Devour - Fall 2014 & Winter 2015

FALL 2014 / WINTER 2015

Distinctive Flavors A look at restaurateurs who found a niche PGS. 10-12

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Divulge.

Devour.

EDITOR Shea Carver ASSISTANT EDITOR Christian Podgaysky

a

nd just like that (finger-snap), the end of the year is here. Christmas ... Chanukah ... the New Year ... and, before we know it, we’re buying roses and chocolates for Valentine’s Day. It’s holiday central over the next few months, and if you’re needing recipes for upcoming parties or just to get you through the winter, then Food Your Feelings blogger Emily Caulfield can help. She dishes on “delishes,” which include a fancy yet simple side of artichokes and caviar to amp up any humdrum meal. Her root mash will offer less of a carb-loaded turkey-and-stuffing dinner, while her decadent mushroom soup surely will warm your bones come January. An easy-peasy peppermint ice cream awaits to re-awaken your senses and sate your sweet tooth.

As always we’ve featured a host of get-to-know people in our fall 2014/winter 2015 edition, such as restaurateurs Tommy and Chris Guarino. The Guarino brothers have operated Wilmington’s finest delicatessen, A Taste of Italy, for 20 years now. From a small start-up to expanded digs, and serving some of the tastiest eggplant parm anywhere, they share their two-decade history in the food business. As well, new restaurateurs Jacqueline Rey and Ben Gayout are running Wilmington’s hippest and only crêperie, Our Crêpes and More, off Oleander Drive. They’re going into year five come 2015, serving the public the freshest, most delicious combinations of crêpes in the Port City. Find out what brought them stateside in our restaurateur feature on pages 10-12.

Chefs are constantly vying for your stomach’s attention; CAM Café’s Jessica Cabo, along with Nicola’s Nick Pittari, talk all-things cooking in Devour’s chef profiles on pages 6-8.

From Gordon Ramsey’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” to Boca Raton, Florida, to Wilmington, Cabo has hob-nobbed with quite a few TV personalities and well-known chefs in the kitchen. Pittari’s upbringing in Sicily and NY has refined his palate and style, all of which are steeped in homemade pastas, sauces and pizzas. Get to know their views from the kitchen and on a demanding career filled with passion.

The sustenance of food completes us, and the Stenersens are running their tenant-farm operation under such values. Linda Grattafiori interviews Kyle and Katelyn Stenersen of Humble Roots Farms to find out about their crops and offerings to the greater Wilmington area. And she meets their adorable children, Adah and Owen, who will learn to work the land early in life as well.

Rosa Bianca—a Southerner by way of geography, but a Northerner through and through—takes on the food item that garners as many arguments as college basketball in NC: barbecue (pages 16-17). Plus, we have all regular findings that you have come to love of Devour: Our own version of food porn (“What We Love to Eat”) will make you salivate on pages 18-20, while a piece of short fiction, “Cocktails and Conversations,” from bartender Joel Finsel, will have you entrenched in service-industry life (page 2425). Speaking of drinks, you’ll want to catch a ride on the new Port City Brew Bus (pages 26-29), Wilmington’s tastiest tour of growing craft breweries and brewpubs. Book reviews (pages 32-33), a dissection of modern-day farming (pages 30-31), as well as a lengthy calendar full of culinary delights (pages 34-38) all can be divulged and devoured.

FALL 2014/ R WINTE 2015

2 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

ART DIRECTOR Kyle Peeler ADVERTISING Shea Carver John Hitt, Rose Thompson CONTRIBUTORS Rosa Bianca, Gwenyfar Rohler, Joel Finsel, Rosa Bianca, Emily Caulfield, Bethany Turner, Christian Podgaysky, Evan Folds, Linda Grattafiori PHOTOGRAPHY Holland Dotts Trent Williams DEVOUR 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.

FARMERS

Cover/contents photos by: Holland Dotts Photography

14-15 | Meet Adah Stenersen, daughter to Kyle and Katelyn, who run Humble Roots Farm. The Stenersens are rearing their children to understand sustainable practices in modern-day farming.

16-17 EAT

The Great BBQ Debate Rosa Bianca visits two local staples to try out her palate in southeastern NC barbecue, something for which she wasn’t privy to divulging in childhood, being a Northerner and all.

26-29 IMBIBE Port City Brew Bus

ON THE COVER

What's that? A bus that drives people to all the craft breweries in town?

10-12 |

Find out about the next hottest tour in ILM.

Christian Podgaysky is covering our edition’s spotlight on two groups of restaurateurs, including our cover models Jacqueline Rey and Ben Gayout of Our Crepes and More, off Oleander Drive. Podgaysky also gets to know the Guarino brothers, Chris and Tommy, masterminds behind A Taste of Italy, which is celebrating year 20 in our Port City.

ALSO INSIDE:

Why, yes! A new concept is hitting the streets, all for the love of beer and the numerous brewpubs and breweries that are opening in our town.

30-31 FEATURE Modern Day Farming

Evan Folds takes a look at the practices and views in modern-day farming compared to how the industry once ran a mere 100 years ago.

Chef Profiles, pgs. 6-8 • What We Love to Eat, pgs. 18-20 • Recipes, pgs. 22-23

Cocktails and Conversations, pgs. 24-25 • Books, pgs. 32-33 • Culinary Calendar, pgs. 34-38 4 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

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Inside the Kitchen A look at a chef’s inspiration, business sense and background

BY Shea Carver ● Devour editor and contributor

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hef Jessica Cabo, who heads the kitchen at CAM Café in the Cameron Art Museum, hung around the right circles in her 20s and 30s. She was cast on “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gordon Ramsey’s famed cooking competition, during the first season of the FOX TV hit. The first of its caliber in the nowflooded reality-TV market, “Hell’s Kitchen” ushered Cabo into the finals in 2005. More impressively, it highlighted the chops of a home cook who had no experience in a professional kitchen.

“I think I got on because they could tell I knew what I was talking about, but more so probably because of hair and personality,” Cabo tells through laughter, her platinum tresses spiking here and there. “In L.A. everyone knows someone who’s involved in TV or film.”

Cabo was the gal who always threw dinner parties for her friends, and thrived off feeding people and enjoying the communal aspect of dining. At one of her parties, someone suggested she try out for the upcoming show. At 23 she really didn’t take it seriously. “The audition was on a Saturday at 9 a.m.,” Cabo says. “I thought, ‘I’m never gonna wake up for that.’”

But she did.

Cabo was sequestered for the show’s recording from October 1 until Halloween.

After it wrapped, she returned to her recruiter job at Yahoo, as if she merely had been away on a quick vacation. “I had no plans to leave,” Cabo reflects. “I was there another five or six years.”

Then the market crashed, and Cabo, out of work, began getting restless. So she decided to go after her passion full-force when a chef friend called and asked her to help out in his restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida. She started

● Nick Pittari, executive chef and owner of Nicola’s Italian Restaurant. Photo by Holland Dotts ● 6 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

INDUSTRY at the salad station before moving to the pizza station on night two and then to lead line cook within a week. “A month later I was a sous chef,” Cabo says.

Cabo grew up in NY, went to college from ‘96-’98 at UNCW, moved back to NY, then to L.A. before heading to Florida. Thus no stranger to change, the newly minted sous chef returned to the City of Angels to work for Jamie Lauren (“Top Chef” season 5) and Brooke Williamson of Beechwood in Venice, California. “I was there a year before Jamie left, and Roy Choi (Kogi BBQ Taco Truck & Catering) took over,” Cabo says. She had a brief stint with Ari Taymor (Flour + Water, Alma) before the opportunity to open a restaurant in Santa Monica presented itself. Brick+Mortar became known for its brunches and swank gastropub fare. “It was my first chance to design menus and create cuisine on my own,” Cabo says.

Yet, being stationary never became a part of her routine. In 2012 Cabo felt the urge to return to the East Coast. Her mother, Diane Cabo, moved to Wilmington after falling in love with the coastal town during her daughter’s college years.

“I worked at Siena [Trattoria] when I first arrived, and they were trying to redo their pizzas,” Cabo says. “I’ve always been a pizza girl and love cooking them. Pretty much all previous restaurants I worked at had pizza ovens.”

She heard of Pine Valley Market’s sister restaurant, Café Johnnie, located in the Cameron Art Museum, and met proprietors Christi Ferretti and Kathy Webb. She began working with them and their head chef Derrick Cook. ”It was a good and natural vibe,” Cabo remembers.

When Pine Valley Market decided to close Café Johnnie in 2013, CAM took over and gave Cabo free reign to reinvent the dining space. “That was literally the last week in April,” Cabo recalls, “and I had to have a menu up and ready to serve by May 1. It was really fast. I hired my mom to help me in the kitchen, because I only had one dishwasher. I came up with a lunch menu to get it all started; then a brunch menu. I had no time to think about anything.”

Today Cabo’s mom still helps in the kitchen by making quiches, prepping the vegetables and even doing desserts. The quick transition has been par for the course to Cabo’s development as a chef. “It was super fast,” she says. “But that’s what I like about being a chef; I’m cooking every day. It’s not a desk job or just pushing paper and doing budgets. I still love to be fast as hell on the line and just throw down. I have always been good at that and it helped me excel.”

Since opening CAM Café, Cabo has thrived on each menu’s constant flexibility. She’s changed the lunch menu five or six times, started a Wednesday tapas night three months ago, and continued with CAM’s Thursday-night dinners which feature different items weekly.

Sunday brunches are dictated by the sous chef who runs it.

“Certain menu items always stay, even if I change the menu, like the falafel,” Cabo says. Regulars have taken to her health-centered recipe, made of quinoa, flax and sesame seeds, bound with rice flour, which makes it gluten-free. “I also make bird-seed croutons, with lots of seeds laid together flat, which I’ve had people ask if I’d make and sell as chips,” Cabo says. “I have a vegetarian Caesar; I replace the anchovies with capers and use a lot of yogurt. It’s chargrilled, and the brightness of the dressing works great against the lettuce.”

Regulars have fallen for her fish tacos, too; the fish changes daily

according to whatever’s fresh. Over the summer, she featured popular lobster rolls, and her She-Crab soup mandates return visitors often, each of whom decry when it’s not available. “I do vegetables of the day every day,” Cabo explains, “like a veggie duo or trio—beets and goat cheese, beans and greens, like pink beans and turnips.”

Cabo enjoys the freedom to experiment in a variety of styles nowadays. In L.A. she focused on mainly Asian and Mexican cuisines; now she hones in on respect for ingredients. “If I am in an Indian mood, that

cuisine will show up; if I’m having a rough week, I’ll make comfort food, like chicken pot pie,” she quips. “It’s like a mad scientist at work. I am more about taking inspiration and playing with what’s in front of me, honoring the ingredients in the best way possible. I cook by season and what’s growing.”

CAM Café’s courtyard is peppered with raised boxes of produce and herbs. In the summer she used tomatoes, peppers and basil from the garden; currently, she is growing cabbage, kale, and mustard greens. She also utilizes Feast Down East for produce, which is culled from local farmers, as well as Greenville Loop Seafood for local fish.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to running a café in an art museum is the privilege of being inspired by the art. She works in tandem with the museum to plan special events and showcase culinary arts in conjunction with other mediums. She devised a special New Orleans dinner with James Beard winner Susan Spicer when the museum showcased costumes from the HBO series “Tremé.” She served food on cardboard as part of CAM’s James Grashow exhibit, which featured his life-size corrugated cardboard cutouts. Now, her Wednesday tapas night showcases Japanese-style foods, to work in conjunction with the museum’s current exhibit, “The Matter of Reverence,” by CAM’s in-house pottery instructor Hiroshi Sueyoshi.

“Sometimes I think I’m just more inspired by the entire surroundings—like our courtyard,” Cabo admits. “Fresh, bright, welcome: It’s definitely an ebb and flow of what’s here. I’m just inspired by all of this beauty—art, architecture and environment. Because of that, I feel like I need to put out beautiful, pristine plates of food. I think that’s what CAM Café has inspired me to do in shaping my cooking.”

● Jessica Cabo, chef at CAM Café, located in the Cameron Art Museum. Photo by Holland Dotts ● NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 7

INDUSTRY

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n 1996, after leaving behind a career in the X-ray tech field, as well as helping his father close the family’s second Italian restaurant, Alessario, Nick Pittari headed South. His parents owned Italian eateries and pizzerias all of Pittari’s life. They also owned a townhome in Kure Beach, so he and his sister decided to relocate to build a new generation of restaurateurs. The two found an abandoned building on Front Street in downtown Wilmington—a perfect spot to continue their family’s pizzeria tradition.

“The marshal had locked the doors on whomever owned it,” Pittari remembers. “So it sat there empty. I couldn’t believe it because there was so little competition then. So, I opened it with my sister.”

Pizza Bistro served diners in its Cotton Exchange location until 1999.

Known for their homemade pizzas, calzones, strombolis, sandwiches and pasta entrées, they found a niche, especially with the college lunch crowd. “Back then only around four or so restaurants were downtown,” Pittari says. “Even when we opened Nicola’s in 2006, only 600 restaurants existed in all of town. Today, it’s close to 2,000, between all the fast food and grocers selling sandwiches and pizzas, along with full-service restaurants.”

Pittari came in at the onset of the growth in Wilmington’s culinary industry. He was 23 and armed with a Sicilian upbringing that allowed him to appreciate food. Naturally, cooking hearty sauces, and homemade pasta, sausages and meatballs remained a specialty. His family moved him between New York and Sicily throughout childhood; they would spend two months in Sicily and 10 months stateside annually.

“I got to see in Sicily so much of where everything came from and how it was made,” he remembers, “like crushing olives and making sauces and wine. My dad and my grandfather used to make wine all the time. That’s where I’d keep my fishing pole: in the cellar. So I always had a reason to go to the cellar.”

He remembers climbing trees as a young boy with his cousins. Below them, older ladies of the village would hold out bedspreads, so when the boys shook the trees, the ladies caught the olives that fell, which they’d use to make oil.

“It was cool,” Pittari says with a wide grin indicative of his youthful memories. “I got to learn the love of food just by seeing everything from scratch—where it all comes from. I feel that’s most important.

It’s hard to get the point across to cooks and customers today; they don’t realize what exactly they’re eating and where it all started from.

When I pick up a pack of Wonder Bread and say, ‘What’s that?’ from the ingredient list ... that’s a problem.”

After he and his sister, Maria Accattato, sold Pizza Bistro, Pittari took over the Incredible Pizzas in town. His sister opened Terrazzo Trattoria in Landfall. Along with Pittari’s wife, Christine, they ran Incredible for six years before finding a restaurant on Oleander Drive that would return Pittari to making signature sauces, homemade pastas, and pizzas and bread from a wood-fired oven. “A lot of places use half gas and half wood,” Pittari explains. “Nicola’s oven was shipped from Italy, just like our pasta machine. We try to keep it as authentic as ever. And the difference in taste is exceptional.”

Pittari always has focused his culinary style on simplicity: non-GMO flour, water, salt, and eggs for pasta; flour, yeast and salt for bread.

His specialty entrées are created by careful care toward wholesome food. Working with local ingredients, his Pasta Sofia (named after his 11-year-old daughter) remains a restaurant favorite.

“Garlic, prosciutto, spinach, Romano, pine nuts, tomatoes, and olive oil,” he describes. “The trick is: Don’t rush anything; all flavors have to blend perfect. Prosciutto becomes crisp and smooth, while the garlic cooked slowly turns from pungent to sweet. It’s all about balance.”

His pasta machine churns out 25 or 30 entrées per batch. He handrolls the ravioli. “We put salt in with the eggs to flavor the pasta,”

8 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

“Just like life, whatever you start off with is the most important thing: your foundation. We build on top of that.”

—Nick Pittari, Nicola’s Italian Restaurant he notes. “And that way you don’t have to salt the water too much.

Technically, you’re supposed to put enough salt in for it to taste like sea water, but that’s only when using dry pasta, which is flavorless. Our pasta has flavor on its own.”

Nicola’s has become known for their veal dishes, as well as marsala and piccata entrées, not to mention all homemade noodles, from penne to linguine to fettuccine. The manicotti gets transformed into light and fluffy Italian crêpes, stuffed with three cheeses that ooze with homemade tomato sauce. Pittari has noticed an influx in gluten-free requests from their loyal clientele as of late, so he adjusted items to reflect those dietary needs. Nicola’s now serves gluten-free pastas and pizzas. “We purchase our gluten-free items, because we don’t want to cross-contaminate with the homemade stuff,” Pittari says. “We dredge chicken and veal in wheat-free flour, too, when people order dishes like marsala.”

As a business owner, Pittari’s main concern for Nicola’s is staying true to his vision for delivering the best food possible. He also looks to hire staff who is willing to learn. “You hire people not ‘train them,’” he says. “I want to teach and educate them. To me ‘train them’ is bad terminology. I want to teach someone everything I know. What’s the alternative? Have someone next to me who knows nothing? I don’t worry about people sharing trade secrets or fundamentals in cooking.”

And cooking is the fun part of Pittari’s job. The inventory, paperwork, payroll, bill-paying, food-ordering, and complicated ins and outs of running a business is the most time-consuming. “I love to cook; that’s it; I just love to cook,” he iterates. “Most of the time, I’m sitting here cutting pasta. If you don’t love doing what you’re doing, you will not be able to sit here for hours and hours making pasta.”

With his wife overseeing the front of the house, dinner at Nicola’s begins at 5 p.m. They did a lunch service a few years back, but Pittari was unhappy with compromising his quality of food. He found that, despite having reasonable dinner prices ($10-$20), folks wanted cheaper lunch items—and faster.

“One of the main reasons we stopped doing lunch is that, in order to do it, we had to cut back on quality to meet lunch price points,” he says. “And if diners got the lunch and didn’t like it, they didn’t come back for dinner. Dinner is who we are and what we do; I didn’t want to be forced to make hamburgers to stay open for lunch. I wanted to stick with what we do best and not compromise on our cuisine.”

It all stems back to shadowing his mother in the kitchen—a place where Pittari says he learned everything merely by being in the way.

His mother always cooked cuisine made up of family recipes, and his father learned to make pizza from a family friend after deciding the welding business was taking too much of a toll on his health.

“When my parents opened their first restaurant—I guess I was 3— people would line up around the block to dine there,” he beams with pride. “I grew up in restaurants; I don’t have culinary training. My parents always had restaurants as far as I can remember.”

He washed dishes. He folded boxes. He prepped vegetables. Today, he still does. “There’s not a job I won’t do,” he states. “If the dishwasher’s backed up, I jump in to help. You’ll rarely see me wear a chef coat, mainly because I’ve never seen my mom or grandma wear a chef coat. I found that it doesn’t make the food taste any better. Just like life, whatever you start off with is the most important thing: your foundation. We can build on top of that.”

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Distinctive Flavors A look at restaurateurs who found a niche

BY Christian Podgaysky ● Devour assistant editor You can’t throw a stone in the Port City without hitting an eatery serving up savory American cuisine. But appetites across the city get tired of the status-quo; people desire something outside the box. For local restaurateurs, this means finding a niche. Culling unique flair was no problem for Chris and Tommy Guarino, owners of A Taste of Italy, and Jacqueline Rey, the woman behind Our Crêpes and More. Driven by their backgrounds, both have been local pioneers in their distinctive flavors. Here’s a look at their successes...

Photo above of Chris and Tommy Guarino ● Photos by Holland Dotts 10 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

Chris and Tommy Guarino

INDUSTRY

A Taste of Italy • 1101 S. College Rd.

“Good food.” When one asks brothers Chris and Tommy Guarino, proprietors of local delicatessen A Taste of Italy, what has made them 20-years successful, that’s their response.

“If you don’t have good food, people are not going to come back,” Chris says. “No matter what you are: You can be nice and have a great reputation with business cred. If you do not have good food, people who know food are not going to come back.”

Nestled in the heart of midtown Wilmington on South College Road, A Taste of Italy has been in operation since 1994. The aroma of Italian cuisine wafts from the building daily. Two to three delivery trucks hit the streets every morning, carrying their authentic, mouth-watering pastas and sandwiches not only across town but to Lumberton, Morehead City and South Carolina.

Their business model is fairly simple: Chris takes care of the kitchen, and Tommy works the books. Preparation work for that day’s catering gigs and in-store clientele begins early in the morning. The action cools off a bit during the afternoon, before ratcheting up again as they get ready for the next day.

“It’s been an experience,” Chris says. “My brother and I bump heads a lot, but it’s been 20 years, so fortunately we’ve been pretty blessed about it.”

Their expansive menu of dishes includes eggplant parmesan, which they remember being an unfamiliar item for most locals at first. “You gotta make good eggplant parmesan in order for people to like it,” Chris muses. “Most people down here are like ‘What the heck is that?’ We let ‘em taste it—my brother’s great for that—we let everybody taste it and let them experience it, and they learned.”

Hefty meatballs and hot or cold sandwiches, boasting a halfpound of meat, earned them a strong reputation, too. Over the years, they’ve received a host of accolades from encore Best of awards to StarNews recognition, and they’ve participated in multiple Epicurean Evening benefits. The brothers keep a scrapbook in their office, which also is featured on their website, donning all their write-ups and achievements. Local appreciation truly touches the Guarinos.

Before settling into Wilmington and cutting the ribbon for A Taste of Italy, Chris and Tommy worked in the beverage distribution business. There, they oversaw 10 stores in Westchester County, New York, working for their older brother. Eventually, the cost of northern living and the allure of the sweet, southern sunshine led them to seek out a location below the Mason-Dixon Line. After visiting their uncle here, Tommy and Chris noticed one aspect of local flair that was missing: There was no delicatessen.

Having grown up in an Italian family, food had long played a significant role in the brothers’ lives. “Monday was soup, Tuesday was pasta, Wednesday was pasta rizzoli, Thursday was pasta again, Friday was fish, Saturday was steak, and Sunday was pasta again,” Tommy tells. “That was it, that’s how you lived back then.”

With a rich background in Italian cuisine, they decided to give the deli biz a shot. Though neither brother really had been involved in cooking during their childhood—a duty undertaken by their mother and her sisters—they felt versed with the ins and outs of the kitchen. Chris had honed his culinary eye by watching cooking shows hosted by famed chefs like Jacques Pépin.

Hoping to further solidify their skill set, they consulted a couple friends and family members who owned delis in New York.

Eager to jump right into the business, Chris and Tommy underwent a one-week crash course in operating the business—learning to make sauces, mozzarella and the like. They enlisted the help of their uncle and his wife, and Apple Annie’s provided New York-style bread.

When A Taste of Italy opened, then in the Seahawk Landing shopping center behind its current location, it was strictly a delistyle establishment. There were no seats and menu items were

to-go. At the time, there was nothing like it locally. They were one of the only establishments serving up Boar’s Head meat—which is now a mainstay at chains like Harris Teeter.

Likewise, the slam-packed South College Road Wilmingtonians know today was far less traveled. In fact, traffic was so light that if it were a particularly slow time, cars would stop and let pedestrians cross. “The first few years were tough,” Tommy recalls. “But once our catering got going, we got a lot of steady customers— it really took awhile.”

After the business beside them closed its doors, A Taste of Italy took on its first expansion. They capitalized on a dine-in area complete with seating for 16. Fast forward a few more years and A Taste of Italy reached another pivotal moment: They took over their current location, which formerly was a KFC. “We were really busy and doing well,” Chris details. “We said, ‘C’mon, let’s go buy some real estate,’ and we ended up buying the building, redid it, and here we are.”

The prime, street-front spot has housed the business for the past seven years. Ample shelf space is fully stocked with an assortment of pastas, sauces, pickled peppers, and Italian cookies.

Folks can purchase dried sausage by the pound, too. Their selection includes wines, too.

The familial aspect of the deli has become deeper over the years.

Both proprietors’ children and nephews have worked at A Taste of Italy throughout its history. As well, they added Craig Berner, a New Jersey native who attended school in Wilmington, as partner and basically adopted him into the family. Two years after opening, Tommy and Chris enlisted the help of the guru who laid the groundwork for their success: their mother, who passed away a few years back. “She was always here,” Chris says. “She loved cooking.

She was very proud of us, naturally. She’d do anything to help us, and it was nice because her brother and his wife were here.”

With 20 years in the business, the family component extends to their customers. They can bank on a host of locals gracing their doorstep at least once a week. They even send food home with one longtime customer, whose wife passed away, for every holiday—loading him up with all the traditional Italian fixings.

The care and personal connection the Guarinos have with their business has withstood the test of time. Despite a downturn throughout 2010 and 2011, when the economy plummeted, the past few years have seen them bounce back. The current cost of food is their primary challenge now, especially since they’re never ones to skimp or cut corners on serving up the best ingredients.

Setbacks aside, they are still thriving and always looking for ways to attract that new generation of diners.

“Twenty years, and we’re still going strong,” Tommy says, his voice tinged with pride and disbelief. Humility, precision, and a whole lot of love—for the deli, their customers and the community—truly epitomize A Taste of Italy.

Jacqueline Rey

Our Crêpes and More • 3810 Oleander Dr.

Growing up in the French-speaking part of Switzerland (known as Romandie), Jacqueline Rey, owner of Our Crêpes and More, recalls making crêpes as a fond part of her childhood. “In Europe—Switzerland, France—it’s like a tradition,” she tells. “You have evenings where you make crêpes. But we don’t do them [with] the regular griddle, we just heat them on a pan. Everyone waits for their turn.”

Rey lived in Europe until 1997, when she moved to the U.S. She NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 11

INDUSTRY took up residence in New Mexico and later Florida, where she worked as a licensed massage therapist.

In 2006 she returned to Europe, moving to the South of France. Itching for a fresh start, Rey decided that the restaurant business was something she wanted to try, so she returned to America.

“I had cooked [for myself and my family] for 30 years,” Rey says. “It was something I could see myself doing without being overwhelmed. It’s something you can really play with; it’s never-ending.”

Not wanting to go back to Florida but still in love with the warm weather and beaches, a Google search brought Rey to Wilmington. “I found Wilmington to be interesting,” she states. “So, we came to look at the place. We found this [building on Oleander], and it was for sale.”

Rey helmed Our Crêpes with the help of her daughter, Kelly, and her son-in-law, Benjamin Gayout. They began renovating the establishment in April 2010, and by June, they had officially opened their doors in a strip mall near Independence Mall off Oleander Drive. Upstarting a business during the peak of an economic downturn would make most business experts cringe; however, Rey steadfastly believed in what she was doing.

“For some reason, I didn’t really doubt, because I knew the concept was good,” Rey says. “I had done some research about restaurants that survived during those times. It seemed like the little restaurants were doing better. People still enjoyed to have fun, but not spend as much as a high-end restaurant. My idea was we do something still accessible to people in a healthy way. And I think that is what made me think it would work.”

Naturally, business started off a bit slow, but their central positioning within Wilmington allowed people to steadily discover Our Crêpes. At first their clientele comprised women and an older demographic who knew of crêpes. Four years later, their customers cross all sects of the population.

French food often has a reputation for being overrated and overpriced; this was a trope Rey wanted to avoid. The original business model was simple: quick, reasonably priced, healthy food. Upon opening, Rey colored the menu with an array of French recipes, such as the Forestiere Royale—a crêpe filled with cheese, bacon, chicken, mushrooms, and onions, topped with a hint of whipped cream (which is made only of real sugar and cream).

Two early discoveries grew to define Our Crêpes: People wanted gluten-free and vegan options. “At first we made omelets for them,” Rey says. “But then I realized we could do crêpes like that.

So we kind of tested out a few. People love it, they can barely tell it’s gluten free. And the vegan one is good, too. That one my son-in-law made.”

Currently, the menu features only two items that aren’t glutenfree. They also have plans to possibly add vegan cheese in the future. Those early days of trial-and-error also yielded a number of compromises. While the menu is firmly planted in its French roots, Rey added some American options when she began working with more breakfast foods. They introduced the American combo, which features no crêpes. Instead it offers diners hashbrowns, sausage, eggs and toast. The OCM combo comes with one crêpe, eggs, sausage, and bacon. Aside from breakfast items, they also have toyed with Americanized sweeter selections.

● Photo above by Holland Dotts 12 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

“I had cooked for 30 years. It was something I could see myself doing without being overwhelmed. It’s something you can really play with; it’s never-ending” —Jacqueline Rey and Ben Gayout (above) “We play more with the filling inside; we messed with it,” Rey says. “We didn’t work with marshmallow and peanut butter before.

But now we have it on the menu. People like it, and it’s still French.

You have to adapt to where you go.”

Two years after opening, Rey debuted the build-your-own-crêpe option. The addition was necessitated by customers who routinely asked to substitute items on Our Crêpes’ core offerings. Rey often guides first-time diners to one of the menu staples, but implores them to experiment upon a second visit—it’s part of the fun. Rey and Gayout consistently offer weekly specials to shake things up a bit. Most of the ingredients are organic and are purchased from North Carolina purveyors whenever possible.

Restaurants are only as good as the experience, which is something Rey and her son-in-law have prioritized. Gayout is the frontman and engages the customers, while Rey handles the kitchen.

Whether someone is picking up a to-go order or dining in, the restaurateurs always put their best foot forward, making each customer feels special. Authenticity helps, too.

“The fact we still have a strong accent isn’t everything,” Rey quips, “but they know we aren’t from here.”

Our Crêpes’ next step is to journey into the catering business.

They received their license just this year and are eagerly putting the final touches on their catering menu, which will allow businesses or private homes to have crêpe parties. As well, they are honing in on generating a brand by selling T-shirts, hats and the like.

“We tried to make it a joyful place, and that’s the key,” Rey says. “People spend money, and we want to make sure they’re well taken care of.”

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www.pilothouserest.com • (910) 343-0200 NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 13

Making Dreams a Reality: Stenersen family digs into Humble Roots Farm

BY Linda Grattafiori ● Devour contributor

With one-year old Owen and three-year old Adah, and hearts full of faith and thanksgiving, Kyle and Katelyn Stenersen are celebrating their first year as tenant farmers on Humble Roots Farm. The 30 acres of prime farmland is owned and leased by former Poplar Grove Plantation owner Bob Foy and his sister, Betty Taylor, each of whom share the Stenersen’s vision of a working farm that is ecologically sound, economically viable and humane. ● Photos by Holland Dotts; (above) Kyle and Katelyn Stenersen with their children, Owen and Adah; (right) Adah helps with the eggs at Humble Roots Farm.

14 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

INDUSTRY Kyle has known since he was a young pup four-wheeling on the Foy property in Scotts Hill that he was attracted to the land. But it wasn’t until he and Katelyn graduated from NC State that he considered farming as a realistic career. Actually, it was during his final exams that someone handed him Joel Salatin’s “You Can Farm,” which opened the door to a whole new world. This world included a two-year invitation for Kyle and Katelyn to work on Sunset Farms in Burlington. The young married couple learned about using crop and livestock rotation, and cover crops to fertilize the soil, and receive their “master’s degree” in environmentally sustainable farming. At the end of the two-year period, Adah was born and they felt a need to be closer to their parents in Wilmington.

“We talked and prayed a lot, and felt called to farm on our own,” Kyle said. “We visited the Foy farm twice. The second time I went by myself and prayed over an hour, asking God to show me the way.”

In the meantime, the Stenersens returned to Wilmington and Kyle took a job as a landscaper. He attended a conference presented by SAWG, Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, in January 2013 to decide if he wanted to be a backyard hobby farmer or if he wanted to make farming a career. “At the conference, I saw a lot of young people who had the same passion as mine,” Kyle said, “and who were making a success of farming.”

Kyle wrote a letter to the Foys about farming their land. It basically said, “This is who we are, this is what we’d like to do—what do you think about this? Let us know.”

The day before Kyle’s birthday, he received an email from the Foys saying, “This is exactly what we had planned for the property. Let’s try to make your dream a reality!”

Two days after Kyle’s birthday, Bob Foy handed him the keys to the farm gate before he even had the contract signed. And Foy’s been at Kyle’s side ever since, helping to install fencing to give parameters to the swine, laying out 6,000 feet of irrigation drip “tape” (a very thin plastic) for probiotic compost tea fertilizer, and being available for other big jobs as needed.

Kyle built his own growing greenhouse, 10 x 18 feet, and sewed seed for eggplant, broccoli, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and more, all to be cultivated without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. He solicited members for a community supported agriculture group, which grew to 40 members. He and Katelyn quickly realized that number is a lot of people to promise $20 a month in groceries. Next year there will be fewer members, but the few who sign on will receive year-round whatever is available—eggs, produce, chickens, pasture-fed beef and pork, and other livestock options. The five cows, a Belted Galloway and red and black Angus, will soon be joined by an Angus calf. The Stenersens are considering adding a rafter of turkeys, and a flock of sheep to sell the lambs both for meat and wool pelts.

For the present moment, 200 meat chickens, Red Rangers and Cornish X Rock, are running in the pasture by day or hanging out at night in two poultry shelters that Kyle built.

Black Star, Barred Rock and Auracana, 140 egg-laying hens, roost, sleep, and lay their eggs in a 6-by-16-feet chicken coop on wheels—an egg mobile! It is rotated every two weeks to promote hygiene above the wire floor, and to fertilize the soil below it. The hens are given certifiably organic feed and allowed to roam free in the daytime. This ensures the highest quality of egg nutrition.

“I just held my first chicken,” Katelyn beamed. “It is important to us that our animals and plants are well cared for throughout the growing process so they can return the best nutrition for our customers.”

“We are trying to create a family farm in which all members of the family play a part,” Kyle explained. “Adah can already help us carton eggs and knows which side is up. The whole family goes out in the morning to sell at farmers’ markets (Poplar Grove, Wednesday; Riverfront, downtown Wilmington, Saturday) or to do chores. Katelyn and I invite each other into less traditional roles—her with the farm and me managing the children and household. We share the load, instead of segregating ourselves into, ‘This is my world and that is your world,’ it is all one world we share!”

Katelyn hosts a Saturday-morning farm stand of produce in order to help keep the family closer to home. But it’s important to the Stenersens to rub shoulders at farmers’ markets with other local farmers—Healing Earth Farm, Black River Organic Farm and Red Beard Farm, to name a few. There is a national network on the Internet, too, in which people exchange ideas to benefit everyone.

“When we get away from seeing the farmers’ markets as an attraction and start seeing it as a necessity,” Kyle said, “farmers will thrive and local food will become more abundant.”

Essentially, they’re looking to the future for their children to learn the practices of sustainable farming first hand. “Our children will each have their own enterprise on the farm for which they are solely responsible, whether it’s bee-keeping, cutting flowers, tending to rabbits, or such,” Kyle said. “By the time they’re college-age, we want them to be able to run a farm. We’ve been to college and we know what it has to offer. But in these uncertain times, it is good to have hands-on skills that sustain.”

Many families agree with Kyle, and a few people volunteer to help him weed, repair buildings, or prepare eggs and produce for market. One home-schooled 8th grader helps the Stenersens faithfully, once a week.

To help make the Stenersens’ dream farm a reality, call (910) 5383728, or go to kyle.stenersen@gmail.com or humblerootsfarmers@ gmail.com. Also, check out their Facebook, or go to www.humblerootsfarm.com.

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 15

Debating Barbecue Jackson’s vs. Casey’s vs. ... Wendy’s?

i

BY Rosa Bianca ● Devour contributor and encore magazine restaurant critic

f you’ve watched a football game this season, you’ve been treated to the insipid commercials of fast-food juggernaut Wendy’s explaining that barbecue joints can be judged by the style of pig on a restaurant’s sign. While the sheer stupidity of it nearly cost me a TV when I considered throwing my remote control at the screen, the ad did get me thinking about my own experience with barbecue.

Admittedly, I came late to barbecue. I moved to North Carolina at age 18 from points considerably further northward. In the Northeast barbecue is only a noun— referring to an event at which people cook and eat outside. There might be hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken, but there is no barbecue at a Northeastern barbecue.

The first time I saw a sandwich identified as barbecue, I was on the campus of NC State in 1993. It sat wrapped in foil, indistinguishable from the sandwiches labeled as chicken and cheeseburgers. I stared at it a good long time, wondering what the hell a sandwich called “barbecue” could be. I took one, unwrapped it just enough to get a look and was appalled by the mess I saw.

I tried to put it back, but an alert cafeteria worker caught me and compelled me to buy it. Not surprisingly, since that paltry cafeteria sandwich was my first experience with barbecue, it would be many years before I tried it again.

Since I don’t try it often, I’m compelled to say: I wasn’t all too familiar with the Wilmington barbecue scene before I undertook this article. So I went straight to the two most popular barbecue joints in town, starting with Jackson’s Big Oak. Jackson’s tries very hard for small-town appeal in the middle of a small city. Wood-

16 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

CASEY’S FARE: Pulled-pork barbecue is the king at Casey’s Buffet, topped with hot pepper vinegar. Photo by Holland Dotts Photography

“Southern barbecue is the closest thing we have in the U.S. to Europe’s wines or cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes.” —John Shelton Reed

EAT paneled walls and kitschy decor strike the eyes immediately. I walked in shortly after noon, in the midst of a rush, so I waited a bit but well within reason. I ordered two barbecue sandwiches and waited a bit more.

The pork itself was drier than what I was accustomed to, though pleasantly so. I’m not fond of dripping sandwiches, so a little less moisture was welcome. The real signature though was the cole slaw.

It came in a yellow hue, marking a touch of mustard, and tasted of vinegar. I’m not the biggest fan of cole slaw, as mayo and cabbage don’t top my list of favorite flavors, but this was tangy and added a dimension to the sandwich I hadn’t encountered previously.

From there, I headed over to Casey’s Buffet. I don’t visit a lot of buffets, and I have to admit this was the first time I’d visited Casey’s. They’re known for their barbecue—as well as oxtail stew, pig’s feet and chitterlings, a.k.a. “chitlins.” But the barbecue is what I needed now.

I was led to my table by a friendly hostess and wondered if wood paneling on the walls was a state regulation for any place serving barbecue. I ordered the requisite sweet tea and headed for the buffet.

I wanted to compare apples to apples and order a barbecue sandwich, but I didn’t see any standard hamburger buns. I improvised with a delightful cheese biscuit. It didn’t hold up under the weight of the pork, but it was quite tasty nonetheless.

The barbecue itself already was more moist than what I’d eaten at Jackson’s. Then my waitress suggested I try the hot-pepper vinegar on the table. She also offered to bring a tomato-based barbecue sauce, which apparently doesn’t warrant being put out for everyone to try. (Or maybe it’s a pride thing; eastern NC is known for more vinegar-based sauces, whereas the western part of the state touts tomato-based.) I declined and reached for the vinegar; it expanded my barbecue horizons and cleared my sinuses. I definitely enjoyed it, but I did notice the flavor of the pork was masked.

It no longer mattered what I was eating, as the hot peppers took over the flavor profile.

As an aside, since Casey’s is a buffet, I sampled a few things not germane to my barbecue article. While the overall experience was good enough to make me rethink my anti-buffet bias, there was one item that deserves special praise. Casey’s barbecued chicken alone is worth the price of the buffet. Tender and juicy, with just a bit of smoky tang, it is among the best chicken dishes I’ve tasted in a while. So if you’ve been going to Casey’s for the barbecue, I encourage you to branch out next time.

I’ll admit that North Carolina barbecue isn’t exactly my thing.

There’s something to be said for growing up with a particular food and nourishing a fondness for it through adulthood. I didn’t get that opportunity so many natives did, but I appreciate the history and dedication. I’m even amused by the knock-down, drag-out verbal (and occasionally physical) brawls that barbecue can start. It’s like trying to have a conversation about Duke vs. Carolina vs. State: personal (emotional) preference rules the debate, no matter what.

As an epilogue, I decided that since Wendy’s dreadful commercials started me on this journey, I would finish it by giving their barbecue a try. I was treated to a bland and timid sandwich that managed to be both dry and soggy simultaneously. The cole slaw was nothing but a mayo delivery system. Their sauce had a smoky flavor in the same way that a Camel unfiltered cigarette does. Not that any real North Carolinians were considering it, but I’d suggest looking elsewhere for barbecue.

40 BEE RS O N

TAP

Ogden Tap Room has a vast selection of North Carolina brews, rich bourbons and the food menu is a mixture of innovation and comfort. A few favorites include the “The Debris Sandwich” a twisted French Dip with Braised beef, Swiss cheese and au jus on a French loaf, The “Low Country Grilled Cheese,” featuring pimiento cheese, fried green tomatoes, and bacon! They have something for the health nuts too! The one of a kind spinach salad with Dried cranberries, green apple, toasted pumpkin seeds, goat cheese & warm cider vinaigrette.

Come hang out with us at O-tap!

7324 Market Street • 910-821-8185 www.ogdentaproom.com OPEN DAILY at 11am for Lunch & Dinner NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 17

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Le Catalan 224 S Water Street • (910) 815-0200

CRAB DADDY Crab Shack 55 Scotts Hill Loop Road • (910) 319-0688

It’s perfectly rich and airy, and every bite tastes as divine as the first. Paired with a glass of bubbly, we adore Le Catalan’s itsy-bitsy mousse cups, perfectly capped off with a sweet pirouette. The price is only $4.60, but with the riverfront view, the experience is pure decadence.

Just north of Wilmington in Scotts Hill, the Crab Shack’s Crab Daddy features a big ol’ pot of seafood, including blue crab, potatoes, corn, shrimp, and crab legs, all steamed with Old Bay seasonings. $39.95

VEGETABLE STROMBOLI

SUGAR AND SPICE DUCK

Elizabeth’s Pizza 4304 Market Street • (910) 251-1005

Port Land Grille 1908 Eastwood Rd., Ste 111 • (910) 256-6056

The vegetable stromboli from Elizabeth’s constantly has us craving for loads of stringy mozzarella, fresh-cut broccoli, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, rolled in their house made dough, and served with homemade marinara. A small can be shared; a large can feed a small army. Sm $8.25 Lg $14.25

From the Piedmont region of the stage, Chef Shawn Wellersdick serves coconut-farro “pilaf,” with grilled smoked duck sausage, sautéed snow peas and “sweet & sour” stewed mangoes, and a wild flower honey-cardamom and anise glaze. Mouth. Watering.

Delicious. $25

18 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

CHILI PANEER OYSTER ON THE HALF SHELL Rx Restaurant and Bar 421 Castle Street • (910) 399-3080 The Rx menu changes daily. What that means is you may get oysters every day, but their setup could be different. In this case, we have fallen for Bill’s Oysters on the Half Shell, with an apple mignonette and cucumber granita. However they’re served, they’ll be worth a taste. $12

Siaa Indian Restaurant 4610 Maple Avenue • (910) 833-5300 This delicious appetizer only prefaces the numerous, scrumptious items available at Wilmington’s newest dining facility, Siaa.

The chili paneer offers the right amount of heat and sweet, with stir-fried homemade paneer (cheese) sautéed with ginger, garlic and soy sauce. $6

RAVIOLI NICOLA

CUPCAKES

Nicola’s Italian Restaurant 5704 Oleander Dr., #102 • 910-798-2205

The Peppered Cupcake 105 S. Front Street • (910) 399-1088

Homemade three-cheese ravioli takes the tastebuds to new heights at Nicola’s. Topped with a creamy Parmesan pink sauce and fresh herbs with Romano cheese, one bite will have you praising Chef Nick’s mad pasta-making skills. $12.95

A sucker for one-person cakes, we at Devour can eat our weight in cupcakes. And now that The Peppered Cupcake takes it to gourmet heights, our addiction continues to grow. Try their wasabi, crème brûlée, bacon, or Tingle Sensation. Various prices NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 19

Holland Dotts Photography

what we LOVE TO EAT

CINNA-SWIRL PANCAKES THE BIG JERK Flaming Amy’s Burrito Barn 4002 Oleander Drive • (910) 799-2919 Owner Jay and Amy Muxworthy have hit cult status with their famed burrito barn and salsa bar. While traditional items are available, we’re more in love with the eclectic—like their Big Jerk burrito. Roasted red peppers, cheese, rice, beans, sour cream, pineapple jalapeño salsa, and choice of Jamaican Jerk chicken or tofu: Yum! $7.50

Eternal Sunshine Café 114 Causeway Drive • (910) 256-3730 A stack of three buttermilk pancakes gets boosted in flavor with the addition of sweetened cinnamon and brown sugar, swirled and drizzled with a coffee cream-cheese syrup. For only $8.99, it’s breakfast heaven.

109 CHESTNUT CHICKEN

BEEF PHO

Copper Penny 109 Chestnut Street • (910) 762-1373

Asian Fusion Noodle House 4724 New Centre Drive • (910) 859-8242

This is a sandwich for champions! Copper Penny serves up thinly sliced chicken topped with provolone, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, and a chipotle mayo. Served with their homemade chips and Asian cole-slaw, it makes lunch a hearty, happy meal. $10.50

It’s a perfect soul-soother on a cold day. Beef pho is rich in flavor, thanks to the broth and fresh slices of beef, filled with noodles, and topped with beef sprouts and Thai basil. The accoutrements of sauces and add-ons, like onions and jalapenos, make it an interactive meal not easy to forget. $4.90-$5.75

20 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

$100 2 Hour Shoot

Limited Time Oer

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.

ARTICHOKES WITH CAVIAR AND Crème fraîche INGREDIENTS: Whole artichokes, trimmed 2 oz black caviar 8 oz crème fraîche Zest of half a lemon Pinch salt and pepper Small handful chives, chopped very finely

Method: You can go fancy with the caviar and crème fraîche, or it can be black lumpfish and sour cream. The basic idea is combining the fresh, briny taste of the ocean with tangy cream, and mellow22 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

sweet nuttiness of artichokes. It’s an hors d’oeuvre my mother used to serve at parties in the 1980s, and while it has a certain “Bright Lights, Big City” feel to it, I think it’s refreshingly retro now.

Steam the artichokes upside down in a colander/steam basket fitted in a big pot with an inch or so of salted water, for 20 minutes or until they’re tender enough to pluck off a leaf easily. While they’re steaming, mix together everything and pop in the fridge to chill for a minute. When the artichokes are ready, set them out, pluck and dip! It will astound you.

WILD MUSHROOM SOUP Ingredients: 2-3 tbsp olive oil 1 oz dried porcinis 2 cups fresh wild mushrooms (chanterelles, morels, shiitakes, oysters), clean and sliced 1 tsp garlic powder 2 tbsp mascarpone cheese 1/2 dried thyme 1 red onion, finely diced 5 cups chicken stock Salt and pepper to taste Juice of one lemon Handful fresh parsley

Method: Gorgeous, blustery fall days call for a proper mushroom soup: rich and earthy, but never too heavy, and here it is.

Pour a half-cup of hot stock over the porcinis in a small bowl and set aside. Place a large pot over medium high, and add the olive oil and the fresh mushrooms, spooning around to coat. Turn the burner down to medium.

Next goes in the onion, garlic powder, dried thyme, and some

EAT salt and pepper. Stir around for a few minutes, then take the porcinis out, chop them roughly, and add them to the pot. Strain the stock of any dirt or grit, and add back to the pot, too. Cook over medium for about 15-20 minutes.

Taste-test for seasoning, adjust, then add the rest of the chicken stock. Bring to a boil , reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat, puree about half the soup with a handheld immersion blender, add the mascarpone, and blend again. Serve with parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Sing showtunes! It’s terrific.

ROOT VEGETABLE MASH Ingredients: 2-3 parsnips 4-5 carrots 1 turnip 1-2 yukon gold potatoes 2 leeks 1/4-1/2 cup greek yogurt Salt and pepper to taste

Method: It’s the most warming, restorative thing to put into your body after any kind of day. It’s the king of comfort food, and the similaryet-different tastes and textures of various root vegetables are a sublime experience.

Wash and chop everything into bite-size pieces, while waiting for a large pot of salted water to boil. The trick here is to make sure everything cooks evenly, and to that end, dump the turnips in first, as they are the toughest. Then go in the carrots, potatoes, parsnips, and leeks. Chop one group, add to pot, and move on to the next.

Cook it all at a rolling boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Drain, rinse the pot with hot water, and dump the roots back in. Mash up, add greek yogurt, and salt and pepper to taste. Add herbs or butter or hot sauce or any other zippy spice you like. This version is bare-bones basic, but goodness knows it’s all you need.

PINK PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM Ingredients: 1 can evaporated milk (chilled) 1 cup confectioners’ sugar 1 tsp peppermint oil 8-10 drops red food coloring Candy canes, star brites mints, fancy mints, whatever

Method: It’s the prettiest holiday dessert, and a zingy palate cleanser at that! Just a cup of sugar and can of milk results in clouds of ice cream, and the whole thing is so easy I can barely call it a recipe.

Once you get the basics down, you can do any flavor ice cream you want at home, and your whole world is going to be different.

Ready? Let’s go!

Pour chilled milk into a thin aluminum bowl, and whip it on high for a minute until it’s all frothy. Add the confectioners’ sugar slowly while mixing, then the mint oil. Beat it until it thickens and starts to come to soft, melty peaks. Stick it in the freezer for an hour.

Pull it out after an hour and run the mixer through it. Add the food coloring and beat for a minute. Return to the freezer.

Repeat this mix-freeze-mix process four more times. When you’ve whipped it for the last time, fold in your fancy, pink-striped peppermint shavings, transfer to a freezer-safe container, and freeze overnight.

You’re done! You’re a genius. Happy holidays to you.

r foodie Want to list you ss, event, tour, cla raiser d n fu r o , n io t a organiz ion? in our next edit E-mail the event by February 1st to shea@encorepub.com, or post it online through encore’s calendar, which populates Devour’s calendar, too. Head to www.encorepub.com, click calendar, add event, and follow the directions.

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 23

Cocktails and Conversations The case of the broken egg

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

t

here’s a certain rhythm to closing a restaurant each night. The chef, who is often first to arrive, is also usually first to go, followed by the cooks who have long traded their sauté pans for scouring pads to clean their stations, and then the servers and dishwashers. Everyone stops at the bar for a “shift drink,” a thank you from the owner for a job well done. It’s meant to be had with shiftmates to share thoughts on how things went and what may have been done differently; sometimes it turns into something else.

Once everyone else has had their fill (of drink, gossip and camaraderie), the bartender finally gets to go. They may have to turn on the “ugly lights” to get you out the door, but their nights do not end there. After cleaning, I turn off the lights before dealing with the cash. I prefer the dark when I’m counting money. Finished, I’ll take a last lap around to make sure all the lights are out, candles extinguished, fans turned off. It’s the moment in the movie when the killer sets out to strike.

There have been nights when I happened upon huge pots of hog’s heads simmering on the stove in the dark. The once-crowded space emits a cavernous hum. The feeling of peace doesn’t come until I head outside and double-check the locks. It happens just before 3 o’clock and sounds like Robert Frost: “I have been one acquainted with the night I have walked out in rain—and back in rain I have out-walked the furthest city light.”

I think about this poem sometimes in these quiet moments of deep evening, clutching the small blade and corkscrew of my wine tool, walking the three or four blocks to just beyond the parking meters.

I arrive home to a quiet house. Slip into sleep just after 4 a.m.

24 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

Joel Finsel tends the bar at downtown’s Manna. Photo by Trent Williams

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.

—Abraham Lincoln

IMBIBE I try to start my mornings off on the same mellow frequency as the like a free sample from a sales rep. They realized it was Vermouth and quiet house, but I rarely succeed, especially on mornings I forget to probably spit it back in their cups. Then, they poured two others, from turn off my phone, like the morning this message arrived from my boss: the Italian red bottle not lined up with the rest. Rather than making “There are broken eggs in dish-sink and shit on the floor. WTF?” out on the floor, they pulled down a couple stools. They were so inThe news came with the trumpet blast of a medieval herald. My toxicated with each other, they never thought to clean up. I wondered phone calls the sound of Sherwood. The screen read 10:47 AM. A pic- what they had to be thinking now, in the sober light of day. ture of my boss’ face popped up, calling me. I touched the screen “Those were all up when I left last night,” I said, motioning to the square with a cough. bar stools.

“What time did you lock up last night?” he asked.

The gloves were key. Someone will probably want them back, so “2:30 a.m. or so.” they’d been left out as bait.

“Was there anybody else here when you left?”

“There are also three cigarette butts downstairs,” he said. “Two “No, I’d been there for the last 20-25 minutes alone.” stomped out, one just tossed. That shit could have started a fire!”

There was a pause.

The tension kept building, a pool of “Do you know why there might churning magma behind his cool façade. be four glasses left out, two with As I began to clean up the mess, every “Incidents began with the occasional wine, the other two with vernow and then, he’d go outside to take a dirty pint glass on my sink on aftermouth?” he asked. call. There were probably a few people “No idea.” I think he could tell I he hadn’t heard from yet with more clues noons. Then the cash drawer began wasn’t lying. to uncover. I knew he didn’t want to fire to come up short by $20 every third or “There’s also a pair of women’s any of us, didn’t want to admit he’d chogloves on the bar, size seven. The sen a lame horse. fourth day, forcing us to finally get a bottle of Berentzen is almost empty, “Did you say there was an empty botsafe. I knew that after last night we’d and there’s a raw egg floating with the tle of Berentzen?” I asked. rags in the bleach sink.”

A few nights ago, I’d overheard our be changing the locks.”

There had been a couple of other new cook telling a bunch of French girls strange incidents of late. He arrived how much he loved Poire Williams, a one morning to find cake smeared all type of brandy made from Bartlett pears. over a metal table in the kitchen. It looked like someone had decided He ordered them each a pour, but our last bottle ran out about a jigger to rub white icing all over their (or somebody else’s) body and roll short. When he asked if we had anything similar, I poured them each a around on the table, smearing their bottom around in circles, leaving small taste of Berentzen pear. Both of the girls seemed to like it best. an extraordinary work of modern art.

I smiled.

Before that, incidents began with the occasional dirty pint glass on Satisfied that I had ultimately no way to know for sure who it was, I my sink on afternoons. Then, the cash drawer began to come up short finished cleaning up, offered what little I knew and headed back home. by a $20 every third or fourth day, forcing us to finally get a safe. I knew that after last night, we’d be changing the locks.

I sensed the owner was at his wits end. “Do you know Sam Ferris Pear Bramble and Jason Jones?” he asked.

Ingredients: “I don’t think so.”

1 ounce Berentzen Pear “They played in that band the Awkward Silence from Pittsburgh?”

1 ounce gin I had no idea.

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice “Well, the weirdest clue was on the SIM card I found on the floor in 3/4 ounce simple syrup the bathroom. When I stuck it in my phone, there were lots of pictures 4 blackberries of these guys on it.”

1 pear slice I arrived 20 minutes later, wondering whose head was going to roll. Preparation: It was evident that somebody had been partying late after I had locked Muddle three blackberries in mixing glass. Add Berentzen Pear, gin, up. There were three stools taken down from the bar at the darkest lemon juice and simple syrup. Stir gently and strain into large rocks end. I noticed the line of raw egg on the floor stretching from the glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a blackberry and slice of pear. cooler across 6 feet of brick tiles to the sink, exactly where I had just mopped hours ago.

“I don’t want to be a detective,” he said, his eyes hooded beneath Apple Guava Rita the low brim of his Padres cap. “All I want to do is run a restaurant.”

Ingredients: I took in the rest of the scene: four water glasses full of wine, two 1.5 ounces of Berentzen Apple smelling like the sweet vermouth infused with mulling spices that must 1 ounce tequila have tasted pungently awful on their own. The other two glasses were 3 ounces guava nectar most likely filled from the only bottle with its label turned to the side, a 1 tbsp fresh lime juice Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo.

Garnish with lime wedge. Salt or sugar rim to taste.

The gloves were the color of a camel, with long slender fingers. In Preparation: my mind, I saw a man and a woman come in here long after the other Combine all ingredients in a shaker and shake vigorously. Pour into bars had closed. Brazen enough to help themselves, they went straight margarita glass. Garnish with lime wedge. to the beer cooler, hoping to find something that would be missed—

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 25

Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round: Local brewery tours start riding in 2015

BY Bethany Turner ● Devour freelancer

They met at a bar. Actually, to be fair, it was a networking event for veterans looking to help other veterans. Army serviceman Jeremy Tomlinson and Navy serviceman Mark Anthony Mueller became quick friends with a peck of things in common. In business they are both entrepreneurs: Tomlinson owns an IT company, while Mueller runs a financial planning and management firm. They’re both members of UNC Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Most importantly, each has a passion for craft beer. Tomlinson and Mueller even dabbled in homebrewing and have sampled their fair share of suds. ● Mark Anthony Mueller and Jeremy Tomlinson. Photos by Bethany Turner 26 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

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IMBIBE “It turns out the same kind of person who is an entrepreneur is the same type of person who appreciates good beer,” Mueller jokes. “So when we’d go on beer runs, we couldn’t get Bud or Miller; we’d come over to Wilmington Homebrew Supply to fill up on growlers. It really facilitated conversation [at CIE].”

In fact, it was only a matter of time before they started implanting ideas. Rather than going with the de rigueur, “We should own a bar!”, Mueller and Tomlinson devised a plan to capitalize on the bigger picture of Wilmington’s fast-growing craft-brew scene.

When Atwater Brewing was scouting Wilmington, other ideas began brewing.

“Fermental hosted an event and Atwater was there,” Mueller says. “We wound up talking to one of the brewers and asked them why they wouldn’t want to come here. [We explained] we’ve got the ocean, it’s a college town, a big brewing community, the river—it’s the perfect place to be. That evolved into: ‘Why aren’t there more breweries here?’”

Five local microbreweries are now open in Wilmington: Good Hops Brewing in Carolina Beach, Broomtail Craft Brewery in Dutch Square Industrial Park, Wilmington Brewing Company on Kerr Avenue, Flytrap Brewing in the Brooklyn Arts District of downtown, and the pioneer, Front Street Brewery on Front Street. A handful of others, such as Ironclad Brewery and Waterline Brewing Company, are expected to join the ranks soon. Recent amendments to state and city laws have allowed this surge of breweries to take place. But at the time of Mueller and Tomlinson’s talks, rumors of just a couple of the microbreweries were mere whispers.

“We were at a business event, and Barry and Lisa [Owings of Broomtail Craft Brewery] had sponsored it, so they were there pouring beer,” Mueller continues. “They hadn’t opened yet, and we got to know them. They showed us their new place; we helped a little with the grand opening. Once we were involved and saw how deep the rabbit hole went, we wanted to know how we could help more.”

“Well, we can try to help bring people into the breweries,” Tomlinson answers. Thus the inkling for Port City Brew Bus was born.

Word about Port City Brew Bus first began spreading when an Indiegogo campaign was launched on August 11. With 45 funders, the team raised $2,950 before the campaign closed on October 10—30 percent of the $10,000 goal. Despite not reaching 10k, the brew bus still will open in 2015. Tomlinson is in charge of securing a bus now.

“We’ve got the business sense to understand scale and making sure growth is under control, and supply and demand is in line,” Mueller ensures. “We don’t want to just be a brewery tour that does only that. We want to be part of all the events; we want to help facilitate Wilmington Beer Week and all its different events; we want to help quarterback and build Wilmington’s status as a brewing community.”

In Atlanta, with eight breweries open (one or two more are in the works), the city supports two tour companies. Asheville and Charlotte both have three. Raleigh has its own, too.

“We [want to see] Wilmington as a brewing community, to bring in lots of jobs and supplement the tourism,” Mueller notes. “These brewers are working 80 hours a week; they don’t have the time to advocate for themselves. From the business standpoint, we’d like to help them get the word out. Hopefully, in return that will attract bigger breweries and create more jobs.”

The duo is expecting to operate a short school bus to hold 15 passengers. Anything more than 15 means they’ll need a commercial driving license. “It’s not even that huge of a deal, because 28 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

we could get one or hire a driver,” Tomlinson says. “Looking at the breweries we have right now, more than 15 people will be really crowded. We’d like to keep it close-knit; guests are going to get a lot more interaction in a smaller group.”

While the beer bus will not be a “luxury liner,” as Tomlinson quips, it won’t be known as a party bus either. “It’s going to be educational,” Mueller says. “The ideal tour is to get people who are interested in beer or who don’t know much about beer, and educate them. When they’re done, they have a new appreciation not only for the different types of beer but also for how it’s made, and the different aspects of enjoying it and talking about it.”

“They can’t go drink six IPA’s like they can drink six Bud Lights,” Tomlinson adds. “Just showing them the work these guys put in— it’s insane. They do an awesome job and this isn’t a big, corporate thing. These are small businesses who are trying to get going.”

From the view of a tour company, each brewery has its own unique approach to business. Therefore, every stop will provide something different for tourists to learn. “Broomtail takes a scientific approach to everything,” Tomlinson says. “Good Hops just kind of goes at it and throws all the ingredients in there.

Wilmington Brewing Company is in the middle. But they all turn out good beer.”

Likewise, Flytrap Brewing Company will offer an environmental aspect in its care to educate people on the local Venus Flytrap—its logo—and how we can conserve it. “Waterline, when that opens, is in a very historic building,” Mueller says. “Those guys know everything about the building, from where the wood came to its history. With all the differences, you’re not just going and seeing the same thing at each brewery.”

Tomlinson and Mueller see the need for a brewery tour in our town based on feedback they’ve received in the local service industry. Friends who work at area hotels recount visitors asking about the breweries while looking for activities to do. “If they’re here for Riverfest and they’re done walking around, they can go to the Battleship,” Mueller says. “They can go to the aquarium. Well, how about a brewery tour?”

“Once we get all these other breweries,” Tomlinson adds, “they’re coming for the beer—and, oh yeah, it’s at the beach. We then can become a beer destination.”

Folks can expect the wheels of Port City Brew Bus to start turning around the first of the year. The plan is to begin with tours led

by Tomlinson and Mueller on Saturdays and Sundays, and perhaps Fridays. By tourist season, they hope to have everything running smoothly—and more often. The pick-up spot will be at Bombers Bev Co., a new craft-beer retail store and tasting room open at 108 Grace Street. Riders will be able to enjoy games, beer trivia and prize giveaways throughout the tour.

Port City Brew Bus is open to other spots if the need arises.

“Fermental is a possible Ogden pick-up, and there’s Lighthouse Beer and Wine out in Wrightsville Beach,” Tomlinson says. “We’d do hotel stops for tourists—‘Hey, we can pick up five people at the Holiday Inn and take them back afterward.’ Wherever the demand is.”

Locals can look forward to Port City Brew Bus as both a safe ride and a way to get an inside look at the breweries, complete with information they may never receive when just sitting down to a flight of beer. “We’ve got a lot of customized things in the works, too,” Tomlinson shares. “Anything that’s involved around beer and the breweries, people can come to us to help facilitate.”

Mike Barlas, owner of Flytrap, believes the opening of Port City Brew Bus would bring more business to his microbrewery, for sure.

IMBIBE Plus, it will showcase the depth and creativity of the brewing industry. “It speaks to how much the craft-beer industry affects the whole,” Barlas tells. “The fact that it helps other businesses start, and we’re supported by them, they’re supported by us—it’s a very symbiotic relationship that is super cool. The craft-beer industry is all about collaboration and working together. It’s about community and getting people together in a positive way. It’s about helping each other and other craft breweries in Wilmington get noticed, because whatever’s good for the craft-beer scene in Wilmington is good for all of us.”

Tomlinson’s met many folks in other industries whose local businesses have grown thanks to the influx of new breweries. So the effect isn’t one-dimensional. “I met guys that sell pipe fittings,” he says. “They wanted to meet brewers because they have some of the stuff that brewers use, for which they may have had to go out of town to get or order online. Now you have a small business here that can help.”

Likewise, Tomlinson and Mueller want to use the bus to assist in relationship-building and networking. At a chamber event in October, Sunset Social, all the brewers were there thanks to Mueller and Tomlinson reaching out to them.

“Whether it’s a bar or anybody else, we can be the middle man between these people who are so busy,” Mueller notes. “We’re not competing with Event Shuttle, which is a great company. The value we offer is the brewing and beer experience. Any businesses that want to do an event that involves the brewing industry can look to us for help. We’d like to position ourselves in that ancillary way.”

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“If somebody wants to open a brewery, come talk to us,” Tomlinson adds. “We can put them in touch with beer lawyers, investors. If they’re serious about it, there are people who want to spend some money and do things here.”

Essentially, the goal of Port City Brew Bus is to ensure Wilmington’s craft-beer scene has a distinctive place on the brewery map.

The end goal will mean a stronger tourist draw.

“Brewing beer brings people together,” Mueller shares. “What everyone always thought of wine as being, people are now realizing that’s what beer is, too. Not only is the beer good, but it’s a good time. Everybody gets along and there are good conversations. There’s conversation between brewers about what they’re creating, and the more that happens, the bigger the community builds. The bigger the community builds, the more word gets around—that’s when people start coming to town. They start taking trips from Myrtle Beach, they start coming in from Raleigh. Maybe people from Asheville would check out the brews in Wilmington.”

And, face it, without beer the entire economy surely would collapse. “That’s a scientific fact,” Mueller quips. “Port City Brew Bus is probably the single savior for the entire economic situation. In all seriousness, Wilmington is on the list of top riverfront communities; we want it to be on the list of top brewing communities, too. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be.”

Area businesses can support the brewery tour through corporate sponsorships; for information on investing, visit www.portcitybrewbus.com or e-mail info@portcitybrewbus.com.

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NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 29

What is Farming Anyway?

Analyzing the numbers in modern day farming

BY Evan Folds ● Devour contributor and owner of Progressive Gardens If you are alive on the Earth, you have a farmer to thank. Other than maybe teachers, there is no other profession more under-appreciated than farming. As important as they are, we should go out of our way to glorify our farmers and strive to know as many of them as we can. But how many of you out there know your farmer? More directly, as important as farming is, shouldn’t we know the best methods of food production, the real differences between organic and conventional farming, or the dangers of pesticides and genetically modified organisms? Most of us don’t have a clue. So, it begs the question: What is farming? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.

Above: Tenant farmers of Humble Roots Farm, the Stenersens. Photo by Holland Dotts Photography 30 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE For most of our existence, humans have est for a single corporation to have It may not be obvious, but most farmers global control of the agricultural obtained food by hunting and gathering; we couldn’t always take a trip to the grocery do not eat their food. Think about that for market? store or join a community supported agriculThe problem is not so much that ture (CSA) program. Farming is a relatively rea minute. North Carolina ranks second in Monsanto and company are atcent invention. Although humans have been tempting to corner the market, but Christmas tree cash receipts and also grows that the government is helping them around an estimated 4 million years, the concepts of society and civilization did not exist a significant amount of tobacco and cotton. do it. Even if you accept living organuntil farming arrived. We couldn’t organize isms can be genetically altered and ourselves to form governments, specialize patented, the subsidy system in the our skills to be architects, or invent the alphabet and writing, without the U.S. is what has been driving farming toward synthetic commodity crop power of farming. production and toxic rescue chemistry since Richard Nixon’s Secretary of The first farm was believed to be in the modern-day Middle East, Agriculture Earl Butz ruined the future of agriculture by implementing corknown as the Fertile Crescent. Imagine it: Some human who was alive porate farm policy in the 1970s. over 10,000 years ago, maybe after a long day looking for food, decided For example, Butz abolished a program that paid corn farmers to not he was tired of finding food every day. Somehow, he felt it made more plant all their land. This program was designed to prevent a national oversense to grow food where he and his village lived rather than to hunt and supply of corn and stabilize prices. Now, we send millions of tons of cheap gather. That simple thought may be the single greatest revolutionary act surplus overseas that ruin local markets, and some seasons we literally in human history. It has resulted in people being able to develop the skills have entire crops of corn and soy that are left in the field after the growing necessary to turn life into our modern way of being. season from lack of demand. Yet, the farmer still is paid the same subsidy.

But farming was not a singular idea that spread across the globe from This happens right here in Southeastern North Carolina. the center out; it manifested on its own in different areas of the globe These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corpoover time. The Fertile Crescent may have been first, but based on the ar- rations and the declining financial stability of the small family farm. What chaeological record, farming sprouted up independently in places such as we have now is another kind of foodscape entirely. By design, instead of sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and at least five other an informed public that can rely on the oversight and protection of the geographically separate areas. This is significant. Farming was not a rogue powers that be, it is truly every man and woman for themselves against idea forced upon the people, or even a great idea that was adopted by the grain of an agricultural policy that is built for profit, not people. others through word-of-mouth. There were no trade routes in year 8000 It may not be obvious, but most farmers do not eat their food. Think BC; farming was simply an idea that came during a time needed for hu- about that for a minute. Some are too aware of the dangers in the hermanity. In point of fact, it was an idea that would come to define humanity. bicides and pesticides being used. Due to the breakdown of the farm Farming in the modern world is far different than that of the original economy, others simply don’t have the time, as chronicled in Leah Koefarmers—even the farming of 100 years ago. Modern farming collectively nig’s article in Modern Farmer, “Why Many Farmers Eat Like Crap.” has become a slave to profit rather than a means of providing nourishAs well, North Carolina ranks second in Christmas tree cash receipts ment for people. What I mean is: 100 years ago, before the onset of hy- and also grows a significant amount of tobacco and cotton. A full twobridization, genetic engineering and artificial agriculture farming was a thirds of calories grown per acre on U.S. farms are for animals, not people. food-centered activity. The food grown was not influenced by humans, Some estimates say despite demand, as little as 3 percent of farmland in industry and artificial toxins; it was not genetically modified. Instead of NC is used for fruits and vegetables, with the large majority for livestock. having to look for a certification or read the ingredients on the package in An estimated 4 billion people could be fed globally, 800 million in the U.S. the grocery store, there was no question that the food was good for you, alone, if we stopped producing animal feed and biofuels and only grew as long as it was palatable. crops for human consumption. That doesn’t mean eating meat is bad— How did we let this happen? It’s a complicated answer, but it amounts just that we eat way too much of it. to compromised politicians, corporate greed, convenience, misplaced Farms are getting fewer and larger. Only a few generations ago, 70 pertrust in regulators, lazy eaters and outright coercion. Bottom line, to com- cent of the U.S. population was active in agriculture. Today that number is bat the growing hunger, empty food and toxins in our food supply, we less than 1 percent, with only 45 percent of those farmers claiming farmneed a radical change in agronomic priorities. ing as their principle occupation. Over the last decade, North Carolina has A quick Internet search provides plenty of proof that politicians, such as lost more than 1,500 farms, in part due to an aging farmer population. the Bushes, the Obamas and both Clintons, endorse policies of conven- The average age of farmers is 57, and the fastest growing group is 65 and tional agriculture that they do not personally adhere to in regards to the older. But there is hope. I am fortunate to work with many farmers who are food they eat. All have appointed multiple people to powerful positions in eating what they grow, and I am meeting people every day who want to the food system with conflicts of interest from Big Ag. Meaning they stock do their part and get involved in our local food system. the government with corporate tools who hawk GMOs and the biocides You don’t have to be a farmer and grow all of your own food to be that go with them on the public to make gazillions of dollars—then they part of the solution; just start a small food garden, join a CSA, base your eat organic food in private. meal choices around seasonality and locality, ask your server where the The food industry is the largest in the world, and it is brokered by pow- food comes from, visit the farmers’ markets consistently, or switch from a erful corporations such as Monsanto, Cargill, Bayer, and others that patent major brand to a craft brand that is paying attention. Every little bit counts, living organisms, then use their wallets to lobby the compromised politi- and the reality is that these companies are only growing what people are cians they have helped get elected to control the food system in a form of eating. The great Wendell Berry said, “Eating is an agricultural act.” The agricultural monopoly that under full review strikes to the heart of morality. truth is that our buying power determines what farmers grow, and we For example, in the U.S. over 80 percent of corn and over 90 percent of create the demand with every bite we take. This is the future of farming: soy is grown from Monsanto seed, with a full 40 percent of U.S. cropland an educated and engaged public, working to decentralize and strengthen planted with Monsanto’s crops. Monsanto owns 1,676 seed, plant and our food system through conscious eating and diversity of involvement. other applicable patents, most of which are genetically altered organisms For food to be grown and eaten to its potential, there must be a desire created in a lab. When a company owns seed genetics, it means farmers to participate in agriculture that is rooted in ecological sustainability and cannot save seed for next season, as they have been doing for 10,000 motivated by community, quality and nutrition—not merely profit, shelf years. Instead, they must buy it from Monsanto. Is it healthy or in our inter- life and a race to the bottom line. We can do it.

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 31

TO

READ! Cookbooks and other reviews

Devouring VW Culture: A few book reviews that tantalize the taste buds

BY Gwenyfar Rohler ● Devour columnist, freelance writer and business owner of Old Books on Front Street The Original VW Camper Cookbook

By Lennart Hannu, Steve Rooker and Susanne Rooker 2013 (revised) Kombi-Nation Sweden, 162 pgs.

This beautiful book was written by a family of VW camper owners for VW camper families to enjoy while travelling. It is part cookbook, part how-to book, part celebration of the iconic vehicle, and the alluring lifestyle that has grown up around it. As a new owner of a ’67 split-window VW camper van, I invested in this book ahead of my first road trip to learn a little more about cooking in a mobile kitchen. I was unprepared for just how visually stimulating this book was going to be.

Every page is beautiful, full color with white text overlay.

Most double-page spreads consist of a recipe and multiple pictures of camper and its owner, with a brief biographical sketch of the bus and location.

Over 50 camper buses and their owners are featured, along with a slew of pictures of groups of buses, shots out of windows at various locales around the world, and of course mouth-watering, enticing food.

Original and restored campers feature camp stoves for cooking. Therefore, the recipes tend to concentrate on either items that can be prepared on a camp stove or over a BBQ grill at a 32 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

campsite (as opposed to in a microwave). Do not assume that all the recipes are sandwiches and salads. Flaming beef stroganoff, orange pork chops, a full English breakfast, Thai salmon in coconut sauce, stuffed mushrooms, and stuffed mackerel are just some of the main courses suggested. The intro to the chapter on desserts, overlaid on a picture of Stonehenge, says it all: “According to archeologists they now have undisputable proof of a higher civilization before us. Their vehicles had superior style and they could make a chocolate cake almost anywhere.”

The four pages of sauce recipes (with accompanying pictures) are a feast for the eyes. The peanut sauce has me convinced I can eat it by itself and call it a stew. But if you can’t wait to take a trip to try out the cookbook, never fear! The recipes translate just as well to a home kitchen. I highly recommend giving them a try at home first, anyway. It gives you a chance to work out the kinks before you are on the road and real- ize you forgot the olive oil. Also, for VW lovers who are home over the holidays, the last recipie in the book is a make-athome recipe, not an on-the-road recipe: a pattern for making a gingerbread VW Camper bus. It is the coolest, hippest gingerbread house imaginable.

So did it answer my questions about cooking on the go?

Yes, the first several pages map out a well-illustrated guide to the world of the tiny mobile kitchen. Multi-use tools, not necessarily normally kitchen tools, collapsible containers are highlighted along with frank discussions about food safety and refrigeration issues. It also helped me solve

FEATURE some questions about how my own camper interior works. Plus, it helped me pick out the color I am going to repaint the exterior of my own camper (a velvety blue found on page 20).

My friend Susan (a born copy editor) couldn’t take the typos.

Hence, she had to put down the book. It is written with British spelling and slang by a Swedish family who have very good language skills, but still appear to have English as their second language. Consequently, the prose is not as poetic as it could be, but the message is still accessible and for lovers of VW’s and food—all

the info is there and the dreams jump off the pages. What is pleasantly surprising is the price: $19.95 for a book of full-page color photos? The productions costs alone would usually drive the price higher. Add in anything associated with VW and the obsessive culture that has grown up around it usually has a premium price tag, and it is doubly surprising that the book is so affordable. This book achieves all it sets out to do: inspire you to cook, eat, and go buy a VW Camper.

TASTY LEFTOVERS Books we love to indulge in again and again!

Brew Like a Monk Stan Hieronymus 2005 Brewer Publications, 272 pgs.

Though intended to be a guide for brewers, this book is equally a fascinating history of Trappist brewing and its place in the modern world.

The history of Trappist Authenticated Products issued by the International Trappist Association is explored alongside questions, such as candied sugar or not-candied sugar? By the end of the book, everything you thought you knew about Trappist brewing is wrong.

As a lay-person to the beer world, it is a fascinating work and a good introduction to not only beer history but also modern beer culture. As a longtime cook who learns how things are made rather than using recipes, it is a book written for people like me. There are very technical directions about temperatures and length of boil, etc.

But the majority of the book is given to discussing how different beers have developed. There is much more text than technical data in here.

Even if you have never brewed a batch of beer in your life (and I haven’t), it is fascinating to read about one of the most important beverages in human history.

Diet for a New America John Robbins 1987 Still Point Publishing, 387 pgs.

“Diet for a New America” is probably the most wellknown manifesto calling for a vegan diet and lifestyle. I first encountered it in midadolescence. It remains an incredibly shocking and moving book.

Robbins focuses his arguments on the horrors of factory farming and calls upon the populace to refuse to participate by opting for a vegan lifestyle. In the intervening years, a resurgence of interest in supporting responsible and humane farming practices have provided a middle ground as a viable option. But Robbins does what must be done: He takes an extreme position because compromise requires space between two extremes. It is unfortunate that this book still depicts a reality for many animals in the world, and for much of the diary and meat supply in the United States.

It remains a landmark in the discussion of farming practices and food production. Anyone thinking, writing or working with these topics should read it.

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 33

Select Indulgences Culinary calendar of events

~events & happenings~ DINNER DANCE CRUISE 11/29, 6:30-9:30pm: Enjoy a relaxing evening onboard the Henrietta III, NC’s largest riverboat. Our Saturday Dinner Dance Cruise features our captain’s buffet dinner, a DJ for your entertainment and scenic views of the Cape Fear River at Sunset. This is truly a special night to remember. Tickets: $56. Cape Fear Riverboats, 101 S Water St.

12 TASTES OF CHRISTMAS 12/12: The 12 Tastes of Christmas is an annual holiday party benefitting the Cape Fear 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 program. All donations, ticket sales and sponsors’ gifts go directly to CFLC. www. cfliteracy.org.

COASTAL CAROLINA CHRISTMAS 12/12-13, 7pm: A fundraiser to benefit: Wilmington Boys Choir, Samaritan Ministry, and Mother Hubbards Cupboard Fri, Dec 12: Ceremony of Carols followed by champagne and chocolate reception.

Featuring the Wilmington Boys Choir at St. Paul’s and the St. Paul’s Choir, plus a carol sing-along. • Sat, Dec 13: Christmas Cabaret, an evening of jazz and standards with Grenoldo Frazier. Dinner by the bite, wine pairings and seasonal cider plus silent auction. Ticket prices to be determined. www.spechurch.com. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 16 North 16th St.

THEATRE NOW 12/14: TheatreNOW’s popular Jazz Brunch Series continues with the effervescent actress and vocalist, Nina Repeta, and her jazz trio.

Delicious three-course meal with your choice of entrée included in the ticket. Doors at 11:30am. Show is 12-2pm. $20 adults, $15 children under 12. Beverages and food service gratuity not included.

Admission: $15 children under 12; $20 adults. Other dates: 1/11: Sunday Jazz Brunch with Lee Venters Trio. 2/15: Sunday Valentine’s Brunch with LaCi (Chiaki Ito and LaRaisha DiEvelyn) • 1/9-2/14: “Love Happens” by Richard Orlaff. Romantic comedy dinner show takes place every Friday and Saturday nights with three-course meal and show. • 2/20-3/21: “Top O’the Mornin’” with Faith & Beggora by Penny Kohut. Comedic Irish talk & dinner show takes place every Fri/Sat night. www.theatrewilmington.com. 19 S. 10th Street.

910-399-3NOW 34 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

STRIPERFEST: CFRW 1/16-17: The Cape Fear River Watch will host its annual StriperFest to celebrate the resurgence of the migratory fish of the Cape Fear. On Friday, 1/16, an auction and banquet will take place.

On Saturday the boats take off for a tag-and-release tournament. CFRW will provide information on the populations of striped bass during the event and will host a fisheries forum for adults during Saturday’s Education Day, 10 a.m.

- 2 p.m.The kids can enjoy art projects, fisheries biology, face-painting, casting lessons and more! Coastline Convention Center, downtown Wilmingon. www.CapeFearRiverWatch.org.

NATIONAL HOT TEA MONTH 1/7, 14, 21, 28, 11am: National Hot Tea month returns to the New Hanover County Senior Center, 2222 South College Road. Try out different teas and learn about their numerous health benefits. Shantal Davis oversees the event, which ends weekly at 1pm. (910) 7986400.

CFCA BBQ LUNCH 1/22, 11am: Join Cape Fear Christian Academy for their annual BBQ lunch and dinner sale. Plates will be pre-sold at $8 per plate.

Deliveries are available in Harnett County for 10 plates or more.

SIP, SWAP AND SHOP 1/31, 6pm: Lump to Laughter’s 6th annual Sip, Swap and Shop at The Terraces on Sir Tyler at 1826 Sir Tyler Drive. Wine and beer paired with hors d’oeuvre. Swap your new and very gently used items with other attendees who have donated the same. Swap items are donated prior to the event in preparation for display. Attendees take what they need at no additional charge (hence, a swap!). Swap items include closeouts from local retailers for added surprises. Raffles, silent and live auctions, vendor booths, and a 50/50 raffle. Door prizes, swag bag and stemless glass for each attendee. Entry fee: $50 donation. www.LumptoLaughter.org Deliveries are available in parts of Johnston and Wake counties for 20 plates or more. Plates can be purchased at the door. Winter Park Baptist Church, 4700 Wrightsville Ave.

COMPETITION DINING The “Got To Be NC” Competition Dining Series is unlike any other dinner experience in the country. Taste course-by-course during a series of 8 to 15 dinner competitions hosted in five regions of the state throughout the year. Each evening, two restaurants battle it out side by side in a single elimination, blind dinner format. As our guest, you get to savor a six-course menu (three courses from each chef without knowing whose food you’re tasting) created around a “Mystery” North Carolina ingredient. The ingredient is revealed to the chefs at noon the day of their battle and it must be used in each of their three courses. Wilmington’s leg, Fire on the Dock, takes place January through February. Find updates and tickets at www. competitiondining.com.

WINE AND CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL Wilmington Wine and Chocolate Festival returns 1/30-2/1! Grand Tasting: Fri. 1/30, 7-10pm: Hors d’oeuvre and live entertainment

by The Schoolboys. Vintners, chocolatiers, specialty food purveyors and artisans will offer delectable products for tasting and sales throughout the evening. • Wine and Chocolate Marketplace, Sat., 1/31, 11am-7pm, and Sun., 2/1, noon-4pm. Festivalgoers will sample delectable products for sale, as they explore 50 shops along our European Street Marketplace. On Saturday and Sunday the Riverview Room will alternate (on the hour), between special children’s events and food demos. Coastline Conference & Event Center, 503 Nutt Street. Tickets: wineandchocfest@gmail.com

RED DRESS LUNCHEON 2/7, 11am: Each year nearly half a million women die from cardio-

vascular disease. Women need to be empowered with knowledge early on so they can protect themselves against this deadly disease.

The Red Dress Luncheon proceeds are used to provide free heart disease education to help women identify risk factors so they can be proactive in their health. This event also benefits the Marlene Sigler Cardiac Endowment to provide continuing staff education at the NHRMC Heart Center. www.nhrmc.org/RedDress.

WINE AND BEER WALK 2/28, 1-6pm: Don’t miss out on this popular sampling tour of downtown’s finest venues! Tickets are $15 each, or 2 for $25 and can be purchased online at www.etix.com. You will receive your “official” Wilmington Wine & Beer Walk ID and a map of the participating establishments. As you walk through the various locations you will receive two samples (per venue) of a specially selected wine or beer.

Participants must be at least 21 years of age, and have a valid ID ready for establishments to verify.

CAPE FEAR BEER FEST 3/7, noon-5pm: The Cape Fear Beer Festival is a true beer tasting (and wine) event, featuring a wide variety of beer styles from the most creative brew masters in the world. We’ll be pouring their tasty creations inside the newly constructed Wilmington Convention Center. $35 in advance 1pm-5pm; $45 VIP, noon entry; $45 day of GA. http://capefearbeerfest.com.

~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 throughout the year.

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. Also a special members-only discount wine during events: 15 percent off six or more bottles and 20 percent off 12 or more bottles. To reserve a seat in class or join, call 910-2569488 or stop by The Seasoned Gourmet, 1930 Eastwood Rd. www.theseasonedgourmet.com/cape-fear-food-and-wine-club

WHOLE FOODS Kids’ Club every Thursday, 10am-10:30am, in the café. Free events abound, fun activities and snacks. • 12/4: Twitter Chat: Wines for the Holidays, 7-8pm. Online, free. No holiday celebration is complete without a few bottles of wine, so join in on the chat to discover our recommendations for the season! Buy a few ahead of time and taste and tweet with us through our favorites. See the list: www.wholefoodsmarket.com/wine. Follow #WFMwine to join the conversation. • 12/11: Twitter Chat: Spectacular Entertaining, 6-7pm. Online, free. From large celebrations to comforting dinners and small cocktail soirees, the holiday season is the time for entertaining. Swap recipes, ideas, and more. Follow #WFMdish to join the conversation. • 12/18: Twitter Chat: Cooking for the Holidays, 6-7pm: Online, free. It’s almost time for the second big feast of the holiday season! Whether you’re looking for a main course, sumptious sides or delicious desserts you’re sure to find it during our chat. Follow #WFMdish to join the conversation. 3804 Oleander Dr.

CAPE FEAR WINE AND BEER 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 NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 35

FOOD CONFERENCE 2/6, 8am-4pm: Feast Down East—a nonprofit bridging the gap between local farms to local folks—presents the Southeastern NC Food Systems Program’s 5th annual regional conference at UNCW’s Burney Center. The day-long event wukk offer a multitude of workshops that cover topics aplenty, like “The Business

received a Duplin Prize. Tickets are $55 per person and includes the tour and wine tasting, dinner and entertainment. • 2/6, 5-8pm: Heritage Pick Up Party: Quarterly wine packages during this Friday evening happy hour. Each themed party will feature live entertainment and offer specials for club members. The Bistro staff will serve up some spectacular finger food and there will be fellowship for all.

Reservations required. Free Member Event. Guest Tickets: $20 per person. • 2/14, 5-9pm: Valentine’s Day Dinner: The Bistro at Duplin Winery will be open for romantic dining on Valentines night. Guests can enjoy romantic live music during their dinner. Date will receive a red rose at the start of your dinner. Reservations required: 910-2894046. • 2/21, 3:30-9pm: Golden Oldies Show: America’s favorite music of the ‘50s and ‘60s—a mix of country, doo-wop, bluegrass, R&B and a touch of funny completes a dinner theater adventure at Duplin. Comprehensive tour and tasting offered prior to our show., feat. three-course meal. Tickets: $45 per person. Choose the tour and tasting for an additional $2. 505 N. Sycamore St, Rose Hill, NC. www.duplinwinery.com.

of Farming,” “Drip Irrigation,” “Solar

SILVER COAST WINERY

Energy,” “Hoop House,” “Local Food

Craft Beer Tastings: Seven days/week; flight of five craft beers, $6.

• Wine with a light food pairing, $20/person, includes whites, blush and reds; min. four people (two-day notice; (910) 287-2800). • Every Tues., 6-9pm: Open Mic Night in Southport Tasting Room. • Friday night music at the winery, 4-6pm. • 12/12: Holiday Soiree Open to any group of people. Includes hors d’oeuvre, champagne, DJ, buffet, cash bar. Must reserve a table for a minimum of 6 people. $45/person. 1/25, 1-4pm: Bridal Show: Expert wedding planners and vendors will offer info; DIY booth to learn to make your own centerpieces. 6680 Barbeque Rd NW, Ocean Isle Beach. silvercoastwinery.com

Councils,” “Food Corps,” and more. The conference helps support a healthy and prolific local food system. Farmers and fishers are admitted for only $15; general public tickets cost $35. Registration opens in mid-December. Visit www.feastdowneast.org for more info.

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 5-7 PM, 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 12/11: Duplin Winery celebrates our Heritage Club with a special evening—just for the ladies! Enjoy fun, food and fellowship! Great discounts throughout the store will make this a perfect night to finish your holiday shopping. RSVP to events@duplinwinery.com.• 12/13, 8am-10am: 3rd Annual Breakfast with Santa: Buffet and a story with Santa Claus will bring a smile to both the young and the old. Children will get a chance to have a one on one with Santa, and a professional photographer will be here to capture the magic. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for 4-12, and children 3 and under are free.

• 1/17, 11am-3pm: Duplin Winery invites you and your friends to attend our second annual Bridal/Event Planning Expo. We have invited our favorite vendors from far and wide to showcase their specialty products or services. Cake vendors, florists, DJs, and more. We will have everything you need to plan your next big event. Tickets: $5 adv, $8 at the door • 1/31, 3:30-9pm: Spend an evening solving a murder among friends; 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 36 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

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. 6-8 p.m. • Sparkling wine specials & discounted select bottles, Wed. & Thurs. • Monthly food and wine pairing events. 29 S. Front St. www.fortunateglasswinebar.com

NONI BACCA 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.

WINE SAMPLER Every week: five wines to taste during sampling hours, Thurs., 3-8 pm, Fri., 3-8pm, and Sat., 11am-7pm. 10% discount as well toward purchase. 4107-C Oleander Dr. (910) 796-WINE (9463). www.thewinesampler.com

WINE TASTING WEDNESDAYS Sweet N’ Savory Cafe, 1611 Pavilion Pl., holds a weekly wine tasting. Attendees get $5 off every bottle of wine. Free; 5-6:30pm.

WILMINGTON BREWING CO. Free brewing demonstration every Saturday at 1:30pm. Don’t wait!

Brew beer and purchase all your shopping needs for your home-

Wilmington’s family-owned and operated French Crêperie! * Authentic sweet and savory crêpes made from scratch * * Vegan, dairy and gluten-free available on demand * * Serving breakfast and lunch daily *

We specialize in catering!

SANDWICHES SALADS PASTAS DESSERTS 1101 S College Rd. • (910) 392-7529 www.ncatasteofitaly.com

Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 7am-3pm Saturday: 8am-3pm Sunday: 8am-2pm

3810 Oleander Dr. wilmington, NC 28403 (910) 395 0077

A Unique Eating Experience 7210 Wrightsville Ave. Wilmington, NC 910-256-3131 • www.wbceviche.com

420 Eastwood Rd in Wilmington NC 28403 • (910) 791-6995 Mon. - Fri. 6am- 2pm • Sat. 7am- 2pm • Sun. 8am- 2pm www.eternalsunshinecafe.com

NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 37

brewer: Gift certificates, equipment, ingredients, T-shirts, and beer. www.wilmingtonhomebrew.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 2:30 Downtown Afternoon Tasting Tour ($50/person) and a 3:00 Downtown Dinner & Drinks Tour ($65/person). A 10am Farmers’ Market Tour ($75/person), and Cooking Class is also available. www.tastecarolina.net

“Fresh tastes better”

$4.69 DAILY LUNCH SPECIALS

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.

~clubs & organizations~ 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.

FOOD BANK OF NC Established in 1980, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that provides food to people at risk of hunger in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina. In 2008-09, the Wilmington branch distributed over 4 million pounds to our four county service area. • Holiday Meals Drive through 12/31: No child or family should go hungry during the holidays. But with your help, they won’t! That’s the power of your giving when you contribute to the Food Bank’s Holiday Meals Drive. Learn how you can make a difference at foodbankcenc.org/HolidayMeals. • Food Drive Box Decorating Contest, through 12/26. Holding a food drive for the holidays? Decorate your box and enter our contest!

Entering is easy—just email us the photo! More details at foodbankcenc.org/BoxContest • Become a Social Media Ambassador #ILM: We invite social media professionals, technology enthusiasts and networked individuals to “use their social media powers for good” and join the Food Bank as Social Media Ambassadors! Sign up: www.foodbankcenc.org/SMA • Food Drives & Special Events: Be sure to check out all of the great food drives and special events going on throughout our region: www.foodbankcenc.org/specialevents. • Virtual Warehouse Tour: Get a behind-the-scenes look at the operations of the Wilmington Branch from the inside! Learn how the Food Bank works and see actual agency pickups. Learn more at foodbank24.org.

GWBJ POWER BREAKFAST

catering available

*Kids eat for $.99 all day on Sundays! *Ogden location only.

www.hibachitogo.com Ogden Location: Hampstead Location:

15248 Highway 17 North Hampstead, NC 28443 910.270.9200 Drive-thru, call in or walk up

38 DEVOUR | NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015

6932 Market Street Wilmington, NC 28411 910.791.7800 Dine in or carry out

Greater Wilmington Business Journal Power Breakfast is from 7:30-10am, 12/10. For general information and speaker information, please call 910-343-8600. Parking is available in the attached Wilmington Convention Center Parking Deck. www.wilmingtonbiz. com. Admission: $15. Wilmington Convention Center, 10 Convention Center Dr.

AZALEA COAST EXEC. NETWORK Meets the first Monday of each month at 5:30 pm for networking, dinner at 6 pm at Henry’s, 2508 Independence Blvd. Wilmington.

Female business women networking and professional development. Dinner is dutch $15; annual membership $24. 762-8562.

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P embroke ’ s

www . pembrokescuisine . com

www . rxwilmington . com

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(910) 239-9153

421 c Astle s t .

(910) 399-3080

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NOVEMBER, 2014 - FEBRUARY, 2015 | DEVOUR 39

featured on www.thrillist.com

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

WE ALSO DO CATERING! voted best buffet & soulfood by encore magazine readers 5559 Oleander drive • 910.798.2913

Wednesday-Saturday 11am-9pm • Sunday 11am- 8pm • Closed - Monday and Tuesday

www.caseysbuffet.com