After seeing the initial principle players of the restaurant back out, Smith, a former Weldon town commissioner and owner of a successful cleaning product company — Blast Off — decided to forge ahead.

“I never back out of anything,” Smith said at his restaurant, which sits on an island between Rivertown Tire — the old Coca-Cola bottling plant — and River Falls Park. “One of the reasons that motivated me to do it was a restaurant in Tarboro, On the Square. The owner had a restaurant in the World Trade Center. The food was excellent. Every time I went there I saw someone from the area.”

The same held true for Ribeyes in Nashville, he said. “Why drive all this distance? Why not have one here?”

Smith opened the restaurant on March 15, scrambling to get the liquor license in time for the opening as well as the necessary permits from the health department. “We opened with four bare walls and have been making improvements every day since.”

The rockfish rocks.

Its chef staff is getting final training via Skype from a European chef and since its opening the restaurant has seen a steady increase in traffic.

The restaurant wasn’t designed as much to catch the angler traffic, as it was to capture the traffic going to other restaurants within a hundred miles. “We wanted to catch people coming from Richmond and below Wilson and give them the best food in a friendly atmosphere of warmth and fellowship.”

Fifty-one Sycamore is the fine dining portion of establishment, which features lighting and an atmosphere reminiscent of the 50s and 60s.

Smith’s son-in-law, Jamie Jordan, designed the layout and envisioned the 51 Sycamore atmosphere.

Outside is a 100-seat section. The tables have umbrellas and there is a bandstand for live performances. “You can drive 200 miles and you’re not going to find an outside dining area this big. I don’t think you’re going to find anything this unique in North Carolina. I’ve been all over the state and I don’t think you’ll find a restaurant with this class food and atmosphere,” Smith said.

Reprint of 40s era Saturday Evening Post story on Weldon.

Smith relied on Marc Robb, of Preferred Building Corporation, to design the Rockfish Bar. “When Earl and I met he handed me one blueprint,” Robb said.

Robb knew he wanted a fishing theme for the bar. “I wanted to make it look like a fishing shanty.”

The galvanized bar resembles a fish-cleaning station while cedar shingles were installed over the drink storage area and wine rack. Robb decided to use epoxy on the floor.

The bar staff can make any drink, from the classics like the old-fashioned to the martini and today’s novelty drinks.

One of the novelties at the restaurant are the rockfish rocks, which are for sale, and designed locally as well as by Joe Slovachek, who was commissioned to do the bicentennial placard for the state of Texas.

The restaurant not only honors Weldon’s rockfish heritage but Smith’s devotion to the military, as Smith is an Army veteran.

Weldon rockfish heritage is honored.

The official grand opening of 51 Sycamore and the Rockfish Bar is June 22, a date decided upon to accommodate many of Smith’s family members and friends.

That day is also dedicated to a book-signing and appearance by Howard E. Wasdin, a Black Hawk Down survivor and author of Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper.

The book-signings will be from noon to 1 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Steaks and a shrimp boat are just two of the restaurant’s specialties and later in the year Yumi Umemura, noted sushi chef, will be at the restaurant for a book-signing and teaching classes on the art of sushi making.

The restaurant is open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until and on weekdays from 11 a.m. until.