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SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 3

Editor’s Note

New Kid on the Block

SE North Carolina www.sencmag.com Issue No. 14

Staff / Credits / Contributions PUBLISHER Jim Sills EDITOR Abby Cavenaugh PRODUCTION/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Jillian Smith Content & Photography Abby Cavenaugh Trevor Normile Michael Jaenicke Baxter Miller CONTRIBUTING Writer Annesophia Richards Advertising Becky Cole Alan Wells CIRCULATION Lauren Guy SUBSCRIBE: Four issues (one year) $19.95 plus tax lguy@ncweeklies.com CONTACT senc.ads@nccooke.com senc@nccooke.com 1.910.296.0239 ON THE COVER Vivian Howard Illustration by Haze Frederick, III Using photographs of Vivian Howard and her new pizza eatery in Wilmington, Hayes Frederick, III created the cover artwork for this issue. Resident photography genius Trevor Normile came up with the idea.

We kind of like it.

SouthEast North Carolina Magazine is a publication of the Duplin Times and Cooke Communications North Carolina. Contents may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher.

I’m not new to Southeastern North Carolina. Not by a long shot. I was born in Wilmington, grew up outside Wallace and moved away for a while, like many of us do, but came back home.

Eastern North Carolina is like nowhere else on earth, and a big part of that is the food. And there’s not a better time of year to enjoy all the goodness this area has to offer than summertime.

That’s why, for my first issue as SE North Carolina editor, I decided to focus on a few of the delicacies that make our corner of the state special — and the people behind them.

Many of our readers may know Vivian Howard as the star of the Daytime Emmy-Award winning PBS series, “A Chef’s Life,” the proprietor of The Chef & The Farmer in Kinston and author of the bestselling Deep Run Roots. If there’s anyone who’s made good on her Southeastern North Carolina heritage, it’s Vivian Howard. She’s sure to go down in history as one of the greats produced by this state. I’m thrilled to have her grace the pages of our magazine.

There’s arguably nothing that says “Southeastern N.C.” like a plate of good ol’ wood-smoked barbecue. Southern Smoke in Garland is one of the best around, with people driving hundreds of miles to get a taste. Read the story of its improbable success in this issue. There are a few other barbecue places you don’t want to miss out on too, so check out our “BBQ Craze” spread on pages 28-29.

Another staple of this part of the state is seafood. Few do seafood better than the legendary Riverview Cafe in Sneads Ferry.

Seriously, not much compares to their fried oysters and succulent flounder. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

If burgers are more your speed, you’ll find a unique take on this all-American classic at Melvins’ in Bladen County. No traditional condiments here; they serve

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North Carolina

their handmade burgers with slaw and chili. It may sound weird (unless you’re one of the many loyal customers), but as they say, don’t knock it until you try it.

Speaking of weird, or at least out of the ordinary, a couple in Wilmington has started their own kombucha brewery. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not alone. However, it’s gaining popularity in the Wilmington area, and the Panacea Brewing Co.’s fermented concoctions may soon be found in a grocery store near you. Remember you saw them here first.

Something that truly is weird, no matter how you look at it, are some of the unexplained phenomena that have occurred in Southeastern N.C. over the years. A friend mentioned the Seneca Guns to me, and I was intrigued by these still-unexplained booms. That led me to check into other instances of the unexplained, and what I found was truly perplexing.

You might also be surprised to hear about a colony for Jews who had escaped the Holocaust right here in our neck of the woods.

Finally, I take a look back at the days of yore when young’uns in Southeastern North Carolina spent their summers on the tobacco (or ’baccer) farm. It’s a bygone era, to be sure, but something that should not be forgotten.

I hope you all enjoy this issue, and I’m sure you’ll notice some of the subtle changes we’ve made. Let us know what you think!

You can call us at 910-2960239, email me at acavenaugh@ ncweeklies. com, or visit us on Facebook, Instagram and on our website at sencmag.com!

Abby Cavenaugh, Editor

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SENCMAG.COM Our staff conceived this publication with a very basic idea in mind: to highlight interesting people, places, and events in southeastern North Carolina in a way that honors the history and idiosyncratic spirit of the region.

Want your photo featured?

Simply post photos of what you love about South Eastern North Carolina on Instagram and use the hashtag at the top of the page!

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SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 5

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Contents

Summer 2018

Features 14

The Vivian Howard Story

Renowned chef. Emmy winner.

Bestselling author. What’s next for this homegrown superstar?

22

Southern Smoke

If it ain’t wood-smoked, it ain’t N.C. barbecue. That’s why folks drive from all over for a taste of what Matt Register’s got cookin’.

28

The BBQ Craze

No matter where you are in southeastern N.C., there’s bound to be a unique barbecue joint near you. We’ll help you find them.

14

EXTRAS

34

Riverview Café

Anytime’s a good time for seafood, but something about summer makes a visit to Sneads Ferry’s top seafood restaurant a “must”!

39

Melvins’

No ketchup, no lettuce, no tomato, no fries? No problem at this Elizabethtown burger landmark.

44

Kombucha Brewery

“What’s kombucha?” you may ask.

It’s a new-agey, fermented beverage that you just might learn to love.

34

10

Play Dates

If you’re looking for something to do in southeastern N.C. this summer, we’ve got you covered.

13

Snapshot-Van Eeden

33

SnapshotSeneca Guns

A little-known Pender County colony for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany finally gets its due.

Things that go ‘BOOM’ in the daytime...

47

Folk column

Remembering the days of yore when summertime meant ’baccer harvesting time.

44

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Play Dates Greenfield Lake Amphitheater

Wilmington • Tickets available on ticketfly.com

Greenfield Lake Amphitheater is one of the best outdoor venues for a summer concert. Nestled in the Cape Fear River basin, it is surrounded by hundred-year-old cypress trees, long leaf pines and 180 degrees of water views.

Check out some of the acts appearing this summer: • Stephen Marley, July 3, doors open at 5:30 p.m., show starts at 6 p.m.; $28-32. With a name like Marley, it’s no surprise that Stephen Marley’s debut album hit No. 1 on the reggae charts.

• G Love & Special Sauce, July 14, doors open at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m.; $26-30, kids 10 and under free. G Love & Special Sauce is a three-man band from Philadelphia, that specializes in alternative, blues and hip hop.

• ZZ Ward, July 27, doors open at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m.; $25-99. Equally evocative of blues grit and hip-hop bounce, the Los Angeles-based ZZ Ward is a vocal powerhouse and can play multiple instruments.

• The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Aug. 3, doors open at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m.; $25-30, kids 10 and under free. Chris Robinson Brotherhood is an American blues rock band formed in 2011 by Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson.

• Marcus King Band, Aug. 16, doors open at 5:30 p.m., show starts at 6 p.m.; $22-30, kids 10 and under free.

At just 20 years of age, Marcus King is gaining renown as a songwriter, guitarist, singer and bandleader.

• Shovels & Rope, Aug. 24, doors open at 5:30 p.m., show starts at 6 p.m.; $29-35, kids 10 and under free.

Award-winning South Carolina duo Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst are known for their “bold, candid, highly personal” style.

SE Sneads Pick

Ferry Shrimp Festival

TUES

aug

FRI

SUN

10 12

The town of Sneads Ferry has always been a community that’s steeped in seafood, and that will be celebrated Aug. 10-12 with the 48th annual Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival. The weekend will be chock full of events, including a Kings and Queens pageant, live music, dinosaur shows by Dakota & Friends, a shrimp heading contest, fireworks, and of course, lots of fresh seafood, including shrimp! Some of the musical artists performing on the Main Stage will include The ToneZ, Jason Jackson Trio, Donnie Lee Strickland and the Telluride Bluegrass Band. There’s a parade Saturday morning, and a Shrimparoo Shrimp Dinner from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. A complete schedule of events and more information can be found on the website at www.sneadsferryshrimpfestival.org/ or by finding Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival on Facebook.

Paramount Movie: aug ‘Field of Dreams’

28

Aug

7 p.m. Paramount Theatre, Goldsboro • Tickets $5

When Iowa farmer Ray (Kevin Costner) hears a mysterious voice one night in his cornfield saying “If you build it, he will come,” he feels the need to act. Despite taunts of lunacy, Ray builds a baseball diamond on his land, supported by his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan). Afterward, the ghosts of great players start emerging from the crops to play ball, led by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. But, as Ray learns, this field of dreams is about much more than bringing former baseball greats out to play. www.goldsboroparamount.com/movies

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aug

23 THU

John Conlee Show Showtime: 7 p.m.

Paramount Theatre, Goldsboro • Tickets $40-56

John Conlee is a country music icon and has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1981. During his nearly 40-year career, he has brought to audiences such classic songs as: “Rose Colored Glasses” (John’s signature song), “Friday Night Blues,” “Backside of 30,” “Common Man,” “Miss Emily’s Picture,” “I Don’t Remember Lovin’ You” and more.

Eight of his hit songs have reached the coveted No. 1 spot on the national country charts. Concert sponsored by Katie 97.7. www.goldsboroparamount.com/john-conlee-show/

SE Pick july

25 WED

Gladys Knight

7:30 p.m., Wilson Center, Cape Fear Community College • Tickets from $48-$105

Gladys Knight is a seven-time Grammy winner who has recorded more than 38 albums over the years and has had No. 1 hits on numerous charts. Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Visit cfcc.edu/capefearstage/gladys-knight/ or call 910-362-7999.

My Fair Lady

july

27

Thalian Hall THROUGH Wilmington june Show times: 8 p.m. Wed. -Sat.; 3 p.m. Sundays • Tickets $27-$32

24

Big Daddy Weave

7 p.m., Duplin County Events Center, Kenansville Tickets: $15 for groups of 10 or more, $20 for general admission, $35 for early entry, $75 for Ministry Partner

Big Daddy Weave is one of Christian music’s most loved and respected artists. A mainstay on radio, the band achieved their most recent hit singles with “The Lion and The Lamb” and “Jesus I Believe.” This follows five consecutive No. 1 singles, including “Love Come To Life,” “Redeemed,” “The Only Name (Yours Will Be),” “Overwhelmed” and “My Story.” “Redeemed” became an anthem of unprecedented impact when it spent 11 weeks at No. 1, was dubbed “Song of the Year” at the first annual K-LOVE Fan Awards, earned Dove Award and Billboard Music Award nominations and was certified Gold by the RIAA. Tickets are available for purchase at www.ticketfly.com/purchase/ event/1693926.

FRI

In 1956, Lerner and Loewe’s masterful retelling of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” took the world by storm. When arrogant phoneticist Henry Higgins encounters dirty, disheveled Eliza Doolittle in Covent Garden, he proclaims that in six months’ time he can “make a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe.” A clash of cultures and battle of the sexes ensues in this American classic. Visit www.thalianhall.org/.

Sizzling summertime fun in the South Aug. 1-19 • Show times: 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 3 p.m. Sundays

Thalian Hall, Wilmington

Tickets $27 - $32 Shots ring out in the night; a man’s body floats in a swimming pool. And so begins this classic noir tale of faded glory, thwarted ambition, and obsessive love, brought thrillingly to life by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lush, evocative score.

Sunset Boulevard is a majestic, mesmerizing night at the theatre you do not want to miss. Visit

www.thalianhall.org/.

plus...

ECHSA Anti-Poverty Festival

•June 30, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at Jack Amyette Recreation Park, Jacksonville Eastern Carolina Human Service Agency, Inc.’s second annual Anti-Poverty Festival will include food, music, games, field day activities, splash pad, vendors, community resources, and basketball tournament. Admission is free and all are encouraged to bring a lawn chair. Call 910347-2151 for more information.

Bernaroo Music & Arts Festival 2018 • July 20-21, downtown New Bern.

One-day pass is $15, two-day pass is $25.

July 20 will kick off the festival with music at the New Bern Farmer’s Market while July 21 will serve as an all-day downtown excursion highlighting local artists, musicians, restaurants and craft vendors. www.bernaroomusicfest.com

Bring your BFF (Best Fur Friend) to the Stoney Creek Dog Park in Goldsboro every fourth Wednesday for Yappy Hour! Get A Piz-za This Food Truck will serve pizzas and beer from Brewmasters of Goldsboro while you and your dog/dawgs enjoy a nice evening in the park. Participating pooches should be up to date on shots and vaccines. More at www.visitgoldsboronc.com/events/.

Fayetteville Roller Derby- July 21Aug. 25 • Crown Arena, Fayetteville Tickets $6-12. Kids age 7 and under are free!

Fayetteville Roller Derby, better known as the Rogue Rollergirls, is Fayetteville’s premier women’s flat track roller derby league. http://www.crowncomplexnc.com/events.

fourth of july festivities

Surf City • July 3, Soundside Park, 6 p.m.

Surf City’s Independence Day Celebration will feature a concert by Johnny White & the Elite Band starting at 6 p.m. and a fireworks display at Soundside Park at dusk. Live music, food, children’s activities and more are part of this annual celebration.

Holly Ridge • July 4, Holly Ridge Municipal Park, 3 p.m.

Holly Ridge’s Independence Day celebration will begin at 3 p.m. More than 40 arts, crafts and retail vendors will be on hand, along with great food, inflatables, pony rides and games. The Carolina Band will play at 6 p.m., with the fireworks starting around 9 p.m.

Downtown Wilmington • July 4, Riverfront Park, 6 p.m.

Wilmington’s celebration of the Fourth begins at 6 p.m. with live entertainment from the Port City Shakedown. Food vendors will be available. The fireworks will be launched around 9 p.m. from a barge in the Cape Fear River.

Jacksonville • July 4, Onslow Pines Park, 2 p.m.

The Onslow County Freedom Festival will begin at 2 p.m. There will be food, crafts and novelties, amusement rides, inflatables and other children’s activities. Live music will include The Carolina Band and the Embers. Fireworks will start shortly after 9 p.m.

Southport •June 24-July 4, North Carolina Fourth of July Festival Southport’s annual Fourth of July Festival will feature numerous events and activities, culminating with a fireworks display around 9 p.m. on July 4 on the waterfront. For a detailed schedule of events, visit the website at www.nc4thofjuly.com.

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 11

No matter how you slice it...

Still Beulaville’s Favorite Restaurant!

•Pizzas • Subs •Burgers • Appetizers •Lasagna • Spaghetti •All You Can Eat Salad Bar!

PIZZA VILLAGE

Daily Lunch Buffet, Monday ~ Saturday

811 W. Main Street (N.C. 24 West)

910-298-3346

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SE / Snapshots

SE PICKS: Holocaust Survivors

North Carolina

Einstein

‘Germantalk’ in Pender County and the miracle of Van Eeden Marker unveiled for former settlement for Jewish refugees

R

ipples from World War II were felt the world over, but rather than sit back and watch, a group of American sympathizers hatched a plan: to bring as many Jewish people, their lives increasingly in danger as Nazi sentiments festered, to America.

The first settlement, intended for Dutch immigrants to the United States, had failed. Named for the Netherlander Frederik Van Eeden, a formidable writer and thinker of the early 20th century, the settlement was reorganized in a collaboration between Nebraska-born economist, journalist and educator Alvin Johnson and Hugh MacRae, the famous Wilmington industrialist who led the New Deal resettlement farm project, Penderlea.

But with the threat of holocaust looming, the two Americans, with help from other backers, were able to bring a handful of families to safety.

Van Eedener Ann Wolf Loeb came back to Pender County in April for the unveiling of a highway marker dedicated to the project.

At a meeting of the Pender County Historical Society, Loeb, along with Jerry Klinger, of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and Susan Taylor Block, author of the historical account, “Van Eeden,” spoke on the history of the project.

The settlers, many of whom were educated professionals and not trained farmers, struggled to make a living at Van Eeden. Poor drainage, mosquitoes and snakes weren’t part of life back home.

But the colony persevered, with help from locals. What they did grow, the Jewish immigrants sold at market.

Loeb’s father, Max Wolf, was a Ger-

man Jewish WWI veteran and grape grower who spent time in concentration camps before escaping Germany.

His family, now free of the Nazis, tried their best to assimilate into local culture. “They had no idea what a Jew looked like. It took a while to get acquainted, I did not speak English. But I went to Penderlea School and after a

The Holocaust drove some of the world’s greatest minds from Germany.

In 1933, Albert Einstein fled Germany for Princeton, N.J. The scientist’s ideas on physics paved the way for GPS, atomic power and uncountable other advancements.

Arendt An important mind in political philosophy might have been lost had Hannah Arendt not fled Europe in 1941.

Arendt wrote extensively on totalitarianism, freedom and violence.

She pulled politics apart at the seams to figure out what made political minds function, and coined the phrase “banality of evil” upon hearing a former Nazi on trial claim he was just doing his “job.”

Kissinger

Holocaust survivor Ann Wolf Loeb and Jerry Klinger, of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, pose next to a highway marker dedicated to Van Eeden.

The marker is on U.S. 117 near Willard.

while we all became friends,” Loeb remembered.

While the evidence of the colony is nearly gone and Loeb is the last living person known to have lived there, the story will be passed on.

The marker is located on U.S. 117 near between Murphy Rd. and Mt. Holly Baptist Church, Willard.

SE

Escaping Bavaria with his family at age 15, Henry Kissinger went on to become one of the most powerful men in the world, serving the Nixon and Ford administrations as security advisor and secretary of state.

Now 94, Kissinger pursued a relaxation of tensions with the USSR, tried (and failed) to restore peace in Vietnam and helped open relations with China. Kissinger may be controversial, but his influence is indisputable.

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 13

Eternal summers and deep running roots: The Vivian Howard story

Story: Trevor Normile Photos: Baxter Miller Editor’s note: parts of this story were taken from the author’s previous interview with Mrs. Howard in 2013. Much has happened since.

It could have been simple curiosity that brought Vivian Howard from her home town of Deep Run, a few miles over the Duplin-Lenoir County line, to high-end restaurants, a career as an acclaimed chef and nationwide notoriety for the PBS series, “A Chef’s Life.”

It could also have been the yearning many young people feel to get out of the small communities they’re from that pushed Howard to explore — and the realization that there’s no place like home that brought her back.

With a Daytime Emmy under her belt, Howard is on to new projects — a new restaurant, this one a pizzeria, has opened in Wilmington. She’s just finished a book and is working on a new project she can’t say much about.

But with all the projects and fancy gowns and admiring fans, how does the country girl, educated abroad and culinized in New York City, keep the spirit of Deep Run summers and small town life close? How does she keep it real?

“Well, I still live across the road from my parents. They come over basically every day and keep it real for me,” Howard laughs.

The question is a flop. Either Howard’s finely-tuned image is too opaque, or the star really is a laid back Carolina girl at heart. My face quickly sanguinating, I think it is probably just the second one.

She had been recounting the eternal summers of childhood, picking blueberries for cobblers, swimming, eating watermelon halves, the thunderstorms.

“All of those things, traveling, fame, it really doesn’t matter. I mean, fans matter. But I don’t know, I think you just are who you are. You kind of go through Vivian Howard, pictured with husband Ben Knight, has helped teach the world the motions of certain things, certainly about the eating culture of Eastern North Carolina.

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Having spent the formative years of her life in small-town North Carolina, Howard tells of her transition to working in New York City, where she was trained to cook. appreciate them, I’m sure when they’re gone I’ll be disappointed. But I’ll still be able to enjoy a cold slice of watermelon,” she says.

The fourth daughter of tobacco farmers, Howard felt like an only child with her sisters many years ahead in school.

“I loved growing up here, but I always wanted to leave. I went to boarding

school when I was 14, and then I went to N.C. State, and from college I went to New York, where I thought I would stay forever.”

Howard says her parents “were supportive of me going and seeing and doing as many things as possible, but I think they always assumed I would eventually move back home. I did eventually, but I

never saw myself coming back here.

“I’m so glad that I did.”

Having spent the formative years of her life in small-town North Carolina, Howard tells of her transition to working in New York City, where she was trained to cook.

“There were all kinds of little culture shocks along the way. When you go to boarding school when you’re 14, there’s a lot of growing up that is done then, and college was pretty easy, since I had already been living on my own,” she says.

“But then I went during college to study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and that was extremely traumatic.”

Howard’s trip wasn’t just “traumatic” in a cultural kind of way, but also in a “high speed physical impact” kind of way.

“It’s a gigantic city, and it’s not like going to Spain, where a lot of people speak

Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria in Wilmington is the newest venture for chefs Vivian Howard and Ben Knight, known for their Kinston ventures, The Chef and the Farmer and the Boiler Room.

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 15

ing to Spain, where a lot of people speak English. Now, more so, but this was years ago. It was scary, I’d never been anywhere in a city that large, I was in way over my head, and the first week I was there I was hit by a cab,” she remembers.

“I was unconscious for about 48 hours.

When I woke up, I was in an Argentinian public hospital in the corridor hallway. I had a lot of issues following that. I probably should have come home but I knew if I did, I would not be going back. I had just started my semester and didn’t want to lose the opportunity.”

Not only was the college student’s skull dented up from the accident, the experience caused her to develop a skin condition she deals with still today. Howard believes the condition was the result of having internalized the stress of the accident.

After graduating college, Howard moved to New York City, where she took a job in advertising for Pantene. While the work helped her experience the grind of the professional world, it left something out.

It was her side job as a server in an upscale restaurant that piqued her interest in cooking professionally. At first, Howard thought she might become a food writer, so she started working for free in the kitchen. For her, it wasn’t so much the fancy preparation and presentation, but the teamwork of a kitchen that stirred her soul.

“I was pretty good at it, and I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the team atmosphere of working in the kitchen, so I translated that into a real job in the kitchen, and it all went from there,” she said.

“I really loved restaurants. We were all kind of misfits in a way. And working in a restaurant, whether you’re in the front of the house or the back, it’s like being on a team. I never played team sports growing up and I wish I had, because I loved the feeling of working toward the same goal and helping whoever needed help to get the job done.”

Howard did eventually become a food writer. Her Deep Run Roots is a deeply personal digest of digestibles, stories and recipes for the Southerner or Southernminded reader. She tells the story of her

life, punctuated at pleasant intervals with recipes of varying complexity. It earned praise from many reviewers, including the Washington Post, and a slew of awards, including Cookbook of the Year and the Julia Child First Book Award. It even made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Before the book came out in 2016, Howard said with a laugh, “I think you like things that you’re good at, and I for so long wanted to be a writer. I was good at writing, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to sit down and do. I had to be made to do it.”

While working in the city, Howard met her future husband, Ben Knight, with whom she owns The Chef & the Farmer and its adjacent oyster bar, the Boiler Room, in Kinston. In late April, the duo launched Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria on Greenfield Street, Wilmington.

She met Knight, a Chicago native, while the two worked in a restaurant in the West Village of New York as servers.

But the transition from job to career isn’t an easy one. Often, the key to success is a mixture of curiosity and initiative. Howard’s strategy in 2001 was to simply work for free.

“Obviously I had a job at the time, but I wanted to see what it was like to work in a Manhattan high-end kitchen, and I had no skills. I was a liability. No one was certainly going to pay me to contribute to kitchen work, so I worked in a quiet spot and took in as much as I could knowledge-wise and was as helpful as I could be.

Luckily, the chef was accommodating and let me do it,” she remembers.

“More often than not, I think that’s the only way to get into the top-tier kitchen you want. I worked there for free, and then I went to a six-month culinary program. The end goal was to get an unpaid internship in a kitchen. That’s how I got into another top-end kitchen where I also worked for free.”

The Chef & the Farmer opened in 2006 and when Howard returned to her home turf with her husband, she had a little readjusting to do.

“It took me a while to ‘get it,’ since I left here so young and really spent little time here on summer break or vacations. I was

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always trying to cook up some excursion or program to go on,” she remembers. “I really didn’t know the area, I don’t have long-term friends here from, say, elementary school. It took us a while to understand where we were again, and for me to appreciate it.”

In the beginning, the couple knew they wanted to do something grandiose with The Chef & the Farmer, but they weren’t sure exactly what. The food had to be good, of course, but a menu and atmosphere must still be tailored to the customers.

“We were young and naive. We thought that we’d be able to open and hire people who wanted to work in a high-end restaurant, who wanted to learn about the type of food we were doing. We wanted to just be able to make delicious food and the community would embrace it. And we were wrong,” she says.

It took two years and a menu overhaul for The Chef & the Farmer to hit its stride.

Howard also described the challenges of running a restaurant; Howard and Knight even had to plan their family around their work. Work started at 7 a.m. with deliveries, then prepping until 5 p.m. and work until midnight. Starting a family would have to come later.

Inside The Chef & the Farmer, which is where much of “A Chef’s Life” is focused, the staff works with locally-grown ingredients, creating new interpretations of dishes familiar to the people of Eastern North Carolina. The idea to revamp famous Southern recipes came about after the restaurant’s original fare failed to take off with customers. It’s been a hit since.

“We do modern Southern farm-totable food. One of our primary foci is exalting really humble ingredients. We have the foods of your grandmother’s table, but not like your grandmother would prepare them,” Howard said.

“It took me a while to figure out what people would gravitate toward here. I think our food is familiar to folks, but not something they feel they can do at home.”

It’s not that the food was bad, Howard said, just poorly targeted. The chef recalled trying to get local growers to plant lemongrass and artichoke for her dishes. For

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their current menu, the key was using basic elements of taste to re-imagine well-loved recipes.

“I had a high-end food background, so I have a sense of how it should look, and the elements of what make high-end food successful, like incorporating acid and texture.

So many of our humble foods lack acid and texture,” Howard explains.

“For example, one of my favorite comfort foods, chicken and pastry, it’s like mush in your mouth, and I don’t mean it in a bad way, but it’s one color, it’s soft, it’s one-note in flavor and it has no brightness.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, I love it. But what if you could come here and have chicken and pastry that has all those other things and learn to see that in a different way, it’s fun and creative. It was really trial and error.”

At The Chef & the Farmer, chicken and pastry could be done with homemade pastry with a rich chicken broth, which is conventional. Then, they might add crispy chicken skins, herbs and lemon to incorporate texture, brightness and acidity, respectively.

“When we opened I had never been a chef, I had only been a line cook,” Howard admits.

“I’d never developed my own menu, I was way out of my league ... Luckily, the folks of our area were very forgiving, and they came back to try it again. We weren’t doing bad food, but we didn’t have a concept really.”

The whole operation employs about 150 staff, including Howard’s own team. The Boiler Room is The Chef & the Farmer’s counterpoint, serving oysters, burgers, fries and more.

Benny’s is a breath of fresh air to the Wilmington market.

“We have always really loved Italian food, but I’ve always fought against the really magnetic pull of cooking Italian food,” Howard says. “It’s something we’ve long talked about doing. We didn’t think Kinston was ready for another restaurant that really focuses on dinner, but we wanted to do something in Eastern North Carolina, so we chose a place where I think everyone would like to spend more time, Wilmington.”

In a relatively nondescript area on Greenfield Street, the Wilmington business cooks up wood-fired margherita pizzas to pasta,

antipasto, Italian desserts and espresso. If the Country Corner Crowd feels intimidated by the I-talian terms on the menu, they even have a big subhead on the menu: “FRIED STUFF.” “Benny’s is kind of like our version of a red sauce Italian place with wood-fired pizza.

It’s fun and family friendly, but also a place you’d love to go on a Friday night with your girlfriends or on a date, it’s kind of multipurpose,” Howard explains.

While Benny’s is not in Wilmington’s downtown, the chef says, “It reflects what we’re looking for. There’s a large population that lives within walking distance of that restaurant, there’s a park across the street, a local bar. So what you’re setting up is a little community.”

The spirit of an area can also be revived with the right catalyst, even an area that has suffered long-term recession, Howard says.

“You can look at what Chef and the Farmer did for downtown Kinston, which was arguably the most depressed downtown in the whole state. It can bring people there, change the conversation, make other people open businesses nearby. It’s no different than a retail shop that people drive miles to get to.

If anything opens anything excellent, truly excellent, in a downtown, people will go,” she explains.

Of course starting a new business isn’t about just selling pizzas to local folks. When John Q. Public’s family can pile in the car and zip down the highway to any place they like, a business owner must understand the customer has other options.

“It doesn’t have to be a restaurant, it just has to be really, really good. I think that’s where we often miss, when we open businesses in small towns. We open something that we think is good enough for our small town, when in reality, it has to be good enough for people to drive from large cities.

It needs to spark a conversation.”

And how does Wilmington’s Greenfield Street compare to Herritage Street in Kinston?

“When we opened the Chef & the Farmer there was a lot of skepticism around why we were doing it, and whether or not we would make it. The community wasn’t really energized around it. But opening Benny’s, people in Wilmington were so excited and

18 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

warm, seemed like they really wanted us to do this. The reception has been really great, we’ve been happy.”

When TC&TF finally got off the ground, with her family started and her restaurant up and running, Howard made the foray into television. She and childhood friend Cynthia Hill made a documentary about a dying culinary art. “‘A Chef’s Life’ started because years ago, when we lived in Jones County, my neighbors invited me to make collard kraut ... I went and spent the morning with these older men who’d been doing this for forever,” she remembers.

“I just thought it was so cool, I thought this was something that is going to die with them, there were no young people there doing it also. So I thought I’d really like to document things like this.”

So, Howard contacted Cynthia Hill, a Pink Hill native and documentarian who directed and produced “Tobacco Money Feeds My Family,” for help.

“I told her I was interested in filming things like making collard kraut and looping that back in with, say, a farmer who grows collards. We decided we would experiment and shoot some of this stuff. So she came down here and we shot a short documentary about corn,” Howard remembered.

“My family put up corn, like my grandmother and mother and sisters used to do every summer. And we just explored the food culture surrounding corn in Eastern North Carolina. They shot a short pilot and we approached PBS ourselves. We took it to a producer at South Carolina public television who said she loved it and wanted to take it to national PBS.” The program, which has been shown in more than 96 percent of U.S. markets, is more than just a cooking show; it’s also a documentary of the day-to-day life of being a restaurateur. It also gives insight to many of the ingredient and cooking traditions Eastern N.C. is known for. Every episode focuses on the ingredients, helping the viewer understand how a dish becomes more than the sum of its parts. The show has aired five seasons thus far.

“Every episode has something old-school, like putting up corn. I take the ingredient and I do something modern with it, in the

Kinston-Lenoir County

context of the restaurant. We film the preparation of that, the unveiling of it through the restaurant. We always visit whomever produced it, and there’s always a family component as well,” Howard says.

“A Chef’s Life” isn’t new to recognition.

Still, the Daytime Emmy it won in April was special, Howard says.

“We were not expecting it, because Cynthia was up for Best Director, I was up for Best Host, and we had lost both of those.

Our feeling was that if we didn’t win in those categories, we certainly wouldn’t win in Outstanding Program. We were just surprised.”

Howard said it felt “validating” to see her little corner of the world, her work on display for all of America to see.

“It’s not often that a show, that is about this very specific place in rural America, is able to really catch hold and make such an impact nationwide. It’s something I think we should all be really proud of, all Eastern North Carolinians,” she explains.

“I think it’s had a huge influence on the way people who watch it see Eastern North Carolina and the South. I think people who watch the show everywhere see themselves in it, either through the family aspect or the work aspect.

“If you see yourself in something, it makes the subject more relatable. I think we’ve been able to teach people about the South in a way that’s more showing them, than beating them over the head with information.”

It also humanizes the South, she says.

So often the image of the region is overrun with Gomers Pyle and Larry the Cable Men, hicks and hayseeds.

“We’re not one-dimensional fairies or idiots. I think everyone wants the same things for the people we love, and, basically, for ourselves. Hopefully we’ve been able to show people how we’re more alike than we are different.”

So whether through cooking or educating others, Howard plans to keep telling the stories of her homeland.

“I think part of it is, I feel a responsibility to keep doing it, I feel a responsibility not to fail, and there are parts of it I really enjoy.”

SE

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The ‘improbable’ success of Southern Smoke BBQ Story & Photos: Abby Cavenaugh

Though it has no indoor seating, Southern Smoke in Garland draws a huge lunchtime crowd every Thursday and Friday with its wood-smoked barbecue and ribs, and specialty seasonal sides.

A barbecue restaurant in the middle of nowhere with no indoor seating, open only two days a week, is not usually considered a recipe for success. That’s why Southern Smoke owner Matthew Register was so surprised when his business took off.

Now, there are days when the line to pick up a plate of his “funky” barbecue or specialty sides like pimento cheese roasted potatoes will stretch around the block.

As many as 50 people can squeeze into the restaurant’s small interior, if they stand elbow-to-elbow.

“Growing up in Eastern North Carolina, at some point, someone’s always cooking a pig,” says Register, who grew up in the small town of Harrells in rural Sampson County,

later moving to “the big city of Garland.”

Garland is not really near anything — unless you count long ribbons of two-lane highways, fields and pastures as landmarks. But Register and his special wood-cooked barbecue have given folks a chance to experience this small town; some even drive 100 miles or more for a taste of Register’s extraordinary barbecue and ribs.

Cooking barbecue started out as a hobby for Register. “I got into cooking with wood about seven or eight years ago,” he recalls. “[My wife]’s uncle built Jezebel and that’s when it really got serious.”

Jezebel is Register’s pet name for his barbecue smoker — a black iron behemoth that could be the secret

22 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

to his success, if there is one.

“I found a friend who was willing to sit up all night long, cooking barbecue,” Register says. “Then it pretty much got to be where every weekend, someone would ask me to cook them three or four pounds of barbecue. I got to thinking, maybe I should open a funky little spot in Garland.”

From there, “it exploded” about four years ago, Register says. So is it the middle-of-nowhere location that gives Southern Smoke its charm? Is it the smoky, flavorful barbecue itself? Is it the new-every-day sides?

That may remain a mystery.

“I get that question, that there’s got to be a secret to it,” he says.

“The secret is time and love.”

Register says he’s been blessed to

be able to travel all over the South, participate in Charleston food festivals and even make an appearance on NBC’s “Today Show.”

“You can like cooking barbecue,” he says, “but you better love cooking barbecue to make something out of it. I can stand at the chopping box for two and a half hours sometimes. I’ve got a little black book where I wrote notes about cooking, but there’s no secret formula that’s going to magically make your barbecue amazing.”

He adds that a lot of the way certain chefs cook barbecue is in the way they were raised. “You can have a cook from Eastern North Carolina go to New York City and open a barbecue joint, and they’ll still have vinegar-based barbecue. It’s what you grew up on.”

Register points out that he has no idea how other successful barbecue restaurants, like the Skylight Inn in Ayden or Wilber’s in Goldsboro, cook their barbecue.

He doesn’t believe they have some secret sauce, either. “Barbecue is an open book,” he says. “You create your own identity. Just using Skylight as an example, their barbecue is vinegar-based, too, but his is finely chopped, whereas mine isn’t.

When you get to the point where people can taste it and say, ‘Oh, that’s Southern Smoke or Skylight Inn,’ you know you’ve made it.”

No matter what kind of food you serve, Register believes you must cook it with soul. “But especially barbecue,” he adds. “I’ve heard people say they’ve got pork fat running in their veins and I think that’s true.”

As a result of Southern Smoke’s success, Register also has a food truck visit Clinton’s City Market most Wednesdays, a catering business and occasional “Supper Series” at the restaurant in downtown Garland. That’s in addition to the Thursdays and Fridays that the restaurant is open.

Matthew Register’s restaurant, Southern Smoke in Garland, has grown since the birth of Jezebel, right, his custom-made smoker.

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 23

“We do so many weddings now, but most of the time it’s not barbecue,” Register says. “I’ve gotten to the place where I can flip the switch from funky barbecue to high-scale weddings.”

He adds that he’s “getting better at this baking thing,” with desserts like chocolate pie, sweet potato pie and coconut cream pie. A new dessert is added to the menu chalkboard on days the restaurant is open.

With so many ventures centered around his barbecue business, one obvious question that arises is, will Southern Smoke expand? Build more restaurants? Start a franchise?

The answer, at least right now, Register says, is no.

“It would be dumb to say we’re never going to expand,” he says, “but one of the things I wanted to do is shed light on the town. I want people to identify that Garland is where Southern Smoke is.”

He adds that expansion is a possibility, but not something he aspires to.

“I could get to that point where we’re trying to chase that dollar, but then where’s the quality of the food

going to go?” he says. “It’s really not worth it at this point.”

Plus, going global might mean losing one of Southern Smoke’s biggest relationships — that with local farmers. “I like to eat seasonally,” Register says. “Last week, my squash guy brought 20 pounds of squash, so that’ll be on the board soon. We’ve got so many blueberry farmers, we have a lot of blueberry cobblers in the summer. I think it’s part of being community-based, developing those relationships with local farmers.”

Register has built relationships not only with farmers, but with the entire community. “People I didn’t know five years ago now come in and ask, ‘How are the kids?’” Register says. “In four years, I’ve never had one situation where a customer had a problem. We have to let people know we’re grateful you’re choosing to spend money with us.”

Because Garland isn’t exactly in the most convenient location, people have to make a concerted effort to get there for their lunch, and Register definitely recognizes that.

“People from Elizabethtown, Wallace, White Lake ... Garland is not

Southern Smoke owner Matthew Register and employee Diana Ortiz prep a couple of racks of ribs for another busy day at the restaurant in downtown Garland.

24 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

just on their way and they need a bite to eat,” he says. “It’s very humbling that they go out of their way to get here.”

He adds that he’s had customers drive two hours to eat at the Supper Series. “It’s not like we have a Days Inn across the street that they can stay in, so that is very humbling. It means a lot.”

The restaurant business is no piece of cake either, Register says.

“The improbability of us surviving, in Garland, a town of 600 people, and we’re only open two days a week, our menu changes every day ... Sometimes I will just laugh at how improbable it all is.”

Still, it’s tough for him to explain all the success. “I tell people I can’t explain it; they need to come see it.

When the line is down the block, it’s chaos. But it’s good chaos.”

Southern Smoke is located at 29 Warren St. in Garland. For more information, or for the daily specials, visit them on Facebook at “Southern Smoke BBQ of NC,” the website at www.southernsmokebbqnc.com, or call 910-549-7484.

SE

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The BBQ Craze An old farmhand tradition, the method of cooking whole-hog barbecue didn’t start with the family-owned restaurants that dot Eastern North Carolina, but it’s surely holding on there.

In recent years, a slow trickle of fast food establishments, from fried-chicken joints to drivethrough grills, have marketed an unfortunate facsimile of that sacred tradition. But all have fallen short, and Eastern N.C. barbecue thrives on in many independent eateries.

Here are just a few of our picks for picking pigs.

Story & Photos: Trevor Normile Wilber Shirley wasn’t the first one to open in his building on Highway 70 in Goldsboro, but he’s been far and away the most successful.

Opened in 1962 with an associate, Shirley was sold the entire business within the year. Since then, Wilber’s has seated presidents, governors and senators, as well as countless patrons who come for the old-fashioned Eastern Carolina pork barbecue.

In an unassuming building with a bright red and yellow sign, Wilber’s serves thousands each year, catering as much to return customers as out-of-staters. The meat is slow-roasted over wood coals, which helps impart the unique and hardy flavors of whole-hog barbecue.

For more than 50 years, the pits have been lined with those coals, which a larger company might replace with a more expeditious cooking method. Not Wilber’s. They do it the right way, and it seems like they always will.

More at: www.wilbersbarbecue.com.

SKYLIGHT INN

28 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

WILBER’S

Another of Eastern North Carolina’s well-established names in barbecue is Skylight Inn. The restaurant is located in Ayden, though it’s nothing for a barbecue connoisseur to trek an hour or three to try the late Pete Jones’ famous pork.

Like all truly traditional barbecue joints, Skylight has also retained the wood-coal cooking method of its contemporaries. For good reason too — proclaimed by many to be among the best anywhere, there’s no reason to change what works.

That proclaiming hasn’t come from just anyone either, having been profiled by People, Southern Living, GQ and on the Travel Channel, Food Network and The History Channel. Skylight’s biggest honor came in 2003: the James Beard Foundation’s America’s Classics Award.

Opened by Jones in 1947, Skylight Inn has been cooking barbecue Jones’ way ever since.

More at: www.skylightinnbbq.com.

Perhaps you’re reading this during a short stay in North Carolina.

Or, by some cosmic misfortune, you’ve got family coming to town and not a thing in the cupboard.

We can think of a million reasons mail-order barbecue is a fantastic idea, not the least of which is that Kings Restaurant of Kinston will put barbecue in a package, on a plane if necessary, and ship it to you.

Serving traditional Eastern North Carolina barbecue for over 80 years, Kings made a name for itself thanks to the hard work of the King brothers: Wilbur, Victor and Lawrence. Handed down through generations of King family members, Kings traces its roots back to Frank King’s country store and fuel station, opened in 1936.

Today, Kings is a huge operation — it estimates 8,000 pounds of barbecue are sold per week — that keeps the Eastern N.C. barbecue tradition, a family tradition, close to heart.

More at: www.kingsbbq.com.

KINGS

The locals may not appreciate us broadcasting this, but Sid’s is one of the best-kept barbecue secrets in North Carolina.

In 1977, Sidney Blizzard of Beulaville figured out he could make more money cooking hogs than raising them. He opened his own shop off Railroad Avenue and it’s been busy every since.

With the help of his son, Sid roasts whole hogs over coals in a pithouse out back and diners scramble in as fast as they can on Saturday mornings. Sid starts serving at 9:30 a.m. and when the barbecue is gone, it’s gone.

In addition to the Saturday morning barbecue sales, the restaurant is popular locally for catered dinners and sells fried chicken, slaw, hushpuppies and more in addition to the pork barbecue.

Blizzard’s father taught him how to smell the pork cooking and know its character. While some add oils or sauces to the meat during the cooking process, Sid cooks the hog slow and leaves it to flavor itself. “If a hog is good, he’ll cook himself and he’ll have his own flavor,” Blizzard once said.

Sid’s is located at 455 S. Railroad Ave., Beulaville. 910-2983549.

Thig’s knows barbecue and Onslow County knows Thig’s.

Located in the Catherine Lake community between Richlands and Jacksonville, Thig’s hasn’t changed much in the years it’s been open, but folks keep coming back for more.

And while other barbecue joints may relish awards and mentions in foodie publications (and rightly so), Thig’s is perfectly happy just catering to the Sunday after-church crowd with their classic barbecued pork and family-friendly atmosphere.

Of course, the restaurant is open other days of the week as well, serving barbecued pork, fried chicken, collards, hushpuppies and all the good things a “Bar-B-Que House” should specialize in. Like many on this list, Thig’s also offers catering. Breakfast starts at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

Thig’s takes care of its visitors with complimentary hushpuppies and free refills. If you need some Eastern N.C. barbecue and have tried the rest, give Thig’s a shot, they never disappoint. “That hog is good, son!”

More at: www.thigsbbqhouse.com.

SID’S

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SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 29

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Our 14th Year!

Eat, sip & be merry!

THE N.C. MUSCADINE FESTIVAL BRINGS YOU OVER 200 WINES FROM WINERIES AROUND THE STATE!

Eastern N.C.’s premiere wine festival—the North Carolina Muscadine Festival— is celebrating our 14th year in 2018, right here in Kenansville!

Contests! See how your talents compare in our Shag Dancing, Wine Making, Photo and Cooking contests. Details on our website.

Tailgating! Stretch out and enjoy the festival in comfort. Hurry, limited spaces sell out quickly!

N.C. Wines! Taste and purchase some of N.C.’s best Muscadine wines and more. More than 200 wines from about 20 wineries to sample!

Children’s Area! There’s fun in our indoor area filled with activities your youngsters are sure to enjoy!

Food Court! You won’t go hungry with the choices available from nine select food service companies on site! And there’s ice available too!

Vendors! Dozens of vendors and displays on site with interesting and unusual selections!

Tickets! Go to www.ncmuscadinefestival.com for pricing info: Under 5 free; special pricing for under 18, Friday and/or Saturday. Military and group rates too! www.etix.com or 910-275-0009.

OUR BANDS!

FRIDAY & SATURDAY

Sept. 28-29

Duplin County Events Center

195 Fairgrounds Drive Exit 373 off I-40 between Raleigh and Wilmington

Kenansville

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29

Summerdaze Party Band from the Charlotte

area with rave reviews for their beach music from Myrtle Beach, Asheville, Charleston and many more points in between! We can’t wait! 4:30 - 7 p.m.

Spare Change One of eastern Carolina’s favorite bands! 12:30 - 3:30 p.m.

The Carolina Band Beach music and more from popular show band! 10 a.m. - noon

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28

The Antique Outlaws A twist in entertainment, with country favorites, beach music, and more! 5:30 - 9 p.m.

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910-271-0030 Tickets: www.etix.com www.ncmuscadinefestival.com muscadinefestival@gmail.com

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www.kornegayinsurance.com 32 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

SE Snapshot

SE PICKS: Unexplained Phenomena of SENC

North Carolina

Maco Light

Seneca Guns

Arguably the most famous ghost story in the area, the Maco Light was seen by hundreds of people from 18671977. The legend began when Joe Baldwin was accidentally beheaded while swinging his lantern to warn an oncoming train of a detached caboose. People claim he haunted Maco Station, a few miles west of Wilmington, until the tracks were taken up in 1977.

Blood Rain

Mysterious booms have plagued coastal N.C. for over 150 years

S

ince the 1850s, residents of coastal North Carolina have experienced unexplained booms that sometimes shake buildings. Although the booms are often heard in coastal areas, they have never been reported at sea.

Some call the mysterious booms the Seneca Guns. Where that name comes from is a bit of a mystery, too. Some say it comes from Seneca Lake in Upstate New York, others say it’s a saying of the Seneca Tribe of Native Americans, who attributed the booms to the voice of their god, Manitou.

Whatever the source of the name, the source of the sound is an even more hotly contested debate.

Those who have experienced the so-called Seneca Guns liken them to an earthquake, only more intense.

“More intense, it was a lot louder and before when I felt it what they call the Seneca Guns, ” Vicki Baird of Caswell Beach told WWAY-TV in Wilmington after the boom was reported throughout Brunswick County in October 2017.

Some attribute the Seneca Guns to military training, but most of the time when the booms are reported, there are no training exercises going on. In 2005, the N.C. Geological Survey concluded that the most probable cause for the Seneca Guns was shallow earthquakes offshore.

However, earthquakes were not detected by seismographs.

Some have suggested that the booms come from above ground level, instead of below. “The right atmospheric conditions, such as an inversion layer, can put a lid on the atmosphere, so to speak,” Jack C. Hall, professor of geology and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, told Coastal Review Online in 2012. “It would create a situation where sound waves bounce from the ocean surface to the air layer and continue to bounce back and forth until the wave of sound reaches the shore.”

Whatever the source, the booms continue to baffle — and shake up — those who experience them.

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On Feb. 15, 1850, The North Carolinian out of Fayetteville reported that blood, flesh and organs had fallen from the sky like rain on a farm near Clinton in Sampson County. Samples of the fallen material were later confirmed to be putrefied flesh.

Blood and flesh “rain” was also reported in Gastonia in 1876, and in Chatham County in 1884. No explanation has ever been given for the “blood rain.”

UFOs over Lumberton With the number of military bases in eastern N.C., it’s not surprising that many have seen strange lights in the night sky. However, in April 1975, the largest number of UFO sightings ever reported in the Carolinas happened in the Lumberton area.

Numerous citizens and law enforcement officials spotted a soundless V-shaped object hovering above the treetops.

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The Riverview Cafe: synonymous with seafood Story & Photos: Abby Cavenaugh There’s one name that has become synonymous with seafood in southeastern North Carolina — the Riverview Cafe in Sneads Ferry. It’s not an easy place to find, at the end of plenty of twists and turns down country roads, but as owner John Terwilliger says, “You either come here to eat or you’re lost.”

The oldest restaurant in Onslow County, the Riverview has been in existence since 1946, with the same family in charge for more than 70 years.

“My grandfather started it in 1946,” John Terwilliger says. “I worked here as a kid, and bought it in 1987 or ’88.”

Because Sneads Ferry, nestled smack dab on the New River, has always been a fishing community, it was a natural spot for a restaurant that serves fresh-caught, local seafood and homegrown vegetables.

It’s not just the business owners and fishermen who are ingrained into the community. It’s the staff, too. “I’ve got girls who have worked here 25-30 years,” John says. “So now I’m teaching my son. My daughter worked here as a waitress, too.”

Andrew Terwilliger is the restaurant’s manager, and often works alongside his dad. He recognizes that a large part of the Riverview’s longevity and appeal is its history.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia,” Andrew says. “A lot of people ate here as kids in the 1950s and ’60s.”

In fact, the family history at the Riverview runs especially deep. “My mother met my father here,” John recalls. “My father was a Marine.

We’ve had a lot of people meet their husbands here.”

John’s mother is still revered at the Riverview Cafe, her touch everywhere. “We have our own shrimp boat — it’s named Miss Janice after my mama,” John says.

The Riverview is also famous for its pies, homemade every day by

The Riverview Cafe in Sneads Ferry is renowned for its heaping fried seafood platters. In the dining room hangs a painting of the restaurant’s own shrimping boat, named Miss Janice.

Melissa Hunter, using Janice Terwilliger’s recipes.

It’s hard to imagine having room for dessert, though, after a heaping platter of fresh fried shrimp, flounder, oysters and the like.

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When the Terwilligers were asked what’s changed over the past 70plus years, they were hard pressed to come up with much.

“We’ve done things the way they’ve always been done,” John

Although seafood is the main attraction at Sneads Ferry’s Riverview Cafe, the restaurant is also well known for its homemade pies.

The owner of the Riverview Cafe, John Terwilliger, seated, is teaching his son Andrew all about the restaurant business. The father and son team work together at the Sneads Ferry landmark seafood restaurant.

says. “We’ve got the same cooks, the same food, the same breading. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

One thing that has changed with the times is that now, the Riverview Cafe’s daily specials are posted on its Facebook page, in addition to the three or four dry-erase boards that are located throughout the spacious dining room. Not that John Terwilliger knows anything about Facebook.

“I don’t even have a Facebook page,” he says with a chuckle. “My wife handles all that.”

Business remains steady at the Riverview Cafe, which is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and Christmas Eve. Every now and then, if there’s a hurricane bearing down on the Carolina coast, the Riverview will be closed.

Interestingly enough, although the Riverview Cafe sits right on the banks of the New River, it has never sustained any damage from hurricanes, not even the big ones like Hazel, Fran and Floyd.

“If it floods here,” John says, “we’re all in a bunch of trouble.”

Tourists often find the Riverview, especially in the summer, of course, but John says, there are many locals who come in every day for lunch or dinner.

“We are off the beaten path, but it’s worth it,” he says. “We don’t get a lot of ride-by business.”

The seafood is all local, from coastal North Carolina, whenever possible. “We get seafood from Pamlico, Oriental, all from North Carolina. We just got in some scallops from Cape May.” Although the Riverview is famous for its seafood (and its pies), they also serve steaks, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, make their own barbecue and sell, John says, “real pork chops.”

“There’s really nothing we don’t have,” Andrew agrees.

“The collards are fresh, the mustard greens are fresh and we make

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our own potato salad,” John adds.

There are cakes, too, all made from scratch in the restaurant.

“We don’t open till 11, but our cooks are here at 6 every morning,” John says.

There are a variety of daily lunch specials, Andrew says, which change with the seasons. “You get your choice of protein and two veggies,” Andrew says.

When it comes down to it, the Riverview Cafe will always be renowned for its seafood. “We’ve got the best fried oysters,” John says.

“The best crab legs, clams, steamed oysters, when they’re in season.”

And, of course, you’ve got to have

the hushpuppies. “Hushpuppies are to seafood what chips and salsa are to a Mexican restaurant,” Andrew says.

Don’t take it from the owners, though. The Riverview Cafe has a 4.5 rating (out of 5) on TripAdvisor.com. One reviewer writes, “The food here never disappoints! It is always quick and fresh. We often order the seafood platters which have such a variety of fish to chose from and there is always a generous amount of food. The sides include classics like fried okra (our favorite), green beans, or squash. I got the catfish and fried shrimp and it was great. The menu rotates depending on the season and

the local market. This spot has become a favorite to take friends and family to after long weekends at the beach (year-round).”

Another writes, “They have absolutely the best hush puppies I’ve ever eaten. And that’s not just my opinion, but all five of us at the table.”

The Riverview Cafe is located at 119 Hall Point Road in Sneads Ferry. Of course, if you’re local, you likely know that already. If not, it’s best to rely on your phone’s GPS to get there.

“We are in the middle of nowhere,” John admits. “But I promise, it’s worth the trip.”

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The Riverview Cafe in Sneads Ferry has served fresh, local seafood since 1946, making it the oldest restaurant in Onslow County.

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Melvins’: putting a fresh spin on fast food since 1938 Story & Photos: Michael Jaenicke No ketchup or tomato. No mayonnaise. No lettuce. No pickles.

Seriously?

When you go “all the way” at Melvins’ in Elizabethtown, those condiments just get in the way of an 80-year hamburger recipe.

Folks travel for a fresh, hand-pounded crispy-crunchy grill-cooked burger with onions, mustard, slaw and chili.

The restaurant’s marquee menu item costs $2.40 and despite the usual long lines, a customer can get his or her meal lightning fast — eight minutes or less.

Eat your heart out, Jimmy John’s.

Melvins’ beefy delight is a burger-todrive-for and customers come from five blocks, five miles and a few hundred to reach a must-visit establishment, whose cash register is ringing annoyingly into the ears of national restaurant chains in

the area.

Locals love the establishment enough to skip past a good Mexican restaurant (San Jose), Christopher’s Steakhouse and Seafood, a few Chinese buffets and the usual assortment of fast-food haunts — Arby’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Hardees, Burger King.

Tourist foodies can set their GPS to 133 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown, but before getting there will pass through a countryside filled with blueberry farms, vineyards and other row crops, over the Cape Fear River bridge and into the downtown area, which about a decade ago was renovated and updated.

Yet the widening of streets and sidewalks, addition of retail shops and other beautification projects weren’t for Melvins’ to make statewide headlines. The restaurant does that all on its own.

When a burger goes into the mouth of a “newcomer” their word-of-mouth advertisements are priceless.

Melvins’ has become a travel destination that shines dollars into other local businesses.

The burgers are $2.40 each, $2.70 if you want cheese.

Beyond burgers, the menu is short and simple.

Hotdogs, which cost $1.59, are the only other meat served. The wieners are also decorated with slaw and chili.

Melvins’ breaks another modern tradition — they do not serve fries.

They sell chips for 75 cents, often used to scoop up chili and slaw that falls from the bun.

Just as straightfoward and on point is the dessert selctions — cookies for $1.09 and pound cake for 89 cents.

Rather than the traditional condiments, Melvins’ in Elizabethtown serves its burgers and hotdogs with chili and slaw. No ketchup, tomato or pickles. The landmark burger joint just recently added cheese to its legendary burgers.

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While the burger is the main attraction, how it is prepared is a wonder.

Five to six women operate the production line in the rectangular kitchen and dining area.

It’s such a joy to watch the synchoronized crew pound out, cook, prep, wrap and deliver the burgers that people frequently gaze through the outside window.

Hands fly in all directions on the burger assembly. Workers shuffle a little but remain mostly “in position” to keep the machine well-oiled.

And to customers all of this appears to be done in double-time laser speed.

Normal moms, dads, uncles and aunts wouldn’t stand a chance at beating this crew in terms of speed — and even taste.

Melvins’ grinds its own meat each morning, and as needed during the day, dices up its own cole slaw and

brews its own chili and iced tea.

Only the buns and soda are made elsewhere.

“There are not many places where you can see the food cooked in front of you and get it that fast,” says Fayetteville’s Joan Shellacker, who says she stops into Melvins’ about once a month, and every time her parents from Raleigh visit.

“The staff works hard and that’s evident in the service and the food.”

Locals don’t take Melvins’ for granted, either.

“It’s easily twice as good as any burger you will find within an hour of here,” says Pete West, who works between E-town and Lumberton, and dines at Melvins’ often.

“Three, four times a week. Sometimes a little less,” West says. “And listen, that’s not just me. Lots of my friends and family do the same.”

Wilton Melvin and two of his brothers first started Melvins’ as a

pool room in 1938.

Wilton Melvin’s son Pat took over in 1971. Pat graduated from college, married his wife Ann, and the two operated it until 2004.

Another homegrown Bladen County native — Randy Harris — spearheaded Melvins’ next ownership shift.

Harris worked in textitles for 20 years, owned a golf shop in Lumberton for 13 and just before returning home bought a McAllisters franchise in Wilmington as a prep for his next food endeavor.

But the grind of the daily drive wore on Harris.

“Melton’s (another E-town eatery) was up for sale and I really liked it and the opportunity it offered,” Harris says. “Then I got thinking and said to myself, ‘If I’m gonna have a restaurant here I want it to be Melvins’.”

A negotiation didn’t take long and

The staff at Melvins’ work hard to get their trademark burgers and hotdogs done right — and quickly.

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Harris became the operational manager for the partnership.

“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” says the 65-year-old. “By far the most fun. And what makes it that way is the hard work of our staff. They are amazing, and people see that in all the things they do. Without them it’s nothing. They’re so focused and together, like a family.”

Harris is not a manager without a hustle gene. He runs marathons and recently ran the Disney’s Dopey Marathon, which consists of a 5K one day followed by a 10K, then a half-marathon (13.1 miles) and then a full marathon (26.2 miles).

But his energy is focused on Melvins’ from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Monday through Saturday.

“Yes, people want burgers and hotdogs at 7:30 in the morning,” Harris says with a laugh.

Staying attuned to the customer base and traditions at Melvins’ has been and remains a chief priority for Harris.

He says he’s changed two things to the restaurant — allowing cheese to be served on burgers and installing a soda refill machine in the dining room.

“We do everything exactly as it has always been done,” Harris says.

“I think Pat and Ann will tell you our food tastes exactly the same as when they did it.

“But people still question, why we would put in that drink machine. ‘Well, isn’t it easier that way?’

I would try to say to them. The wallpaper needs to be changed and when I do that, I’ll get a pattern that is very similar to the one we have now.”

That’s how crazed people are over making sure Melvins’ is what they remember.

People sometimes buy sacks of burgers, and on occasion, special orders. A chamber of commerce’s food vendors backed out once and Melvins’ was there to provide 200 burgers for a chamber event.

“I told the woman that by the

time she got down here, we’d have them ready,” Harris says. “We also get calls from people in emergency situations where they need 100 or more burgers for a special relief. I’m glad we can help out and it’s only because of our staff that it happens that quickly. They’re really, really good.”

So is the cole slaw, which has a vinegar flavor, and the chili which is meaty; hot but not spicy.

And customers can have it their way — within the burger guidelines.

“They can have light salt, heavy chili, no slaw, and even get it well done,” Harris says. “We let them have it the way they want it.

“But at the same time we always stay with what and who we are, doing things the way Pat and Ann and the Melvins did them. We live on that tradition.”

The waiting line loops around and

triples during rush hours — lunch, dinner, other odd times or say when a bus stops at the restaurant.

While there is seating for 44, the vast majority take their food to go.

“This is how it should be done,” Harris says. “Customers walk in, order, get their burger hot off the grill.”

Harris says customers often return the love. On a recent day, that love was apparent.

“That couple over there, they buy pies for the [staff ],” he says. “We have wonderful people here.”

Another customer couldn’t help but compliment the staff for their speed and friendliness.

Melvins’ is located right in the middle of downtown Elizabethtown, at 133 W. Broad Street. The restaurant can be reached by phone at 910-862-2763.

SE

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Get on the ‘Boochbus’ Kombucha brewery comes to Wilmington

Story: AnneSophia Richards Photos Courtesy of Artie & Robin Hill With more beer breweries than any other Southern state, North Carolinians sure do know a thing or two about fermenting.

One couple in particular, Artie and Robin Hill, have taken their experience in fermentation and their mutual love of probiotics and created Panacea Brewing Company. Wilmington’s first kombucha brewery and taproom opened its doors last October and has been serving up its living, bubbly beverage to an ever-growing community of “booch” fans ever since.

When Robin and Artie started dating in the 10th grade, Artie’s obsession with fermenting things was already in full swing.

Raised in a small farm town in Upstate New York, he would take every opportunity he could find to experiment with home brewing.

“When I was a kid I was watching a cooking show on television and saw how they fermented things. It intrigued me, so I started trying to make pickles, cider, and of course, alcohol,” chuckles Artie. “ My ciders always turned out halfway decent, and I also made a lot of dandelion wine. It was

terrible, but all my friends drank it!”

While in culinary school in New Hampshire, Artie worked as a bottler and was immediately enamored with the idea of brewing his own beer. He continued to perfect his hobby while finishing school and working in several restaurants. He and Robin married right after college in 1999, and the couple eventually made their way down to North Carolina. When Robin got pregnant, Artie realized he couldn’t continue with his 110-hour restaurant job work weeks anymore, so he went corporate and began working for a large-scale food services company. The couple moved several times for his job before finally settling in Wilmington six years ago.

“All through that time we were experimenting with different fermentations and home brewing beer, sometimes in large amounts,” says Robin. “ I started fermenting water kefir for myself, but Artie couldn’t stand the taste. Plus it would cross-contaminate in the air with his beer, so he hated it.”

Robin eventually stopped making her

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kefir but really missed having a bubbly probiotic drink on hand. One day a friend gave her a small culture of kombucha for her to try her hand at fermenting at home.

Robin’s small SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) soon yielded bottles full of the tart, tangy, carbonated beverage filled with nutrients and probiotics, and the Hills were hooked.

With ancient origins dating back over 2,000 years, kombucha is a fermented drink made from a tea base, bacteria and yeast. As the tea ferments with the SCOBY, the culture eats up the sugar and creates probiotics. After a few weeks, the remaining liquid is then poured off, flavored and kegged.

“What you’re left with is a really healthy, bubbly, soda-like drink but without all the sugar,” says Robin.

As soon as the Hills began brewing and consuming their kombucha on a daily basis, Artie noticed that his severe acid reflux seemed to disappear. Robin’s joints stopped bothering her, and she began feeling more energetic and invigorated throughout the

day.

“Soon our friends started asking us to make it for them, and then people were wanting to buy it from us,” says Robin. “So we just decided to start a small business, sell at farmers markets and see how it goes, and it just took off from there.”

The Hills started selling at the Port City Farmers Market on Tuesday nights at Waterline Brewing Company, and even with the unconventional timing, their kombucha was an immediate hit. Customers flocked to the custom built tap Artie had attached to the side of the couple’s 1975 Volkswagen Westfalia (which they nicknamed the ‘Boochbus.’)

Their success quickly led to applications for spots at other area markets, and last summer the kombucha bus made its way through six weekly farmers markets across Wilmington.

In an effort to keep supply up to meet their growing demand, Robin and Artie opened a production facility in 2017, shortly followed thereafter by a tiny taproom where customers could find their kombucha in the off-season. With the additional space came other avenues for distribution, as word of mouth and a loyal fan base helped spread the love for the Hills’ kombucha all over town.

“We’re now selling in 38 locations within a 50-mile radius, including breweries, restaurants, coffee shops, health food stores, and on the UNCW campus,” says Robin. “We’re

focusing on trying to saturate Wilmington right now because kombucha is fresh and it’s living, and it’s best served local. ” Take a look at what’s on tap at Panacea on any given day and you’ll find flavors such as kiwi strawberry, pineapple purple carrot, and triple berry ginger. Other menu features include collaboration beers, kombucha cocktail specials, elderberry syrup and fire cider. A centuries-old remedy believed to boost the immune system, the Hills’ fire cider recipe combines kombucha vinegar, garlic, ginger, turmeric, horseradish, onion, jalapenos, cayenne pepper, rosemary and lemon, all of which are fermented together for a minimum of one month.

“You can use it as salad dressing or take it as shots,” says Robin. “It’s very clearing for your sinuses and helps keep your immune system on point.”

As one of the fastest growing beverage segments currently in the United States, kombucha is a beverage loved by people young and old. Kids are drawn to its sodalike fizz and fruity undertones, while adults favor the low sugar, gluten-free, probiotic energy boost that kombucha provides.

“I drink kombucha because it makes me feel good, and I think a lot of our customers would say the same,” says Robin. “It literally is a living beverage and when you drink it, it makes you feel alive. It has a lot of B vi-

tamins so it gives you energy without a caffeine crash.”

With a larger production brewery already under construction down the road from their current space, the future looks bright for the Hills’ booch business. Other plans in the works include wholesale bottles to be sold at grocery stores across the state.

“We’re going to continue to push our borders beyond Wilmington. We hope to quadruple our fermentation capacity within the next six months, and then start distributing all over North Carolina and see how far we can go,” says Artie.

The Hills still can’t believe how quickly Panacea Brewing Company has grown in such a short time, or how passionate their customers have become about their kombucha business.

“I think everything we’ve ever done has led us up to this point. It’s been a lot of hard work, but we have amazing customers, wonderful support from the community, and our staff is awesome,” says Robin. “I can’t complain about being too busy because I don’t want that to ever go away. It still blows me away sometimes.”

Panacea Brewing Company is located at 102 Old Eastwood Road in Wilmington, and can be reached at 910-444-1697 or online at www.panaceabrewingcompany.com.

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SE / Folk

North Carolina

It’s ’baccer time, y’all

S

Story by Abby Cavenaugh

ummertime in southeastern North Carolina when I was growing up meant one thing. And it wasn’t layering on sunscreen and heading to the beach for the day.

Nope. My siblings and I put on our raggediest clothes, ones we didn’t mind getting ruined, and we headed for the tobacco fields farmed by my great uncle, Sambo Hanchey. And if we’re being honest, of course no one said “tobacco.” It’s “’baccer,” y’all.

Teenagers today probably cannot even imagine it. We had no cell phones.

Some of the kids working didn’t wear shoes. My mama made me wear shoes, and I had lovely permanent tan lines where my socks were. It made me pretty self-conscious as a skinny teen with really tan legs and extremely white feet on the beach.

For me, working in ’baccer was torture. At the time, I hated every minute of it.

My twin sister, Amy, and I were both painfully shy and didn’t really know the other kids who worked. They all went to a different school than we did. They liked to tease us because we were quiet, and since it was the late 1980s and early ’90s, also because we were fans of the biggest music group of the day, New Kids on the Block. They had some notso-nice names for our favorite group, which I can’t really share here.

But I digress. We had to get up before daybreak, hop in the back of Uncle Sambo’s pickup truck (no seatbelts, of course) and ride to whatever field we were harvesting that day.

There was a rickety old tobacco

harvester, apparently the same kind they used in the 1950s, since the only photographs I could find that resembled what I worked on were in black and white!

Four boys sat in the seats on the lower level, cropping the ’baccer leaves and placing them in metal clamps on a chain that wound up on a pulley system to the top level, where four girls worked and tied the leaves to a stick. I’m not sure why it was boys cropping and girls tying, but that’s the way it always worked, at least at Uncle Sambo’s.

Somewhat disturbingly, I recently demonstrated how we tied the tobacco onto the sticks for someone, and my hands still remember the exact intricate pattern. I guess if you spend all your teenage years doing something, it’s ingrained into your brain forever.

We had to work fast, too. No time to daydream about New Kids on the Block when tobacco leaves are coming at you non-stop.

There were always mid-morning and afternoon breaks — store time. We’d get to load back up in the truck, or Uncle Sambo would take our orders. We’d get cold Sun Drops and nabs from Mr. Graham’s Store, and we’d have a rest while the boys teased us about whatever.

Back at work, when the harvester got full, they’d unload the stack of tobacco sticks and the kids that worked at the barn would place the sticks full of tobacco leaves up to the rafters so they could be flue-cured.

There was an hour-long lunch break, where we all went home, ate and sat in the glorious air-conditioning for a while, then it was back out to the field.

At the end of the day, our fingers were stained black with tobacco gum.

I thought I’d never be clean again, no

matter what kind of super-duper soap Mama found. I remember scrubbing my nails with laundry detergent. Fun times.

It’s funny that now, many people who first meet me think I’m not from around here. I guess when I went off to college in Raleigh, I became a high-falootin’ educated young woman.

But I do still remember those many hours and days I spent working in the fields, praying for rain so we could get off early, squealing a bit when a fat green worm showed up amongst the harvested tobacco leaves.

Now, tobacco is no longer king, and today’s teenagers in rural southeastern North Carolina mostly get summer jobs working in fast food or delivering pizzas, maybe.

When I protested having to work in the fields, because none of my school friends had to do it, my parents would tell me that hard, physical labor built character. I would roll my eyes.

I vowed never to work in a field again once I graduated college, and to date, I haven’t.

But a part of me is saddened that kids today don’t get to experience what that was like. Sure, it was miserable work at times, extremely hot and dirty work. But my parents were right — it did build character. It instilled in me a work ethic that I still have today. I would bet the other teens who worked in ’baccer also have a strong work ethic as adults.

Still, despite everything, a part of me misses those days. Not the work, really.

Maybe it’s more the simplicity of a summer on a farm.

The gum stains on my hands, though, I can do without.

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EDWARDS Alignment Center Alignment Services for Passenger light truck & Heavy Duty,Brakes on ALL Vehicles, King Pins

michael edwards, Owner monday-Friday - 8am-5pm 517 Warsaw road Clinton, nC 28328 Email: edwardsalignment@gmail.com Phone: 910-490-1292

We have been locally owned for over 40 years and family owned for the last 12 years.

We are a certified tire dealer of Nexen, Michelin, Nitto, and Firestone, and we stock tires for cars, trucks, SUV’s, vans, tractors, and all your other farm equipment. We are a friendly tire shop that is a Bridgestone Firestone dealer in Clinton, NC. WE SPECIALIZE IN FARM AND AGRICULTURAL TIRES, CONSTRUCTION TIRES, PASSENGER CAR, SUV AND LIGHT TRUCK TIRES.

Michael Edwards, Owner 910-592-4741 • 317 S.E. Blvd., Clinton NC • tireincofclinton.com

48 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

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North Carolina Our corner of North Carolina offers much more than just scenic beauty... Here are some great places you can appreciate for the good food, good times, history, and oldfashioned SENC hospitality!

travel

LENOIR COUNTY

The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center offers state of the art exhibits that invite visitors to larn about the ironclad gunboat. The Confederate Navy launched the Neuse in al ill-fated attempt to gain control of the lower Neuse River and the occupied city of New Bern.

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 3

www.nchistoricsites.org/neuse

P lanner ONSLOW COUNTY

Country Store & Restaurant We offer multiple venue locations for everything from family cook-outs to elegant weddings. We have a large covered shelter, a large banquet room, and The Barn.

The Barn is our newest upscale venue for weddings and other events.

Thursday & Friday 4:30-8 p.m Saturday 4:00-8 p.m.

1600 Haw Branch Rd. Beulaville See the world’s only full-size replica of a Confederate Ironclad.

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 3 www.cssneuseii.org

LENOIR COUNTY

Kinston-Lenoir County

Visitor & Information Center

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

“Make us your first stop in Lenoir County”

THE N.C. MUSCADINE FESTIVAL BRINGS YOU OVER 250 N.C. WINES FROM MORE THAN 20 WINERIES!

Sept. 29-30 Duplin County Events Center Kenansville

TAILGATING! CONTESTS! VENDORS! N.C. WINES!

DANCE TO THE MUSIC!

NANTUCKET !

Sat., Sept. 30 • 4-7 p.m.

THE ENTERTAINERS

Sat., Sept. 30 • Noon - 3 p.m.

THE FANTASTIC SHAKERS Friday., Sept. 29 • 6-9 p.m.

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 67

www.ncmuscadinefestival.com

www.mikesfarm.com

muscadinefestival@gmail.com

TICKETS & INFO:

910-271-0030

GOLDSBORO

BEULAVILLE

No matter how you slice it...

PIZZA VILLAGE Is Still Beulaville’s Favorite Restaurant!

252-522-0004

Parks & Recreation Department

Daily Lunch Buffet, Monday ~ Saturday

2602 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston, NC

811 W. Main Street 910-298-3346

252-939-3332

Celebrate the grape!

Call for Details 910-324-3422

101 East New Bern Rd., Kinston, NC

Kinston-Lenoir County

KENANSVILLE

TheMaxwellCenter.com

Now Booking

Opening March 2018

3114 Wayne Memorial Dr Goldsboro, NC 27534 (888)359-3303

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 49

to the Community!

Celebrating 60 Years of Service to the Community!

Celebrating Years Service Community!

Celebrating 6060 Years of of Service to to thethe Community!

Celebrating 60 Years of Service to the Community!

Try our famous Barbecue Sauce

Experience...

“Bladen County’s Best Kept Secret”

Southern Style Cooking Since 1957

Years of Service to the Community!

Meeting Rooms Available!

Cabin rentals for special occasions and getaways Gift Shop & Wine Tasting Open Daily Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm Sunday 1pm-6pm 910.866.5819 www.lumilvineyard.com

50 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | SUMMER 2018

Fresh BaKeD BreaD Daily!

• Flours, Spices & Sugar • Fresh Kettle Corn • Baked Pies • Donuts • Farm Fresh Milk Deli Meats & Cheese sliCeD all Day Fresh MaDe-to-orDer sanDwiChes Daily FroM 11a-Closing

Bakery and Bulk Food Family Owned Tuesday-Saturday 9am-5pm, Thursday Extended Hours til 6:30

hoMeMaDe iCe CreaM!

889 Fountaintown Road 910-298-2183 Beulaville, N.C. (Cedar Fork Community)

proudly featuring outdoor furniture by sonrise and barns by dura-built!

SUMMER 2018 | WWW.SENCMAGAZINE.WORDPRESS.COM | 51

Life insurance is more than a policy, it’s a promise.

(910)296-1486 www.ncfbins.com Matt McNeill

Teddy Bostic

David Underhill

Nick Bell

LUTCF Agency Manager

Agent Kenansville

Agent Kenansville

Agent Kenansville

teddy.bostic@ncfbins.com

david.underhill@ncfbins.com

nicholas.bell@ncfbins.com

Matt McNeill

LUTCF Agent roy.mcneill@ncfbins.com

roy.mcneill@ncfbins.com

An Authorized Agency for

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Lynn Mobley

Doug Pierson

Agent *North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. Beulaville

Agent Beulaville

*Farm Bureau Insurancelynn.mobley@ncfbins.com of North Carolina, Inc. doug.pierson@ncfbins.com *Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co., Jackson, MS *An independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association

Elvis Tucker Agent Beulaville elvis.tucker@ncfbins.com

Duplin County Farm Bureau

308 N. Main Street • Kenansville, NC 28349 151 Crossover Road • Beulaville, NC 28518 THIS ARTWORK CANNOT BE ALTERED, REVISED, RESIZED OR REBUILT BEYOND CHANGING THE AGENT PHOTO OR CONTACT INFO. CONTACT MADGENIUS WITH ANY QUESTIONS AT COOP@MADGENIUSINC.COM

(910) 296-1486 (910) 298-8400

NCLFNP41000

www.ncfbins.com *North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. *Farm Bureau Insurance of North Carolina, Inc.; *Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co., Jackson, MS *An independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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