Lunch At Blue Moon In Nags Head.

Mr. Hawthorne and I had a nice meal a few weeks ago at the Blue Moon Beach Grill in Nags Head.

Here's what I wrote about our meal back in February. We had an enjoyable, pleasant meal then, so last Wednesday, we decided to give it another go with Youngest Hawthorne.

We ordered the nacho platter as an appetizer. The three of us couldn't finish this. I'm pretty sure these were homemade chips. They were quite good. Black beans. Tomatoes. Lettuce. I'm blogging about this tonight, the 23rd. And we ate there on the 16th, so bear with me. Mr. Hawthorne's appraisal of this appetizer: "This is not a South West/Mexican style I'm accustomed to. It was an unwelcomed surprise to me. I don't like pulled pork with my nachos." Mr. Hawthorne likes to pick up a chip and get everything on it. He doesn't like for his nachos to have dripping pork pulling on something else before he gets it in his mouth. He wants chopped meat on his nachos. Texture is everything. When he ate these nachos with the pulled pork, the pork pulled up all the other stuff on the plate. I would have preferred ground beef with cumin. But that's just us. Just our tastes.

Here's my plate with a tasty little nacho and the accoutrements, and a lovely cream sauce of cilantro and lime, I think. I could have used some more of that sauce. On to the Oysters Rockefellers.

I ordered the Oysters Rockefeller. ACK! Did not like. I know my oysters and these were not my oysters. Last time I ate at Blue Moon, I ordered the mahi. It came with a big slab of applewood bacon on top. These oysters came with a big slab of applewood bacon on top. I think Blue Moon Grill has a tendancy to overuse the applewood bacon. It's too heavy for seafood. The applewood totally overpowered the oysters, which was probably a good thing, since the oysters were NOT good. Hey. I've had not good oysters everywhere. It happens.

When I make Oysters Rockerfeller, I sprinkle bacon bits over top. This oyster has a whole honking slice of bacon on top. Unnecessary. And taste yer ersters before you send 'em out.

Next, I had the clam chowder. It was OK. But not memorable. I've made much better, but the crackers were good.

Mr. Hawthorne had the non-traditional Caesar Salad with fried oysters. Blue Moon Beach Grill has kick-ass fried oysters.

By non-traditional Caesar Salad, I mean a Caesar Salad with anything more than romaine lettuce, croutons, and Caesar dressing. Theirs has tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled lemons, and NO CROUTONS (BOO!), Youngest Hawthorne had the Caesar Salad with grilled chicken on top. He wasn't crazy about his. OK. He didn't like it at all. He described his salad as "effortless." Heh. BTW (By The Way, Mama and Sister Hawthornes), after complaining about the limp french fries last time I was there, Xmaskatie and Glowria went and reported back to me that their french fries were crispy and exceptionally delicious. My experience this time: Wasn't a great meal. Wasn't all bad. I tell it like it is. I'll go back. YMMV. (Your mileage may vary, Mama and Sister Hawthornes.) And it always does. Different strokes for different folks.

Blue Moon Grill Is Getting Some Press.

Love my Feedjit! After my last post about Blue Moon Beach Grill, in Nags Head, I posted on www.obxconnection.com. And I started watching my Live Feedjit. Within a very short time From: WWW.obxconnection.com: New topic about started about Blue Moon Grill. Since they were mentioned in a local blog. OBXcon already had 2 or 3 topics started at that time about BMG. And I'll digress here just for a minute to say something about folks at the forums at obxconnection. They are wonderful people. It's very refreshing to go to a site forum and meet people who enjoy life, who respect each other, who care for each other, and who are just basically very nice people. No nastiness. To OBXcon people: I thank you for your gracious welcome to me when I first came upon your site. And I will enjoy looking forward to your posts. From: Another Outer Banks Blogger, of whom Ticky of ReinventingABoomer apprised me. From: ME at home, right here, with my post. Just rechecked my Feedjit Live: All visitors from OBXConnection: 7 in 23 minutes (from 18:02 to 18:25 pm) 4 from KDH 1 from Lutherville Timonium, MD 1 from US 1 from Raleigh, NC Thank you all for coming. Hope you'll come back. I do lots of recipes. I go to local restaurants and comment. I go to and learn at the wonderful cooking series at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. I garden. And did I mention, I cook?

Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne Check Out A New Restaurant.

Mr. Hawthorne and I went out today to do a bit of shopping at both Food Lion and Harris Teeter. Country ribs were on sale for 99 cents a pound and I'm interested in entering the Nags Head Ace Hardware Crock Pot Cook Off and I wanted to make a couple of trial runs with ribs, NOT FISH, being prominently featured. Before going grocery shopping, we decided to have lunch first. Important caveat: Never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach when you're hungry. There's a new restaurant in Nags Head we've been wanting to try - Blue Moon Beach Grill. It opened the first week in February but I like to let a restaurant operate for a bit - to get its sea legs, so to speak- before we try it out.

We arrived a little before 12 o'clock and got the last table in the establishment. There was a birthday party going on that took up 2 8-tops, and the other 3 tables were occupied. There were 3 gentlemen at the bar when we got there, and several more ladies came in for the birthday party and sat at the bar. They were extremely busy. That said, the service was excellent and we really didn't have to wait long to be served our meals in spite of the restaurant being totally full.

I ordered a house salad with fried oysters and blue cheese dressing on the side. Baby mixed greens with a a good blue cheese and tough, crappy tomatoes, but then that's to be expected in February. They did note in their menu that their tomatoes were local - fresh from Currituck County- when in season. The oysters? Excellent. Perfectly fried. Plump, juicy, crispy. Mr. Hawthorne ordered a Caesar salad with the fried oysters which is always our bench mark test for restaurants. He liked his dressing, said it was very good, but you already know we make the best Caesar dressing. However, Mr. Hawthorne's complaint was that this was not a true Caesar salad. A Caesar salad has nothing but Romaine, Caesar dressing, perhaps some extra parmesan, and CROUTONS. This salad had tomatoes and bacon in it, and we are both Caesar Salad purists. Now, I like my croutons and so does Mr. Hawthorne. There were no croutons on either salad. Mr. Hawthorne also asked for Tartar sauce and kept saying something was wrong with it. I tasted it and didn't detect anything "off," except perhaps a little more pickle juice flavor. He didn't like it at all.

For my entree, I had the Mahi Mahi, with applewood bacon and a remoulade sauce. I would have liked for my bacon to have been cooked a bit more, but since I didn't eat any except one bite to check it out, it was OK. The Mahi Mahi was a tad overdone and dry in places, but still all right. I attribute it to the fact that the two chefs in the kitchen were slammed. And hey, when I'm cooking for 30-40 sometimes I might miss stuff too. I liked the remoulade sauce. Very good. I never eat the lettuce, tomato, and buns. Too much. I just eat the meat. Now, on to the fries. I like crisp fries. These were typical in-house restaurant fries, in a word, LIMP. Why can't anybody do fries right? If you're going to peel and slice your own fries, then do the ice bath and fry them twice. I want crispy fries. Else, just dump in some good ol' frozen Ore Ida's or give me some potato chips and I'm good to go. Bottom line: Mr. Hawthorne wanted a Caesar salad and the fact that it wasn't a pure Caesar salad really didn't bother him. The oysters were "plump and cooked properly." We will certainly go back again and try something different. I was impressed with the two waitresses who womaned that room with all those people. It was packed. And the service did not suffer at all. Thank you Scott and Melissa. We'll be back.