We can’t tell you how many times this has happened, but we know for a fact that it has happened, more than once, perhaps more than a few times…maybe even several times.
Since the summer, people have been driving down Independence Boulevard – in between Shipyard and Oleander. If they look at just the right moment, they will catch a glimpse of a brown building with a black roof. From the road, it kind of looks like a dentist office or a medical building. Have you seen it? It’s hard to spot because it’s not on the main drag. Instead, it’s tucked away off the adjacent Tiburon Drive.
There’s something about that building that is attracting people – drawing them in like a magnet. You see, several of the motorists decide to turn on the side road, pull into the parking lot, get out of their cars, and then press their noses against the window, trying to get a peek inside. “I don’t know how often it’s happened, but it’s been more than a few times, and it’s been one of the things I’ve loved about this experience,” said Brandon Wilson, of Covey Restaurant. “It’s so authentic. They are just curious. Of course, if we are here, we always invite them in, give them a tour, and now a few of those folks have become regulars.”
Covey is one of the nearly two dozen restaurants to open in Wilmington in 2023. Unlike the other places scattered around town, this one seems like it’s broken all the rules and conventional wisdom. First off, the owners and operators didn’t revamp or redesign an existing building. Instead, they built their ideal structure from the ground up – just the way they wanted it.
Secondly, as we said, they opted not to locate the restaurant in a heavily traveled area. Diners often discover a place simply by driving by it. A good location can be more valuable than an advertising campaign… which is another rule that Covey has violated. They’ve done virtually no advertising. Instead, they have relied on a word-of-mouth campaign – on people whispering their discovery to their friends, “You should see this place the wife and I found in Midtown the other day. The food was incredible, and the inside was amazing.”
It may be unconventional, but the whispers are apparently working – at least working enough where people are getting out of their cars and peeking inside.
“Superlatives scare me, that’s why I refuse to call it a ‘best-kept secret. But I think it’s an undiscovered gem in a lot of ways. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in Wilmington – in terms of the aesthetics.”
The first thing you will see when walking up to Covey is a wrap-around patio. It was important to create a place with an outdoor dining option. You could sit out there even in this time of the year. They have a fireplace and some overhead heaters to keep folks warm.
As you walk through the front door, immediately to your right is the main bar. It’s large enough to sit 40 people. There’s also a separate wine bar that can host another two dozen more.
The main dining room is elegant, and yet somehow very comfortable. The patrons are all casually dressed. Yes, this is a place where you can get all decked out for a special occasion, but when you look around (at this case in the middle of the week), what you find is people in jeans and sweaters.
You see, even though they haven’t done much advertising, the write-ups in the local media have made it a point to refer to Covey as a “fine dining establishment.” That’s not how Brandon thinks of the restaurant.
“Sure, the appearance of the building, when you walk in, makes it feel like fine dining, but we want it to be very comfortable. We don’t turn someone away if they’re wearing shorts. The space you’re in shouldn’t define how you feel or how you look. So, I prefer to call it ‘elevated casual dining.’ We don’t want anyone to feel like it’s pretentious or to feel uncomfortable coming into this space. We don’t want people to feel intimidated by the wine list or by the food. We have an extremely talented group of culinary technicians in the kitchen, headed by our Executive Chef Parker Lewin, and the beauty of what they do is to create food that is approachable for people. They could do anything; they could do all the fancy food, all the high-class dishes that people may read about…but instead, we’re doing dishes that make people comfortable, and then we’re fusing in more high-class culinary techniques.”
There is another rule that Covey is breaking, and it has to do with Brandon himself. You’d think if you were to start a restaurant, you’d want someone in charge who knows the area, who has worked at other local establishments, someone who understands the Wilmington market. But Brandon is new to community.
For the past 30 years he’s been working at a semi-private golf club near Boone. The experience proved invaluable. Even though he’s naturally wired to put other’s first, his three decades working in the mountains turned his natural gifts into an art form. Of course people like Brandon, people who truly know how to serve, are deflectors. They like to put the spotlight on the others. They’re ill at ease when it shines on them. So, he’d probably prefer it if we didn’t tell you that he has an MBA from Eastern Carolina, that he briefly taught classes at private college in the mountains, that he even studied the process of pairing wine with food becoming a Level 1 Sommelier from Court of Master Sommeliers.
With a resume like that it’s no wonder that when the time came to leave the mountains that Brandon had offers to go to a variety of places around the country but choose to come Wilmington.
“My wife and I had been discussing moving for several years. I wanted to find warmer weather. So we decided to give Wilmington a shot. We came and saw the area and fell in love with the people and the place and our daughter is very fond of the area- so we feel blessed to have made the move.”
Covey, by the way, means a small flock of birds. Brandon did the hiring – he wanted Covey to have a flock of friendly people. In fact, if given the choice between someone with vast experience in the service industry and someone who was kind, he always chose the kind candidate… because you can teach them the business but you can’t teach someone who knows only the business mechanics how to like and care for others.
One of unique things that makes Covey different from other places around town is the creation of three separate private dining rooms that are spread out throughout restaurant. Brandon instinctively knows that when people go out for a meal, they still want to be able to enjoy the company of those in their group. In the private rooms, with no background noise, they can share a meal or beverage with each other and have the connection of conversation around the table. The private rooms can sit between 8 and 12 people, and on most nights are booked well in advance.
So in the near future, just in case you’re driving down Independence Boulevard and you happen to spot a brown building with a black roof, it’s okay to pull off on Tiburon Drive and park your car. However, there’s no need to press your nose against the glass. Just come on in and Brandon or one of his staff will gladly give you a tour. What you see as you walk through will impress you. It will be fancy, it will appear five-star, it will be unlike anything else you’ve seen around town. But if you look closely, you’ll realize that it is so much more than that, too. Regardless of what you’re wearing or who you’re with, Covey is a place that will make you feel at home… because that’s exactly the way Covey was built.
“I just want people to come in and be happy and know that we are here to serve. I think that’s lost in our society is having the ability to serve others. And we’ve built a staff here who enjoy doing it, who truly want to take care of other people; we want you to come in and see the beautiful space and have fun in it – to connect with people you do know or meet people you don’t know and leave with a desire to come back. There’s a lot of good food, some comfortable chairs… there are a lot of nice people who work here, a lot of great wine. So just come and let us take care of you, because that’s what the whole experience is about.”