Provision Company: A little piece of heaven!

Now I'm kinda retro-blogging about past food adventures.  The last few vacations my hubby and I have been on, I've taken to keeping a food journal.  I usually journal our vacations anyway, ya know, each day write down what we did, where we went, etc.  But now that we have become foodies, the focus of those journals has become more about our food adventures while on vacation.

About a month ago, we took a week-long trip to Myrtle Beach.  We've been vacationing in that area for 11 years now.  We even took our honeymoon there.  And we love it there.  However, as much as we love Myrtle, there will always be a special place in our hearts for a little place called Holden Beach.

We've taken turns between Myrtle and Holden, which is located about 40 minutes north of Myrtle just over the NC state line. And even when we're staying in Myrtle, we always take a day to visit Holden and all the quaint little things it has to offer. One of those things we discovered this year was the Provision Company.  As I said we'd been visiting the Holden/Myrtle area for 11 years and this place has been around for the last 9 years and we never knew it!! How could this be??

Holden Beach bridge

As you drive through the town of Holden, you come to a very big tall bridge which crosses over a canal and then leads to the actual beach, where families rent a big beach house together.  The Provision Company is located under this big tall bridge, which is not a place we have frequented in the past. 

The Provision Company is not fancy at all.  From the outside you see an old wooden building that looks like it has weathered many storms.  On the lower level are the bathrooms where the doors are labeled "4U2PN" (I had to read it a couple times before I figured it out too).  Then you walk up these rickety stairs to a swinging old-timey screen door.  Inside there's a small counter with a chalkboard above it listing about 10 different menu items and a small area where you serve yourself a drink in a big styrofoam cup.

Patio looking over the canal and bridge

You order your food and then walk out to the patio seating area.  There are wooden tables and plastic lawn chairs.  The windows are open so you can feel the gentle warm breeze from the canal and the ocean. The smell of saltwater and sand wafts over you like a comforting blanket as you watch a few boats float by and a couple seagulls land on the pier next door. Everything is very simple with absolutely no frills in sight but the food and the atmosphere is awesome!

shrimp burger

The things you HAVE to try there are the shrimp burger and the conch fritters.  All their seafood is freshly caught right there either in the canal or the ocean.  Everything is prepared fresh when you order and with all local ingredients.  I've never had a shrimp burger before this and now I think I will never have another as good as this one! You could see the actual shrimp in the "burger breading". It was topped with pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and some kind of spicy cucumbery tartar sauce. 

conch fritters

Then we had the conch fritters. First of all I didn't even realize there was actual "meat" in a conch that you could eat!  But these were amazing.  Think hush-puppies meets clams.  There was lots of breading and spices, peppers and onions and a little bit of the chewy conch meat mixed in served with the same spicy tartar sauce.  That might not sound very appealing but trust me, if you like fried clams or calamari, you'll love these!

Edgar very full with the Holden bridge behind him

All our food was served on paper plates with plastic utensils.  And there were old license plates all over the walls.  Yes, it looked like a hole in the wall but to us it was a little piece of heaven that we never wanted to leave.