Good morning TKP Fam!
The fam and I are moving to Wilmington for quite the shift in life. I'll be making a career change and moving from the Shenandoah Valley down to one of our favorite places.
My new job will require me to be on the road a bit - sales, operations and project management for a company that services Myrtle Beach up through Eastern NC (up to Greenville area). Most of my early work (and possibly work moving forward in the long term) will be in Myrtle Beach, so I'm wondering if it might be wise to settle down in a place like Shallotte or Little River... Leland even (which is just on this side of Wilmington). Do any of my TKP people have experience or recommendations for these areas.
I'm not terribly excited about the prospect of living in Myrtle Beach for a number of reason, not least of which is the fact that we'd be an extra hour and a half or so from our college age boys, who will be staying here. We'd really love to settle in Wilmington, but if I end up needing to make that drive multiple times a week that might not be the wisest option.
Also, hit me up with your favorite spots in that area - Bars, restaurants, fishing spots, etc. Also if any of you have experience with the school systems in that area, words of advice on that end would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thanks FAM!
Comments
My parents just moved to Leland a few months ago and love it! I've visited a few times since then, and I think your best bet is to stay out of Wilmington proper. Leland is in the process of being very built up, and Shallotte and Little River looked like good places for a family from what little I saw.
There's pretty good BBQ all over, but one non-BBQ recommendation would be the Fork and Cork--both locations are great, with one being new and in a strip mall, and the other in a narrow semi-historic building with a college feel.
Best of luck to you, and looking forward to seeing others' recommendations so I can pass them along to my parents who are still learning the area!
Thanks!
Love Fork and Cork down near the river.
We lived in Leland for a year before (2007). It was nice, but if it is still the same, there isn't a whole lot going on there. Luckily you aren't far from a lot. If you are west of Wilmington, you used to have to keep an eye on the drawbridge schedule if you had somewhere to be at a certain time. Cops ride around Wilmington in very unmarked cars (minivans, SUVs, Sportscars) so watch out for speeding and running lights.
Fishing: Hands down Ocean Crest Fishing Pier on Oak Island. One of the best King Mackerel fishing piers on the east coast.
I've had to travel to Wilmington for work on a number of occasions, so no info on good places to live...but if you are into craft beer, hit up Pour Taproom, Flytrap Brewing, and Flying Machine Brewing
I love Wilmington, but it's definitely a mix of a college and beach town. Better than Myrtle though.
You can't go wrong with any spots on Front Street. New Anthem Brewing is excellent, as is Ironclad, Flytrap, Edward Teach, and Circa 1922. Looks like they also just opened a new Hi-Wire Brewing there, which started in Asheville and has a great brown ale.
Leland isn't bad but personally I'd rather live up past Ogden toward Hampstead than down towards Shallotte. Wilmington has expanded rapidly in the last decade in both directions along Hwy17.
In general, Topsail or Carolina/Kure beaches are much preferable to Wrightsville for locals, FYI.
Food: Bluewater/Oceanic at Wrightsville, Indochine/Taste of Italy midtown, Fork N Cork/Copper Penny downtown. Km38 and Tower7 are good too.
Beer: Bill's, Waterman's, Flying Machine.
Front Street Brewery and Flaming Amy's are wildly overrated.
Honestly, I'd love to live up north towards Hampstead or even into Topsail, but the commute would be too much I'm afraid.
Thanks!
My only suggestion for Wilmington is offshore charters with Capt. Rick Croson. Pretty reasonable prices in the offshore fishing realm, great teacher and enjoyable guy to spend a day on the water with. Fort Fisher is a pretty popular place to surf fish down there if you have 4WD. Wilmington seems like a cool place to live.
I had a Capt. Ryan Williams going out of Holden Beach/Supply, NC. Any Hokie can appreciate that name.
Buy a JEEP! That's all!
Never bad advice
If you like big fancy donuts, you have to go to Wake 'N Bake
BRITTS!!
I do know this.
For fishing
Never lived there, but I visit that stretch of Coastline (mainly Holden Beach) almost yearly.
Congratulations and you have a lot to look forward to! From Wilmington on down to Savannah, is the East Coast at its best IMHO.
-WilNC has everything you need in a city + lots to see and do
-my first tour of a warship was the USS North Cackalacky and it's worth a visit
-Excellent seafood and barbecue down there (Southport Smoke House being my fav in the area)
-The Waterfront/Water Street area is pretty neat
-Market Street (US-17 Bus route) gets quite congested
-Go check out Southport ASAP (and there's a Hokie home somewhere near that ferry terminal)
A couple other things I forgot to add:
If you have 4WDyou can drive out on the North End of Carolina Beach (Freeman Park) and camp, although you may need reservations now. It used to be the wild west for spots especially during Memorial/Labor Day.
And if you have a boat or access to one, check out Masonboro Island, the uninhabited island between Wrightsville and Carolina beaches. Just don't go during the 4th of July.
I would recommend a house on a high spot or decent flood insurance from discussions with people who live there.
The fam and I currently live in Wilmington and have since 2013. We love everything about it and glad you are joining in the fun! On one of your posts you mentioned looking into the Hampstead area. This is a cool town and is a bit of a sleepy fishing place with lots of Marine officers from Camp Lejeune living in the area. Pender County schools are very hit or miss, if you are east of 17 and towards the southern portion and you stay in the Topsail elementary-High school zone, you will have a great experience for you kids. The traffic is currently HORRIFFIC through Hampstead during weekday morning and evenings. They are working on a bypass that runs from Wilmington up towards the north side of Hampstead that will drastically help this traffic, but we are still a few years from completion there.
Currently, we live just north of the Porter's Neck area and I would say it is one of the fastest growing parts of Wilmington. Lots and lots of younger family, it is certainly more on the pricier side of things if you can afford it (not trying to sound boastful, we bought a new home before prices sky-rocketed through COVID, we were lucky). For us the school zones are pretty solid, one of 3-4 places that I trust the school zone through high school (we currently have 4th and 5th graders). My job requires me to travel anywhere from Camp Lejeune, Brunswick County, Wilmington and Myrtle Beach as well, and I think Hampstead and the north side of Wilmington are perfect because you have the 140 bypass that is not busy at all that lets you bypass all of that, I can be in North MB in just over an hour, and Camp Lejeune in about an hour as well. If I were moving here all over again and I had to travel the spots you are referring to, I would still avoid Brunswick County, growing very fast, but the retail, dining and entertainment are very far behind the amount of housing going up. I do a lot of work for the school system, they are working hard to catch up, but still behind. If you have kids, get them into the Wilmington or Pender county schools if you ask me
Food and good spots are too much to name. I have had a lot of new friends move into the area becuase of COVID and getting out of DC or Raleigh/Charlotte area that have told me that the food scene (not in quantity, but quality, still a much smaller town then any of those places) has really really surprised them. Outside of fast food, we never go to a chain restaurant, really easy to find great spots anywhere in town from Carolina Beach to Hampstead. I have been wanting to rank my own thoughts for a while, so here it goes:
Date Night:
Seafood: Bridge Tender (on the Intracoastal) or Fish Bites (hole in the wall, and towards CB, but worth it)
Downtown Atomosphere: Manna (also the best Old Fashioned in town)
Steak: True Blue
Other, RX is just a great place to go
Family Out: OC (Osteria Cicchetti, can't pronounce it and no one can, so call it the OC) Its family style Italian
Sweet N Savory (Hokie Alum owned, also where the Alum association watches the games) Good mix of everything and best prices on wine as well
Burger: The Fork N Cork, Winnies Tavern are toss ups (Poe Tavern is a Charleston semi chain gets honorable mention here)
Brewery is tough, I like Hi-Wire towards downtown, not hard to park and lots of space, new place Outer Dunes is the most convenient for me and is just getting started on their own brews. Ogden Tap Room has the best brews combo with family vibe and live music.
Satellite is my go to Bar, great Tacos across the street @ Block Taco.
End of Days Distillery is also a sweet spot to grab a locally made liquor drink before 9pm and food truck food.
If you have kids, you will go to Islands Tacos a lot, best place to have tacos a quick beer for the family of 4 for $20-25. I also second that Flaming Amy's and Front Street are overrated.
I have about a thousand other things to say and places for you to try. Hope you make it down safely and have a great time, hit me up and I would be glad to buy you a beer and welcome you in!
FYI Islands is also owned by Hokies. At least the two guys that started the original on Racine Dr. I used to work in that strip mall when they opened up and talked with them quite a bit.
Also I like Satellite but my only issue is that it's not walkable to any other bars DT. Great beer selection though.