The food scene in Wilmington is constantly making news. Here’s a new coffee shop, and over there, a new vegan bakery. Downtown a building is being gutted for a renovation that will include a new restaurant. Excited news pinballs among a collection of ILM foodie Facebook pages. The local paper’s food writer tracks the information closely. Hi Allison! She is never at a loss for something to write about. Competition is cooking up; that’s good.
I love reading it. I’m glad it’s there, because it gives Edible Port City the time to do what we do best: dig into stories that focus on the roots and the people with long food traditions and how they shape the present.
An example is Zora’s Fish Market on Castle Street between 14th and 15th streets, which remains on the shore of a wave of development as it travels east. Our story on the market, which was opened in 1956, outlines the outsize impact of Zora Singleton on the neighborhood, her family and the customers she treated like family.
So many people are invested in keeping her story alive. As I was finishing up writing it, T Cobbs, who works at the store, called me. A customer walked in who told her he’d been going there for 70 years; she put him on the phone.
The story gets better. In 2024, Dean Neff of Seabird bought the building to save it from a potential wrecking ball. At city hall for a permit, Neff wound up at the desk of Judy Chesson, who turned out to be Zora’s granddaughter.
Researching the story took me down so many rabbit holes as I found connection after connection.
Our other stories tell of people putting down roots, starting mushroom farms and a successful salsa business. Chef Austen Schindler of Covey was tasked with creating a mushroom recipe.
Farmers work with chefs, chefs support local fisheries, and Wilmington benefits. It’s exciting.
