Customers cluster around the South County farmers market booth of Brightside Seafood Market as Manager and Marketing Director Meg Fleming rattles off the offerings: “oysters, littlenecks, Atlantic mackerel, skate wing, black sea bass, monkfish, swordfish, haddock, squid, yellowtail and blackback flounder,” all from Rhode Island waters. Fleming and Brightside owner Mike Lapierre are on a mission to “provide Rhode Island residents with Rhode Island seafood,” in her words.

Lapierre had been buying and selling fish at farmers markets and opened the Narragansett site in November 2023, when Fleming (who’d done a stint at Fearless Fish Market in Providence) joined him. They meet squid boats at Pt. Judith and buy “a lot of by-catch,” as well as whole fish, in addition to filling in with distributors from Stonington and Boston.

“We’re buying the very freshest stuff and cutting it ourselves,” says Fleming. “We have the option to change people’s eating habits,” she adds. She herself seems to always have a “bright side,” explaining the provenance of the seafood, breaking down a recipe, eager to hear customers’ reports of their efforts with something they’ve never tasted or cooked before.

1014 Boston Neck Rd., Narragansett, (closed Sunday and Monday); 401.661.9384; BrightsideSeafood.com