Erikah Fitz is about as Sussex County as it gets. Born at Beebe Healthcare, which now happens to be practically in her backyard, she spent part of her childhood in Sussex County and her later school years with her dad in Reading, Pennsylvania. By her 18th birthday, she was back at the Delaware beaches.

Her connection to the restaurant world started early. Erikah’s father was a chef, and when she was 15, he taught her to shuck her first oyster at the restaurant where he worked. His rule? You had to eat your first oyster. “It didn’t go well for me,” she says.

Erikah spent much of her 20s working front of house at the iconic Nectar Café and later Full Belly Bistro. Along the way, she met some of her lifelong best friends, including LOH Chef de Cuisine Sean Gillespie.

Then, in 2020, she jumped on the line at Full Belly as a favor and never left. Until then, Erikah says, “I was an at-home cook for my friends.” That unexpected move from front of house to the kitchen became the beginning of a culinary career she never really planned.

A few years later, Erikah’s life changed dramatically. A broken fibula led to two surgeries, debilitating nerve damage and 17 months out of work. During an already difficult stretch, she also experienced a devastating house fire that displaced her and her pets.

Eventually, a call from an old friend helped change her course. Sean Gillespie connected Erikah with an opportunity at Lewes Oyster House.

“All these bad things in life helped me close doors on a past life to open a new one at LOH,” she says. “I’m beyond grateful to be able to work at a remarkable place.”

Today, Erikah is Lead Shucker and Raw Bar Chef — and proudly, LOH’s first female shucker. She oversees all things raw, from oysters and scallops to tuna and salmon, while managing oyster inventory, maintaining standards, training new team members and keeping one of the restaurant’s busiest stations moving.

Erikah’s role goes well beyond shucking oysters. She works closely with Executive Chef and Co-Founder Sean Corea on the dishes coming out of the raw bar, with Corea giving her room to experiment while pushing her to stay rooted in the restaurant’s Mid-Atlantic style. “He guides me from an arm’s length,” she says. “I create and he guides.”

That challenge has helped shape Erikah’s cooking. While raw preparations can naturally gravitate toward Asian flavors, she looks closer to home for inspiration, using the local ingredients around her to create dishes that feel distinctly at home at Lewes Oyster House.

Two she’s especially proud of are the Coconut Salmon and Dressed Oysters. The cilantro coconut cream broth for the salmon came to her, quite literally, in a dream. “Somehow the next day, I knew exactly how to make it.”

The broth has since become a raw bar favorite and also found its way onto one of Erikah’s dressed oysters. Another, inspired by street corn with fire-roasted corn salsa, is her go-to for guests who swear they don’t like oysters. Erikah believes texture is often the hurdle, and the added crunch can completely change the experience. Her record with oyster skeptics so far? 16 for 16.

For Erikah, one of the best parts of Lewes Oyster House is the people around her. She points to Craig Clifton’s knowledge, Sean Gillespie’s consistency, Andrea Wells’ raw bar background and Corea’s mentorship as constant sources of inspiration.

Then there are her fellow shuckers. During a busy service, they’ve developed a rhythm that requires very few words. “There’s a flow we have established that I don’t have to speak,” she says. “We have a coordinated dance down there.”

Erikah is especially proud that she is no longer the only woman shucking at LOH. Daisy, “tiny but mighty,” according to Erikah, has joined the crew as the restaurant’s second female shucker.

The relationships extend well beyond the raw bar. Alyx, Nancy and Tara have become close friends, and Erikah describes the entire LOH crew as a mix of very different personalities that somehow just works. “We genuinely enjoy each other.”

That feeling goes both ways. “Erikah is one of those people who makes the whole team better. She works incredibly hard, cares deeply about what she does, and guests genuinely connect with her. We’re really lucky to have her,” says LOH Co-Founder Tim Bartley.

If Erikah isn’t at LOH, there’s a very good chance she’s with Oasis, her pit bull and near-constant companion. The LOH team knows that an invitation to Erikah generally means an invitation to Oasis, too. After work at Irish Eyes, Oasis has even been known to score a chicken tender or two.

Erikah also loves to cook at home. Food, she says, is her love language.

“The happiest of times or even the saddest of times, food is the constant in life. It will always bring people together.”

And when it comes to her own cravings, Erikah loves a sweet-and-salty combination: PB&J burgers, pineapple on pizza, mac and cheese with hot honey, or movie theater popcorn with something chocolate.

Now we’re talking.