The area has been a culinary paradise since the first explorers saw foot-long oysters and wild grapes along the shoreline some 500 years ago. Wilmington’s port city status brought edibles and influences from around the globe. Rich soils and so much fresh seafood provided added bounty that shaped an eclectic cuisine like no other.
The local foods cooperative Feast Down East makes sure chefs have premium ingredients from area farms. Staff and volunteers connect cooks and devoted growers, assuring diners flavorful ingredients – organic and sustainably raised. Can’t decide what to eat? Mix it up. Creative chefs are rooted in classics, but they’re known for inventing irresistible combinations. And it’s not just them. Master bartenders stir the perfect Old Fashioned or creative martinis. Breweries pour nationally recognized craft beers, and wine flows from award-winning lists. No worries if you’re not an oenophile. Seasoned sommeliers guide you.
Casual and fine-dining establishments pepper the landscape, but no need to dress up or break the bank at either. The buzz-phrase here is “upscale casual.” Khaki pants are fine even at the fanciest restaurants, and affordable prices are everywhere. Beautiful weather most days of the year mean you can dine outdoors in gorgeous settings. Choose sidewalk café tables or a pier extending over the sea. Sit on a riverside deck and watch boats cruise by at sunset. Relax, feel at home and remember to save room for dessert at these restaurants, where the food is always good, the prices are great and you’ll leave satisfied.
Loving where you live is easy to do if you reside here in Wilmington. It’s even easier for the residents near the new hot-spot in town - the South Front area! This section located on S. 2nd St. has it all - a pizza place, taco truck, tapas bar, wine bar, salt spa, yoga shop, you name it they got it!
The PubScout and crew hit up the Wilmington brewing scene. Good times at Hi-Wire Brewery, Edward Teach, Pour Taproom, and more!
Shane and Haley Pinder, Owners of Chicken Salad Chick, are originally from Virginia, but found Wilmington the perfect place for their business to thrive and knew they wouldn’t want to move away when they retired.
It’s been the vision over the last decade for the Seaview Crab Company owners trifecta – brothers Joe and Sam Romano and Nathan King – to not only harvest from our fertile coastal waters and serve the Wilmington area with the freshest catches of seafood, but to also conserve the ocean and beaches in the community where they’ve thrived from the beginning.
Regarding the beer at JohnnyLukes, there are 18 to 20 beers on tap at any given time, and they are rotated regularly by Bar Manager Zack Kerr. Wilmington Brewing’s Tropical Lightning, the ubiquitous local favorite, is on the list, along Edward Teach offerings.
Fermental holds beers of every stripe and style, from every state and from most nations, including some beers that are decidedly VERY difficult to find. Pilsners to saisons to radlers to goses to browns to porters to BBA stouts so thick they pour like used motor oil to a beer made with four leaf clovers, there is something here for everyone.
The difference in interior ambience between the two locations is marked, for sure. One is a cozy, brick-walled, intimate pub fronting on the Port City’s busy Market St., and the other is a bright, airy, light-filled, spacious place just steps from the Carolina Beach boardwalk.
Hear that? It’s the delicious sounds from the Summer Music Series cooked up every Sunday at Bluewater Waterfront Grill, where you’ll want to stand up from your seat and move your feet to the beat.
As it turns out, there’s a lot. There’s an airy, bright, welcoming and chic interior design (the handiwork of Carol Jensen), and a space that also includes four-seater tables, a neat curved bar, a relaxed easy chair and sofa “living room” seating area and gleaming mash tuns within an arm’s reach.
7 Reasons to Hang Out in Wilmington’s South Front District Mexican Cuisine | Pizza...
Big, it ain’t. And at first blush it looks like the kind of place where you’d have go outside to change your mind. But a place doesn’t have to be airy and grandiose to be worth visiting, especially when the beer menu has almost 50 beers and the food that comes out of the kitchen is this good.
This Valentine’s Day, enjoy the fantastic eats around town with that special someone. Here are some of our favorites…
Expect a clean environment and fresh food at this hopping family-oriented business in Monkey Junction.
Who’s Who of Wilmington Today: Meet Chef Lee Grossman, Owner of Bento Box Sushi in The Forum. New England native and proud chef.
Larry Morgan, general manager of Bluewater Restaurant, is originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, and moved to Wilmington after his two children moved here first. He loves coastal community living and describes himself as energetic and driven.
After growing up in the Midwest, Brian Ballard, Owner of Pour Taproom in Wilmington, NC, moved around a bit, from Arizona to Florida to New England to Greensboro, North Carolina. When he decided to leave the corporate world to start a business, he wanted to stop moving so much and lay down some roots.
Henry’s is a name and face you won’t soon forget. The hidden midtown gem makes a delicious first impression that will last and return, visit after visit.
Board & Barrel, in the belly of Wilmington’s Hotel Ballast, has a ground-floor view of the hotel pool, the famous River Walk and the Cape Fear River; and according to the gracious, affable manager Dacia Zimmer, the summer season always sees crowds of visitors.
None of the folks running the chic restaurant in Wilmington’s Embassy Suites hotel is named James Watt (who perfected the steam engine). Their names are Alan Nelson, Nicole Boudrieau and Tyler Powell. But eventually, they could collectively take on the name Hero, the Greek who actually invented the device in the first century.
When Manuel Ibarra and his two brothers first opened the doors of El Cerro Grande in Wilmington in January of 1991, the restaurant drew so many that it ran out of food in less than two hours. Nearly three decades later, the Ibarra family continues to impress the Port City with quality Mexican food and exceptional service. Now with three locations in Wilmington, El Cerro Grande is proud to be known as Wilmington’s original authentic Mexican restaurant.
The vision of Zócalo Street Food and Tequila came to Emmanuel Ibarra in 2016. After spending many years working in his family’s successful Mexican restaurant, Emmanuel, along with his brother, Salvador, and a childhood friend decided they wanted to do something unique and modern.
