Sea Level NC

Sea Level NC is a coastal oyster bar at 129 East 5th Street in Uptown's First Ward, and the name is not decorative — it takes it from Sea Level, North Carolina, on the Down East stretch of Carteret County, and serves an oyster grown there. The Sea Level Salt is a medium oyster with medium brine and a clean finish, listed at $2.50 apiece, and the sustainability-minded sourcing runs through the rest of the menu too: a Maine or Connecticut lobster roll at $32, chargrilled oysters with garlic butter and two cheeses at $20, a South Carolina tuna poke bowl at $30, and a miso-honey braised bone-in short rib at $42. Cocktails are credited on the menu to Azure Cassidy and kitchen features to chef DJ Ivey. Happy hour runs weekdays from 2pm to 6pm with house oysters at $1.50 — one of the better deals in Uptown. The dining room serves from 11.30am Monday through Saturday and closes Sundays.

The non-alcoholic drinks sit under a heading the bar calls "spirit-free sips", and they are priced well below the cocktails at $8 to $10, which makes ordering two across a long seafood dinner an easy decision. The Passion Star Martini ($10) is built on Undone's Not Gin with passionfruit, a vanilla simple syrup and lime — the vanilla is what gives it body where the spirit would normally sit. Buzz Kill ($10) combines Lyre's non-alcoholic Italian Spritz with a house-made tonic and simple syrup, so the bitterness is real rather than sweetened over. Purple Sea Urchin ($8) is the simplest and the best value, working pineapple and lime against hibiscus and demerara. Beyond the built drinks there is proper beer: Athletic's Free Wave hazy IPA and Upside Dawn golden ale at $5.50 each, plus Heineken 0.0 at $4.50 and San Pellegrino at $6. Note the list does rotate — a Nada Colada that appeared on earlier menus is no longer served.