SoPo Seafood

With an absolute lack of pretension and a laser-focus on ultra-fresh seafood, SoPo Seafood is one of the most dependable spots around Portland for local and truly excellent eats from the sea. Not only do they supply many local restaurants from their seafood market, but they make their own incredibly tasty and high-quality seafood dishes that go down incredibly easy at the spot's 23-seat raw bar. Think incredibly fresh local oysters with juniper and cucumber mignonette, or smoked trout toast, or a peekytoe crab sandwich.

SoPo Seafood isn’t in Portland proper, but it’s worth a short trip over the bridge to slurp some oysters, sip some wine, and maybe even buy some mollusks to take home with you. The raw bar focuses on highlighting the best and freshest the Gulf of Maine has to offer. You already know they’ve got the essentials like oysters on the half shell, but the best things are their takes on classics such as their gigantic lobster rolls, smoked seafood, and caviar with blinis.

SoPo Seafood is one of those places that draws serious gourmands “from away” as well as regulars from the area. The sustainably minded raw bar and fish market, which has its warehouse operations on Portland’s working waterfront, serves a selection of pristine local oysters and crudo, fresh lobster rolls and smoked trout rolls, kelp burgers, and a tight drink list — it’s like Eventide Oyster Co. meets Harbor Fish Market without the lines, at least for now. Myers and his co-owners, Matthew Brown and Joshua Edgcombe, bring to the table decades of experience in the industry, including time at Portland’s Browne Trading Company, which supplies seafood to some of the top restaurants around the country.

171 Ocean St., South PortlandLocated in Knightsville, the buzzing center of South Portland’s restaurant scene, SoPo Seafood is a super-friendly local market and raw bar. While you can pick up a wide variety of seafood here to take home and cook, the expansive menu of raw bar choices, sandwiches, and rice bowls (add your choice of smoked salmon, ceviche, and tartare) should not be missed. Nor should the lobster roll, with meat served warm or cold and heaped onto a fresh-baked split-top bun from the bread mavens at nearby Little Spruce Baking Company.

SoPo Seafood Market & Raw Bar provides a casual yet refined destination for enjoying Maine's freshest seafood, both to eat in and take away. Diners can savor oysters, lobster rolls, and crudo, all sourced directly from local waters. The relaxed, coastal-inspired space appeals to seafood aficionados looking for quality and authenticity in a welcoming market setting.

Whether you’re slurping Mere Points, Brinestones, or Robinhoods, the staff at the seafood market, restaurant, and bar always seems happy to discuss the finer points of oyster varieties (is that nuttiness, or perhaps a hint of mushroom?). To cut the brine, order a bracing Manhattan from the bar. 171 Ocean St. 877-282-7676.

Rather than append a restaurant onto a seafood market (or vice versa), SoPo treats both businesses as equals. As a result, diners feel well cared-for by knowledgeable staff who sometimes also double as fishmongers in the same space. Shellfish are served plain or doctored — try both.

That’s the case at SoPo Seafood’s raw bar — really just a wing of the fish market. It’s an ideal spot for a pre-meal Knightville negroni and a half-dozen clams or a full, shellfish-based meal. Oh, and as you leave, pick up a few fillets of New England barramundi for later.

To the right of Judy Gibson sits the shuttered Uncle Andy's Diner. This business closed last May after 66 years in business as a result of the pandemic. SoPo Seafood is opening a retail seafood operation with a raw bar in the space.

SoPo Seafood is about 15 15-minute drive from downtown Portland. Here you will find fresh and locally sourced seafood. Also, you’ll find here a raw bar, take-home market items, and seafood platters.

On the other hand though that's what makes Sopo a safer and more family friendly place. The commute from Sopo and Portland isn't long at all so that's nice too.