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Encore Dining Guide-American

The combination of chef-inspired food and our craft bar makes Hops Supply Co. a comfortable and inviting gastropub that attracts guests of all types – especially a local crowd who can feel right at home whether ordering a classic favorite or trying a new culinary delight!  At HopsCo, we are dedicated to the craft of excellent cuisine and delivering hops in its most perfect form, exemplified by our selection of craft beers. As hops are the heart of flavor for beer, our local seasonal ingredients are the soul of our culinary inspired American fare.  5400 Oleander Dr. (910) 833-8867.

■ SERVING  BRUNCH LUNCH & DINNER: Mon-Thurs 10:57 am – 10 pm; Fri-Sat 10:57 am – 11 pm {Serving Brunch 10:57am – 3pm & bar open until midnight}; Brunch ALL DAY Sunday 9:57am – 10pm

■ NEIGHBORHOOD: Midtown

Wilmington and Beaches: Hops Supply Company

Hops Supply Company Gastropub is the perfect blend of craft and casual–from culinary-inspired dishes to the perfect tap pour– whether it is beans, hops, barrel-aged bourbons or wines. A gastropub by definition is a restaurant that offers higher quality food than traditional pub grub. At Hops Supply, once you have made a food selection, the trained servers will be happy to suggest a pairing of the above pours to complement your choice. Offering lunch and dinner every day with special Brunch Menu on Friday until Sunday (Live Music selected times on Sunday– please check website for updated details). Signature dishes are House Brined Fried Chicken, Tostada-style BBQ Braised Short Rib Nachos with tasting flights available in Bourbon, Scotch and Beer.

Wilmington, NC Visitors Guide: Hops Supply Co.

Hops Supply Co is a fresh gastropub on Oleander Drive that impresses patrons with its equally distinctive drink and food menus. With an internal dedication to provide an exceptional beer selection, as well as fresh and flavorful cuisine, Hops Supply Co is changing the way Wilmington residents and visitors envision what makes a truly tasty pub.

Hops features ten ever-changing taps which include the latest finds as well as seasonal picks from some of the restaurant’s favorite breweries. Featuring a wide range of brews, including ales, IPAs, wheat beers, lagers and stouts, beer fans will have a fine time picking out a favorite, or sampling a few beers at once with a flight of four, 4oz varieties. The brunch, lunch, and dinner menus are just as enticing, with starters, salads, two-handed sandwiches for lunch, and entrees. All the pub favorites have been masterfully elevated, with eye-catching dishes like Mac and Cheese with shrimp and andouille sausage, a Forest Mushroom burger with fresh mushrooms and Swiss cheese, and braised short rib tacos. (The brunch menu features an array of twisted standards, like a farm egg BLT and a breakfast burger that’s topped with a sunny side egg.) With delicious food and drink happily combined, every beer-loving patron will find something to crave at Hops Supply Co.

Friends Living in Wilmington Meet for Brunch at Hops Supply Co.

The best brunches are cooked up hot and delicious. A tradition long in the making, families and friends gather together around a table to celebrate the end of one week and the start of another. Breakfast and lunch dishes tempt one and all. Over at Hops Supply Co. diners can’t wait to get in and get eating. At this Wilmington property restaurant brunch is not just for Sunday. Dig into the best meal Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and all day long on Sundays. Eggs are also plentiful here. The cafe plate brings together eggs, bacon, toast and potatoes. The poached egg salad adds a refreshing twist. Those with a sweet tooth smile when their honey baked french toast arrives. The breakfast burger is the perfect compromise for the customer who can’t decide between breakfast or lunch. Live music adds to the ambiance and the simple specialness of sharing brunch together.

In Search of The Best Bloody Mary in Wilmington, NC

My final and last stop was one that was highly recommended by fellow foodies in the Port City: Hops Supply Co. Their cucumber-infused Bloody Mary is given high reviews on local media sites, so I was eager to give it a go. The Hops Supply Bloody Mary is mixed with Rain cucumber vodka, garnished with manzanilla olives, and sports an Old Bay seasoned rim. Their Bloody Mary mix is vegan based and offers a very bold flavor with a nice balance between spicy and sweet. While I was there, the very accommodating bartender mentioned that they also mix a chipotle Bloody Mary, so I figured why not give this one a try too. The drink was presented in the same way as the cucumber-based cocktail and the rim also seasoned with Old Bay seasoning. But here’s the difference: the vodka is infused for days with chipotle. This is also a vegan based mix, and makes a nice, spicy Bloody Mary for those who like a little more kick and a full body.

-Port City Foodie

Wilmington Today: Hops Supply Co.

You’ll have some decisions to make at Hops Supply Co. Wheat, lager, IPA, ESB, ale, amber, cider or stout? Bottle or draft? Do you want North Carolina beers, a beer flight or a beer cocktail? Don’t forget wine. Four whites and four reds are on tap, a system that protects wine from air and light, assuring each glass will taste as it should. You may order a bottle of wine, or you might consider a craft cocktail, maybe a barrel-aged Manhattan with Elijah Craig 12-year-old bourbon and brandy-soaked cherries. Then there’s the food. Hops Supply Co. is billed as an American gastropub. A view of the open kitchen from tables and comfy booths near window walls remind diners of more choices.

If guests are in for the Sunday “brunch all day” menu, a few of the considerations include French toast baked with local honey or tender fried chicken on a soft black pepper biscuit with smoked ham gravy. Hops Supply Co. also has a BLT with cheddar, pesto aioli and a fried egg tucked between the bacon, lettuce and tomato.

Lunch and dinner menus present more delicious choices: pimento cheese and bacon deviled eggs; barbecue braised short rib nachos; creamy macaroni and cheese full of shrimp and Andouille sausage; Grilled Bistro Steak with a dark beer reduction sauce. Soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers and entrees fill the interesting menu.

Not long after it opened, diners voted Hops Wilmington’s best new restaurant in 2013. Lunch and dinner are served every day at the Oleander Drive spot in mid-town Wilmington. Brunch is served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday in addition to all day Sunday.

Wilmington Magazine: Hops Supply Co.

A couple of London restaurateurs looking to elevate the dining experience at British drinking houses in 1991 combined the words gastronomy and pub. The rest is delicious history that eventually found its way to Wilmington.

That London pair coined the term “gastropub” to indicate a place that served food well above typical pub fare such as peanuts, chips, pickled eggs and steak pies. They enhanced the menu but maintained the reasonable prices and casual atmosphere that have kept pubs popular since the first ancient Roman taverns in Great Britain.

The gastropub idea took off quickly in America, as evidenced by a recent Sunday brunch crowd at Hops Supply Co. American Gastropub in Wilmington.

As a solo guitarist strums Americana music, couples, families, singles and friends laugh and converse all around the exposed-red-brick dining room.

Some gather at tables and comfy booths near window walls and shelves full of colorful wine bottles and growlers. Many sit at the horseshoe-shaped bar, illuminated by skylights above the ceiling’s exposed maze of redwood beams.

Beer lovers have a long list of decisions to ponder: wheat, lager, IPA, ESB, ale, amber, cider, stout. Should they choose a North Carolina beer, consider a flight of beer tastings or sample a beer cocktail.

And then there’s the wine, four whites and four reds – on tap, a system that protects wine from air and light, thereby assuring oenophiles that each glass will taste as it should – as well as many bottle choices.

Craft cocktails are yet another option, perhaps a barrel-aged Manhattan with Elijah Craig 12-year-old bourbon and brandy-soaked cherries or the drink named Daddy Issues, a blend of Catdaddy Moonshine, amaretto and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Nearly every seat in the house has some view of the open kitchen, which exudes aromas that remind diners of more choices: French toast baked with local honey; tender fried chicken on a soft black pepper biscuit with smoked ham gravy; a BLT with cheddar, pesto aioli and a fried egg tucked between the bacon, lettuce and tomato – and that’s just the Sunday “brunch all day” menu.

The lunch and dinner menus, priced at $7 to $15 (brunch stands at $7 to $9), present more delicious selections, from pimento cheese and bacon deviled eggs to barbecue braised short rib nachos to creamy macaroni and cheese full of shrimp and Andouille sausage.

“Craft beer, craft cocktails, superior wines, and a culinary experience that focused on fresh simple ingredients,” was the idea LM Restaurants owner and president Lou Moshakos had when he decided to develop Hops Supply Co. in 2012.

Hops’ 24 beers on tap emphasize N.C. suds such as impressive Mother Earth green brewery’s Dark Cloud, an old-fashioned Munich Dunkel-style lager made in Kinston and Huske Hardware Sledgehammer, an Imperial oat cream stout made in Fayetteville.

“I have the best job,” Hops beer manager Joe Bush said of duty that requires he regularly select brews. One tap, the Rotator, changes weekly, monthly and sometimes more often. Can and bottle lovers get nods with classics like PBR and Rolling Rock or curious sharp and caramelly Green Flash Hop Head Red.

Some of the beers season the comfort-food preparations that chef Tiffany Eslien favors. The Wisconsin native, who graduated from Johnson and Wales culinary school in Providence, R.I., might braise short ribs and pork belly in beer or incorporate beer into soups. Grilled Bistro Steak comes with a dark beer reduction sauce accompanied by asparagus, forest mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

The brew Eslien chooses depends on her imagination and the changing seasons that constantly inspire menu ideas.

“We focus a lot on fresh and North Carolina ingredients,” Eslien said. “We like to do twists on a lot of our specials. We want to keep it simple but we think, ‘What can we do different?”

Eslien’s pasta is one for-instance. Smoked chicken, spinach, mushrooms and roasted tomatoes go into her alfredo. A Bolognese-inspired pasta melds a large portion of cabernet-braised short ribs with asparagus, roasted tomatoes, roasted red pepper pesto and parmesan and jack cheeses.

Sandwiches are especially popular, whether the house-smoked turkey on wheat, the brie-and-bacon-stuffed burger or the Chicken ’n Brie Orchard Sandwich stacking fresh apples, baby spinach, red onion, garlic aioli and sweet chili peppers on French bread.

The roasted beet salad with mixed greens, goat cheese and candied walnuts or the salmon salad with strawberries, green apples, walnuts, red onion, blue cheese and balsamic dressing give diners a license to check large cookie jars by the front door or order the brownie sundae. The latter is garnished with dark beer fudge sauce, chopped pretzels and chopped Kit Kat candy bars, all under a Chantilly cream crown.

Sunday brunch all day feels like a special event, but brunch is served 10:57 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, too. Lunch and dinner menus are served daily.

Out-of-the-ordinary occasions happen lots of times at Hops Supply Co. A recent bourbon dinner featured five pours. The “porktastic” drink menu at a Bacon Bash dinner showcased creamy chocolate martinis made with bacon vodka. At one beer dinner, Eslien shared recipes.

Diners may learn about Hops events online at www.hopssupplycompany.com or, while they’re at the website, by signing up to become part of the Hops Head Guild. Members receive email alerts not just about special tastings and dinners, but they also receive exclusive invitations.

“It may be a dessert that only our Hops Head Guild members will know to order or an invitation to an after-hours beer cask party,” according to the Hops Supply Co. website.

The 279-seat restaurant, in mid-town Wilmington not far from Wrightsville Beach, includes a 75-seat space available for private events, anything from intimate baby showers to large meetings or rehearsal dinners.

Hops Supply Company Will Replace Flat Eddie’s