In addition to preparing for Friday night service at their newly opened restaurant and prepping ceviche for hundreds of people for the third annual Taste of Wrightsville Beach the following day, Ceviche’s Panamanian Restaurant owners Hunter Tiblier and Laura Bay also got married.
The co-owners and team behind Ceviche’s held a small wedding in front of the restaurant Friday, Oct. 10, which opened two weeks earlier
After purchasing the space in May, it was a lengthy process of reconstruction, renovation and navigation of health department procedures for Ceviche’s, but Tiblier said he was happy to be finally open.
“We had a rough opening two weeks ago and it didn’t seem like anything was going right so I closed the next day, reorganized and came out a lot better,” he said. “The reception has been awesome and the people coming in for lunch have sometimes been coming back for dinner, too.”
Along with traditional Panamanian ceviche like the Mixto — fresh fish, shrimp, calamari, octopus, conch and baby clams marinated in lemon and lime juice, tossed with bell peppers, cilantro and red onions — the restaurant has a tapas menu of items like empanadas, yucca fries and fried mashed plantains, and entrees like arroz con pollo.
Tiblier said diners who also visited the space when it was Coastal Cupcakes have been surprised by the transformation of the interior, with dark wood used throughout and accents of palm green.
Ceviche’s holds 23 seats and is open for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Surf City continues expansion
After opening Annex Surf Supply in 2013, Wrightsville Beach surf shop Surf City has expanded once again to open Surf City’s Attic in the space adjacent to the main shop in The Landing on Causeway Drive.
Annex Surf Supply manager Chris Batten said the space would be reserved for whatever clothes, accessories and goods would traditionally be on sale in Surf City.
“We have all this stuff we could be selling and for me to put on a tent sale I have to have somewhere I can stage it,” Batten said. “This is basically like having a tent sale every day.”
Batten said larger surf shops like Jack’s Surfboards in Newport Beach, Calif., and Surf Station in St. Augustine, Fla., have also moved to this model to capitalize on shoppers looking for deals.
“We are going to give everyone a reason to stay on our campus of stores — you have the Annex, Surf City and this place,” he said. “We are just being a lot more proactive with how the market is right now. Nothing old will ever be in Surf City again.”
Batten said the inventory of Surf City’s Attic would continually replenish throughout the year based on seasonal trends.
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