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WBM october 2011
Jonathan Barfield
A life-long W ilmingtonian,
C ounty C ommissioners C hairman
Jonathan Barfield is a busy man.
W ith a wide array of commitments,
Barfield’s community outreach frequently
leads him through the buffet
line or seats him at the banquet
table. H e has chosen a dish from a
local restaurant that has followed
him from place to place for years.
Describe your relationship with food
— are you truly a food lover?
JB “I am a connoisseur of good food
and I do a lot of cooking at home.
G rilling is my specialty; I love grilling
baby back ribs and filet mignon.
W henever I go out to eat, I always
try to order whatever the restaurant’s
specialty is because that is usually
what they put their heart into.”
What’s so special about this meal?
JB “W hen I used to D J at wedding
events for Starlight E ntertainment, a
restaurant downtown called C rook’s
by the R iver used to do a lot of the
catering, and they were famous for
their shrimp and grits. Fast-forwarding
about five years ago I went to
NO FO for the first time and saw
Susan C ovington, the woman who
used to own C rook’s. It turned out
that the woman who owned NO FO
was her mother, Jean M artin, so
they had the same shrimp and grits
recipe. I did not need to hear anything
else because I used to love
eating the shrimp and grits from
C rook’s.”
The Dish Bill N eal’s Shrimp and
G rits (signature dish from C rook’s
C orner, C hapel H ill and C rook’s
by the R iver, W ilmington) is lightly
dusted shrimp sautéed with bacon,
sliced mushrooms, garlic and
scallions served over cheese grits.