savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast
63
Jerry’s Food.Wine.Spirits
Nestled in a boutique strip mall on the corner of Wrightsville Avenue and
Eastwood Road just before the drawbridge to Wrightsville Beach, it would be
easy to miss Jerry’s Food.Wine.Spirits.
Jerry Rouse, the restaurant’s owner and namesake, has worked in the industry
for 43 years. After earning his chops at the legendary Gray Gables, coupled with
the ownership of Jerry’s Fisherman’s Wharf and 811 Mercer, Rouse has poured
his extensive local food scene knowledge and experience into Jerry’s.
“This restaurant is kind of a com-pilation
of my 43 years in the restau-rant
business,” Rouse says.
His 44-seat dining room is a reflec-tion
of Rouse’s wishes for an intimate
eatery.
“With a small restaurant we can
ensure the freshness of the food; we
can experiment and be more creative
with new recipes because the chefs
are not pressured to expedite large
numbers of dishes, and it allowed me
to create a comfortable atmosphere,”
Rouse says. “I would say that Jerry’s
is casually elegant with inspirational
recipes featuring local seafood.”
White tablecloths, black napkins,
low lighting and dark wooden walls
exude casual elegance, and, when
combined with the scale of the dining
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Clockwis e from Top left: Grand Marnier crème brulee with berry compote, lobster en croute, chocolate toffee mousse cake, Mediterranean tuna carpaccio from Jerry’s Food. Wine. Spiri ts.