WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Healthy food options in Wrightsville Beach continue to grow as new restaurants focus on providing nutritious choices for residents and visitors alike. A new option has recently opened within Robert’s Grocery Store, Adapt Kitchen and Juice Bar.
Chris Curry and Elie Tilghman opened Adapt last month, but it has been a concept for two years in the making.
“We’re a health-focused concept, the idea is to provide healthy food and beverage to the local community. It’s an idea we started about two and a half years ago. We want to be environmentally conscious and (offer) nutritionally dense food, and support local business – from framers to artists, just really do something unique from the ground up,” Curry said.
Both Curry and Tilghman have worked in the service industry previously but Adapt is a first for them when it comes to owning and operating a restaurant.
Currently, Adapt is offering a range of smoothies and juices, as well as coffee options, but soon hope to get a conditional use permit from the Town of Wrightsville Beach to start serving other food items.
“We’re going to be doing breakfast bowls, toasts, some egg options … the conditional use permit is to allow us to do carry-out foods,” Tilghman said.
Adapt takes its name from adaptogens, or natural substances that are thought to help the body adapt to stress, which are found in most of the options at Adapt Kitchen and Juice Bar. One of the most well-known adaptogens is ginseng, Curry said.
“The idea behind our foods is to bring in a lot of vitamins and minerals into people’s diets and making them colorful and attractive where they want to share that experience. That’s the whole idea, to make it fun and unique in that regard where it introduces people that want to be healthy, but don’t know where to get it, and make it convenient …” Curry said.
Not your average juice
Some of the more unique smoothies and elixirs utilize “Blue Majik,” a blue-green algae rich in nutrients; other favorites include “Liquid Gold” – an almond milk and turmeric drink served both hot and cold.
Curry was born and raised in the area, and Tilghman also has strong ties to the area. The two saw the need for a healthy food option on the beach and decided to take over the former location of a doughnut shop inside of Robert’s Grocery Store.
“I was born and raised, and Elie has been coming here since she was a small child so we are very deeply rooted in this community for a number of reasons. It’s about maintaining the integrity, it’s a very active community and there are a lot of people that are seeking this out, whether they are tourists or people who live on the beach that don’t want to drive off (the island),” Curry said.
Healthy foods are not the only passion of Curry and Tilgman, Adapt will also focus on providing sustainable and eco-friendly options by limiting single-use plastics like straws, to selling boxed water instead of bottles.
Adapt is open Monday – Sunday from 6:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
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