Wine and Walnuts

Fried Mac & Cheese, seriously delicious (pic by Carolyn Morgan)

I cannot be-lieve my luck! I happened upon the best fried thing I ever ate last Saturday, at this adorable little restaurant downtown called The Eat Spot. And as an added bonus, I had a pretty damn good salad there too. But really, who cares about salad, because I had fried mac-n-cheese — am I right? Mac-n-cheese that even now, a week later, makes me salivate just to think about it.

We ended up at The Eat Spot because my friend Carolyn and I decided to have lunch at one of 3 or 4 recently opened downtown restaurants, which I was in charge of choosing.  So I did what any normal person would do, and spent the better part of 2 hours researching online for the best place to go.  Because I’m obsessive that way.

My list went something like this:  The Eat Spot, Press 102, or Café Bossanova – which one to try?  I chose The Eat Spot because when reviewing the menu online, I had a helluva time deciding what I’d order when I got there, always a good sign.  There were many dreamy selections, AND all at very good prices.

I started with the fried mac & cheese, described thusly on the menu: Deep Fried Mac & Cheese, 3.00.  Really?  That’s it?  Such a generic description for such a sublime thing! What you get is two “bars” of deep-fried delight, with some kind of maybe horseradish dipping sauce (?) of some kind – whatever it was, it had a nice little kick to it, and was delicious.

My “main course” was the Strawberry & Brie Salad, a salad of mixed greens with toasted walnuts, crispy brie croutons & strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, for $7.99.  I don’t even remember what my friend Carolyn had, as I was too busy blissfully devouring the food in front of me. I am not making that up.

There was a nice little selection of wines by the glass, and we both had the Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, a perfect compliment to our salads.  (Oh, that’s right, C. had some kind of salad, and to-die-for onion rings!  It’s all coming back to me now!)

I could go on ad nauseum about all the wonderful things on the menu I wanted to try (friends, this girl had a seriously B.I.G. appetite), but I’ll just cut to the chase and let you take a look at the menu here.

And you can take a look at Liz Biro’s review of The Eat Spot here.

I beg you, and I am completely serious about this, please, please visit The Eat Spot, and tell all your friends to visit it too, because we all know how restaurants come and go in this town, and we do not, I repeat, we DO NOT, want this one to go away.  Trust me on this.  We.Do.Not.

I’d give up air conditioning in August just to make sure this place makes it.  : )

The Eat Spot
34 N. Front Street (corner of Front and Princess)
Wilmington, NC 28401
Ph (910) 763 5366
Fax (910) 763 5380
Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm
Friday and Saturday 11am-11pm