A corner restaurant on Castle Street mixes the foods of Italy, Spain and New Orleans
It’s been news in Wilmington since Olivero opened in early September taking over a long empty building at the corner of Castle and Third streets. Diners are happy. Not only does the restaurant anchor the western end of the Castle Street District, it adds to the number of new chefs and their teams moving to the Port City providing jobs and more options for a night out.
One Saturday late afternoon, people formed a line on the sidewalk waiting for the place to open at 5 o’clock. The door opened and within 15 minutes the restaurant was half full. Last-minute diners were given two seats at the bar and an hour to eat. The staff was ready.
“We have been fully reserved,” says owner and co-executive chef Sunny Gerhart. “We’re feeling very supported and fortunate.”
Gerhert, who grew up in Jacksonville, comes from the Raleigh restaurant scene, where he started St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar (on Wilmington Street) in 2017. For this spot, he wanted to focus on family history by mixing the cuisines of Italy, Spain and New Orleans.
The Italian influence is evident in the pasta selection, which the kitchen makes fresh each day. Some of Spain is thrown in the lasagna, where octopus and chorizo are the base of the Bolognese sauce.
Gerhart and his co-executive chef, Lauren Krall Ivey, make good use of a wood-fired grill in a back corner of the open kitchen. A cook is in charge of maintaining an even heat with a hair dryer: It keeps the fire burning, while whisking ash up the chimney. A line up of bright-green onions char while the guests are seated.
The chefs plan to use produce and fish from local farms. Terra Vita Farm in Castle Hayne contributes to the Little Gem Lettuces salad. Shellfish come from N. Sea Oyster Co., which is based on Topsail Island.
The Spanish and Italian influences cross over in an appetizer of dates (recipe page xx) reminiscent of tapas. The dates are filled with ’nudja, a spreadable salami, then thrown on the grill until warm and crispy.
For Gerhart, the restaurant is not far from his days in Wrightsville Beach, where he once lived on a sailboat and cleaned boat bottoms; it’s where he started cooking. His new location feels right. “It’s not quite downtown,” he says. “There’s a little bit of parking and a neighborhood feel.”
This story was originally published in the Winter Issue 2023.
