WILMINGTON — Walking along the downtown Riverfront will bring with it visions of a new restaurant: River 128. What was once The George has now been rebranded.
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Edson Munekata and partner Freddy Lee purchased The George on the Riverwalk three years ago while working with broker Terry Espy (MoMentum Properties) to secure a place for their Brazilian steakhouse concept. Though they could never land the right location, instead, they found 128 S. Water St.
“And it included the real estate,” Munekata said on a phone call Monday.
According to property records, Lee and Munekata obtained the Water Street property for $2.5 million in December 2021.
Formerly The George, the restaurant opened in Wilmington in 2004 and has been known as one of many packed tourist destinations during peak season in downtown Wilmington. A large outdoor dining area overlooks spanning views of the Cape Fear River.
Munekata said the goal was to make changes when he and Lee took over, but the group only did moderate updates in the last three years. Toward the end of December, they closed the restaurant for a remodel.
“We wanted to modernize it,” Munekata said, doing away with darker color schemes of black and grey, and bringing in light wood and seafaring blue, green, cream and white.
“Our goal was to give it a warmer feel,” he said.
128 River Restaurant reopens on Tuesday, a casual upscale eatery with an updated menu as well. The restaurateurs truncated it to make it more practical and streamlined during busy summer days, when diner counts escalate. Yet, Munekata also leaned into their Brazilian steakhouse background — the two have restaurant portfolios consisting of fine-dining and the Brazilian steakhouses, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“I grew up in Brazil,” Munekata said, “so I’m a bit of a carnivore.”
Diners will see the addition of a filet mignon, bone-in ribeye, New York strip and porterhouse. Yet, the group has kept some of The George’s more popular menu items, such as the black bass, and pastas, including lobster ravioli and Cajun penne.
“Overall, it’s just more of a mix now,” Munekata said, noting the restaurant also still features plenty of seafood, as indicated in the salmon entree or shrimp and grits, and the smash burger also remains.
Andrew Meade, who was sous chef when the group purchased The George, has stepped into the head chef role. Munekata said there are also other management changes.
“We’ve been really happy with the investment in Wilmington so far,” he said. “We just felt like it was time for us to renovate the restaurant and bring it up to par with the others we have.”
Lee and Munekata met after the former sold a fine-dining eatery in Charlotte to Munekata after he moved from California. An entrepreneur, Munekata sold his commercial photo lab and, unsure of his next moves, visited his sister in South Carolina, where he fell in love with the region and its more affordable cost of living.
Munekata decided to enter the restaurant game and after his purchase from Lee, also invested in a sports bar.
“But then the economy came crashing down in 2007 or 2008, and I told the broker who sold me the restaurants: ‘You gotta get me out of this damn business because this is killing me,’” Munekata recalled.
He entered into the restaurant brokerage side of the field and had a client who wanted to launch a Brazilian restaurant in Columbia but was tight on cash. Munekata invested in it and his partner ran the day-to-day operations in what became Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse.
“I told him: I believe in the concept, there’s nothing like that for miles,” Munekata recalled, “but I do not want to operate a restaurant any more. … There I was back in the business, but that concept did so well, we ended up opening five locations.”
Lee was always into casual upscale dining establishments, as seen in his numerous eateries including Bernardins in Charlotte and Oh’ Calcutta in Winston-Salem.
Munekata said Lee is the “foodie type,” always staying ahead of trends in dining and flavor profiles. He brought some of his sauces from other eateries into the River 128 menu as well, such as the curry mustard sauce featured on the black bass or the truffle vinaigrette on the seared sea scallops.
Together, the two continue to own a few of the Brazilian steakhouses, such as in North Charleston and Hilton Head. Those, too, are undergoing rebranding currently into Lasso Gaucho Brazilian Steakhouse — also to become more upscale.
“We rebranded Winston-Salem a year ago,” Munekata said, noting they always have their eyes on the market for opportunities that may arise to potentially bring one to Wilmington.
But right now construction costs are escalating. Munekata estimated it would be more than a million dollars just to renovate an existing space into one of their Lasso eateries.
“And if we were to build it from the ground up, forget about it,” he said.
128 River Restaurant will officially unveil to the public on Tuesday; hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday will open 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.
“We added an extra Sunday shift as we always had people coming in after brunch ended at 3 p.m., wanting a table,” Munekata said, noting the restaurant will remain closed on Monday.
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