On a February girls’ trip to the Outer Banks in 2016, Danielle Mahon wandered into a beachside restaurant that would have been busy, were it not the off-season.
The dining room was mostly quiet.
What was busy was a small takeout counter tucked off to the side.
One by one, customers walked out carrying black-and-white enamel pots heavy with seafood, corn, sausages, potatoes and seasoning.
Inside each one was a complete clambake, ready to be strewn across a papered-over table at home.
“That was the lightbulb moment,” Mahon said.
She had grown up going to the Jersey Shore, spending summers cracking crabs around newspaper-covered tables with friends and family.
Later in life, after moving to North Carolina and purchasing a beach town condo, those same gatherings followed her.
(If you buy a beach house, people will come visit — often.)
She spent many a Friday running around to stores and the peeling shrimp for long meals with loved ones that would stretch into hours.
It was always more about connection and catching up than the food alone.
But those meals were a lot of work.
“All the planning, the shopping, the cooking, the cleanup,” Mahon said. “I loved hosting, but I also loved the idea of solving that problem — making something that brings people together without all the effort.”
That idea would become Topsail Steamer, the seafood concept now stretching from Florida to New Jersey — and one that is actively eyeing Long Island as its next major market.
Everything clicked
Mahon, 56, is the first to admit she didn’t follow a typical startup path. A business major at Rutgers, she spent decades in corporate America — working for companies like ADP and Procter & Gamble before moving into the life sciences industry in North Carolina.
“Even back then, I was always looking at things through the lens of, ‘Could this be a business?’” she said. “I’m an idea person. I always have been. I get that from my father.”
When she and her husband relocated to North Carolina in the early 2000s, they discovered Topsail Island —with barrier beach communities that reminded them of the South Jersey shore towns they loved.
They bought a small condo there, and their family traditions followed: seafood market trips, corn and potatoes from the grocery store, and nagging reminders not to forget the Old Bay seasoning.
So when Mahon saw those take-home seafood pots on that 2016 trip, everything clicked.
“It checked every box,” she said. “Connection. Simplicity. Something people don’t really have access to in an easy way.”
Research & development
Still, she knew passion alone wouldn’t be enough. Mahon spent months learning the business from the ground up — literally driving to fishing towns like Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, and walking into seafood houses to ask questions.
“They probably thought we were a little crazy,” she said with a laugh. “But they taught me how to handle clams, shrimp, everything.”
She tested recipes in commercial kitchens, refined cooking times, and built a system designed to eliminate the fear many people have about cooking seafood at home.
“We take that risk out,” she said. “You cook it in the pot we give you, with simple instructions. That’s it.”
With a $75,000 loan from her aunt, Mahon took a leap. She sold her home, left her job, moved to the beach—and in March 2017, opened the first Topsail Steamer location with her family and a handful of college students, her son’s friends.
“I quit my corporate job and opened a seafood store,” she said. “Who saw that coming?”
Built on hospitality
At its core, Topsail Steamer is intentionally straightforward.
Customers choose their seafood, sides and seasoning. Everything is layered into a pot and sent home with clear instructions. In about 45 minutes, the entire meal is steamed — no prep, no mess.
But Mahon believes the product is only half the story.
After reading Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table, she built the brand around what she calls “enlightened hospitality.”
“Fifty-one percent is how you make people feel,” she said. “Forty-nine percent is the product.”
That philosophy shaped everything — from letting customers watch their pot being assembled to training staff to deliver what Mahon describes as “over-the-top hospitality.” Today, she says nearly half of customer feedback is about the team, not just the food.
Early growth was grassroots: lobster costumes outside the shop, a hand-painted “billboard” parked near the island, and word-of-mouth from customers who kept coming back.
Then came the setbacks.
In 2018, Hurricane Florence slammed the North Carolina coast, wiping out much of the region’s tourism economy. With 80 percent of her business tied to summer rentals, Mahon had to pivot quickly.
“If they can’t come to us,” she thought, “can we ship to them?”
She began experimenting with e-commerce, cold-chain shipping, and packaging — eventually landing on Goldbelly in early 2020. When the pandemic hit a year later, Topsail Steamer was already positioned to deliver nationwide.
“Within the first year, we shipped to all 50 states,” she said. “We started seeing messages that customers were including in the shipments: Happy birthday. Happy graduation. Merry Christmas.”
Last December alone, the company shipped more than 2,500 steam pots.
Growing fast
Even before COVID, Mahon had begun expanding up the coast. A chance discovery of a vacant storefront in Ocean City, New Jersey— once home to a beloved fudge shop — led to one of the brand’s most successful locations. From there came Long Beach Island, Sea Isle City and Wildwood, N.J., Bethany Beach, Del., Gulf Shores, Ala., Florida’s Gulf Coast and Charlotte, N.C.
Today, Topsail Steamer operates a growing mix of company-owned and franchised locations, with more on the way.
The model is deliberately lean: small footprints (often under 600 square feet), low labor, simple hours, and an initial investment typically ranging from $250,000 to $400,000.
After exploring outside investment, including an October 2024 appearance on Shark Tank, Mahon ultimately chose franchising as the best way to scale without sacrificing culture.
“You can be very intentional about who you partner with,” she said. “They’re entrepreneurs too. It just wasn’t their original idea.”
Why Long Island?
Now, Mahon says the brand is ready for its next major market — and Long Island is at the top of the list.
“We’re coming to Long Island,” she said. “We’re excited about it because there’s such potential with both beach, vacation, and suburban locations.”
Her vision is a hub-and-spoke model: seasonal coastal spots in places like Long Beach, Lido Beach, Fire Island, or the Hamptons, paired with year-round neighborhood locations in communities such as Levittown or West Islip.
That structure, she believes, fits both the brand and the region.
“Connection drives this product,” Mahon said. “And Long Island is all about togetherness — family gatherings, birthdays, summer Fridays, Sundays, all of it. For us, it just feels like such a good match.”
She also notes that each location sources seafood locally whenever possible.
“In New Jersey, we buy scallops right from Viking Village in LBI,” she said. “On Long Island, we’d absolutely be looking at clams, oysters, and whatever’s coming off the boats locally. People want that.”
Mahon says she is actively seeking franchise partners, with hopes of beginning development on Long Island later this year.
Whether it’s a multi-unit operator pairing beach markets with suburban communities — or an established restaurant group looking to diversify — she believes the Island’s mix of seasonality, seafood culture, and tight-knit communities makes it a natural next chapter.
“I don’t really see boundaries,” she said. “I see what’s possible. And for Topsail Steamer, Long Island feels like the right place to grow next.”
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