Wilmington StarNews
If the new restaurants popping up in and around Wilmington are any indication, locals are hungry for seafood.
From Coast Craft Cocktails & Calabash in Carolina Beach to a new food truck from Maya’s Crab Shack in Riegelwood, there are a handful of new fish-focused choices in the area.
One exception is the CBT Burger food truck. It’s the latest venture from chef Bud Taylor, who closed the popular restaurant The Bistro at Topsail in early 2019.
Since then he’s been working as a builder, but missed cooking.
“I thought this would be something fun I could do on the weekends,” he said.
WILMINGTON For Christian Stoner, his favorite North Carolina beer is the last one he sipped.
Originally from London, the trained chef landed stateside and fell into a love affair with craft beer from the Tar Heel State specifically in Raleigh, where he took a job at a neighborhood bottle shop, Hop Yard.
That was six-and-a-half years ago. Today, Stoner is the Hop Yard owner, with his wife, Susan Barnes, and a third business partner, Lance Rogers. In January, they expanded their brand to downtown Wilmington, opening a shop at 108 Grace St., the old Bombers Beverage Co. spot.
It’s not a far path to walk for Stoner, whose calling is in the hospitality industry. Once a bartender at Hop Yard, Stoner learned about various breweries across the state and the art of crafting tasty beer first-hand.