WILMINGTON — Chef Sunny Gerhart has been itching to get back to Wilmington for some time. While it was part of his long-term plan to return, opportunity presented itself sooner than expected. By early 2023, he will open his second restaurant, Olivero, at 3rd and Castle streets.
“I wasn’t really looking for a restaurant or even thinking about opening one there,” he admitted. In fact, keeping the doors open through a pandemic at his restaurant St. Roch Fine Oysters and Bar in Raleigh took up a lot of energy.
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“But the space and the landlord and the location, it all kind of came together,” Gerhart said.
James Goodnight — son of SAS CEO Jim Goodnight— is rehabilitating 522 S. 3rd St. He purchased it in 2018 for $250,000, according to property records. Goodnight is known for historic renovation projects across town, including the restaurant Seabird and tech headquarters for Untappd, neighboring buildings located along Front Street.
Goodnight said the 3rd Street property has remained empty for over a decade. Most recently, it was a dry cleaners and, way back, a corner store. The contaminated soil under the building had to be excavated, and he had to obtain a variance from the city because the current zoning would prohibit parking for the lot next to the building, which will service Olivero customers.
And, of course, Covid caused more delays.
“It’s taken us years to just get this far,” Goodnight said. “I think so many businesses were crushed by Covid, but Sunny has really excelled and done very well with St. Roch.”
Gerhart, a 2022 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef Southeast, met Goodnight first through Ashley Christensen — well-known Raleigh restaurateur and multi-year James Beard award winner. Gerhart was Christensen’s sous chef at Poole’s Diner and then led the kitchen at Joule Coffee + Table before closing in 2016. Gerhart opened St. Roch in its stead five years ago, with Christensen’s blessing and a financial investment.
A mutual friend mentioned to Goodnight that Gerhart aspired to one day create a business on the southeastern coast, where he went to high school and college.
“James said he was looking to do something fun there and that’s how the conversation started,” Gerhart recalled.
Over the last few weeks, Goodnight has been sandblasting the all-brick building in downtown Wilmington.
“And it’s just really beautiful,” Gerhart said.
The chef wants to keep its rustic integrity: concrete floors, lots of windows, wooden beams and an open ceiling. The storefront was built in the 1940s along the cobblestone streets of Castle.
“It’s just covered in time,” Gerhart added.
He appreciates the location’s New Orleans vibe, from where Gerhart’s family hails. Olivero is an homage to family — first and foremost, his mother.
“My mother’s side of the family is Spanish and Italian,” he said. “My great grandfather was a sailor from Seville who sailed over to New Orleans.”
While most people first think of French and African flavors inspiring Cajun and Creole cuisine, Gerhart is blending influential styles often unsung. “At one point, New Orleans had the largest Sicilian or the largest Italian immigration in the country,” he said.
Nearly 40,000 people entered the Big Easy in the early 19th and 20th centuries, many of whom were lemon and orange merchants.
“New Orleans was an important hub,” Gerhart said, “influenced by the slave trade and Italian immigration, and the citrus trade and the banana trade.”
The Italians left an indelible impact on food (hello to the muffuletta sandwich), as did the Spaniards a century earlier. The Iberian architecture of the French Quarter is visually evident today, as Spain rebuilt the area during its 30-year rule after fires destroyed original French structures in the mid-to-late 18th century. Also left behind are the flavors of jambalaya — basically a distant cousin of paella or fideo (the latter is made with pasta).
“To me, I think about all of those influences in the city which are parts of my family,” he said. “I look to that for inspiration.”
Olivero — the last name of his grandfather — is in the early stages of conceptual development, so Gerhart hasn’t hashed out the menu. He is clear about one thing: It won’t be traditional New Orleans fare. He will include handmade pastas — “extruded, stuffed, rolled” — with lots of vegetables and seafood, including oysters.
“I mean, we’re going to be in Wilmington,” he said. “We already get so many of our oysters up here from right around where you guys are at.”
The goal is to let the ingredients shine with simple preparation and local, fresh produce from area farmers.
“Fingers crossed, we’ll have a wood-fired grill,” Gerhart said. “I’m building the kitchen I want to cook in, with the things I want to work with — a really good, efficient space for a restaurant of this size.”
The kitchen will be open, the atmosphere energetic, the chef continued. The building is 2,500 square feet and will seat around 60. It will open for dinner only and brunch on weekends.
The bar program will focus on the same idea: fresh, simple, balanced.
With inflation still on the up and up, the chef is unsure what price points will be on the Olivero menu. Gerhart is at the behest of the rising costs of goods and ongoing supply chain issues.
“I’ve been waiting on a stainless steel table that was supposed to be here December 31, and it still hasn’t arrived,” he said.
“But I don’t see us selling, like, $40 entrees,” he clarified. “I want Olivero to be a part of the community and part of the Castle Street neighborhood.”
Once the Wilmington restaurant unlocks its doors, he will live in town at least during the first year of operations. Gerhart said he is confident St. Roch is in a good place and in the hands of trustworthy staff that has faced hardships and, literally, risen above the ashes. The Raleigh restaurant endured a fire in the summer of 2021 and reopened just last fall.
“I think they came back even stronger,” Goodnight said.
Jamie Meares from Furbish helped design the interior for St. Roch’s reopening and Gerhart said the team will get back together again for Olivero.
“If they can embrace that same luck, I’m sure it’s going to be something really special on that corner [in Wilmington,]” Goodnight added.
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