WILMINGTON — After serving roughly 3,000 attendees last year, a local food festival is returning with more vendors and double the events.
Feast Wilmington will kick off on March 24 for its second year of brews, bites and festivities hosted across town, from Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach. For five days, there will be six events highlighting more than 70 restaurants and local businesses. Feast culminates with the three returning anchor events — Craft + Cuisine, Pier Party and Brunch Elevated — taking place at Live Oak Bank Pavilion, March 29 and 30.
New this year is Feast Experiences, hosted at three separate locations — ”so people can move around the city and experience an event at a location they maybe haven’t been to before,” Feast Director Jessica Maurer said on a phone call with Port City Daily.
The first experience, Pies & Pints, starts Wednesday evening at Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria. Chefs Ben Knight and Evan Morton will take guests on a culinary tour of different pizza styles paired with beers from Mad Mole Brewing. There are two dining times, at both 5:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., for guests to roam from station to station and taste New York, Chicago deep dish, and Detroit-style pizzas at their own pace.
“For this event, we decided to turn focus away from our flagship style of pizza, the wood-fired Neapolitan, to showcase some more regional styles we’ve been experimenting with,” Morton said.
Thursday evening, the Hollywood East experience offers guests a glamorous four-course meal accompanied by live jazz. Hosted at G. Prime Steak and Cellar, Chef Taylor Trumbetti will serve dishes from Wagyu oyster with Estate Kilo caviar to petite Australian Wagyu tenderloin and porcini demi glace, finishing with a lemon olive oil cake and citrus creme chantilly.
Friday, The Starling Bar will host an evening of barbeque and beer for the Tailgate Party event starting at 6 p.m. With chefs from Southern Smoke BBQ, Lawrence BBQ and Salt + Charm, Tailgate Party will feature a variety of southern dishes and sides alongside cold beer and handcrafted cocktails from The Starling.
Feast has made several other changes in response to feedback collected through surveys following last year’s festival. Some suggested the festival increase its variety in cocktails. So this year Feast has teamed up with End of Days Distillery and Mister Bartender, a bartending service owned by Paul Campbell, to create specialized sippers for each event. Campbell crafted Bloody Marys and espresso martinis for Brunch Elevated and Old Fashioneds for the Pier Party.
“Paul has been really instrumental in helping us bridge that gap in terms of the cocktail service,” Maurer said. “He’s worked with End of Days to design cocktails for each event, ones he thinks are suitable to the events themselves.”
Also in response to last year’s survey, the Brunch Elevated event, previously hosted on Saturday, has been moved to Sunday morning to keep more in line with the “vibe of the event,” Maurer said.
It wraps the festival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 30, with music by Tracy Shedd, and features a variety of brunch items, cocktails, mocktails and gourmet coffees. There will be 30 or more different food and drink options from 22 vendors. A benne-seed sticky bun French toast from The Beach Shop and Grill is on the menu, alongside a matcha latte from downtown’s new Cafe Mata.
Craft + Cuisine returns Saturday, March 29, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature 20 local breweries paired with 20 chefs creating one-of-a-kind bites to complement the sups. For instance, Front Street Brewery and Ethiopian Sega Wat have paired up to serve a rich beef stew braised in Berbere spice blend, garlic, ginger, and niter kibbeh, with hard boiled egg along with FSB’s Ethiopian T’ej Honey Ale. The Blue Footed Boobies will also perform at the event.
Later that evening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Pier Party will take place, featuring 25 different various food vendors; music will be performed by The Hatch Brothers. Items include Asian short rib bao from Bluewater Grill to ice cream and shortbread from Boombalatti’s.
Also featured at the Pier Party is the Delhi Darling, Surf City’s new Indian cuisine that opened in the fall of 2024.
Co-owner and Chef Karuna Kumar said she chose to serve pan-seared white fish, a fan-favorite since the restaurant opened.
“This dish brings the delicate, coastal flavors of Kerala to the table — tender white fish gently stewed in fragrant coconut milk, curry leaves, and dried red chilies, creating a beautifully balanced depth of flavor,” Kumar said. “Being in a coastal town, we believe in celebrating the freshest seafood available, and this dish is the perfect way to highlight both our love for seafood and our commitment to authentic Indian flavors.”
As last year, Feast will be donating a part of the proceeds to the Wilmington Food Bank, Cape Fear Craft Beer Alliance, and Downtown Business Alliance.
Tickets range from $80 to $200 for individual events and $260 for a weekend pass. Feast experiences must be purchased separately. To view the full schedule with detailed menus, visit the Feast website here.
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