WILMINGTON — Chris and Katie Tolbert met in the restaurant industry more than a decade ago — falling in love, marrying, starting a family and now a business venture with partner Seth Penner.
After two years fostering Circle Pit BBQ through various pop-ups, private caterings and festivals, the group has signed a contract with Out of the Weeds commissary kitchen to serve fans more consistently in the coming three months. The 408 N. Third St. location opened last year and mostly works to provide a commercial-grade kitchen for food trucks to store and prep food — as required by the health department — before they leave to set up at area venues.
But also part of the location is a walk-up window, branded Third Street Eats. It pops open occasionally to serve passersby looking for a bite on-the-go.
So far Third Street Eats has hosted a pop-up concept Show You in Cheese in November, according to Nick Sorrells, general manager of Out of the Weeds and Third Street Eats. They’re hoping to bring on more start-ups looking for a place to try out their menu on a dining crowd.
“We were charging a flat rate,” Sorrells explained, but realized with the new concept having little traction, it was a model that didn’t suit the vendor. “They’d take one shot at it, and if it didn’t go well, then they’d never do it again because they lost their money, right?”
With entrepreneurship at the heart of the project, Sorrells said they switched the setup that would help both the new startups and Third Street Eats. Third Street Eats takes a portion of proceeds from sales that the entrepreneur makes when the pop-up is open.
The Out of the Weeds and Third Street Eats business model launched last August from local oyster bar Shuckin Shack, which owns the building. The goal was to have a commercial kitchen to test new items for Shuckin Shack restaurants, franchised in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Maryland. Once open, they realized the kitchen space — only needed for the corporation a few times of the year — could also help budding restaurateurs, caterers and food businesses.
“80% of our members are 100% brand new,” Sorrells said.
To date the group has 17 members — food trucks including DNA Wings, Green Light, and T’geaux Boys, as well as caterers like Cannoli of Love. Businesses sign on for a set amount of hours a month to utilize the space and members can also be considered for the walk-up window, accessible from the parking lot facing Third Street.
“We met Chris last September,” Sorrells recalled of Circle Pit, “and it took around four months to get him permitted.”
The Tolberts and Penner started Circle Pit BBQ two years ago. Catering was always in Chris’ blood. He often cooked barbecue with his grandfather and helped his grandmother and mother with catering events.
“If anyone had anything going on, they went to my grandmother,” he said, noting she made wedding cakes, helped with church events and the like. “She sold sides out of the back of the house.”
He entered the restaurant industry at age 18 and has loved the “chaos of it all” ever since. It’s where he met his wife, while they both worked at Caprice Bistro, and Penner, who he also worked with at Cape Fear Spirits and Beer.
“He’s kind of like my road dog,” Chris said, noting they always traveled to punk and rock shows together. Those trips helped conceptualize Circle Pit.
The crew began their barbecue venture by doing backyard parties with friends. Chris would often smoke whole hogs for the Cape Fear Rugby Team, which he is part of.
“And it just snowballed to becoming a side gig,” he said.
Word-of-mouth spread into Circle Pit doing private caterings, as well as oyster roasts hosted at Eagle’s Dare. Chris said they considered a food truck and assessed multiple avenues to keep pressing forward on their five-year plan. The goal is to eventually own their own space, which Chris sees more as a bar with “world-class food.”
Katie added they want to ease into operations. At Third Street Eats, Circle Pit will pop up every other Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m. to midnight, from March through May, starting March 13.
“The goal is to do it once a week, eventually,” Chris said.
“We have so many dates booked at Concept Kitchen, so the weeks are split for now,” Katie added. “So, this weekend we’ll be at Concept Kitchen and the following Thursday and Friday, we’ll be at Third Street.”
Concept Kitchen Co. is a container kitchen owned and operated by End of Days Distillery, which welcomes chefs and businesses that want to test-run their menus for a weekend at a time. Circle Pit BBQ has set up there many times throughout the last year or so, often selling out of food before the kitchen closed.
The crew oversees Circle Pit pop-ups while holding down full-time jobs. Penner manages Fermental, while Chris is the bar manager for Cape Fear Spirits and Beer. Katie is an agency coordinator for Wilmington Coastal Doulas, and she and Chris have a toddler with another baby on the way this summer.
Circle Pit focuses on barbecue that blends southeastern North Carolina with Asian-inspired flavors. So while diners will get the typical pulled pork sandwich or ribs, they’ll also see a Pit-style banh mi or a take on a Korean chicken sandwich, topped with green onion and kimchi.
“That’s my favorite right now,” Chris said. “I worked through Covid trying to perfect the crispiest fried chicken and I think I nailed it. It’s slathered in a mix of sweet chili sauce and has a Nashville Hot spin on it.”
The chicken sandwich will be on the Third Street Eats menu, as will pork belly sliders, steak frites over potato wedges, and an herb-smoked pork sandwich.
There will also be a few vegetarian options, including a roasted mushroom sandwich on a baguette with giardiniera, and ‘“General Tolb’s” cauliflower — a take on the popular Chinese dish, General Tso’s.
“It really has a street food feel to it — like a worldly barbecue feel,” Chris described of his menus.
He and his wife, both foodies, have traveled the world and found their favorite flavors came from Asia. For Valentine’s Day, the team got creative at Concept Kitchen Co. with Japanese yakitori — traditionally chicken skewers, grilled hot and fast over Japanese charcoal. But Chris decided to do chicken hearts as well.
“Just out of pure curiosity, people kept coming back to the window saying how much they liked it and never had it before,” he said. “I just did it to be adventurous, but it was absolutely amazing to see people loved it.”
They had already discovered yakitori was a favorite among Circle Pit diners. The group underwent their largest catering last year at Feast — the Wilmington Business Journal’s foodie event. Katie said their appearance came by happenstance as someone from the event-planning team had tasted Circle Pop BBQ at a pop-up.
“And then we got asked to do Feast because someone dropped out last-minute,” Katie said. “We made 650 yakitori skewers all in two or three hours — it was rapid.”
She said friends were sending pictures of lines of people clamoring to get seconds and thirds of the dish.
“That really launched us, put us on people’s radar,” Chris said.
The group is readying for a return to this year’s Feast as well, March 24-30. They’re still working out the dish they’re serving.
At Third Street Eats, Chris hopes to include delivery to area bars for patrons as well. Eagle’s Dare is next door, with Flytrap Brewing and Dead Crow Comedy Room also close by.
Sorrells said as Third Street Eats gets more pop-ups booked to rotate from the walk-up window, he hopes entrepreneurs will also consider using food delivery apps.
“But we don’t manage their businesses,” he clarified, noting the goal is to provide affordable space to operate out of and help spread the word about concepts hosted there.
There is no outdoor seating at the 408 S. Third St. location, so it’s grab-and-go, but Edison lighting hangs above and signage is coming, Sorrells said.
Looking to the future, the front of the building, opposite the commissary kitchen, also has a test and training bar and conference room. He envisions eventually hosting special culinary events and pop-up bars.
“In the grand scheme, in an ideal world, this turns into a pipeline for concepts to go from us to whatever they want to do next — whether it’s a food truck or brick and of mortar,” Sorrells said.
Tips or comments? Email info@portcitydaily.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
