Our first stop takes us to Wilmington and a restaurant in a 100-year-old building that showcases the bounty of our waterways with a special focus on sustainability and seasonality.

Let's visit Seabird.

[upbeat music] - When you're in Wilmington, if you could eat anywhere, go to Seabird Twice.

[upbeat music continues] - I love the decor.

Transports me outside of Wilmington.

The window gives you a view of the world.

- They offer steak, ribs, a lot of great seafood, of course.

The seafood tower has so many little bites besides just what you see in a normal seafood tower.

- [Patron] I love the fact that Seabird seeks out what they can use from their surroundings.

- I think a lot of people really understand that they're season to produce and vegetables, but they don't necessarily think that there's season with fish and shrimp and shellfish.

We really kind of created our concept around the unique ingredients that are coming out of the water at different times, and then also the stories of the people who are bringing us those ingredients is really important to us.

[upbeat music fades out] - I love taking deep breaths to the salt air too.

This always smells so good out here.

[upbeat music] Every oyster on the East coast is the same species, so everything from the flavor to the texture of the meat to the shape of the oyster is completely indicative to the environment it's grown in and how it's grown.

I am Matt Schwab with Hold Fast Oyster Company, New River, North Carolina.

We grow these sea birdies, exclusive to Seabird in downtown Wilmington.

[upbeat music contnues] There are a lot of factors that contribute to the flavor profile of an oyster, things like bottom composition, whether it's a muddy or sandy bottom.

Salinity level obviously contributes a lot.

Closer to the ocean, typically, the brinier an oyster is going to be.

Stones Bay is a very unique body of water.

It's a moderate salinity environment.

I knew the bottom composition.

It was real muddy, and had a lot of dissolved organics, and it drains very slowly.

The sea birdies are consistently, I always say, the most well fed oyster in North Carolina.

They're always very meaty.

[upbeat music continues] Oysters can safely be consumed year round.

The myth of the R month isn't really valid anymore.

We're under very strict harvesting protocols.

As soon as the oyster comes out of the water, it must be shaded, and then they're washed and refrigerated in a very short amount of time.

[upbeat music continues] - [Dean] There's an element of kind of like wine and terroir when it comes to oysters.

They're these time capsules that are pulled from the ocean and you know when you open it up you experience that moment in that place.

And what a lot of people really enjoy about eating oysters here is being able to experience three different oysters from North Carolina on the same plate that are very different and distinct in their own ways.

We offer three raw varieties of oysters, and we serve them with mignonette sauce, crackers, lemon, horse radish.

[upbeat music continues] Baked oysters, we offer three varieties as well.

- Oysters to me, have always represented community.

They've always been something that brought people together.

No one can ever eat oysters and be pissed off at the same time.

[upbeat music continues] - Seabird is at 1 South French Street in Wilmington, and they're open Thursday through Monday for dinner and lunch on weekends.

For more information, give Seabird a call at [910] 769-5996 or go online to seabirdnc.com.