Birthday at Saltbox

I am good at stretching out the celebration of friend’s birthdays. I am anti-gifts, because as far as most of my friends go they have everything they will ever need and if they want it they buy it themselves. I am all for spending time with friends for their birthday and lunch out is almost always at the top of the list.
Today was my annual birthday lunch with my friend Jean. Her actual birthday was like six weeks ago so I am a little over the limit of the birthday month celebration. I offered her a couple of choices for her lunch and she chose the famous Saltbox, since she had wanted to go there, but had never been.
The Saltbox is a stand on the north side of downtown with picnic tables outside. Ricki Moore, the owner, man’s the window and the daily changing menu is written on a chalk board outside. We arrived just after noon, as Ricki was erasing the scallop burger as either a roll or platter choice. No worries for us since soft shell crabs were still available as was catfish, tuna and some other small fish that was bone in, so I didn’t consider it.
One of the nicest things about Ricki is he gives you a very realistic heads up about how long your order is going to take while you are still waiting in line. I was thrilled that Jean was able to take the 30-40 minute wait for our food because I certainly think it was worth it.
The lovely weather made it a perfect day to sit and catch up while we waited for our crab

platters that included the yummy lemon slaw, no mayo as Ricki touts and the thinly sliced potatoes with peppers and onions. I had the homemade cocktail sauce with mine, which I could eat as a meal by itself.
While we were placing our order we asked Ricki when his Chapel Hill Boulevard location at the old Shrimp Boats was going to be open and he promised us it would be soon. If you have never been to the Saltbox, grab a friend, whether it is their birthday or not and go have lunch. Just get there early so you might be able to beat the wait time and so you have your choice of items. They close when they run out of food, which is just good business.