eatDRINK & by Liz Biro Remembe| No one dared show up for dinner in shorts and flip flops on Wrightsville Beach 100 years ago. Back then, eating out was a fancy affair for those who braved the journey to seaside restaurants. “They called them ‘excursions,’” says Elaine Henson. She will present “A Century of Dining at Wrightsville: 1880s to 1980s,” at 7 pm July 24 at Wrightsville Beach Museum of History. Henson refers to ladies in prim, white Victorian dresses and men wearing to-the-chin collars. Such attire appears de rigueur in faded black-and-white photos. Henson scrolls through antiquated menus peppered between the people pictures. Crabs Minced Mayonnaise. Creamed Sweetbreads in Casserole. Soft Shelled Crab au Canape. Roast Long Island Duckling with Kumquat Marmalade. Dinner specials hardly speak to restaurants that were stuck on wild shores. Even before there was a place named Wrightsville Beach, there was a restaurant. Henson’s two years of extensive research revealed a surprising number of markets, food and drink places — “easily 100” — over the century, she says. IMAGES COURTESY OF ELAINE HENSON AND THE BILL REAVES COLLECTION, NEW HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 1911 postcard of the Oceanic Hotel by night. 76 WBM july 2014
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