Photo by Anna Routh Barzin
Diners enjoy a meal at Saint James Seafood, which reopens Jan. 23, 2020 in Durham, N.C.
Nine months after it closed, Saint James Seafood will open its cobalt-blue doors on January 23 for business.
“I’m ready. We’re ready,” chef and owner Matt Kelly said in a press release. “My team and I cannot wait to shuck some oysters, steam some shrimp and fry some fish for our returning and new customers.”
On April 10, 2019, a natural gas explosion in Brightleaf Square damaged the restaurant and surrounding buildings. The blast also injured twenty-five people and killed Kong Lee, the owner of Kaffeinate coffee shop, and Jay Rambeaut, a PSNC employee.
“[The explosion] has definitely affected our team dramatically,” Kelly told the INDY in April. “But one of the biggest things people can do is when that area is normal is come out and support us, our neighbors, and the Brightleaf community.”
As a thank you to the community, Kelly will host more than one hundred first responders at the soft launch of the restaurant on January 21.
Earlier this month, Kelly offered a preview of the Saint James menu at his four other restaurants around the Triangle (Lucky’s Delicatessen, Vin Rouge, Mateo, and Mothers & Sons).
The new menu will offer the raw bar, Calabash-Style fried seafood, and legendary three-tiered seafood towers that the restaurant is known for, alongside New York strip steak, burgers, and other non-seafood options.
Customers can expect new dishes, too, including a Deviled Crab Spaghetti, steamed snow crab legs, salmon, and a steamed Maine lobster entree.
And customers soon won't have to wait until lunchtime to experience seafood nirvana: in the coming weeks, Kelly plans to roll out brunch hours.
Contact deputy arts and culture editor Sarah Edwards at sedwards@indyweek.com
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