After our January/February trip to Wilmington produced some mixed results food wise Lynn and I had some seriously lowered expectations (food wise) for our trip to Wilmington this past week. We had thought we might eat at Catch if we had time as we were looking forward to seafood.
Our daughter, Kristina, introduced us to a very wonderful eatery called The Basics. This restaurant connected to Wilmington's Cotton Exchange had been a pretty good pizza parlor in the late 90's (as best I can remember).
Lynn had great crab cakes (with a lot of nice, lump crab meat) that were lightly sauteed and somewhat uncharacteristically non-greasy for the deep south. We also had great fried okra that were more in the style of tempura than heavily fried which helped keep the flavor and savoriness of the okra front and center.
Perhaps most impressive of all was the service; a blonde waitress named Amy (I think) and a brunette who were helpful to us and attentive without being over-familiar (a typical problem with waitstaff in the Port City) They were predictably charmed by my grandson Jackson who loved the blueberry pancakes. We ate there three times and it was great and consistent three times in a row...
The Basics
319 North Front Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
Phone: 910-343-1050
Breakfast
Monday – Friday:
8am – 11am
Lunch
Monday – Friday:
11am – 4pm
Dinner
Mon – Sat at 5pm
Brunch
10:00am – 4pm
