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Dining that's Unconventionally Good:
Wrightsville Grille a worthy family restaurant

By: Rosa Bianca 07/19/06 @ 12:17:50 pm by archivesadmin

Wrightsville Grille
6766 Wrightsville Ave., Suite J

 

The term "family restaurant" is used so often that most of the time, when someone refers to an eatery as such, I don't even hear it. Kind of like the words "home-cooking" or "fresh-baked." If I do hear a restaurant described as "family-style," I tend to think of long buffet lines and a video arcade room groups of kids, not all of them happy with their paltry supply of quarters and a few elderly types, equally unhappy because they were accidentally seated in non-smoking areas.

So when I was told that Wrightsville Grille was a "family-style" restaurant, I didn't think much about it. I had a general impression of fried mozzarella sticks and steak and potatoes. When Fay said she wanted to try it, I just shrugged and agreed.
Fay is at heart a traditionalist about her food; sure she puts up with a lot of weird stuff when we eat out, but she's happiest with a plate of home-cooked fried chicken or a plate full of barbecue. She likes "family-style" restaurants; she thinks hanging out in buffet lines is fun. Must be all those church suppers and Friday night fish-frys she grew up on as a kid.

I wasn't looking for anything out of the ordinary when we showed up at the door of the newly-remodeled section of the Galleria Shopping Center, which is home to Wilmington's newest locally-owned eatery but I was impressed all the same.

The exterior had been finished off in a warm, red wall of brick, which went a long way toward dispelling the feeling of impermanence I always get from strip malls.We pushed open the heavy wooden doors and stopped in surprise. I don't know what I was expecting from the Wrightsville Grille "family-style" restaurant, but it wasn't high ceilings, rich, dark wood trim and a wide, polished hardwood floor. I had an immediate vision of all the tables and chairs pushed back against the wall for an old-fashioned high-school dance.

We were seated without any waiting; there must have been over a dozen waitstaffhustling between kitchen and tables, and the place is large enough to hold a lot of booths. The tables were larger than average, even the ones just set for two. I could tell right away that no matter how much we ordered, there would be enough room for all the plates.

I was also encouraged by the menu, which does, indeed, have fried mozzarella sticks.It also has sashimi grade tuna, nachos, crab cakes, Cobb salad, Cajun Pasta Alfredo and Filet Mignon Tournedos. The menu purports to offer something for everyone, and looking at the carefully chosen variety of entrees and sandwiches, I had to acknowledge that Wrightsville Grille lives up to that claim much better than most. I looked up at Fay.

"I'm going to over-order," I warned her.

Fay surprised me by ordering the sashimi tuna appetizer (it was a day my assumptions were getting challenged) and a simple BLT. I fulfilled my promise by getting the baked stuffed clams and the W.G. Burger, with a side of sweet potato fries.Then, we sat back and I looked around while we waited for our food to come.

Even at lunch, the place was full, but it wasn't loud. Some of the tables had been pushed together for a crowd of about a dozen women who looked like they were having their annual garden club planning meeting.A couple of businessmen were seated across the room from us, and a group of construction workers clumped in and sat down next to them. As our appetizers arrived, the hostess seated a husband, wife and their five-year-old son, slipping a special placemat and a box of crayons in front of the boy.

I'll tell you right now: Fay's sashimi tuna was fantastic. I know this because I kept stealing pieces of it. Not that it mattered; it may have been listed as an "appetizer," but there was about twice as much on the plate as I've seen at any other restaurant (including the ones that would have charged twice as much for the dish).There were no less than eight pieces of firm, red fish, seared on the outside but absolutely raw in the center. Delicious! You didn't even need the extra ginger, wasabi or soy sauce.

We split my order of stuffed baked clams. These are something I don't usually order when I eat out, because really, clams are so good fried or steamed, why bother doing anything else with them? But I was feeling better and better about the Wrightsville Grille, and decided that this would be the place to experiment a little. The stuffed clams came steaming hot, consisting of chopped clams mixed with breadcrumbs, garlic, your typical mix of Italian herbs (lots of oregano) and cheese, simmering in a pool of extra virgin olive oil and topped with chopped pancetta.

We honestly couldn't decide who had the better appetizer. (The clams were so good, I immediately started wondering if I could duplicate the recipe at home, a mark of excellence in a dining reviewer's book.) We were still arguing about it when the waitress returned with the rest of our meal.I took one look at the burger that took up over a third of my plate, and the pile of sweet potato fries that took up the rest, and I knew I hadordered way, way too much food.

The W.G. Burger was also exceptionally good. And I have eaten a lot of burgers in my time. Burgers are one of those things that you get so used to eating, you kind of forget they can taste spectacular.This one is one of the few that I've had that was cooked right, meaning cooked through but not over-cooked and dry.There was real bacon, freshly sliced and sautéed mushrooms, sharp cheddar cheese, crisp lettuce and a tomato that actually tasted like a tomato.The fries were piping hot and crisp as well; I'd recommend that you ask for mayonnaise instead of ketchup if you are the type to swirl your fries around in something instead of eating them plain.

I didn't finish everything on my plate, but I made a damn good try at it. We left feeling happily full and determined to make Wrightsville Grille a regular stop. Aside from the fact that the menu boasts that there is something for everyone, it also claims to be, "Where friends and family meet and do common things uncommonly well."I'd say that Wrightsville Grille lives up to all it promises.

Categories: Reviews