The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau announces the winner for the inaugural Outer Banks Softshell Week: Basnight’s Lone Cedar Café who receiving 186 votes and took home the 2023 Outer Banks Softshell Week Best Dish Trophy.
“Thank you to all of our 19 restaurants for jumping on board with us to create an authentic cuisine event experience for locals and visitors, celebrating our native blue crabs and the foodie frenzy that surrounds their May molt,” says Executive Director Lee Nettles.
“Thank you for sharing this event with your customers and for setting high expectations for next year with the phenomenally delicious Softshell dishes we saw created for this event,” says Mark Ballogg, who represents the Dare County Restaurant Association on the Dare County Tourism Board.
Ballogg is the owner of Lucky 12 Tavern in Nags Head and came up with the idea for the event.
“The public had a chance to vote online from their mobile phones using a special QR code created for event,” explains Lee Nettles. We hope Basnight’s Lone Cedar will display the trophy proudly and be ready to defend the title next year in good fun.”
The Visitor’s Bureau thanks everyone for supporting our local Outer Banks restaurants and the commercial fishing industry that brings us all fresh caught seafood.
Feel free to send over any photos of the great Soft-Shell dishes you sampled during the week and the Visitor’s Bureau can add the photos to the event page on their website.
We look forward to seeing everyone in the spring of 2024 for the 2nd Annual Softshell Week.
And special thanks to Endurance Seafood and Sugar Creek Restaurant for letting the Visitor’s Bureau share their story on Instagram @TheOuterBanksNC.
