Popular Outer Banks seafood restaurant planning a second location in Brunswick County

For 25 years, SmacNally's Waterfront Bar & Grill has been serving fresh seafood and burgers in Ocracoke. Now, the owners are planning to expand the brand for the first time, and they’ll be doing so in Brunswick County.

Scott McNally announced that they’ll be taking over the recently closed LouLous Waterfront Restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway at 1045 B-Var Road S.W. in Supply.

“It’s time,” McNally said. “We’ve put a lot into this brand and it’s time to grow.”

McNally has decades of experience in restaurants, and together with partners Tom Burruss, Matt Bacheler and Persell Morgan, they have more than 120 years in hospitality. One caveat is they wanted to continue with the waterfront restaurant tradition that’s close to local seafood. It made the Holden Beach area ideal.

More: Three Wilmington-area restaurants make Yelp’s 2024 list of top seafood spots

“At SmacNally’s we work with fishermen, and we have a fish cleaning counter right at the end of our dock. They bring it right from there, to our restaurant. It’s usually just hours from the ocean.”

That dock-to-kitchen model is one they’d like to continue in Holden Beach. If that’s not possible, they still plan to work with local markets for the freshest seafood, he said.

LouLous restaurant opened in fall 2020 in what was formerly Betty’s Waterfront Restaurant. The space has indoor and outdoor dining, a bar area and slips for boat parking. McNally said they hope to open the SmacNally's in May.

“Or sooner, if possible,” he said.

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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: SmacNally's restaurant in Ocracoke planning to open in Holden Beach