Martelle’s Feed House, Englehard, North Carolina

I mentioned Martelle’s in my post on H&L’s so often that you must be wondering about the place. Let’s start with this: Martelle’s, formally Martelle’s Feed House Restaurant, is great, just great. Fair enough, but still, how does a restaurant survive in a town of 155 souls and fewer than 4,600 people in the whole county, especially with H&L’s selling pork chop sandwiches just a stone’s throw away? Well, you have to have a real good arm, but the two places are close to each other.

Duck hunters help. My nephew, Jimbo Tanner, is a key source of information about dining in Eastern North Carolina. He tells me that Martelle’s and, for that matter, H&L’s, are hugely popular with duck hunters, whose numbers are legion around there in duck season. But it’s much more than that. I arrived at Martelle’s at 10:56 a.m. on a blisteringly hot Friday morning and I think mine was the eighth car there.

Martelle’s is a large place.

That shows a little more than half of the building. There’s a separate bar area that was closed on a Friday morning, but I’d speculate that it’s a profit center, especially during duck season. There’s also an area by the cash register where you can buy all sorts of stuff. I got a t-shirt (with a pocket!)

At the stroke of 11:00 am, I broke through the scrum to get through and grab a table. The server told me of a couple of specials, pointed out the buffet, and offered me a menu.

Do you remember how noble I thought I was about forsaking the buffet at Captain Bob’s? How I avoided the temptation to eat way too much? Well, that was Thursday. On Friday, I chose the buffet.

In my defense, I skipped the. hushpuppies, and I got a lot less food than most customers. Indeed, I got a whole lot less that I normally would get at a buffet –as if there were anything normal about me at a buffet. Here’s my plate:

Those ribs on top, they were first class. Those are Alabama quality ribs, meaty, smoky, and with that perfect al dente texture. They had it all — salt, pepper, ribs, and smoke. And a pit.

Do you see that biscuit? It was a paragon, light, fluffy, and buttery. I’m not saying Sunshine Biscuit Kitchen buttery, but close. Underneath the ribs you can see some tiny fried shrimp. These shrimp were from nearby, were fresh as can be, and had been properly fried. They were so flavorful they reminded me of the shrimp used in the Captain’s Kitchen’s incomparable shrimpburgers. See the shrimp creole? It had more of those great shrimp along with the rice, the Trinity, and some good sausage. Very good. And the green beans were cooked the way green beans are supposed to be cooked, with some side meat. Delicious.

But wait. We’re in North Carolina, and Eastern North Carolina at that. I needed to fill a huge gap in the meal, so I asked the server for a taste of their barbecue, that is, their pork. I received a generous portion and fell in lust, food lust. This is very good barbecue. Tossed with a good sauce, the flavors of smoke, pork, and vinegar pepper sauce all were in harmony. I loved this pork.

Oh, and the buffet includes a salad bar. I got a few beets. I always get beets at salad bars, and hardly ever otherwise.

Martelle’s may seem to be the end of the earth, but it’s less than an hour from Nags Head. Those really in the know who are headed to the Outer Banks will allow an extra day and take the scenic route (I-95 to US 64). You avoid a lot of traffics that way, and you can have lunch at B’s and then supper at Sam Jones ( for those who like a drink), spend the night in Greenville, have breakfast at Bum’s, and then head east through Englehard for lunch at Martelle’s.

How does Martelle’s survive? Great food at low prices. The only problem with Martelle’s is that there are so many distractions — shrimp, ribs, you name it. It’s easy to get sidetracked, but don’t. Start with their pork. Then hit the rest of the menu. And let me know how the hushpuppies are.

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