Dining in Buxton, NC: Three Real Histories Behind the Names

Three Businesses With Documented, Decades-Long Histories

Conner's Supermarket, at 47468 NC-12, traces to 1959, when the Conner family opened the Pea Island Campground Store at Oregon Inlet -- a different location entirely, well north of Buxton. That store burned in October 1960; the family relocated to Buxton and built its first Buxton structure in the mid-1960s, originally called Conner's I.N.S. ("Independent Neighborhood Store"). The business is now run by a documented third generation: founders John Sr. and Bernice Conner were succeeded by their son John Jr. and his wife Rauna in 1981, and the current generation -- daughters Angela (joined 1994) and Rebecca (joined 2002), Rebecca's husband Travis Salyers (2007), and John III (2020) -- runs it today. The storefront's camellia bushes, planted by Bernice Conner, are still a recognizable landmark (per the store's own "Our Story" page and a 2020 Coastland Times retrospective). This is the kind of multi-generational-family-business history that a bare name list can't convey, and it's a meaningfully different data point for anyone evaluating Buxton as a place to live rather than visit for a week: a 65-plus-year-old family grocery business is a signal about year-round community continuity that a rotating cast of seasonal restaurants isn't.

Orange Blossom Bakery & Cafe, at 47206 NC-12, occupies a building that was originally a six-unit 1950s motel before Allan and Doris Oakham converted it into a bakery in 1979 (per Our State magazine). The bakery's signature "Apple Uglies" -- a deep-fried, cinnamon-glazed apple fritter -- has a documented origin: a visitor gave Doris Oakham a recipe for doughnut dough studded with apples and cinnamon and dropped into a fryer, and the pastry's twisted, irregular shape earned it the "Ugly" name. Owner Charley Pereira, quoted in the same Our State piece, describes the appeal directly: "The uglier and more twisted it is, the more cracks and crevices it has to soak up the glaze." Our State also documents a real local ritual around it -- separate "Ugly lines" formed by customers, with the pastry known to sell out before closing. This is one specific, sourced fact this research turned up that goes well beyond simply naming the bakery.

Diamond Shoals Restaurant & Sushi Bar, at 46843 NC-12, was, as of a 2023 Outer Banks This Week feature, celebrating 30 years in business -- placing its founding at roughly 1993. It's owned by Keith and Angela Gray; Keith is a Hatteras Island native who commercial-fished before an Air Force enlistment, and the article traces a family connection to Pharoah Farrow, an ancestor who worked as a lightkeeper near Diamond Shoals -- the shifting sandbar the restaurant is named for. The restaurant added an on-site seafood market roughly 15 years before the 2023 article (so roughly 2008) and a sushi bar staffed by a chef trained at the Sushi Chef Institute in California; its dinner kitchen has reportedly won the Hatteras Island chowder cook-off multiple times. None of this level of ownership, family, and timeline detail is in the hub page's bare list, and it's the kind of specific, named provenance this site's honesty standard requires before treating a business as more than just a name on a map.

The Rest of Buxton's Named Restaurants, With Real Specifics

Pop's Raw Bar & Grill, at 48967 NC-12, was established in 1996 and operates seasonally -- spring through the weekend after Thanksgiving, per its own site -- serving oysters, steamed shrimp, crab legs, crawfish, and scallops alongside fish sandwiches and BBQ plates. Rusty's Surf & Turf, at an address its own site lists as 47355 NC-12 (its own site gives the ZIP as 27940, while other directories list 27920 for the same Buxton address -- a small sourcing discrepancy worth naming rather than silently picking one), is owned by chef Rusty Midgett, whose menu pairs Outer Banks seafood and all-natural meats with flavors drawn from his own surf-travel background; it holds a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame designation and OpenTable's 2025 Diners' Choice award. Cockeyed Clam, at 47048 NC-12, serves dinner only, 4-8 p.m. nightly, with a menu built around Hatteras oysters, ahi tuna, jumbo lump crabcakes, and char-grilled mahi -- this research did not turn up an ownership or founding-date record for it. Buxton Munch Co., in the Osprey Shopping Center on NC-12, appears to date to around 1999 (a 2015 Breakfast With Nick feature described it as then 16 years old) and is known locally for seafood-forward tacos and its "crabby patty" sandwich; one aggregator (Wanderlog) mislabels its location as Avon rather than Buxton, an inconsistency this research is flagging rather than resolving, since every other source -- including AAA's own listing -- places it in Buxton. Fatty's Eatery, at 46618 NC-12, stays open year-round (unusual on a stretch of NC-12 where several places close for the off-season) and is known for chicken and waffles and a build-your-own "Batter Bar," per a Roadfood.com review -- no ownership or founding-date record turned up for this one either.

Buxton's Seafood Markets, Not Just Its Restaurants

Two named seafood markets serve Buxton's cook-at-home side, and they are not the same operation despite both selling fresh local catch. Diamond Shoals Seafood Market is the on-site market attached to Diamond Shoals Restaurant (a separate phone line, (252) 995-5521, from the restaurant itself), sourcing directly from local fishermen and selling both raw and prepared (steamed, broiled, fried) seafood -- per the Outer Banks This Week feature, Keith Gray personally fillets fish including red drum, sheepshead, tilefish, and grouper there. Buxton Seafood is a separate, standalone market (phone (252) 995-5085; address listed as 49799 NC-12 by Yelp) with a shorter, less-documented public record -- this research found its name, location, and phone number confirmed across multiple directories, but no ownership history or founding date. For anyone evaluating Buxton as a place to actually cook and eat year-round rather than dine out on vacation, having two independently sourced fresh-catch markets, plus a 65-year-old full grocery store in Conner's, is a more relevant fact set than the restaurant roster alone.

What This Research Didn't Confirm, Named Rather Than Smoothed Over

This page did not find an independent ownership or founding-date record for Cockeyed Clam, Fatty's Eatery, or Buxton Seafood -- their names, addresses, and phone numbers are corroborated across multiple sources, but no source in this research documented who started them or when. Rusty's Surf & Turf's own site and third-party directories disagree on its ZIP code (27940 vs. 27920) for what is otherwise the same 47355 NC-12 address -- a minor discrepancy, but one worth naming rather than picking silently, in keeping with this site's approach on the hub page's population and price-figure disputes. One aggregator (Wanderlog) lists Buxton Munch Co. under "Avon, NC," which conflicts with every other source used here (including its own Osprey Shopping Center, Buxton address); that looks like an aggregator data error rather than a real second location, but it wasn't independently resolved. Finally, current hours, seasonal operating windows, and menu pricing for every business named on this page can and do change between seasons on Hatteras Island -- confirm any of it directly with the business, a live Google Maps listing, or a current Hatteras Island visitor's guide before planning a trip or a move around it. Nothing on this page is a recommendation, ranking, or endorsement of any business named here.