With a retro vibe and a close knit staff, Sealevel has room for everyone
Cherry Gibbs was checking on tables during dinner at Sealevel City Vegan Diner on Kerr Avenue. She stopped at a two-top and pulled out a deck of cards. “Pick one,” she said with eye contact and an expression of expectation. One diner made a selection and looked at the card; it read, “You should dance more.”
“You know,” said the customer, “you’re probably right.”
“I call them my happiness cards,” says Gibbs. Others include messages like “Rub your shoulders.” Or “Say how you’re doing today.”
After hearing this story, Kelsey Gibbs, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Scott Key, says, “Mom is definitely a hippie.”
Raleigh-Durham native Kelsey, got her start in Wilmington by working in graphic design before moving on to sell vintage clothing. She met Key at the former live music venue and laundromat on Front Street, the Soapbox Laundro-Lounge, where he was performing as the drummer with ASG, a Wilmington-based band that still tours.
Her vintage clothing company started on Front Street then moved to 1015 S Kerr Avenue; still open. Next door was the restaurant, Sealevel City Gourmet, owned by Wilmington chef Nikki Spears. In 2019, Kelsey and Key took it over; Cherry moved to Wilmington to be a part of the team.
The three worked together to renovate, ripping up floors and refinishing. Now, the restaurant is filled with mixed styles of vintage chairs, retro banquettes, and a wall of 45s records, all bought second-hand. The grill was bought at auction for $500. The booths came from a coffee shop in Myrtle Beach. “It was a huge job getting them out of there,” says Kelsey.
The restaurant operates with the same attention to keep waste at a minimum. Everything gets composted. Materials are recycled at a facility at UNC Wilmington and through the city. Vegetable scraps are saved, frozen, and used for stock. Staff carefully keeps everything separated.
Sealevel had the misfortune to open on March 1, 2022, one week before the Covid pandemic closed down businesses in the city. The restaurant switched to take-out only, with Cherry on the phone.
“I have answered that phone a million times,” she says. “Three hours at a time, in one of the booths, taking orders and texting back to make sure our food was great.”
“It was awesome; we have a very supportive vegan community,” she adds. “They helped us stay open.”
Once the restaurant was open to the public, Kelsey and Key started to refine and develop recipes, working with the staff. Cherry became the baker.
“I was eating vegan before the restaurant opened, so I had some recipes,” she says. She found it easy to replicate dishes she ate before going all vegan. “I was a simple eater; butterbeans and butter noodles. In college, I would get the western, bacon-thick burger; they’re both easy to veganize.”
Now Kelsey’s husband, Scott, is vegan, as is her mom, who admits to a downfall each year with a couple of oysters.
Kelsey buys from local farms; a favorite is Old Heritage Farm in Willard, run by Kevin Spears, where she finds “burger lettuce” and great tomatoes in season. She likes the lion’s mane mushrooms she finds at the Wilmington Farmers Market.
Local ingredients are used where possible in a wide-ranging menu. Customer favorites include: Baja Shrimp Tacos, with fried vegan shrimp, two flour tortillas, Napa cabbage, tomatoes, pickled onions, avocado, chipotle sauce, cilantro, and choice of side; Chips & Queso, with cashew queso blended with chiles and spices with lime salt tortilla chips; Kale Nachos, with cashew queso, black bean-tempeh chili, and sautéed kale on a bed of tortilla chips, with avocado, jalapeños, cashew sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and cilantro.
Desserts are made in-house and change almost daily. Cherry has made cheesecake decorated to look like camouflage, moon pies, milkshakes, and banana pudding.
The restaurant is popular and has a lot of regulars that have become part of the family. The kitchen staff and front-of-house workers are close-knit and tend to stay with the restaurant for a long time.
“I love it here,” says Cherry. “I love my daughter to pieces, and it’s fun to get to know her as an adult. We work hard; it’s all from love.”
This story was orginally printed in the Summer 2024 issue.
