We weren’t the first ones through the door when Local Ocean opened its little Newport Bay restaurant and fish market in 2005, but we weren’t far behind.
As best I can remember, we were staying in Nye Beach about 20 years ago, and decided to head to the harbor for dinner. We probably put our names in for a table — the dining room was much smaller then — and likely began with oysters or a crab cake. I know we had the fishwives stew, because we walked right back over the ridge the next night and had it again.
Much has changed for Newport and Local Ocean alike in the ensuing two decades. Undersea Gardens was still open back then, as was Rogue Ales, while a newer attraction — the California sea lions jockeying for sunbed space on floating docks nearby — had yet to grow to its current mass. But a recent meal overlooking the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Local Ocean’s “new” upstairs dining room (opened circa 2014) convinced me that Oregon’s best new restaurant of 2027 will come from the coast…