Within Herring Range

Flash fried so crisp you can eat the tail

This Thursday, January 18th, is opening day at Cypress Grill in Jamesville, North Carolina. I drove by last week to have a look. Sometimes the family will post a simple sign to announce the start of the season, but on this day the steep drive down to the restaurant on the banks of the Roanoke River was still covered in several inches of packed snow. The river was pristine and quiet, The cypress trees on the far bank were aglow in the late morning light. 

Dusty Davis, the grandson of Leslie and Sally Gardner, who not so long ago passed the restaurant along to their daughter, Kathy Gardner Davis, had just arrived in his big truck. He fished a shovel out of the truckbed and set his teenage son to work on clearing that last steep descent to the riverside.  

“Mama is already down here,” Dusty said to me as we picked our way down the treacherous hill. He also explained that the water main that runs from town  to the restaurant had frozen up in places, and there would be some serious work ahead to get ready for the herring season.  “But we’ll open on the 18th,” he promised.

Cypress Grill on the Roanoke River

Some food pilgrimages—and this is an annual one for me–are more about history and culture than fine dining. The Cypress Grill is the last “cook-up shack” on the Roanoke, where several generations ago, fisherman would arrive with gill nets and swoop up buckets of the herring that were migrating upstream to spawn. They’d bring some lard and dry wood for a fire and cook them as fast as they could catch them, feasting on the bank. Now, with overfishing, water pollution, and regulations to protect the fish that are left, the herring served at Cypress Grill must be shipped in from South Carolina. Nevertheless, the appetite for these hand-sized, somewhat oily and bony fish and their delicate roe endures. It is a deep food memory for many hundreds of people—mostly elderly–who will make one or more pilgrimages to eat here before the whole enterprise shuts down again in April. This is an edible Martin County memory that the Gardner family perpetuates for neighbors and friends across the region.

Leslie Gardner, now in his 80s, built the machine that scales some 500 herring a day from January to April. His wife, Sally Gardner, made the fantastic pies—chocolate, lemon, pecan, and coconut. Sadly, Miss Sally passed away in late July of 2017, at age 76. She had managed the restaurant alongside her husband for 37 years. Now her daughter, Kathy, will be there in a few days without her Mama.

Herring flash fried until the bones are crisp and edible—the cooking technique called “cremation” at the Cypress Grill—is not to everyone’s taste, but it must be tried along with the stewed potatoes, slaw, sweet tea. and hushpuppies.  The family also offers the herring “sunny side up,” which is, as you might expect, not as well done as cremated. There’s also trout, shrimp, oysters, rockfish (local bass), perch, clam strips, catfish, and salted herring filleted. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you can order rock stew (a muddle of rockfish, onions, and potatoes and a signature dish of the region) or deviled crab. You get two vegetables with a plate of fish. Stewed potatoes, potato cakes, French fries, slaw, or apple sauce are the choices.

Cremated herring has been scored with a knife for deep, quick cooking. And yes, you can eat the tail bones and fins.

The restaurant has been featured in Smithsonian, the New York Times, and Southern Living, but publicity hasn’t changed a thing.The rough hewn wood paneling, the slat back chairs, the washed-out photos hung around the walls, the waxy booths, the checkered oilcloth on the tables: it’s like walking back in time. And did I mention the pie safe? Oh the pie safe is always there for the big finish in Lemon, Chocolate, Pecan or Coconut. 

Cypress Grill draws people from across the state by word of mouth and the pure pull of history. Everyone has a fishing or a fish eating story. Waiting in line to get in is a great time to hear these stories. Meanwhile the river glides by, and you wonder how many herring might still be swimming below that inscrutable surface. 

Pianist Alison Weiner from Saxapahaw, torch singer Randa McNamara of Durham, and I wrote a song in tribute to Cypress Grill. Here’s a link to the song, CYPRESS GRILL.

UPDATE: Since this post was written, the original Cypress Grill burned to the ground. The family reopened in Williamston, NC, at 819 East Boulevard and is open all year from 11 am to 8 pm.