Business of Life

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IN PREMIUMS OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS1

Making health care more affordable means following through for our members. That’s why we’ve reduced premiums, expanded value-based care, and committed more than $800 million to help North Carolinians get the care and support they need through this pandemic.2 Every day, we’re working to ensure our members have access to better, simpler, more affordable care.

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1 Internal Data January 2021 2 Internal Data April 2021 ® Marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. U37816C, 4/2021

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RESTAURANT ROUNDUP

BUSINESS OF LIFE

This is a sampling of stories from the Business Journal’s weekly Restaurant Roundup email. Subscribe at wilmingtonbiz.com.

Vegan restaurant coming to Military Cutoff Road

A vegan fine-dining restaurant is expected to open in a couple months on Military Cutoff Road.

Laura Tiblier, who owns Ceviche’s with her husband, and Anastasia Worrell, of Slice of Life, have partnered on The Green House at 1427 Military Cutoff Road in the Progress Point commercial complex. The space was previously occupied by Moe’s Southwest Grill.

The Green House team also includes well-known Wilmington chefs Nikki Spears, who previously owned Sealevel Gourmet and Nikki’s sushi, and Dave Herring, who was the founder of Sweet & Savory restaurant.

Why a vegan restaurant for Tiblier and Worrell?

“We’re both vegan,” Tiblier said, “and we love the vegan offerings in Wilmington, but we really could see more of a fine-dining experience that was plant-centered, not like the substitute meats that tend to be heavy in the vegan world.”

In addition to being vegan, the restaurant’s offerings will also be gluten-free.

The team is in the midst of developing dishes for The Green House, and some in the works include starters in the form of cheese boards (with nut cheeses and non-nut cheeses) and a mushroom board. Entrees are expected to include dishes such as eggplant filet with parsnip potato puree and red lentil spaghetti with a lentil ragout and pine-nut Parmesan.

The restaurant is expected to open in June. – Cece Nunn

Trolly Stop on Fountain Drive is on the market

The Trolly Stop Grill and Catering on Fountain Drive, as of press time, was up for grabs.

The owners of the hot dog shop and catering operation are selling off their business, with an eye toward retirement and family time.

The listing price of $150,000 includes the restaurant, three hot dog carts, three catering vans and the rest of the pieces to jump in, said Rich Walsh, who along with his wife, Kathy, bought the location six years ago. Hampstead-based VR Business Brokers is handling the sale.

Trolly Stop, first opened in 1976, has four locations – the original in Wrightsville Beach, the Walshes’ Fountain Drive spot near the University of North Carolina Wilmington, one in Southport and one in Chapel Hill.

The others are individually owned, and only the Fountain Drive restaurant is up for sale. – Vicky Janowski Cinnamon rolls and more available at Cinnaholic

Cinnaholic, a bakery featuring vegan cinnamon rolls as well as other sweets and coffee, opened its doors April 2 at 6841 Conservation Way in Mayfaire Town Center.

“Mayfaire is proud to welcome Cinnaholic’s first location in Wilmington,” said Paige Coniglio, Mayfaire spokeswoman. “We know that residents are going to love the 100% vegan and cholesterol-free option.”

Founded in Berkeley, California, in 2010, Cinnaholic specializes in create-your-own cinnamon rolls and other made-from-scratch treats such as brownies, cookies and edible cookie dough.

Local franchisee Rose Glinski said she was drawn to Cinnaholic because of the simplicity of its business model and the quality and flavor of the products. The fact that the products are vegan is a bonus, Glinski said.

Cinnaholic’s menu offers six signature cinnamon rolls, as well as a create-your-own option with dozens of toppings and frostings to choose from. Glinski said her current favorite is cream cheese frosting with raspberry jam, fresh raspberries and powdered sugar.

The menu also includes edible cookie dough, brownies, cookies, bite-size buns and Cinnacakes. The Wilmington store will be serving coffee from Vigilant Hope Roasting, a local organization working to fight poverty in the Port City.

Cinnaholic’s co-founders Shannon and Florian Radke opened the first Cinnaholic bakery in downtown Berkeley. In 2014, the pair appeared on ABC’s hit TV show, Shark Tank. Shortly after appearing on the show, the Radkes adopted a franchise business model and began expanding to Cinnaholic locations across the U.S. and Canada. The Wilmington shop is Cinnaholic’s 52nd location. – Jessica Maurer

| BUSINESS OF LIFE |

Lewis Farms continues the berry business

BY SCOTT NUNN

Decades before the N.C. Azalea Festival blossomed, another plant marked the start of spring in the Wilmington area: strawberries. The plant and its juicy fruit not only were popular at dinner tables, strawberries were part of a thriving local business known as truck-farming.

Instead of being sold only in local markets, strawberries and crops such as lettuce, cabbage and melons were shipped to distant markets, usually via truck to a rail depot, where refrigerated train cars transported them to cities along the East Coast. The proliferation of agriculture in California and its year-round growing season took a huge bite out of truck-farming in the Wilmington area, and the industry faded.

As many farmers in Southeastern North Carolina turned to tobacco, one local family remained true to its truck-farming roots. A century later, the berry business is thriving in northern New Hanover and southern Pender counties as another harvest season is underway at Lewis Nursery and Farms.

Although best known perhaps for its pick-your-own strawberry field at 6517 Gordon Road, blueberries are the family’s biggest crop, said owner Cal Lewis.

“In Wilmington, we have a retail operation that encompasses a garden center selling spring plants, flowering plants, hanging baskets,” Lewis said. “It coincides with the ripening season of our strawberries, so they kind of go hand in hand. My wife manages that along with some very capable friends and assistants and my nephew.”

More out of sight is the Lewis Farms wholesale operations in Rocky Point.

“We farm 350 acres of blueberries, 125 acres of strawberries and 55 acres of blackberries,” Lewis said. “And that’s all for wholesale and distribution to retailers throughout the East Coast primarily.”

That’s a strategy that harkens back to the region’s truck-farming days, which also included a big business in cut flowers.

Although the Lewis Farms story is partly one of heritage and family (the current farm dates to 1953 and was in other parts of the Lewis family before then) it’s also a story of innovation.

California still dominates most of the U.S. produce business, including strawberries. But by adapting a variety of novel farming techniques.

“We basically are the only strawberry farmers left here,” Lewis said. “We maintained operations when most people, most retailers, migrated to California for their fruits and vegetables. We maintained ours and have had a comeback over the last couple of decades because people are wanting more local, regional produce, and we’ve developed techniques to grow them more on a longer-season basis.”

With a longer season and a consistent, quality crop, the farm’s wholesale berries are now found in stores such as Food Lion, Lowes Foods, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Walmart and, occasionally, Harris Teeter.

Although California and Florida dominate the strawberry market, North Carolina is consistently among the top 10 states for blueberry production, with most of the crop grown in Southeastern North Carolina. For about a six-week period in May and June, North Carolina produces the majority of the nation’s blueberries, Lewis said. His farm will produce 3.5 million pounds of blueberries during that stretch.

“They go all over the country under our brand, American Blueberries,” he said.

While most are sold for fresh consumption, berries that don’t make the cut for fresh use (too much rain, for example, can cause over-ripeness) are sold for use by food processors.

Although the success of Lewis Farms is rooted in the traditional Southeastern N.C. crops of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, the migration of Northeasterners to the region has opened up a new market that Lewis is eager to fill – raspberries.

“We had a goal of producing all four berries here in Eastern North Carolina like they do in California: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries,” Lewis said. “But our climate didn’t allow us to do much with raspberries.”

That has changed, however, with a new technique known as “long cane production,” which produces fruit in the plant’s first season and in large enough quantities to make it a feasible cash crop.

“That’s a new venture we hope to expand on. We’ve got a lot of Northern people in our community who love raspberries and are used to raspberries,” Lewis said, adding that they are also his favorite berry to eat.

As with other businesses, Lewis Farms had to make adjustments in the wake of COVID-19. But, Lewis said, the pandemic has not hurt business.

“It [2020] was actually a really good year for us. We adapted and made adjustments to our operations to conform to the needs of the consuming public,” Lewis said.

“And we were a food producer, we were essential, and people flocked to our place to get outside. And so we did fine. We did really well, actually. And this year we’ve got a little more of a repeat of that, but not quite as severe.”

With the recent spate of warmer weather, the spring strawberry harvest is kicking into high gear. Lewis strawberries started showing up in local grocery stores the weekend of April 10, and blueberries will follow in late May.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER Fruitful field: Cal Lewis shows off some of the strawberries available at Lewis Nursery and Farms on Gordon Road