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| - I was craving some outstanding fried seafood on a wet Friday in January, with a torrential rain pouring down. There are some "good" seafood restaurants or fish camps locally near the Hickory area, but the granddaddy of all fish camps in the area is Long Creek Fish Fry, which has been open since 1948 and little Harry Truman was president.
It took me forty-five minutes of white knuckle, slick road / idiotic high speed wet road drivers, multiple wrecked cars in the median, driving to get there safely. As I was about a mile from the location, out of the corner of my eye I spotted a sign for Long Creek Seafood in a heretofore unknown location. With a Dodge Ram pickup truck tailgating me......I couldn't slow down or stop.
I went to the "old" location and turned around and then I was faced with the intermittedable, damnedable, unending, ill timed, solid stream of cars coming from first one direction and then the other. It took me a good ten minutes to pull back out onto the two lane highway, and by the time that I was able to retrace my travels.......I was not a happy camper.
So, I pulled up to the "new" Long Creek Seafood location, and luckily I found a spot right next to the front door.
I went in to enjoy some fine fried seafood, only to be slapped in the face with the realization that there was no seating. There were enough employees in the kitchen area to feed an army platoon of diners, but not ONE damned table, chair, or stool. I asked the cashier the blatantly obvious question, "is this now just a takeout only restaurant?" Answer: "Yes." My reply, "oh, hell."
So my options are: (a) get takeout and drive back to Hickory, whereupon it will be cold upon arrival. I am unusual in that I actually like cold leftover seafood, but that's the next day, not when I want some piping hot fresh seafood now. (b) Eat in one's car and have one's vehicle smelling like fried fish for the next two weeks, and probably ruining my pants and shirt with fish grease. Ummmm, no thank you to that option. (You can pretreat a fish grease stain all you want with Shout / Oxiclean / Tide to Go or whatever, but it will not completely come out of clothing.)
Sadly, the ONLY remaining option is to find a new sit down seafood restaurant elsewhere.
HISTORY OF THIS TRAGIC MOVE
It seems that even though this restaurant has been a Gaston county fixture since 1948, no one had the foresight to buy the land or the building that housed the restaurant. This is just plain stupid, paying rent for seventy years. Rule #1: own the property that your business sits on. That is why McDonald's is the largest real estate holder in the USA. You didn't know that did you?
When the grandmother who owned the business passed away, three new family members took possession of the business, and they couldn't reach an agreement with the property owner. A property owner who is now getting $0 rent on a vacant property that is permanently impregnated with the smell of fried fish grease.....a brain surgeon they're not.
So, ultimately, I can no longer have lunch here. I can no longer enjoy a sit down meal. I can no longer come here at all. This really saddens me. People who have enjoyed dining here will know what I mean.
I hope that the local community continues to support the restaurant, because Hickory area diners cannot. My only hope is that the new owners have the "balls" to build a new, LARGE, modern sitdown restaurant nearer highway 321 in Dallas. This has been a wildly popular business for seventy years, so I would assume that having or borrowing the money would not be a factor. I can't imagine a bank balking at a loan for a business that has been open continuously since 1948.
I will restore my rating to four or five stars.......when and if they ever move to a new location.
All of the details of this move can be found on Long Creek Fish Fry's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/longcreekfishfry
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/long-creek-fish-fry-dallas?select=x6ovk2rL5-9oQgM3ar-G1w
RIP Long Creek Fish Fry. You will be missed.
;o(
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