Devour - Fall 2015

Inside the Kitchen

Get to know one of Wilmington’s youngest chefs, Mike Overman, at South Beach Grill. PGS 6–7

South Beach 5-0: A hand-pattied burger, topped with bacon, crispy-fried sweet soy onion, brown-sugar-grilled pineapple, Blue Point Toasted Lager honey mustard, lettuce, mayo, and Swiss cheese, served with a deep fried pineapple slice and Maraschino cherry.

FARMER 14-15 | The Bannermans run their own muscadine vineyard to make sweet suppernong wine in Bur-

EDITOR Shea Carver

gaw, NC. Read Linda Grattafiori’s interview with them.

ASSISTANT EDITOR Shannon Rae Gentry ART DIRECTOR Kyle Peeler ADVERTISING Shea Carver, Willa Brown, John Hitt, Rose Thompson

Cover: Holland Dotts Photography

ON THE COVER 6-7

| Meet Chef Mike Overman. The mid-20-year-old has been in a kichen since age 7.

He worked his way up to head chef at South Beach Grill over the last decade. Get to know Chef Overman and his food, as well as his ties to the Port City and Wrightsville Beach. (Also pictured:

CONTRIBUTORS Rosa Bianca, Gwenyfar Rohler, Joel Finsel, Emily Caulfield,John Burke Bethany Turner, Evan Folds, Linda Grattafiori PHOTOGRAPHY Holland Dotts, Willa Brown, Trent Williams, Rosa Bianca, Bethany Turner

Overman’s brother and coworker, Hugh)

DEVOUR

eat

16-17

Rosa on the Road

Breakfast: It’s the brain food that sustains us.

However, in the throes of our rushed lifestyles, scoring a nutritious meal to go can be hard.

Rosa takes out the guesswork on three places worth a shot.

22-23

recipes

Food Your Feelings

Emily Caulfield shares four fabulously delicious recipes (and her hand-drawn illustrations) so you can make the perfect meal for your family during these upcoming cool, crisp days of autumn.

ALSO INSIDE:

28-30

beer

Waterline Brewing

Another craft brewery will be opening its doors this fall in Wilmington. Get to know the businessmen behind the riverfront’s very own Waterline, and the brews they’ll be filling our mugs with quite soon.

34-35

books

Yummy Reads

Gwenyfar Rohler reviews a regional release, “Soul Food Odyssey,” as well as takes a closer look at yummy reads from the vault in her “Leftovers” column.

Restaurateur Profile, pgs. 10-11 • What We Love to Eat, pgs. 18-21 Cocktails and Conversations, pgs. 26-27 • Wine Review, pg. 31 Feature, pgs. 32-33 • Culinary Calendar, pgs. 36-39

2 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

is published by HP Media seasonally and covers the greater southeastern NC region. To subscribe to the print publication, the cost is $15 a year. Folks can sign up to subsribe in print or monthly via e-mail updates at www.devourilm.com. The website is updated each month for new, local culinary news, reviews, events and happenings.

ADVERTISING To find out how your business can be included in Devour, go to www.devourilm.com to download a media kit. Feel free to call HP Media at 910-791-0688 or email shea@encorepub.com.

HP Media also offers advertising packages for Devour and its other publications, encore and AdPak.

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Inside the Kitchen Get to know one of Wilmington’s youngest chefs, Mike Overman, at South Beach Grill

w

BY Shea Carver ● Devour editor

hen it comes to creating food that makes people happy, 26-year-old Mike Overman excels. The youngster took over the toque as head chef at South Beach Grill in February of 2015. His mentor, James Rivenbark (a.k.a. Firetruck or “Truck”), left to pursue the lead position at The Surf Club in Wrightsville Beach. What Overman may lack in numbers per his age, he makes up with in first-hand knowledge—specifically South Beach Grill knowledge. The Wrightsville Beach kitchen has been his second home, essentially, since Overman was 17.

“Actually, I was hoping to be a head chef before I was 26,” Overman divulges. “I can remember thinking when I was 18, ‘Man, if I was a chef here, this is how I would do it...’”

Overman served as prep cook when he first started at South Beach. Though he learned a lot during his tenure, his love for food was borne of his blood family.

Specifically, his aunt, Laura Shearin Walsh, who went to culinary school, would coach him through family recipes. “She taught me how to cook and surf,” the Wilmington native says.

He vividly remembers standing in Walsh’s kitchen, making ala vodka sauce and fresh pasta. It would be an all-day affair. “That was one of my favorite foods growing up,” Overman remembers, “and the spaghetti and meatballs my grandmother would make. My grandma’s a fantastic cook, too.”

The ladies in his family all provided inspiration in Overman’s cheffing journey. His mother, Lou Shearin Overman, often taught cooking classes and would host dinner par-

“My favorite fish to cook and eat is hogsnapper because it’s super sweet, with big flakes,” Chef Overman says of the fresh seafood he gets from Greenfield Loop, Mott’s Channel and Inland Seafood. “You do anything with it. We also get strawberries from Lewis Farms and green tomatoes from Port City Produce—actually, we get a lot from Port City Produce.”

Chef Mike Overman leads the helm in the South Beach Grill kitchen at only 26 years old. Photos by Holland Dotts Photography

6 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

INDUSTRY ties for friends regularly. At the mere age of 7, Overman decided to write down some of the recipes he and his family members would create, for the start of his first cookbook.

“I’ve been meaning to add to it,” he admits. “It had my mom’s recipe for fresh pasta, ala vodka sauce, and a wonton appetizer. There were four or five items in it. I would freehand them, and my mom and aunt would type them up. There’s a lemonshallot vinaigrette I still use that’s in there. I’d always taste-test along the way, and say, ‘Let’s add this or a little more of that...’”

The precocious 7-year-old’s journey into one of Wilmington’s youngest head chefs is touted on the South Beach Grill menu. Overman added a few of his own dishes indicative of his palate, which is primarily Southern refined, upon his promotion. “General Lee’s Chicken” is a play on the Chinese version of General Tso’s.

“It’s an herb-panko-crusted chicken over sweet-potato hash, with my mom’s homemade pepper jam recipe,” Overman tells.

“I’ve also added a pulled pork flatbread, baked clams and a spinach dip. I made little changes here or there, like added my mom’s pimiento cheese dip and her pickles. She makes a mean pickle. I didn’t mess with our top-sellers: Grouper Linda, Flounder Francaise and Sweet Potato Flounder.”

as a leader,” Andrews tells. “He often found himself supervising staff that may have been more senior or had been with the company longer.

This is not an easy task. However he never lost sight of the Golden Rule that still rings true, even in kitchens: Always treat others as you would like to be treated.”

Though Overman enrolled in Cape Fear Community College’s culinary program, he decided to focus on his head chef job. He’s traveled to California to farm, as well as worked in local kitchens at Brasserie du Soleil and King Neptune. He’s finding his passions fulfilled on the line, in the throes of service. It’s been a real educational experience, if not a wake-up call.

“The long hours can be hard,” Overman explains of his normal 80- or 90-hour work week. “I love it, but at 36 I might not. It’s part of the experience: the hard work and being on your feet all day. I’ve never met a chef who hasn’t done that.”

Aside from running daily service for lunch (11 a.m. until 4 p.m.) and dinner (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.), Overman still enjoys surfing and cooking for his family. In fact, his relatives often visit the restaurant.

“My brother, Hugh, also works with me in the kitchen,” Overman notes. “He loves sauteing and frying, but I think his forte is baking. He makes a great cookie.”

Located mere footsteps away from Wrightsville Beach’s Atlantic Ocean, South Beach Grill always has been known for the seafood they serve. They work with local purveyors Greenfield Loop Seafood, Mott’s Channel, Inland Seafood, and deal with a lot of NC products.

Up next for the chef will be the changeover to South Beach’s fall menu. “This time of year, I always get excited about squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, cinnamon, but most of all, the brown ales and bourbon,” he excites.

“My favorite fish to eat and cook is hogsnapper because it’s super sweet, with big flakes,” Overman tells. “You can do anything with it. We also get strawberries from Lewis Farms and green tomatoes from Port City Produce—actually, we get a lot from Port City Produce.

Modern Harvest Farms in SC just sent a bunch of okra.”

Overman also has specialty dinners planned, like a beer dinner wherein he’ll pair a white, cream-based gumbo with a pilsner. In fact, he loves beer. Part of his 20-year plan is to open a family-owned and -operated beer-driven restaurant, as well as bed and breakfast and brewery outside of Wilmington—hopefully on the Cape Fear River. In the meantime, however, the next five to 10 years will see him eventually enroll in school again and continue cheffing in Wilmington— maybe Charleston. “I still have so much to learn and I never want to stop!” he tells.

South Beach Grill is located on Wrightsville Beach at 100 South Lumina Avenue, (910) 256-4646. www.southbeachgrillwb.com

The customers respond to the fresh fare happily, as well. The numbers say it all: South Beach Grill will do up to 300 covers a night during the summer season. That means a small kicthen staff of two cooks, a salad guy, and expeditor turn over the 100-seat restaurant three times between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Overman learned to keep his wits about him during this rush under the training of Chef Rivenbark, with whom he worked for many years. “‘Truck taught me a lot how to hold your own on the line, without losing your cool and freaking out,” Overman says. “I’ve learned a lot from my sous chef, Nick Townsend, too—a lot of the little quirks of management and how to do your best to make everyone happy. He’s an excellent chef as well.”

Overman also learned from previous manager Chris Kronenwetter, as well as owner John Andrews, who started South Beach Grill 17 years ago. Almost all of Overman’s experience has come from opportunities given to him by people who believed in him.

“He has constantly sought more responsibility and has grown

Overman’s Pimiento Cheese 8 cups shredded cheese (your choice: Colby, Monterey, cheddar) 1 1/2 c mayo 6 oz pimentos 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp cayenne Mix everything together and blend well. Let sit for at least 3 hours to meld. Serve with crackers, vegetables, as a sandwich, or melt it as a hot dip with blue corn tortilla chips, as served at South Beach Grill.

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 7

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Find on

Wilmington Wine Pinpoint

22 North Blue Surf Cafe

Ogden Tap Room

For the Kids Within: Bringing back memories for some, creating new ones for others

BY Shannon Rae Gentry ● Devour assistant editor Nostalgia can be sparked by anything from the song we hear while walking through the mall or the movie franchises that bring favorite childhood cartoons to life. Food, too, often gets a visceral response; feelings of comfort emerge from flavors, as memories unfold at dinner tables nationwide. But for those born in the age of arcade diners—where milkshakes, burgers and baskets of fries abound, and quarters weighed down the pockets of kids and parent alike—going out to eat was a real treat.

Josh Novicki, owner of Spicoli’s at 1978 Eastwood Road in Wilmington. By Holland Dotts Photography

10 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

INDUSTRY Walking into Spicoli’s is nostalgic of local pizza and burger in raising hell, while parents are drinking their beer. And that’s joints from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, as a Pac Man, Donkey what we want.”

Kong and pinball machine welcomes diners. The giant pizza slice, In its upstart, Novicki was the only one, more or less, manning oozing with cheese and pepperoni, hanging overhead transports the kitchen. Yet, he’s hired a couple of new guns to join his ranks patrons back to times when all we needed was a tasty slice and while he continues to develop a menu dominated by burgers, a cool buzz to be fine. The music is rockin’ and bar is stocked, wings and pizzas. At the moment there are several specialty pizwith makings of cocktails or a pour of brew from a few rotating zas from which to choose, as well as build-your-own creations. taps. Plus, a throwback logo and basic menu with basic goodies. The same applies to the specially crafted burgers. At Spicoli’s, Spicoli’s is exactly as owner Josh Novicki envisioned. more is more and more is good.

“I just really like pizza,” owner Josh Novicki says when asked “Basically, the concept here is a ton of food that’s really terrible about the inspiration of his restaurant. “You know, like [pizza for you but really delicious,” he quips. “Our burgers are 8 ounces joints] when you were growing up. It’s like the red Coke cups: You and you literally get a mound of fries. The small pizzas are 14 have to have those at a pizza shop; it’s just one of those things. inches and the larges are 20. There’s no other pizza shop in town I’ve basically had this concept in my head for years and was wait- that does 20-inch pies.” ing for the right opportunity and the right place.”

Novicki is particularly happy with his burgers. Each combinaHowever, the restaurant boasts modern updates, too. Most tion comes with self-explanatory names, like “Topless Phoebe,” notably is the digital jukebox and bar, which is stocked to which stands for a patty without toppings. “Some people have the rim with drinks. Fanciful pies go beyond pepperoni and come in and said ours are the best burgers they’ve had, and that extra cheese (like the “Aloha, Mr. means a lot to me,” he tells.

Hand,” which comes with mozzaThere is even a black-bean burgrella, provolone, Parmesan, ham, er available, but Novicki wants to “I’ve basically had this concept in my head pineapple, and cherry peppers), expand further still. “We’re getting and specialty burgers give more ready to start making quinoa patfor years and was waiting for the right than bacon and American cheese ties,” he continues. “We’re gonna opportunity and right place.” — Josh Novicki change the menu seasonally, too. (like the “Mahoney,” topped with bourbon bacon jam, cheddar, letDuring the winter we’re looking to tuce, tomato, and onion). do a couple of pastas.”

In addition to being part owner of two of Wilmington’s most Spicoli’s is very much different from the fine dining and strict successful fine-dining restaurants, Rx (421 Castle St.) and Pem- farm-to-table establishments Novicki’s ventured into previously. broke’s (1125 A, Military Cutoff Rd.), Spicoli’s is sort of a home- It’s more fast-paced. Nevertheless, Novicki sources his bacon and coming for Novicki. He managed Incredible Pizza in the same a few other pork items from Heritage Farms in North Carolina. space years ago before it was Bessie and Giuseppei, before he He continues to create a lot of ingredients from scratch, too. “I’m left for New York City in 2005. Rx opened in 2012, and he went making my own pizza dough, sauces, patting burgers, brining back to NYC, before returning to open Pembroke’s in 2014. chicken, but I’m not making or curing my own meats,” he clarifies.

“I was in New York working and found this place for sale,” he For his pizza dough, Novicki uses a 10-year-old sourdough tells of his newest venture. “It’s kind of the circle of life, with a yeast starter. He still tinkers with it to get a good, thin crust. “I’m weird chain of events that led to this.” not a huge crust fan,” he admits. “We’re still trying to get that Novicki has worked in the restaurant industry since he was 13 happy medium between the inch to 2-inch crust.” years old. He started with his father’s country club in Goldsboro, He also offers gluten-free crust and vegan cheese upon reNC. “I’m not a chef, per se,” he notes. “I’m just a really good line quest. “We’re going to start making the vegan cheese in house,” cook. I actually moved to New York to get out of the restaurant Novicki divulges. “That’s going to be a learning curve for me, but business. I do love it; I really do. I like to make people happy, and I’m feeling pretty good about it.” me, personally, I thrive on chaos. It’s all I ever wanted: to have my All of the sauces for the wings are homemade, from traditional own place. I’ve been fortunate to be in the right position at the Buffalo flavor to teriyaki, as well as a jerk. Novicki is still tweaking right times, with fairly decent ideas and concepts.” them all. “My favorite is the Asian,” he tells. “It’s like a smoked, Novicki’s cooked in New York, Orlando, Atlanta, and here in the Asian-style barbecue, like real Korean barbecue sauce.”

Port City. However, his role switched at Rx and Pembroke’s. He The restaurateur also incorporated delivery into the new venfocused on front-of-the-house management. ture—a radius spanning out to Greenville Loop Road which cuts “I’m like a project guy,” he tells. “I do a lot of different things as off around the intersection of College and Market streets. opposed to one specific thing for a long time. . . . This was a good “I’m often out in Middlesound, and my only option is Dominos deal, and I’ve always wanted a super-casual pizza, burgers, wings and that’s it ... I love Dominos, I’ve got the app on my phone,” he [restaurant] with a bar. Spicoli’s is exactly that.” laughs, “but there’s nothing else and knowing what we did here While he doesn’t have the 1950’s jukebox in the corner, there’s years ago delivery-wise, it was a no-brainer.” a modern digital player to pick favorite tunes to spin, so to speak.

Devour readers can expect the addition of a dessert menu, The vintage games, however, define the come-as-you-are vibe, including milkshakes, by October or November, as well as paswhether straight from the gym or sandy from the beach, or stroll- tas and soups as they fit in. “If something’s not working, we’ll ing in after school with the family. try something else,” Novicki continues. “We’re not married to “It’s really funny to see kids come in and see these games anything, and if it makes sense, it makes sense; if it doesn’t, that, [to them,] are so archaic,” Novicki says. “Kids can come it doesn’t.”

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 11

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FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 13

Muscadine Harvest: Bannerman Vineyards produces scuppernong wines

BY Linda Grattafiori ● Devour contributor

Harvest season, August through November, is the time when Colleen and Scot Bannerman are rockin’ and rollin’ in their vineyard and winery. They tote muscadine grapes to market, invite customers to pick their own, and turn the rest of the pulpy fruit into wine.

Located in Burgaw—30 minutes from downtown Wilmington— Bannerman is one of eight coastal wineries in North Carolina.

At Bannerman Vineyard’s customers can pick their own muscadines. Photo by Holland Dotts Photography

14 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

INDUSTRY The Bannermans married tells, “which has been shown to shortly after Scot’s family purdecrease cholesterol and other circhased the vineyard in 1973, but culatory problems.” the young couple got busy raisThe Bannerman Winery makes ing four sons. When the last child more than seven different wines, inentered school, Colleen became cluding White Oak Sweet, Red Oak serious about not only enhancSemi-Sweet, and Sweet Bay Blush ing the vineyard but opening a (a blend of red and white muscawinery based on presenting a dines). The blush complements the really clean product, grown as fruity smooth flavor of the white organically as possible. with the bold robust flavor of the “Muscadine grapes have a red. The Bannermans take pride in thick skin on the outside with their enhanced wines, strawberry, lots of pulp and seeds on the inblueberry and lemon/raspberry. side,” Colleen says. “It’s truly a North Carolinians have been entaste of the South. We have not joying muscadine wine for a long sprayed any chemicals or pestitime. In 1524, Giovanni de Veracides on our grapes in over 10 zano recorded the first sighting of years.” grapes in the Cape Fear River ValThey grow 18 acres of the ley. In the early 1800s, a bronze grapes on fertile soil, enriched muscadine was called “scupperby composted manure from lonong.” The name derived from the cal famers. “Some triple eight Algonquin Indian “ascopa,” meanor triple 10,” Colleen touts of ing sweetbay tree. In 1811 The Star their high mineralization. “The Newspaper printed the first written Colleen and Scot Bannerman with their dog,?, at their grape vinefact that we can bottle weekly, record of the scuppernong fruit. yard in Burgaw. Photo by Holland Dotts Photography fresh, is really nice. Our customAnd in 1840, the federal census ers who buy from us here at the declared North Carolina the chief winery appreciate our efforts.” wine-producing state in America. By the 1900s, 25 wineries operTen years ago, before they officially opened, Colleen was still ated in North Carolina, making it one of the most productive wine learning the ins and outs of bottling wine. They threw a party states in America. Prohibition shut down the industry for a short with friends, family and neighbors. “All of a sudden, we heard time, but today there are some 120 wineries throughout the state, gunshot-loud sounds from the bottles: pop, pop, pop,” Colleen across the mountain, Piedmont and coast regions. remembers with a laugh. “People were jumping around. The tops Muscadines love the humid climate of the coastal plain and were blowing off the bottles. Scot acted like we were having thrive in the summer heat. The most common scuppernong—or champagne, and began toasting everyone. Early the next day, I “big white grape”—is really greenish or bronze. “Carlos” is a popcalled another winemaker and he told me to add potassium sor- ular variety for making white wine. Noble, ranging in color from bate to prevent the wine from re-fermenting in the bottles. I was dark red to black is the primary muscadine cultivar used in red grateful for all the guidance I was given along the way.” wine and juice production.

Community-minded as well, Colleen believes in supporting lo“A lot of northerners come down to buy our wine, and say cal farmers’ markets, and sells grapes and wine at Wilmington’s they’re going to put it in their cellars to age,” Colleen explains.

Riverfront Market every other Saturday and Poplar Grove’s Mar- “But muscadine wines don’t age. They’re going to taste the same ket on Wednesdays, both open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. She par- today as a year from now. Each season, I bottle up to 10,000 liters, ticipates in three Jacksonville farmers’ markets, too: the Richland and work on the process once a week, not once a year.”

Market every other Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the one at Big Working next to the family is 90-year-old John Jeffreys. Colleen Lots on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and the other at Camp and her family value his work at the vineyard. He has been driving Lejeune on Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. She enjoys selling her the grapes to market for many years—and always does so with wares at nearby festivals, including the Muscadine Harvest Fes- good humor and going the extra mile. “I do anything they ask me tival in Kenansville (held every September) and the Swansboro to do,” he says.

Mullet Festival (October 10-11).

“He unloaded grapes by the flat full at the Piggly Wiggly and BJ Ryan, one of the mainstays at Poplar Grove’s Farmers’ Mar- old Hills’ grocery stores,” Colleen says, “and really helped grow ket, says, “The Bannermans are core members of our market, and the business.” have been with us since the beginning in 2007. They’re here every The Bannerman Winery tasting room welcomes visitors duryear because our customers love their wine.” ing seasonal vineyard hours, August through November, Monday The Bannermans are participants in the Goodness Grows in through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They’re open Sunday North Carolina, too. The program represents North Carolina- from noon to 6 p.m. Off-season December through July hours are grown agriculture. As members, they strongly support the ex- Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.

Bannerman Vineyards is located at 2624 Stag Park Rd., Burgaw, panding wine industry and local strawberry and blueberry growers. “Our wine is full of antioxidants and resveratrol,” Colleen NC. (910) 259-5474. www.bannermanvineyard.com FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 15

Rosa on the Road

Finding the best breakfast on-the-go

a

BY Rosa Bianca ● Devour contributor and encore magazine restaurant critic

wise man once wrote, “I love sleep because it’s like a time machine to breakfast.”

There’s no feeling like waking up in the morning and realizing it’s time to eat again.

The full belly from last night’s meal has dissipated, and there’s now an empty space for bacon and caffeine.

Working from home, I certainly reap the benefits of breakfast on the couch each day.

While I relish kicking back with a polka-dot mug full of French roast and a Pier 1 tray overflowing with frittata, I know life’s not always that laid back. Most folks enjoy their first meal of the day on-the-go. Pardon my use of the word “enjoy” (I am sure coffee is sloshing over its brim while you’re inadvertently oozing Pop Tart jam on your pants).

Eating in the car is tricky, whether riding out the morning rush or hitting the road early for a weekend getaway. I picked three local restaurants that offer conveniently packaged to-go style food and put them to the test.

The term “breakfast in a vehicle” has double meaning here. Folks who are cooped up in a car for the sunrise commute need their eggs contained in a cozy vessel: a tortilla, an English muffin, a flatbread but name a few. (Save the sausage gravy and biscuits for the weekend.

Trust me, I tried.)

But, first, coffee.

Port City locals are more than likely Port City regulars—Port City Java, that is. For 20 years, PCJ successfully has branded themselves Wilmington’s go-to coffee shop. Their savory breakfast selections aren’t made-from-scratch before our eyes, but neither are Starbucks’.

(Sorry to burst your Frappuccino.) I opted for the Mediterranean breakfast wrap and an iced coffee, as I occasionally critique a place by 16 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

Port City Java’s Meidterranean Wrap is perfect breakfast food on-the-go. Photo by Rosa Bianca

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

—Lewis Carroll

EAT

Folk’s Café makes a mean buttery croissant sandwich, perfect for hurried mornings. Photo by Rosa Bianca

their cold selections. Most baristas deliver a weak steep resulting in what typically tastes like coffee-flavored water. PCJ has a smooth iced brew with crushed ice. It doesn’t offer the dark bitter bite I prefer, but it’s refreshing and light and, hey, that caffeine buzz.

As for the veggie wrap: It was the ideal handheld driving food. I unwound the top from its parchment paper, and left the bottom bundled up for fear of falling feta. The tortilla—not a typical burrito wrapper—was warm and toasted from end to end. Similar to lavash bread, this wrap’s exterior was thin and crispy. It was stuffed to the brim with creamy scrambled eggs, bite-size roasted red peppers, spinach, and salty feta. I tore open the Texas Pete packet with my teeth and slathered it on. No crumb was left behind.

My next stop was a newbie whose opening I anticipated all summer.

Smack-dab in the middle of Front Street, and replacing late-night-tatertot-spot Nick’s Diner, sits Parisian-inspired Betsy’s Crepes. While some may not think of crepes as to-go food, they certainly have the makings of an eat-and-run breakfast.

Traditional crepe batter results in a very thin, silky pancake. Betsy’s offers several varieties: regular, whole wheat, sweet golden, gluten-free, and so on. I went with the wheat flour, as I knew it would provide a sturdier shell for my messy experiment. With family in the north, “bagel and lox” is like a cousin to me. So it was the El Nova crepe or bust.

I like my coffee like I like my booze: strong. If a drop of milk turns my coffee opaque, the barista wasn’t hasty enough with those beans.

What a delight to find that Betsy’s brew required several swirls of cream to achieve a perfect beige hue. It was medium-bodied with a forward flavor, but still smooth enough for those who like it mellow.

Sitting in its Styrofoam box, this fancy-folded breakfast looked like a cinch to pick up. But things aren’t always what they seem. With a loosely folded casing and stack of fillings, I’d dub this meal a knifeand-forker. A harmonious blend of salty smoked salmon, briny capers and soft scrambled eggs spilled over the sides. The light, airy dollop of chive cream on top was the shining star, but mostly garnished my steering wheel.

Here’s the deal: Crepes aren’t meant to be eaten in a 4Runner.

They’re meant to be savored along with slow sips of cappuccino and a side of croissant. Those who can’t seem to bypass their crepe cravings, here are two tips: Ask for the sauce on the side and a tighter roll for easier active eating.

(I will be back for you, Betsy. Next time, though, I won’t leave.)

Fans of Folks Café in Brooklyn Arts District on NOFO (as in North Fourth Street), like me, pop in and say hello. However, diners in need of a hearty morning main course should head to their original Princess Street location. They serve up a variety of egg-like dishes to satisfy any savory tooth.

Speaking of croissants, this one hit the spot. I scanned the menu and was immediately swayed toward the soufflé. The puffy baked bad boy was topped with lean ham, tangy white cheddar cheese and sandwiched between a buttery croissant.

Oh, how I wish I was that soufflé!

Word to the wise: one napkin won’t be enough. Rich, flaky croissants are delicious, but tend to turn digits into butterfingers. The egg was airy and the cheese, never-ending. Let’s just say it’s the kind of not-soteeny breakfast after a night of one-too-many ‘tinis.

As for the coffee, Folks has been pouring small-batch, fair-trade, organic, fresh-roasted brew since 1999. They’ll make a fancy caramel macchi-whatever, but a simple cup of their smoky, straight-up-coffee sets everything right in the world.

Port City Java downtown location: 21 North Front St., (910) 7625282. www.portcityjava.com Folk’s Cafe: 1201 Princess St., (910) 362-1448. http://folkscafe.com Betsy’s Crepes: 127 N Front St., (910) 833-7883. www.betsyscrepes.com

Betsy’s Crepes makes a filling breakfast, even though it’s not so easy to eat on the run. Photo by Rosa Bianca

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 17

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

SHRIMP BURGER

BUFFALO PIG EARS

Funky Fresh Food Truck

Rx Restaurant and Bar 421 Castle Street • (910) 399-3080

www.funkyfreshfoodtruck.com It’s a Southern staple: the shrimp burger. Our favorite comes from Funky Fresh Food Truck (when available; they’re menu changes). Spicy slaw rests inside a buttery, bun, with rich aioli and large, fresh shrimp. Visit online site for pricing.

BIG CHEESE & PORK BOARD The Olive Café and Wine Bar 1125 Military Cutoff Rd. • (910) 679-4772 The name says it all! When it comes to cheese and charcuterie, The Olive Café has us salivating over their variety. Customers can choose a minimum of three selections, served with assorted breads, crackers, fig jam, cornichons, and coarse mustard. Price varies according to how many items are selected.

18 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

Who needs chicken wings when you can have pig ears? Don’t miss Rx’s decadently rich, Buffalo-style pig ears, served with blue cheese and celery. It’s a walk off the beaten path for appetizers with a zing, and the farm-to-table restaurant serves the starter for only $9.

BEAR CLAW

Sweet n Savory Café 1611 Pavillion Place • (910) 256-0115 Sweet n Savory serves so much goodness, from breakfast to dinner to lunch. Each time we visit, we cannot get enough from their bakery of fresh goods—especially their bear claw. The flaky pastry is filled to the gill with cinnamon, nuts, butter, and topped with icing—a perfect accompaniment to the morning coffee. $3.99

SERVING

CHINESE Japanese thai $4.59 LUNCH BOWLS MONDAY: BOGO SUSHI (BUY 1 GET 1 HALF OFF) TUESDAY: $7.95 DINNER • WEDNESDAY: 1/2 PRICED APPS THURSDAY: $10 BENTO BOXES FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: 2 FOR $20 ENTREES MON-thur: 11am-3pm and 5pm-9:30pm ∙ Fri-sat: 11am-3pm and 5pm-10pm

4102 market st. • (910) 332-3302

www.kyotoasiangrille.com The Hang Town Fry

Cafe • Catering • Prepared Foods Meats • Wine • Gourmet Store 3520 S. College Road Phone: (910) 350-3663 • Fax: (910) 350-3691

www.pinevalleymarket.com FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 19

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

BBQ SANDWICH

BEEF TARTARE

Carolina Table Salt 812 S College Rd. • (910) 833-7894

PinPoint Restaurant 114 Market St. • (910) 769-2972

They’re relatively new to Wilmington’s dining scene, but folks are raving about their pulled-pork sandwich. Fresh smoked and topped with vinegary sauce, the sandwich comes with two homemade sides (like mac ‘n’ cheese and baked beans) and tea for only $7.50.

Talk about elegant refinement in one dish: PinPoint serves the best beef tartare in the Port City. Freshly chopped beef is mixed with caper aioli and topped with soy, pickled beech mushrooms, fennel, and cured egg yolk, served with potato crisps. $15

FRENCH MACARONS Shuga Shak Chic Confections 1904 Eastwood Rd. #106,107 • (910) 262-5838 Sweet teeth everywhere hailed Shuga Shak their mecca for the best French macarons in town! They make them custom order, from pure nut flours (almond, pistachio, hazelnut, pecan), intense natural flavorings (Madagascar vanilla beans, Belgian chocolate, authentic Key Lime juice) and signature embellishments. Call for pricing.

20 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

SHRIMP-AVOCADO WRAP Might As Well Bar and Grill 250 Racine Dr. #15 • (910) 228-5365 When looking for a filling lunch with fresh seafood, head over to Might As Well, off Racine Drive. Their shrimp and avocado wrap is filled with lettuce, bacon, tomato, and chipotle mayo, and comes with a side for only $8.95.

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

SHE CRAB BISQUE

BLACK BEAN BENEDICT

Hieronymus Seafood Restaurant 5035 Market St. • (910) 392-6313

Jester’s Café 607 Castle St. • (910) 763-6555

They’ve been around for more than two decades, serving fresh seafood to the public from down-home family recipes. And their famed She Crab bisque—made with hand-picked crab from the Cape Fear—will take you to foodie glory land. We promise. $5

A hearty breakfast for anyone, but particularly vegetarians, Jester’s Black Bean Benedict is a chop off the block from the normal bacon-laden fare. Oven-baked eggs are served atop house-mixed black-bean patties, and served with diced tomato, avocado and Hollandaise, and a side of grits, home fries or fruit. $8.75

GOURMET MAC N CHEESE Fork ‘n’ Cork 122 Market St. • (910) 228-5247 Fork ‘n’ Cork is known for their gourmet burgers, but they also serve a daily mac ‘n’ cheese that can’t be topped in town. Above is a shrimp carbonara, made with homemade cheese sauce, pancetta, egg, onions, peas, and mushrooms, served with side salad or Caesar. $16 (other varieties $14-$17)

CHOP SALAD Chop’s Deli 130 N. Front St., Ste. 101 • (910) 399-6503 (Wrightsville Beach and Monkey Junction locations, too!)

They’ve mastered sandwiches, but don’t overlook Chop’s gorgeous, filling salads. The Chop Salad comes with deli sliced turkey, chicken, ham and beef, cheeses, tons of veggies, and choice of dressing. $8.75 FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 21

TO

EAT! Recipes to try at home

Food Your Feelings: Local blogger shares latest round of recipes from her kitchen

BY Emily Caulfield ● Devour contributor, Food Your Feelings blogger, http://dearemilycaulfield.wordpress.com.

It is a mad scientist’s power that comes from making something wonderful and brand new.

A singular dish that was just a grocery list of disparate ingredients, moments or hours before. The golden, shimmering alchemy of cooking is one of the ways I fill my life with warmth and light. I cook home food; no molecular gastronomics, no loopy swirls on the plate. It is a remarkable thing to be confident in providing for yourself—not just surviving, but creating, often out of very little, a feast, nourishing and magnificent in its rustic simplicity.

METHOD: Cut the squash into 1/8-inch thick rings, and dice.

Warm the olive oil over medium.

Add the squash and lemon zest, and scoot them around for about 5 minutes, until they’ve softened slightly. Mix in the turmeric and pour over the broth and juice.

Once everything comes back to medium heat, add the rice. Cook uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes. Shooting for a little under is best, as you want everything just tender.

Add the salt and taste for seasoning. Let cool a bit before serving in big bowls with big spoons. You want it warm rather than hot.

This is the most cheerful dish. The color is astonishing. Revel in it.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Cauliflower Cake An eggy, cheesy cauliflower cake that’s best anywhere, anytime, and travels very well.

YELLOW BELLIED SOUP (ADAPTED FROM NIGELLA LAWSON) This warm, lemony bowl of turmeric-scented squash is a super fast dish that’s perfect for fading into fall.

INGREDIENTS: 2 medium yellow squash, diced 1 lemon, juice and zest 2 tbsp olive oil 4 c chicken or vegetable broth 1/3 c basmati rice, rinsed in three batches cold water 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp salt

22 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

INGREDIENTS: 4 c cauliflower, broken up into small one-inch pieces 1 small red onion, peeled 5 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp finely chopped rosemary 7 large eggs 1/2 c basil leaves, chopped 1 c all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/3 tsp ground turmeric 1 1/2 c coarsely grated Parmesan Melted unsalted butter, for brushing 1 tbsp white sesame seeds Salt and pepper

EAT 1 shallot (peeled) 1 clove of garlic (peeled) 3-4 tbsp olive oil Juice of half a lemon Salt and pepper

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Pop the cauliflower in a saucepan and add a teaspoon of salt.

Cover with water and simmer for 15 minutes, until the florets are soft, and crumble when pressed with a spoon. Drain and set aside in a colander to dry.

Cut off the top and then four round slices of the onion, each 1/4-inch thick. I use a mandolin and it works like a dream. Chop the rest of the onion and place in a small pan with the oil and rosemary.

Cook for about 10 minutes over medium, stirring occasionally, until soft. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Transfer the onion to a large bowl, add the eggs and basil, and whisk well. Add the flour, baking powder, turmeric, Parmesan, a teaspoon of salt, and plenty of pepper. Whisk until smooth before adding the cauliflower and stirring gently, trying not to break up the florets.

Line the base and sides of a thin baking dish with parchment paper or aluminum. Brush the sides with melted butter, then toss sesame around the inside of the pan so that they stick to the sides and bottom. Pour the cauliflower mixture into the pan, spreading it evenly, and arrange the reserved onion rings on top.

Place in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown and set; the toothpick test is a lifesaver here. Let sit at least 20 minutes before serving.

It should be served warm or at room temperature.

MEDITERRANEAN TOMATO SALAD The blanched tomatoes in this recipe really give it another level of life! Skinless, the tomatoes just drink up the tart, herby dressing, and it’s just the best.

INGREDIENTS: 3-5 medium vine-ripe tomatoes 1 shallot 1 garlic clove 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper Handful fresh chopped chervil, parsley, cilantro, basil, or some combo of them

METHOD: Blitz the shallot and garlic as finely as possible in a processor, and put it in a small bowl to souse with the oil, then salt and pepper while you get to blanching! Blanching the tomatoes is no big whoop: Just boil up a large pot of water, take it off the heat, then dip each tomato into the hot water for about a minute. Place them in a colander and rinse with cold water. Now, you can flick off the skins with a sharp knife with no trouble at all.

The skinless tomatoes are fuzzy and awesome, just slice them into fat rounds, and place them in a dish. Pour over the dressing and fold it into the tomatoes with your hands. Let them steep this way for at least an hour, so the flavors can develop and deepen.

When you’re ready to serve, just arrange the tomatoes on a plate, drizzle over the dressing in the bottom of the bowl, squeeze over the lemon, and add your herbs and one more sprinkle of finishing salt. Serve at room temperature and watch your guests taste tomatoes and herbs like never before.

Do not refrigerate! This salad likes to hang out and be a little loosey-goosey. A trip to the icebox and all is lost. Keep it casual!

BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER They’re the best.

INGREDIENTS: 2 c bread flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 c tiny chocolate chips (dark, milk, vegan, whatever—they just have to be small) 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp fleur de sel 1/2 c coconut oil (warmed to liquid) 1 c light brown sugar 1/4 c plain, unsweet almond milk METHOD: Sift flour, fleur de sel, baking soda, and baking powder together and set aside. Cream together liquid coconut oil and brown sugar. When it’s thickened, add the milk and vanilla extract, and blend. Pour it into the sifted dry ingredients and incorporate it slowly, by folding and pulling the mixture with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

Next, fold in the chocolate chips. Just use the fold-and-pull method for a little bit. Have faith, and all of a sudden, the flour, oil and baking soda, and all the rest, will react—and bam! A dough will spring to life under your hands.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out small—tablespoon or smaller—sized balls of dough, and place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. Pop those round little cookie balls in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes and let them cool at least 5 minutes before eating.

After 5, they’re alllllll yours!

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 23

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www.poodlesislandwear.com

Cocktails and Conversations An old man and the Negroni

BY Joel Finsel ● Devour contributor, mixologist and author of ‘Cockatils and Conversations from the Astral Plane’

h

e always had a twinkle in his eye whenever he walked in the bar, even as he gave up his cane for a walker.

Sometime before I was hired, he had arranged for a barter with the owner: some unknown dollar amount for the huge abstract painting on the wall. Because our drinks were so cheap, it took him at least a decade to pay it off. The billboard-size painting hung on the side wall in the old converted stone bank building downtown. Whenever I looked at its pulsating bands of color—yellows, oranges, blues slicing through a coal-colored background—my eyes were fooled into thinking it was actually a 3D portal of some kind. It looked like, if I had a ladder, I could climb up there and stick my hand in it.

Forty years ago, when this customer was in his 40s, he had been a rising star in the international art world. Unlike my other customers—mostly old high-school friends I’d known all my life—he had stories worth hearing, like how he had been a Navy medic during WWII. Near the end of the war, Marlon Brando’s first feature film, “The Men,” was filmed on his ward. I rented the movie for him one night as a surprise and had it playing when he came in. I quickly had to turn it off to keep him from weeping.

After the war, he fought wildfires in Northern California before winding his way back east. As he was getting set to cash in on the G.I. Bill, he was recalled for the Korean War. On his first day at his new assignment, a hospital in South Philly, he rode the elevator to every floor to have a look around. Near the top floor, he happened into a room of guys who were sitting around easels with paint brushes. They were making scientific illustrations of the body’s skin, muscle and bone.

When he asked if they needed another artist,

26 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

Joel Finsel, bartender at Manna. Photo by Trent Williams

“ A Negroni is just about the perfect cocktail ... so simple even the worst bartender can’t mess it up too badly.”

—Jason Wilson, The Washington Post

IMBIBE an officer stood up. “No,” he said, handing him a roll of undeveloped film, “but we could use a photographer.”

The old man (then a young one) accepted it, walked into the darkroom, measured out the chemicals, fixers, etc., and poured them into pans under a red light. He breathed in the alkaline fumes and emerged a while later with a wet print of a naked man without legs from his knees down.

“Someone got it all wrong about Korea,” he explained. “We shipped our troops over to Korea without the right clothes for the harsh cold. Someone must have thought we were going to the tropics. There was so much frostbite turning to gangrene, which led to a lot of lost limbs.”

His job became to photograph them.

As a cog in the military industrial complex, he was able to master the best photographic technology available. When he finally came to New York after the war, he already begun to master the use of light. While studying at the School of Visual Arts, he went around on nights and weekends to document the shows of established painters: Rothko, Rauschenberg, Kline, and others. No one else was documenting the work at that time, in 1953. Before long, he was hired to photograph the inventory of the Museum of Modern Art, and had been there the morning it caught fire in 1958. He watched a fireman unknowingly axe a Monet from behind.

The old man’s popularity peaked during the ‘70s when he taught in London and had successful solo shows all over Europe. After a decade abroad, he returned to a different market with different players and tastes. He moved to Brooklyn and had to pick up odd jobs to get by.

In his 50s, he and a lover bought an old schoolhouse in his/my hometown. They converted it into a gallery. When his lover died, he moved into the elderly apartments down the block from the bar. He still kept a small studio across the street, paid for by a patron of his in New York.

I wrote down everything he ordered for close to five years, and he never ended up having to pay a penny. He did tip me fairly well though when he could, but more often he asked to borrow money in order to buy the basics, like toilet paper, which his food stamps didn’t cover. In return, he brought me back issues of The New Yorker and quizzed me about Peter Schjeldahl’s art reviews. I realize now it was his subtle way of helping to, as he put it, “educate me” out of our nowhere town.

“Start with some gin,” he began one lesson, and insisted I use the best gin on the shelf. “Add equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth.

Stir it for a while, but don’t even think about shaking it.”

As I stirred, I distinctly remember having never opened the Campari bottle before, ever. This was 1998.

“Now, strain that into the glass you have been chilling,” he said.

“For a garnish, cut a big, thin piece of orange peel. Spritz as much of that oil from the outside as you can on the top.”

I set my first ever Negroni on the napkin in front of him.

“Perfect,” he said, “like sipping from a cool brook downstream from a spice bazaar.”

My gratitude, old friend. Rest in peace.

NEGRONI 1.5 ounces sweet vermouth 1.5 ounces Campari 1.5 ounces gin Orange slice or twist for garnish Pour the ingredients into an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Garnish with orange slice.

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TAP

THE KEG! Reviews and rambles on brew

Tapping on the River: Waterline Brewing prepares to open its brewery at foot of Cape Fear River

BY Bethany Turner ● Devour contributor Built in 1945—and updated with an addition in 1948—the building most recognized as the Jacobi Hardware warehouse possesses a storied past. It’s been used for a few film projects, including “One Tree Hill.” An unidentified movie that filmed there even left behind a fiberglass mounted rhinoceros head. The building’s concrete floors still show the remnants of fake blood. When the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge was being built within a stone’s throw of the warehouse in 1960, a back corner of the building was chopped off. The wall was rebuilt so the off-ramp’s right-of-way curves around the building. Literally, underneath the bridge, the back of 721 Surry Street is no longer a perfect rectangle.

Seventy years after its construction, the warehouse has been transformed into The Art Factory. It provides working studio spaces for artists, exhibit space for their shows, as well as turns into a live music venue for musicians to perform in an intimate setting. Folks can also shop the local art and African artifacts hung throughout the warehouse. As if its mix use isn’t already far-reaching, soon an underutilized portion of the building will become the newest craft brewery, Waterline Brewing, to hit Wilmington.

Owner Rob Robinson purchased the warehouse and moved to Wilmington from Washington, D.C. on 4th of July weekend in 2014.

He and his wife, Eve, began remodeling. With longtime friend Brian Bell and new team member Mark Anthony Mueller, the crew plan to unveil Waterline Brewing Company in the building this fall.

Robinson recounts how when they bought the warehouse, it had gone into disrepair. The team spent the last year reinforcing the roof and pulling utilities into the back portion of the building to prepare for the five-barrel-system brew house. They acquired it from Deutsche Beverage Technology out of Charlotte. The goal of the design, however, remains to keep the character of the old warehouse intact.

“This is the last building of its kind from an era where there were a lot of industrial buildings, including a molasses factory and a sawmill,” Vice President and Head Brewer Bell says.

“We’ve cleaned and kept all the open beam work,” Robinson adds of their tap room. “All we did to the concrete floor was polish and seal it. You can see the utilization of the materials. In the mid-‘40s, they used what they had on hand to build it, so a lot of the roof decking is stuff reclaimed from other buildings around town.”

Part of the ceiling in the tap room is made from old siding off the side of a house. Bell and Robinson suspect it was from a home origi28 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

Waterline Brewing Taps. Photo by Mark Mueller

nally on the lot. Robinson concedes the 16,000-square-foot space has a plethora of varied history, and they don’t intend to mess with it.

“A lot of people have asked what we’re going to do to the floor— finish it, stain it, tile it,” he says. “No, no, no—in fact we didn’t even grind it down and take off all the paint, so that you could see the character of it.”

The new additions will only enhance the nautical, local and craftbeer themes they’ve planned for Waterline. In fact, the brewery got its moniker for being right on the waterline of the Cape Fear River. Its tagline: “Brewed Under the Bridge.”

“The bar is concrete, poured from a local company,” Robinson describes. “These [vignettes of] growlers are actually [embedded in the concrete] from Front Street Brewery and Wilmington Brewing Company and others, as well as oyster shells, seaglass and pre-historic shells.

My wife does glasswork, so she did our logo in glass and embedded it. We’ve got a wheelchair-height bar with a mini-growler in it.”

Eve Robinson, head of products and marketing for Waterline, has studio space in The Art Factory, along with painter Elizabeth Singletary, musician Randy McQuay, and a few other artists. The tap room has a collapsible wall that can open to The Art Factory’s stage and gallery, allowing the two businesses to coincide.

“If everything goes perfect, we’ll be open by Thanksgiving,” Robinson shares. “But it’s been a rolling date since we started last year, mostly due to the renovation requirements for the building.”

CRAFT BEER LINEUP “The idea for the facility has always been that it’s small enough of a brew plant so that we can play, but big enough so that we hopefully can make it commercially viable,” Robinson explains. “We are brewers

IMBIBE IBU, SRM and alcohol content,” he tells. “So we’ve got a low-alcohol kolsch, we’ve got some medium [ABV in the 5 percent to 6 percent range], and then we’ve got some high-gravity beers.”

Though that’s not to say there won’t be a nice spectrum of IPAs on tap. They’re planning a double IPA, strong and hoppy, as well as an American IPA. “We just made it for the first time, so we just kegged it and sampled it, and we think it’s pretty good,” Bell reflects. “It’s not going to fry your senses or ruin your palate, but it is a very strong IPA. Our standard American IPA is not quite brash enough to be considered West Coast style. We’ve also got an English IPA, which is very good; it comes in fairly high at 85 IBUs, but we use the softer Noble hops. It really has kind of a citrus, orange quality to it. It doesn’t bite like you would expect of an IPA.” The double, American and English IPAs will rotate on one IPA handle, while the rye IPA will be kept separate as its own permanent tap.

A sweet oatmeal stout also will make an appearance on the permanent line.

“Instead of chasing creative names, we’re just going to go back to basics: Waterline Pale, Waterline Kolsch, etc. Once we do seasonals or more IPAs, we may come up with other names to differentiate,” Robinson says.

As well, Bell has saison and German dark wheat recipes that he won regionals for in the National Homebrew Competition two years ago. “We’ll probably work on limited releases with some barrel aging down the road,” Robsinson says.

“We’re not the biggest brewery in town, but we’ve got a lot of cellar space,” Bell adds.

Counter-clockwise from front: Brian Bell, Mark Anthony Mueller and Rob Robinson. Photo by Bethany Turner

first. We want to make beer and sell it so we can pay the bills—but, really, we want to make beer.”

Bell and Robinson worked together in D.C. for the Air Force. “Brian was stationed in the Pentagon and I was stationed on the traveling team,” Robinson divulges. Both men have homebrewed on and off for the last two decades or more. “I actually started brewing when I was stationed in Germany in 1990,” Robinson continues, “right outside of Cologne. I was drinking a lot of kolsch.”

Waterline Kolsch will be one of at least six beers to make it to the introductory lineup. When we met for an interview in late August, the duo was still homebrewing while waiting for licensing to pass. Bell was working on scaling the recipes up for larger production.

“We decided upon a kolsch because, though we’re not producing lagers right now, kolsch will appeal to lighter-beer drinkers,” Bell states. “Lightly hopped, a little bit of wheat malt, very refreshing.”

They’ll also launch a Belgian tripel. Weighing in at 9 percent ABV, Bell describes the tripel as “sweeter and spicier than most beers, with no discernable hop flavor.” He likens it to a Golden Monkey Belgianstyle tripel from Victory Brewing Company, only more balanced. “My favorite is our red ale,” Bell adds. “We wanted to pick an array of flavors and colors. We wanted to appeal to as many people as possible.

Most of our beers are in the middle range of hops.”

Robinson cites Waterline Rye IPA as his favorite go-to after subsiding from the trendy hop bombs. Sure, he brews what he likes, but he also wants to appeal to the masses. “We wanted a nice range of

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IMBIBE MEADS AND CIDERS Mark Anthony Mueller has made a name for himself in Wilmington’s craft-beer community as co-owner of Port City Brew Bus. The multi-brewery tour vehicle operates with business partner Jeremy Tomlinson. Mueller met Robinson and Bell at a brewers’ meeting he hosted with Tomlinson at UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“I think the biggest thing I noticed that makes this brewery stand out is that every one of their beers is perfectly balanced and a great representation for each style,” Mueller divulges, “which is a great base for when you really want to bring people in for your beer.”

Mueller approached Robinson about teaming up to house a meadery within Waterline. Muelller was selling meads and ciders for another company and knew it had a demand.

“Basically it directly coincides with the craft-beer industry,” Mueller tells. “I’m excited to do something that is different but also the same. Partnering within a brewery, it’s just another way I can add something a little different, and it offers another reason for people to come in here, because we’ll have meads and ciders on tap. One thing this area is missing is meads and ciders.”

Mead is the world’s oldest fermented beverage. It’s a honey wine, in essence. “If you think of beer as being made from wort— which is the ‘sugar water’—then to make alcohol you have to have some sort of sugar water for the yeast to eat,” Mueller details.

“Mead is made from honey. Right now mead falls into the wine category, but as we’ve seen in the Beer Judge Certification Program, it’s judged as a beer. The range can go from a sweet honey, almost

wine characteristics, to cysers or melomels, which are blends of fruit and honey to make spiced or tart meads.”

Mueller’s latest homebrew was a tart ginger mead. His goal for the meadery is to make unusual and unexpected concoctions. “It’s refreshing on the front, and then the ginger and cinnamon balances it out,” he describes.

Mueller will provide a role in sales and distribution. He aspires to use all locally and regionally sourced honey and fruits for his products. “Hopefully, the increase in honey usage will help encourage and support the local beekeepers, which would increase natural pollination in the area. This helps farmers and plant growers alike.”

He’s looking at the name “Dram Tree Meads and Ciders” after Wilmington’s historic Dram Tree. Waterline is located feet away from Dram Tree Park, named after the tree which was a few miles south in the Cape Fear River. Sailors were rumored to stop at it for a swig of rum or a drink upon approaching the tree.

Mueller will start his mead in nano-batches for distribution. “The bars and breweries will be able to have locally made, gluten-free beverages,” he notes. “They will be ‘brewer’s meads,’ approached from a beer-lover’s palate with spices and blends more akin to beer than wine. Since I am partnered up with Waterline and will be helping brew when needed, I will be looking to make some big braggots (beer made with honey) to help bridge the gap even further.”

Waterline Brewing Company will be located at 721 Surry Street.

(910) 777-5599. www.waterlinebrewing.com.

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UN

CORKED! Reviews and rambles on vino

Netflixing Wine: If you like Yellowtail Cab, you’ll also like...

BY John Burke ● Devour contributer Our world is designed around alternative suggestions. Every Google search I do leads to related advertising on the fringes of my Gmail account.

Amazon is constantly telling me that people who bought items I’ve purchased have also bought from this list or that. iTunes will foist any number of bands on me based on my listening habits.

Netflix even has a $1 million prize available for anyone who can improve their suggestion algorithm. I’d like to throw in a few bucks on that one too. They tried to get me to watch some piece of crap Katherine Heigl made based on the fact that I like “The Princess Bride.” (Hey, Netflix: Everyone likes “The Princess Bride”!)

But how does all this relate to wine? Smaller wine retailers have to be quick on their feet with alternative suggestions when clients request popular wines from grocery chains or big box stores. Wine shops can’t survive at the margins made by big chains, so they can’t offer the same fare. So I asked three local wine sellers what they would offer to a potential buyer who came into the shop looking for Yellowtail Cabernet Sauvignon. I chose Yellowtail for a reason. Amongst sellers and consumers of boutique wines, it’s a much maligned brand. Rumors abound that they don’t make wine in barrels, but rather in swimming pools with grape juice and wood chips. I have no knowledge to suggest that’s true, but I confess to spreading it myself in my days as a wine rep.

My other favorite, also with no personal knowledge of its veracity, was the reason Yellowtail had a kangaroo on the label: a study Aussies did of Americans which found we’d buy just about anything with an animal on the label.

All that said, there are reasons to malign Yellowtail Cab. It’s the definition of pedestrian wine. It might as well have a grey Brand X label with just the word “Wine” inscribed on it. It lacks depth, character or any interesting qualities whatsoever.

One out of three purveyors chose not to participate. I opened with Pine Valley Market, because I wanted owner/chef Christi Ferretti’s unvarnished opinion. Without hesitation she took me to the corner of her shop and handed me a bottle of Root 1 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. I took it home and opened within two hours.

The juice itself is delightful. Thinner on the tongue than one might expect, Root 1 has some wonderful dark fruit characteristics and a few hints of chocolate. I could pair it easily with a light pasta dish or steak and ribs. It’s a bargain, too, at just over $10. Thus, it should easily supplant simpler fare like Yellowtail.

For a swing away from the normal wine bottle, give Underwood Pinot Noir in cans a shot. Available at A Tasting Room.

In many ways, Chile is to the wine industry today what Australia was 15 years ago when I first started studying wine. They’re offering high-quality juice at lower prices than average. Currently the best bargains seem to be coming from South America.

Of course, leave it to the wine pirates at A Tasting Room to give me something so out of the ordinary that even I took a moment to wrap my brain around it. Michael Bevacqua and Andrew Palermo have started carrying Underwood Pinot Noir. They gladly handed me a can as their contribution to this article.

That’s right: a can.

Underwood Pinot Noir is sold in shiny silver cans: 12 ounces of wine in packaging reminiscent of the Coors Light Silver Bullet. It isn’t from the same region (or even nation) as Yellowtail Cab. It’s not the same grape. It isn’t even the same bottling. But the reasons for comparison are unmistakable.

Underwood is a mass of bright cherry flavor. Though very light in texture, the chocolate notes give the flavor depth. It’s easily the most interesting thing I’ve ever drunk from a can. It should make a swell substitute for any dull grocery store wine.

Alternatives to common everyday wines are the life breath of the boutique wine industry. Consumers find styles they like on their own by picking up whatever they see on special whilst shopping for groceries. Then wine professionals use what they know of those flavor profiles to match buyers with better, more interesting juice.

Now, if only Ferretti, Bevacqua and Palermo could fix Netflix.

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 31

Breaking Down Life Force: Measuring the energy of that which sustains us

BY Evan Folds â—? Devour contributor and owner of Progressive Gardens

Life is peculiar. For instance, we can know we are alive and not know how we are alive at the same time. What gives? Religion has made many a fortune and follower arguing who is right, but one thing most agree on is that the source of life is beyond us. Call it faith or just humility, but ask any quantum physicist tasking themselves to discover the origins of life and they will say the further they look, the less we know. It seems obvious to consider a garden is alive, but most only consider the plants themselves—maybe the microbes in the soil, let alone how they work together symbiotically. But life is much larger than this. Most would only consider the materialistic reality of these phenomena, but what we are searching for here is that which is beyond us. We’re looking for where life comes from, and to do this we must grow our perspective larger than we may have been asked to in the past. There is something different and surreal about life. Life works together on many levels in order to work. But how exactly?

Above: Stock photo.

32 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

FEATURE We experience life: We observe it and Consider the indoor grow room, a farm or tization can be leveraged in a similar the Earth itself as its own individual organism. take advantage of it, but by all means we way in agriculture with proper intenRudolf Steiner used the idea of the farm as an tion. Think of pest infestation or plant organism in his development of biodynamic disease like an out-of-tune instrument. take it for granted. methods. Through our experiences and obserResonance and life force may be new vations, we can see the Earth takes a breath concepts in regard to a garden, but between the equinoxes by incubating (breaththey are vital to grasp in order to levering in) its energy during the winter and expressing this energy (breathing out) age the true power of living systems. Our language is very limited, as we are in the summer. not invited to imagine life beyond its physical borders from an educational We experience life: We observe it and take advantage of it, but by all level. Interestingly enough, when we investigate higher energy bodies, and means we take it for granted. Don’t get me wrong—this is not about showing put their merits into application, we find they are perfectly represented by our appreciation or being thankful to be alive. I’m saying we are alive by default, experience in nature. and this innately manifests complacency and a failure of responsibility toward The ego is unique to humans on Earth. Animals cannot see themselves in our potential without proper attention. the mirror, but a human ego can say “I.” The human ego represents responFor example, in modern conventional agriculture, farmers use dead syn- sibility of free will and leaves us disconnected from the rhythms of nature. thetic fertilizers and toxic biocides in an attempt to grow living food crops. Animals have no ego, but like humans they retain an astral body. Consider That doesn’t make sense on paper. Still, it is how the overwhelming majority it as the soul body, or the bearer of pleasure and pain, cravings, desires, and of food is grown in the U.S. In fact, the majority of our agriculture has been passions. It is the astral body that regulates animal instinct. It is also at work genetically modified so crops are able to withstand various poisons. We have in the human dream state. Plants do not retain an ego or an astral body, only gone as far as changing the genetics of life. Our ingenuity has mastered the an etheric and physical body. Throughout life, the etheric body resists decay art of profit at the expense of nature, but we have not stopped to consider by providing living substance a different setting, so to speak, than it would people and the terrible expense we are creating for ourselves. We spend otherwise physically have by itself. Without an ego or an astral body, plants more time trying to kill problems we create with our toxic ways than we do are more directly influenced by the subtle etheric energies of nature. They trying to increase the quality of what we are producing. In many ways, we have remain completely immersed in her natural rhythms. This is why plants are so lost perspective toward what is best for us. heavily influenced by celestial events, such as the full moon, and represent the A common mistake for people first introduced to these concepts is to basis for the biodynamic method of farming introduced in Steiner’s Agriculimagine the messenger is suggesting the supersensible capacities of living ture Course in 1924. systems are more important than materialistic capacities. That is not at all what True health, in Steiner’s view, is only achieved when the higher energy bodI am doing here. The physical materialistic world is not irrelevant. Indeed, it is ies are working in conjunction with the physical body. To put it another way, what we experience in day-to-day life—and it’s a major piece to the wholistic illness occurs in the physical body as a precipitation of the imbalances in the puzzle. But this article is about what we may be missing. Imagine trying to ride wholistic system. Essentially, there is more to life than what is physically here. a bike with no chain—or without the human awareness that steers us in the Life has a force, or an energy, that ties us altogether. This force is lost on the right direction. We have to think our way out of this agricultural conundrum average human, as it is on the average modern farmer or popular scientist. All we have created. What we think, we grow. What we eat, we know. we need for confirmation of this pervasive energy is to take an inventory of the Life contains physical, mineral, biological, and energetic components. The way these energies are expressed in nature—the spiral vortex. physical and mineral components amount to plowing and fertilizing conWe see the spiral vortex in water, snail shells, the tendrils of a climbing ventional agriculture. From a certification level, organic growing completely plant, the pattern of seed in a sunflower or pine cone, and in every living disregards microbial inoculation and diversity, but at least organic fertilizers creature. Even shapes we see that are not spirals are patterned according to feed microbes. However, both methods of growing completely ignore and the sacred geometry of nature. From the tiniest of particles like DNA to the discount the energetic component and concept of life force. largest of systems such as galaxies, the spiral vortex is the pattern template Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic methods are the standard bearer of energetic of nature. Through resonance and potentization, life moves like an energetic farming. But biodynamics does not represent a complete farming system. In ghost in spaces between physical substance via the form of the spiral vortex. fairness, Steiner’s lectures show this was not his intention. He was asked to Outside of itself, life is in resonance with and responsive to its greater environdeliver methods of generating and working with the life force of the farm, not ment, including climate, celestial cycles, the structure of water, and the great deliver concepts such as soil testing for mineral balance or brewing compost many subtle energies of nature and the universe, all of which work to regulate tea for biological diversity. In our consultation work, we call our agronomic and communicate in and between living systems. approach “BioEnergetic Agriculture.” If conventional agriculture is drowning, A living system is responsive to the farmer working the land, who, in most and organic growing is treading water, BioEnergetic Agriculture is swimming agricultural circumstances, is not operating in resonance with the wholistic where we want to go. In order to accomplish the potential of our agriculture, system. This is the innate responsibility of a BioEnergetic farmer: making sure we must open our minds to the qualitative and relatively immeasurable con- they are not working against the forces that are at work for them. There are cepts of form, resonance, potentization, and life force. ways to measure these forces, such as Kirlian photography or sensitive crystalLiterally, life is energy. In our own bodies we can identify the nervous sys- lization, but these methods are not accepted by popular science because they tem and the electrical firing of the synapsis in the brain, calling our bodies are not repeatable in the sort of exactness we have come to expect in scieninto action. The true workings of the energies that regulate these life systems tific circles. Nature does not work in straight lines and data points, only chaos are far more subtle and profound. We know life is more than the sum of its and spirals. Therein, nature does not repeat herself by design. The mighty parts. The reason living things do not fall apart into their component pieces is scientific method might have brought us to where we are, but is it capable of due to the organization and communication of the physical body with, what taking us where we want to go?

Steiner called, the etheric body, the astral body and the I-organization, or The best measurement is experience. If we are to heal and conquer agriculego, of humans. These subtle energy bodies represent the glue that holds ture in any sort of collective way, we must come to terms with the confidence life together. This glue is accomplished through the phenomena of resonance developed through the experience of growing with subtle energies, ponderand potentization. Resonance is the force generated by pumping on a swing, ing life force, developing our own personal agriculture, eating our ideals, and or the concept of a pendulum continuing its initial momentum. holding ourselves accountable to the responsibility that we have for ourselves Potentization is the art of working with resonance in order to bring higher and the world that sustains us. Ideas are a real and tangible thing, and life is order and significance to life experiences. Consider the crescendo of a sym- a force. It is form, resonance, and potentization personified. We can play it phony orchestra as an example. Woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings like a fiddle if we open our minds and provide ourselves the opportunity for work together to move the human spirit with sound. Resonance and poten- reinforcing experience through the generation of supersensible ideas.

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 33

TO

READ! Cookbooks and other reviews

From Soul Food to Medieval Recipes: A few new and old books that tantalize the taste buds for all walks of life

BY Gwenyfar Rohler ● Devour columnist, freelance writer and business owner of Old Books on Front Street Soul Food Odyssey Stephanie L. Tyson John F. Blair Publishers, 2015 (167 pages)

People mistakenly believe the first of an artistic endeavor is the hardest: the first book, the first film, the first album. It is not. The second project, the followup, is the most difficult and terrifying to complete.

With the first work there is all the excitement of the new, backed by the drive to prove you can. With the second comes the terror that you won’t live up to the first, let alone surpass it. Stephanie Tyson’s first book, “Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook” would be a tough act for anyone to follow. “Soul Food Odyssey” is different and, in its own lovely way, not a declaration of purpose as much as an invitation to join Tyson on her journey to rediscover soul food.

Really, I want cookbooks and recipes that make me salivate when I read them, photography that is gorgeous and some prose to connect me to the writer. Compared to the last food book that John Blair Publishers sent me, this is a perfect 10! I just wish they had put the same kind of money in the cover design and food photography as they did for the “Chefs of the Coast: Restaurants and Recipes From the Carolina Coast”—which looks more appealing but doesn’t come close to this one on the salivation scale. The interior pictures are an improvement over the cover, but still no where near the quality of composition of layout seen in the “Chefs of the Coast.” The cover almost looks like something produced on a later version of Print Shop for Apple rather than the legitimately commercial work that “Soul Food Odyssey” is.

The meat of the book far outweighs the lack of fancy dressing. In an odd way, it is a good metaphor for soul food: It might not look the most beautiful styled cuisine ever to grace a plate, but it is filling where it counts.

Part of what I love is that Tyson’s writing style is so direct and unpretentious. She has a thing to say and she says it. But she is actually discovering what she is saying as she writes. Tyson begins by telling us about her food story, and as she moves into the uncharted territory of discovery, she doesn’t strangle her prose by trying to make it fit a mold. Even when she’s describing dishes from decades ago, she has her audience’s full attention.

I was taking notes about places to eat in the Triangle and people 34 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

to look for. Tyson makes every plate of food she describes sound like something real that a diner could eat on an average Wednesday afternoon. More than that, she speaks back to the upscale, bourgeois “noueveau Southern” phenomenon. Or as my mother would put it: “I don’t go out to eat to pay $30 for grits.” She doesn’t hide from stereotypes or realities of soul food. For instance, the first recipe in the book is for chitterlings (or as we say in the South, “chit’lins”), with instructions on how to clean them really well. There is no dancing around here; she talks about finally learning the secrets of the chitterling world late in life. But she removes the intimidation with clear photography and good directions. I even started thinking, “Well, my grandfather was a butcher, I bet I could do this…” For a woman who has never cooked pork chops, that is a leap.

TASTY LEFTOVERS Books we love to indulge in and ones to leave on the shelf!

Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal Edited by Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite New York University Press, 2014, 343 pages Structured as an order of a meal beginning with an invocation and ending with dessert and a toast, “Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal” leaves the reader disappointed and contemplating the possibility of getting a drive-through meal on the way home. I bought this book hoping for a collection of passages, and maybe recipes or recreations of famous meals from literature. That it turned out to be something else, I could forgive. That it cannot make up its mind what it wants to be, I cannot.

The forward by Marion Nestle makes a bid to place food writing and food studies firmly in the academic sphere; indeed, this book is published by NYU Press.

But it is not an academic work by most standards. Nor, to be blunt, is it interesting or original enough to be intended for the commercial market. So that’s the problem: The book is boring. The selections are all the standard greatest stars of the food world: Julia Childs, James Beard, Alice Waters, etc. Not only are they people whose work is overly familiar, somehow the editors have managed to suck all the zest out of the writer’s work. At no point, while slogging miserably through this book, did I find myself either incredibly hungry or inspired to cook. It does have a pretty cover with appealing pastel colors and nice still life, like food motifs. It would look very sophisticated on the shelf. But if 343 pages about food neither makes you salivate nor fantasize about your newly renovated kitchen, then something is wrong.

A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Companion Cookbook of George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Game of Thrones’

By Chelsea Monroe-Cassell and Sariann Lehrer Bantam Books 2012, 224 pages “A Feast of Ice and Fire” developed from the authors’ blog, Inn at the Crossroads, is devoted to the food of George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones).” There is so much to love about this book, it is hard to know where to begin. Essentially, they have pulled almost every food reference out of numerous books and figured out how to make it real, from descriptions of drinks and soldiers’ breakfasts, to full banquets. Also, they researched medieval recipes and cooking techniques to bring the food of fictional countries to life.

Each recipe begins with a passage quoted in which the food is mentioned. Then they print the original recipe the authors have unearthed, frequently followed by a modernized adaptation (few cooks around here keep boar’s meat or pigeon handy, for example). The recipes are fascinating, clear, easy to reproduce in a home kitchen and absolutely inspiring to read. The photography is mouth-watering. This book embodies food porn.

Any reader interested in Martin’s world, medieval history, role-playing or even just the role that food plays in depicting culture should read this book. Chapter titles include: “Stocking a Medieval Kitchen” and “Feasting in Style.” Like a cookbook for ethnic food, the recipes are broken down by region: “The Wall,” “The North,” “The South,” “King’s Landing,” “Dorne,” and “Across the Narrow Sea.” I recommend this as a holiday gift for any foodie friends.

(Review continued)

Even better: the simplicity of the recipes as the book progresses.

I made her mac ‘n’ cheese—twice. It sounded so good on the page that I couldn’t resist. There are wonderful poems, odes to food really, that Tyson sprinkles throughout the book, too. They’re lovely little nuggets just awaiting the reader. I especially like the one in the bread section.

Really, what the book is about is coming to terms with what nourishment means: to nourish a family in both body and soul. Sometimes that is hard, but it is essential for a full life. Tyson looks at the realities of food distribution throughout American history head on: Slaves got the least desirable leftovers form which to fashion food that had to stretch and last. But does that mean that we can’t celebrate the near miraculous and inventive ways soul food evolved to make the least desirable part of an animal mouth-watering to eat?

I will say I was surprised at how little lard appeared in the recipes, especially in the desserts section. The desserts were decadent, inspiring and much more interesting than anything out of a box. But the fat that from-scratch desserts utilized in my childhood was a sweetened lard, so that is what I expected to see.

Also, cakes and pies were highly labor-intensive projects that were the better part of a day to prepare. “Soul Food Odyssey” shines a light of devotion on dessert as a way to share the sweetness of life, without making it so miserable to prepare. It is partly sweetness philosophy and partly attitude adjustment toward the amount of work involved.

If Tyson shares anything concrete, it is the techniques she has learned from friends and family for preparing soul food that is approachable and filling. Her bare curiosity and inquisitiveness makes the book much more interesting than it would have been from a self-proclaimed authority. Rare is the author who can invite readers on a journey that simultaneously excites their minds and bellies.

Oysters, Shrimp, Clams, Mussels, Crab Legs, Wings, Fish ‘n’ Chips Named one of the Best Seafood Dives in America by Coastal Living Magazine

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www.shuckinshackoysterbar.com FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 35

Select Indulgences Culinary calendar of events

~events & happenings~ THEATRE NOW Schedule: 10/9-31, 7pm: “A Zombie, a Vampire, and a Werewolf Walk Into a Bar...” Written by Calie Voorhis with music by Cole Marquis and directed by Beth Swindell. • 11/20-12/20: Holiday show: Trailer Park Christmas. Dinner theatre includes a show and three-course meal, often with a choice of two or more entrées (one of which will always be a vegetarian option), $22-$38.

• 10/11, 12-2pm: Sunday jazz brunch with Grenoldo Frazier. • 12/13: Sunday Jazz Brunch with Nina Repeta Trio. Seating starts at 11:30am. Tickets $15-$20. Includes 3-course plated meal with choice of brunch entrée. Choose your entrée at your table. (910) 399-3NOW (3669). • 12/31: NYE Party. “Bachannalia!” 19 S. 10th St., downtown Wilmington. www.theatrewilmington.com

TASTE OF WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH 10/10, 5-8pm: Waterfront at MarineMax, Wrightsville Beach. The festival will celebrate the island’s diverse and delicious fare on and around the beach with over 30 local cuisine, beer and wine tasting booths. Celebrity judges will rate the dishes with a “Best in Show” and participants will select the “People’s Choice” award. Net proceeds will go to: 20 percent towards the New Hanover County Weekend Meals on Wheels program; 30 percent towards the Cape Fear Community College Pineapple Guild Club for HotelRestaurant and Culinary Technology students to help fund their annual trip to the National Restaurant Association Expo in Chicago; 25 percent toward Wrightsville Beach Park Amenities and Programs; 25 percent towards Wrightsville Beach Beautification Projects. Tickets: $50-$100. http://wrightsvillebeachfoundation. org/taste-of-wrightsville-beach.

BACK DOOR KITCHEN TOUR Sponsored by the Residents of Old Wilmington, BDKT features nine beautiful homes and kitchens. Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for children under 12; can be purchased online through 10/9, using PayPal. They also may be purchased in advance at the following retail stores: Harris Teeter stores, Finkelstein’s, Michael Moore’s Antiques, The Ivy Cottage, and Taste the Olive. Tickets can be purchased at each of the nine homes on the day of, 10/10. Paul Mason at (910) 772-1502 or pfmason@coastalnet.com. www.rowilmington.org

36 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

ENCORE RESTAURANT WEEK 10/21-28: It’s the tastiest week of fall!

Encore Restaurant Week features special prix-fixe deals all across Wilmington. From low-country to French, Indian to Italian, American and beyond, diners get a taste of all styles of cuisine without breaking the bank.

Visit www.encorerestaurantweek.com to see all participants and menus, or pick up the Encore Restaurant Week Menu Guide at free-standing locations in October. Eat. Drink. Indulge!

SEAFOOD, BLUES, JAZZ FEST 10/10-11: Headlining on Saturday will be the iconoclastic Dr. John and the Nite Trippers straight out of New Orleans. Six time Grammy Award winner and 2011 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be mixing his blues, pop, and jazz with zydeco, boogiewoogie and rock ‘n’ roll to create the unique Dr. John sound. On Sunday, we will be having another rare occasion, bringing back the outstanding Shemekia Copeland who ‘stole’ the show at last year’s festival. The City of Chicago has annointed her as the new “Queen of the Blues” and is a two-time Grammy Award nominee.

Other blues and jazz groups on two stages over the two-day festival. A free Kidzone and lots of food and drink for sale. No coolers or pets; bring chairs, towels and blankets for a weekend of music and seafood on the coast. (910) 458-8434. pleasureislandnc.com.

BELLAMY TEA SERIES Bellamy Mansion presents 2015 Tea Series: Mon., 10/12, with A

Parisian Afternoon Tea (single seating, 2pm), and on Mon., 12/7, with A Proper English Tea (double seating 11am and 2pm). To make reservations, call (910) 251-3700, ext. 303. Cost is $37.45, includes tax, for each seat in elegant formal parlors of the musician. Seatings are limited. 503 Market St. bellamymansion.org

AIRLIE OYSTER ROAST 10/16, 6-10pm: Fundraiser to benefit environmental education.

Live music with Heartbeat and Soul. Oysters galore, as well as BBQ, fish fry, two spirituous drinks, and a cash bar. Tickets: $85.

Takes place along the banks of Bradley Creek in Airlie Gardens. http://airliegardens.org.

NC OYSTER FESTIVAL 10/17: 35th annual North Carolina Oyster Festival at Ocean Isle Beach (E. 2nd St.) transforms the streets into an open-air walking district, and boasts the best local cuisine, arts, crafts and entertainment. Oyster shucking contest features professionals competing for the state title, perhaps dreaming of the national, or even the World Championships in Galway, Ireland. Amateurs welcome to try their luck at local recognition. Oyster stew cook-off allows attendees to try and rate local chef’s best recipes. More than 15 food and beverage vendors offer everything from seafood and landlubber delights, to healthy or fun festival food. $5; children ages 8 and under get in for free.

VORACIOUS RARE BEER FEST 10/23: Takes place on the Battlship NC’s deck to preface the Lighthouse Beer and Wine 14th annual festival on Oct. 24. Event is from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. and features more than 30 breweries and their special-release beers; heavy hors d’ouevre served. Tickets: $75. www.lighthousebeerandwine.com.

CAROUSEL CENTER BEER AND WINE FEST

~classes, tastings & things~ CAPE FEAR WINE & FOOD CLUB The Seasoned Gourmet has been teaching cooking classes for over 15 years. They offer unique events for members and their guests, including cooking classes, wine-pairing classes, premium wine dinners, and free members-only events. Members enjoy exclusive discounts from our host, The Seasoned Gourmet. Enjoy a 5 percent daily discount on all merchandise in their store, plus a 10 percent daily discount during classes that you attend. Special members-only discount wine during events: 15 percent off six or more bottles and 20 percent off 12 or more bottles. RSVP: (910) 256-9488 or stop by The Seasoned Gourmet, 1930 Eastwood Road, www.theseasonedgourmet.com

WHOLE FOODS Kids’ Club every Thursday, 10am-10:30am, in the café. Free events abound, fun activities and snacks. • Last Friday of the month, 6-8pm: Wine Not, It’s Friday: Join us for our signature wine tasting event and enjoy a taste of food & wine pairings. $5 donation benefits a local non-profit. 3804 Oleander Dr.

CULINARY CREATIONS CLASS Instead of trying to find a cooking class to meet your goals and ending up with too many cooks in the kitchen, consider having Culinary Creations design a cooking class for you and your family or friends to be held in the comfort of your own home. We will help you design a menu to focus on the dishes that intrigue you most.

You can prepare a meal from our menu selections or we can work together to customize a menu for you to learn to prepare and enjoy. And best of all, you and the other “students” get to enjoy the fruits of your labor between each course! (910) 538-2433. www. culinarycreationsonline.com

KIDS COOKING CLASSES

10/24: 14th annual Festival, 1pm-5pm, with a limited number of VIP tickets reaping the benefit of a noon entry. Takes place downtown in North Waterfront Park, 10 Harnett St. More than 200 wineries and breweries featured, with live music from Holy Ghost Tent Revival. Proceeds benefit Carousel Center. $40-$50: on sale now, www.lighthousebeerandwine.com.

For boys and girls, ages 8-10. Does your child love to cook?

Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation has stirred up something just for them, a fun hands-on youth cooking class! This program aims to teach kids creative and simple recipes that will encourage healthy living and good nutritional choices. It can help build selfesteem, team building, and even motivate them to cook for you!

1 Bob Sawyer Dr.; (910) 256-7925. townofwrightsvillebeach.com.

POLISH FESTIVAL

CAPE FEAR WINE AND BEER

11/7, 11am-5pm: Featuring The Chardon Polka Band from Ohio.

Delicious homemade Polish foods: Kielbasa, Pierogi, Golabki, Placki Ziemiaczane, Kruschiki, Kolachki, Nut Rolls, Poppyseed Rolls and Strudel (Sugar Free Varieties, too!) Domestic and Polish Beer Served, including Wilmington’s own St. Stan’s Baltic Porter, brewed especially for our Polish Festival by Front Street Brewery! Children’s games, craft sales, raffles, and more! St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, 4849 Castle Hayne Rd. (910) 675-2336. www. ststanspolishfestival.org.

12 TASTES OF CHRISTMAS 12/11, 7pm: An annual holiday party benefitting the CF Literacy Council at the Brooklyn Arts Center. Restaurants, bakeries, delis, and local businesses donate special holiday treats and cocktails to guests while honoring students who have learned to read and write through CFLC’s progam. Donations, ticket sales, and sponsors’ gifts go directly to CFLC. www.cfliteracy.org.

Beer Church: Purchase select beer and keep your glass for free.

1st Mass starts, 1pm; 2nd Mass, 8pm, Sunday, free. • Beer Flights, Massage and Monday Night NitroMassage Monday: 5-8pm, $10 for 10 minutes with our licensed therapist, Josh Lentz. Beer Flights: nine 5 oz samples for $18. • Monday Night Nitro: $1 off nitrogen pours. Free. • BYOT (Bring Your Own Trivia): The next wave of pub trivia. Prizes include gift certificates to Chop’s Deli, Memory Lane Comics, and Browncoat Theatre & Pub, as well as beer from us. $10 pitchers: Bartender’s choice. All day. Free wine tasting: from 5-7pm, with two whites and two reds. Free • Beer Infusement Thurs.: Come see what ingredients Randall the Enamel Animal is enhancing upon delicious beer. Free. 139 N. Front St.

DUPLIN WINERY Exclusive Wine & Food Pairing, 10/10, 5-9pm: Reservations made through the Bistro for a special wine and food pairing dinner.

Guests will enjoy an in-depth wine description and food pairing FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 37

ILM VEGAN POTLUCKS Wilmington Vegan Supper Club Potlucks take place every first Thursday of every month at 6:30pm at Kitchen & Lounge at South Front Apartments, located on Greenfield Street at 2nd Street, across the street from Satellite. Bring a vegan dish to share, and swap recipes and socialize. Wilmington Vegan Lending Library will be there for you to grab a book as well. Bring a list of ingredients along with your dish (or even better, the recipe). Dishes absolutely must be completely vegan—no meat, no fish, no dairy, no eggs, no chicken stock, no honey, and so on. Bring a plate, utensils, and a drink. Visit http://wilmingtonvegan.com for more info.

FERMENTAL Join us in the cozy confines of North Wilmington as we help kick off your weekend with our Friday wine tasting. Every week Fermental serves up a sampling of fine wines and craft beers to tempt taste buds and tantalize tendencies. Wine available by the glass; beer by the bottle. Informal, fun and festive! Take home your favorite or enjoy in-house. Free. 7250 Market St.

FORTUNATE GLASS Free wine tasting, Tues. 6-8pm. • Sparkling wine specials & discounted select bottles, Wed. and Thurs. • Monthly food and wine pairing events. 29 S. Front St. www.fortunateglasswinebar.com

BOOKS, BEER, JAZZ Enjoy browsing our extensive book catalog and library while listening to live ambient jazz piano. Start out your weekend with a beer or glass of wine, while James Jarvis performs his jazz compositions for your listening pleasure. Live piano from 3pm, Sundays.

Old Books on Front Street, 249. N. Front St.

MEATBALL TUESDAY Chef Tom Mills prepares limited meatball subs and other items only on Tuesday nights for less than $12. Once he runs out, then he’s out. Cash and checks only. The Front Room, Little Pond Caterers, 2016 Princess Pl. www.littlepondcaterers.com

WINE TASTINGS from our knowledge about bistro staff. Four-course, five-star meal, with jazz musician. $50/person • 10/24, 3:30-9pm: Murder Mystery: Piece together the clues of the case in the interactive detective dinner show. Start the day with a tour and a comprehensive wine tasting as the stage gets set for murder. Throughout the evening, and over the course of the meal, clues are provided to the guests. Working in groups, the winning team received a Duplin Prize. $55/person, includes the tour and wine tasting, dinner and entertainment. • 11/7, 5-8pm: Heritage Pick Up Party: Members can pick up their quarterly wine packages during this Saturday evening happy hour. Each themed party will feature live entertainment and offer specials for club members.Free for club members; guests may attend for an additional $20 per person.

Reservations rqd. • Down Home Country Christmas Show, 11/14, 21, 27-28, 12/5, 11, 18, 3:30-9pm: Celebrate the season with the sights and sounds of Christmas. Family friendl with an evening of music and laughter will make this night a most memorable one. $50/person; add the tour for an additional $2. • Ann’s Art Class, 12/5, 10am-2pm: Ann Farrior’s interactive art class w/ guidance and instruction. All materials needed to create your craft, lunch in our bistro and a glass of wine. No experience needed. $40/ person and seating is limited. (800) 774-9634. 505 N. Sycamore St., Rose Hill, NC. www.duplinwinery.com

PALATE Mon.: 15 percent off mixed six packs • Turntable Tues.: Bring your favorite vinyl, enjoy specials • Wed: Free tasting of wine from around the globe, hosted by a winery representative or vendor to teach you about the selections. All wines offered at a discount as well as an additional 10 percent off six packs and 15 percent off cases. • Sun: $6 mimosas. 1007 N. 4th St. www.palatenc.com.

Thurs/Fri, 5pm: Our weekly wine tastings feature six selections for your tasting pleasure. Try before you buy to load up your home cellar, or choose your favorite wine from the lineup and purchase a glass to enjoy at our tasting bar or in our garden seating. Cheers!

A Tasting Room, 19 South 2nd St.

THE WINE SAMPLER Hosting free weekly tasting every Wednesday through Saturday.

We offer a 10% discount on all tasting wines, all week. Wednesday-Friday: 3-7pm; Saturday: noon-7pm. 4107-C Oleander Dr. (910) 796-WINE (9463). http://thewinesampler.com/

NONI BACCA WINERY Tasting room open seven days a week, 10am-9pm (Mon-Sat) and 12-5pm (Sun.). Taste a flight of 6 or 9 wines; over 70 wines made on premise to sample at any time, served by the glass or the bottle. • Thurs.-Sat.: Specials at the bar on glasses and bottles of wine that run all day, but the crowd begins to gather around 7pm. Craft beer selection, too. We also make special label wines for weddings, corporate gifting, birthdays, reunions, or any event. (910) 397-7617.

WILMINGTON WINE SHOP Sample five new delicious wines we’ve brought in just for our customers during Free Friday Wine Tasting, 5-8pm. Have a bottle or glass of your favorite with friends afterwards in our cozy shop or on the back deck. And beer lovers don’t fret, we’ve got a fridge full of craft and micro-brews. 605 Castle St. (910) 202-4749.

SMALL PLATES NIGHT Mon: $25 6-Course Flight ($35 inc. 2 oz. wine pairing). $5 single plates and $6 Specialty Mojito. YoSake, 33 S Front St.

38 DEVOUR | FALL 2015

TAPAS TUESDAY $10, 5:30-7pm: Every Tuesday! Half-off craft cocktail list and select wines. Catch, 6623 Market St.

WILMINGTON BREWING CO. Firkin Fridays, 5:30pm • Sat: Free brewing demos, 1:30pm. 824 S Kerr Ave. (910) 392-3315.

FRONT STREET BREWERY Every third Thursday, join us for The Wort Shop Thirsty Third Thursday. Our brewers will tap a new experimental brew that will be available in limited quantities for that day only. • Brewery Tours, everyday from 3-5pm. Free tasting included! 3pm, 3:45pm and 4:30pm. Learn how we brew our beer, about the brewing process and sample a few brews with one of our brewers. Sign up for a tour at the host stand. 9 North Front Street. www.frontstreetbrewery.com

~tours~ TASTE CAROLINA FOOD TOURS Sample an eclectic assortment of downtown restaurants, enjoy food and drink, and meet some of the city’s best chefs. Public parking available. Saturday tours include a 2:30pm Downtown Afternoon Tasting Tour ($50/person) and a 3pm Downtown Dinner and Drinks Tour ($65/person). A 10am Farmers’ Market Tour ($75/ person), and cooking class also available. www.tastecarolina.net

TASTING HISTORY TOURS Tasting History Tours of Pleasure Island; guided walking tours. $25. Afternoon of delicious food and education. (910) 622-6046. www.tastinghistorytours.com.

PORT CITY JAVA ROASTERY TOUR Join us at Port City Java’s Corporate Headquarters for our monthly public roastery tour, coffee cupping & home brewing class! Learn how coffee is grown, harvested, processed and roasted through a tour of our facilities and see a formal coffee cupping to demonstrate the “taste of place” that makes each coffee so unique. See us demonstrate a few different brewing methods you can use to achieve that perfect PCJ cup at home. Tour groups are limited to six people. Tickets are available for $15/person. portcityjava.com.

PORT CITY BREW BUS Port City Brew Bus offers public brewery tours that are open to anyone 21 years or older. Eat a hearty breakfast before the tour.

We will have pretzels, snacks, and water but there isn’t a stop for lunch. Visit three breweries to experience their facilities, understand the brewing process unique to their beers and enjoy samples of their offerings. $55. portcitybrewbus.com. (910) 679-6586

FEAST DOWN EAST BUYING CLUB Enjoy the quality, value and convenience of the Feast Down East Buying Club. It costs nothing to join, and the benefits are immeasurable. Support your local farm families and community. Choose a pick-up spot, check out at the online cashier, and you are done! www.FeastDownEast.org.

Fruits, vegetables, plants, herbs, flowers, eggs, cheese, meats, seafood, honey and more! Poplar Grove, Apr-Nov, Wed, 8am1pm. (910) 686-9518. www.poplargrove.com • Riverfront Farmers’ Market open on Water St., downtown, every Sat., through Dec., 8am-1pm. Food, arts & craft vendors and live music. www.wilmingtondowntown.com/farmers-market • Oak Island Farmers’ Market, Mon., April-Nov., 7am-1pm. Middletown Park, Oak Island • Southport Waterfront Market, Wednesdays, May-Sept., 8am-1pm.

Garrison Lawn in Southport, NC. • St. James Plantation Farmers’ Market, Thurs., May-Oct., 4-7pm, park at Woodlands Park Soccer Field.

PORT CITY SWAPPERS Port City Swappers is a monthly food and beverage swap where members of a community share homemade, homegrown, or foraged foods with each other. Swaps allow direct trades to take place between attendees, e.g., a loaf of bread for a jar of pickles or a half-dozen backyard eggs. No cash is exchanged, and no goods are sold. Diversify your pantry and go home happy and inspired while meeting your neighbors! facebook.com/PortCitySwappers.

ILM VEGAN MENTOR PROGRAM The Wilmington Vegan Mentor Program ensures those who are new to veganism are provided with all the support and guidance they need. Volunteer mentors are paired with those who are making new food choices. They meet to talk and answer questions, go to the grocery store, discuss cookbooks, and explore local resources. http://wilmingtonvegan.com.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS A is a 12-Step organization for anyone suffering from compulsive overeating, anorexia, bulimia, or any food/eating-related issue. We have helped thousands of people stop their self-destructive habits and start living healthy, rewarding lives. We have no dues, fees, or religious affiliations. Come and see how we can help you! Call (919) 406-9300, or visit us at www.triangleoa.org. Wednesdays at Pine Valley United Methodist Church, 3788 Shipyard Blvd, Bldg B.

FOOD NOT BOMBS To provide free vegan and vegetarian meals to the hungry. By sharing food we start a revolution. Food is a right, not a privilege.

All our food is grown in the Food Not Bombs garden, and donated by local businesses, restaurants, farms, and people. Anyone can donate, and if you are unable to donate food, then donating your time is enough. Monthly meetups. www.foodnotbombs.net.

WILMINGTON COUPON CLUB Wilmington Coupon Club meets monthly, second Monday, at 6pm Come exchange coupons and learn how to save money. www.wilmingtoncouponclub.com.

! s l a de .com

~clubs & organizations~

FARMERS’ MARKETS

FALL 2015 | DEVOUR 39

SOUTHERN SOUL FOOD AT I T S F I N E S T

featured on www.thrillist.com

as one of the country's 21 best soulfood kitchens!

WE ALSO DO CATERING!

5559 Oleander drive • 910.798.2913 Wednesday-Saturday 11am-9pm • Sunday 11am- 8pm • Closed - Monday and Tuesday