locals Oyster Bar already has one location at Transfer Co. Food Hall in downtown Raleigh. It is owned by the same people behind Locals Seafood, which offers North Carolina seafood at a variety of farmers markets in the area. When COVID-19 closed Locals' flagship location, owners pivoted to start offering at-home meal kits and seafood to-go.

"It hit us pretty hard, pretty quick, but we've been able to adapt and to really appeal to the at-home and to the retail market much more than we used to and grow the market sector of our business pretty significantly," Locals Oyster Bar chef Eric Montagne said.

The success of its retail and at-home sales has allowed them to rehire employees.

"We've hired back all of our employees at Locals Seafood," co-owner Lin Peterson said. "We feel very fortunate that the retail demand for fresh, local seafood is still there and stronger than ever."

Suggest A Correction