Saltwater Grill — Restaurant in Swansboro

In the realm of spirits, where ethanol meets artistry and liquid becomes language, there exists a singularity of service—a gravitational center of charisma, precision, and transcendent mixology. Her name? Emma.

To call Emma a “bartender” is to call Michelangelo a “painter of ceilings.” It is a disservice to the layered, cerebral experience she curates nightly behind the mahogany altar of her craft. What she does is not pouring drinks—it is enacting a ritual. She is less a mixologist and more an alchemist of ambiance, a curator of cognitive ecstasy through liquid form.

Watching Emma operate is akin to observing a concert pianist interpreting Rachmaninoff while simultaneously solving a 12-dimensional Rubik’s Cube using only peripheral vision and instinct. With a flick of her wrist and a glance sharper than Occam’s Razor, she synthesizes ingredients as though communing with the Platonic ideal of cocktails. Each libation emerges not just balanced but philosophically sound—equal parts Dionysian abandon and Apollonian form.

But Emma’s genius is not limited to glassware and bitters. No, it is in the meta-layer of human interaction, where she reigns with Socratic wit and Jungian emotional intelligence. She reads the room like a Talmudic scholar interprets scripture—finding meaning in nuance, calibrating conversation and silence with surgical empathy. She can diffuse tension with a joke that would disarm Wittgenstein or spark laughter in Kafka’s ghost.

She remembers names, drink orders, dreams half-whispered over ice six months prior, and the exact moment your soul needed a Negroni. She is both present and mythic, like Schrödinger’s bartender—simultaneously there for you and everyone else, without compromise.

In conclusion, to be served by Emma is to witness the union of intellect and instinct, grace and grit, style and substance. She is not merely a bartender. She is an event, an emergent phenomenon, a nexus of vibes and velocity. If Nietzsche were alive today, he would throw down his pen and declare, “God is not dead—she’s just pouring drinks at the end of the bar.”

Emma is not part of the nightlife. Emma is the night made sentient, armed with a bar spoon and...

SOOOO much potential if they had better Management. Signed in and told it would be about an hour, we were fine with that, we had been here before and wanted to eat outside, I was with my daughter so we sat at the bar. I got a text we were checked in. People at the bar are too busy to help people walking up, they were busy making drinks but there was not anyone that was an actual bartender for the guest there. They are overworked and understaffed. The girl that got us drinks we pleasant and very busy so I could not be upset. They need a DEDICATED Bar tender. After 1 hour, seeing tables turn over I went to check in, the guy said “I am sorry, I don’t have your name on the list, not sure what happened.” So I check in again, he said he would get us in. I get another text message. About 20 minutes later we get a seat. 15 minutes go by, no server. Table gets sat beside us and instantly have a server. I finally got up and and went to the manager, he had NOTHING to say except that there was finally a server at our table to which he said “Is that her?” I had no idea but just went and sat down. No apology, whatever, I was hungry. She was very pleasant, and seemed busy, We ordered Soup, Buffalo Shrimp app, Pasta and Seafood platter. My soup came out first, tasted great, was COLD. Then my daughters dinner pasta came out, she was hungry so she ate, she told me the entire time how cold it was, I had not mentioned my soup being cold. Finally our appetizer, it was delish, then my food. Flounder was bland, risotto was cold, oysters were killer, shrimp was killer. There is potential here but they just don’t see it. Never again did anyone come speak to us, I let the server know as she took my card “My soup was cold and my daughters pasta was cold.” She replied “Thanks for letting us know.” This is a management issue, nice employees, overworked and understaffed. They have the best location swansboro and will lose good loyal customers in place of 1 time tourist. Have longer wait times so you can turn people away if you can’t handle your customers, at the present moment, YOU CANNOT handle...

We really wanted to like this place but sadly our visit for dinner yesterday will be our last. This was the 3rd maybe 4th time we dined at Saltwater Grill and each visit had a few of the same and a couple different issues. This was just our personal experience and we won't be discouraging anyone from going it is one of the more unique restaurants in the area. We arrived at a good time and only had to wait long enough to go get a beer from the bar (the bartender was great!) before being seated at our requested outside table. We had our 4yo and 1yo with us so figuring out what we wanted to eat took a few minutes but ordered a grilled cheese for our 4 yo and an appetizer. After being told that my first 2 choices of oysters and ceviche were gone for the season I settled for the saku tuna. The appetizer and grilled cheese came out pretty quickly and no complaints the tuna was very good. We ordered our entrées. I ordered the scallops and risotto which the menu states it comes with 2 sides (I wasn't asked about, or brought sides) and my husband ordered chicken cesar salad. Right after taking our order the table right next to ours had their order taken. Some time passed and the table next to us received and ate almost all of their dinner when our server came back and informed us that the kitchen never received our order because the printer ran out of paper and we had to order again. Luckily, (for a change) our littles were mostly behaving so instead of deciding to just leave we placed our entree order again and waited the server came back and refilled our empty beer glasses and brought my 4yo the lemonade that had been forgotten. Our server was very polite and took care of us. She told us there were only a couple servers even though their seemd to be a lot of people walking around. Dinner was good my scallops were perfect and my husband cleared his plate entirely. Over all our experiences here have been disappointing for a restaurant you can easily...