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About a decade back, Nash Osborn and Matt Hurley were selling their respective wares at the Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach. The Osborn family was known for making fried seafood under the name of Shorty’s, while Hurley had a barbecue called Grady’s based on his family’s Memphis recipes.
And there, they had a fateful idea. What if they sold pig and fish at the same booth?
“We said, ‘Why don’t y’all split the booth and we’ll split the profits — we’ll see how these two do together,’” Osborn said. “And it was a great day, the food went together well. The people were buying from both of us. And we thought, ‘We may have stumbled onto something.’ ”
When they went back west to Farmville, they doubled down on that success. For eight years in that town, The Fishin’ Pig has been serving the twinned coastal-Southern obsessions of seafood and barbecue: Memphis dry-rub ribs, pulled pork butts cooked hours overnight, fried catfish sammies, and ahi tuna or bang-bang shrimp tacos.
It worked out well enough they expanded to include a Waynesboro location. And this summer, with local partner Tom Fox — previously the franchisee on a Chicho’s Pizza location — they’ll be bringing The Fishin’ Pig to Norfolk’s Park Place neighborhood just a block from O’Connor Brewing, at 119 W. 25th St.
They aren’t alone in serving this combination in the South, of course. Up and down the Atlantic, you’ll see them — restaurants devoted to the twinned coastal-Southern obsessions of fried fish and pork, with names like The Fish ’n’ Pig, Stuart’s Fish & Pig, or Captain Bob’s BBQ and Seafood.
And Norfolk saw the opening of another FishPig this year: The high-end, very personal mid-Atlantic stylings of Sydney Meers are on offer at Syd’s Fishpig Cafe in Selden Market.
But The Fishin’ Pig won’t have much else in common with that restaurant other than the core ingredients. It’ll be more spacious, casual and country-traditional.
In an old plumbing shop in the former warehouse and industrial district along the railroad tracks, The Fishin’ Pig will preserve much of the building’s historic character with exposed brick and steel. The airy 4,400-square-foot space will seat 180, with a big central bar they hope will soon allow diners to sit.
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They’ll be smoking their barbecue out of a big indoor Ole Hickory gas-assist, with as many as 75 pork butts cooking overnight on white oak and hickory, along with fruit woods when they can get them. The barbecue will encompass a number of styles, Hurley says. But the ribs in particular are a family tradition.
“I’m from Memphis, Tennessee, born and raised,” Hurley said. “So we do a dry rub. And our meat is served dry, it’s not injected with anything. And so we have our four signature sauces on the table. We have a sweet Memphis-traditional barbecue sauce, spicy Texas, Georgia mustard and a Carolina vinegar.”
The brisket is marinated, then smoked overnight. The baked beans, Hurley said, came from a technique learned from legendary St. Louis pitmaster Skip Steele of Dalie’s barbecue, whom they met on a research trip to that city.
“I said, ‘Let’s go meet Skip,’ ” Hurley said. “And Skip showed us a way to do the baked beans where you smoke the brisket overnight, and all the drippings from the brisket go into the beans. So they’re real smoky.”
So smoky, in fact, that they need to mix the smoked beans with oven-cooked ones to temper the intensity.
Let's Eat
On the fish side, the catfish is one of the most popular items, made with the Shorty’s seasoning invented by namesake Shorty Osborn, also a partner at The Fishin’ Pig. Other signature items include fried green tomatoes made with that same Shorty’s breader, Caribbean jerk fish and of course “Fishin Pig” platters mixing the restaurant’s two namesakes.
Beer is craft. And the cocktails aren’t exactly moonshine — think fruit juices and blends of whiskies or rums — but they do come in Mason jars.
Construction on the Norfolk location is still underway, and in late March tens of workers were milling in and out of the unfinished space.
The restaurant has been much delayed, its partners say, victim to temporary financing issues and the struggles of the pandemic. The vinyl sign outside the Norfolk space still advertises a much earlier opening date.
“Our banner says ‘Coming 2020,’” Osborn said, laughing. “We just left it up! But we’re fortunate to still be going forward, and moving forward. So many restaurants have just been devastated and completely out of business. I really feel for those people that have taken a beating. But we’ve been able to soldier on, and I feel very blessed.”
The Fishin’ Pig plans to open in midsummer 2021 at 119 W. 25th St., Norfolk.
Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com