Open-Air Menu

From restaurants to specialty shops and locally grown produce, area businesses are responding to Wilmington’s evolving palate.

Meet some of the women contributing to the area’s vibrant culinary scene – from CHRISTI FERRETTI helping to preserve a fellow chef’s original vision to KAT PEREZ demystifying Spanish cooking techniques to MICHELLE LYON-HEATHERLY providing the greens at The Green House.

Here are excerpts of recent stories from Feast Unwrapped, a sister publication to WILMA magazine. To sign up for the weekly Feast Unwrapped email newsletter (as well as updates on the annual Feast Wilmington food and drink event), go to FeastWilmington.com.

Aeroponic farming, a technique where plants grow in a soilless environment with their roots suspended in air, has been slowly revolutionizing sustainable agriculture for decades.

The Green House, Wilmington’s first upscale vegan restaurant, exemplifies this approach by incorporating aeroponic tower gardens into its operations. The gardens are at the heart of the restaurant’s food and beverages, and it’s a model that enhances both the sustainability and the nutritional quality of its offerings.

MICHELLE LYON-HEATHERLY, owner of Cape Fear Tower Gardens, is the lead horticulturalist for The Green House. For more than twenty-five years, she operated a commercial garden center, and during that time she became increasingly concerned about the effects of pesticides on the produce she was growing and on nearby waterways.

Lyon-Heatherly never expected to take such a deep dive into aeroponics. But back in 2020, she happened to strike up a conversation with friend ANASTASIA WORRELL, owner of The Green House, about plans for an on-site greenhouse at the then-new vegan restaurant, 1427 Military Cutoff Road.

After reviewing the initial greenhouse plans, Lyon-Heatherly realized it might not be the best fit in terms of functionality and sustainability and urged Worrell to consider tower gardens. Tower gardens maximize vertical space, which is beneficial for restaurants with limited growing space. The vertical setup allows a variety of crops to be grown in a compact area.

Unlike hydroponics, where roots are intermittently covered in water, aeroponics allows roots to be suspended in air and misted with a nutrient solution. This method offers several key benefits, including a growth rate that is three times faster than soil-based farming and the need for a fraction of the water required in traditional farming.

Lyon-Heatherly explained that traditional produce loses about 10% of its nutrients each day after harvest for the first four days. The percentage drops a bit each day thereafter, but the produce continues to lose nutrient content. By keeping plants alive until they are ready to be served, this nutrient loss is virtually eliminated, ensuring diners receive the most nutritious food possible.

“A vegetable or herb at its peak nutrition is going to also be at its best tasting,” says DEXTER SPENCER, The Green House’s executive chef. “The concept of farm to table greatly reduces the amount of time between field and fork but having the ‘field’ right there outside the kitchen door diminishes that decline in quality almost completely.”

While the tower gardens allow for the year-round growing of various crops, The Green House also supports local farmers by purchasing ingredients such as root vegetables – the only type of produce that can’t be grown aeroponically. The restaurant works with Shelton Herb Farm, Terra Vita Farm, and Red Beard Farms as well as Tidal Creek Co-op and Feast Down East for supplemental items.

In addition to providing the kitchen with produce, the tower gardens also support the restaurant’s bar program – with traditional as well as zero-proof spirits – with herbs such as thyme, mint, rosemary, cilantro, and fennel fronds. Most of the bar’s syrups and elixirs are made in-house, and shrubs are sourced from Pomona Shrub Co.

For those looking for a truly unique dining experience, The Green House offers private dinner parties in the tower garden greenhouse. Diners can experience a true feast for the senses as they taste, see, and smell the living gardens.

To view more of photographer Matt Ray’s work, go to mattrayphotography.com.

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