After teasing a tasty expansion in January, this family-owned fish market is now serving dockside eats in Port Orange.
The Shack at King’s Seafood, located at 5999 S. Ridgewood Ave., welcomed its first wave of guests late morning May 13 — a visit local foodies and market regulars have been anticipating since the start of the new year.
Located right on King’s deck, the waterfront shack, complete with a fast-casual walk-up window for placing and picking up orders, was met with a steady trickle of first-time customers around 11 a.m., each scouring the eatery’s newly released menu.
What’s on the menu at The Shack at King’s Seafood?
From dockside favorites to shack packs, sides and steamed-to-order items, The Shack’s menu feels tightly curated with the variety you’d expect given its market roots.
While shark bites, fish wings and bay scallops, among other items, are available by the pound or half pound, the menu spans from steamed blue crab to the Shack Ceviche, crab cake sandwich and fried shrimp or scallop po’boy.
First in line to order, I opted for the fish dip ($12), arriving rich with smokiness and brightened by pickled peppers. It’s served with crackers and prepared from a longtime family recipe worthy of a repeat order.
Shrimp tacos ($15) are layered in slaw and pineapple jalapeño sauce, offering more sweetness than heat, and were complemented by a helping of hushpuppies and remoulade. Other sides, $3, include steamed bay potatoes, corn on the cob and fries.
The Shack’s wild-caught fish sandwich ($13) is available steamed, grilled, blackened, or hand-breaded and fried, and trust me, you want it fried.
It’s breading strikes that ideal balance — crisp, golden, and perfectly seasoned without feeling heavy, greasy or overdone.
It’s served with lettuce, tomato, onion and a choice of sauce, my pick being the Shark Sauce. Likened to a boom boom sauce, it’s got a subtle kick and brings just enough tang to each packed bite.
How The Shack at King’s Seafood came to be
The idea of expanding with a restaurant had been circling King’s Seafood Market for nearly five years — something operations manager Mike Bergmann and owner John Polston had routinely discussed, revisited and shelved, Bergmann previously told The News-Journal.
For nearly 40 years now, King’s has been a community staple. Co-founded in 1986 under Polston and James Freeman, it originally operated out of Orange Isles Campground in Port Orange before moving business under the Dunlawton Bridge in the late ‘80s.
By 2016, the Freemans branched off from King’s, and launched Two Jerks Seafood — a market that closed in January in preparation for its upcoming table-service-restaurant transformation.
King’s continued to operate under the bridge next to the former D.J.’s Deck until later relocating to Rose Bay in 2020.
“COVID hit, and we left where we were under the bridge; they didn’t renew our lease. So, we could’ve just hung it up then. John could’ve said, ‘I’m almost 60 years old, I have no reason to start over — but no,” Bergmann told The News-Journal in a previous interview.
“He decided to come here and basically rebuild — a new location, new market, new dock and now, this new venture. So, I think this is — he calls it the missing puzzle piece,” he continued, describing the small-scale restaurant as an investment into the future and local legacy of King’s Seafood.
The Shack at King’s Seafood offers outdoor dining with a handful of umbrella-shaded picnic tables overlooking the water.
The restaurant is currently open from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Wednesday – Saturday, though hours are subject to change. For information, call 386-872-3032 or visit facebook.com/kingsseafoodportorange.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Dockside seafood restaurant opens in Port Orange. Here’s what to try
Reporting by Helena Perray, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
