Pinpoint Restaurant

Review by: Michael Stern

When the first edition of Roadfood was published some 40 years ago, one requirement for a restaurant to be listed was that a meal had to cost $5 or less. Needless to say, that prerequisite has changed with the times, but when I paid my bill at Pinpoint, I did have second thoughts about listing it as a Roadfood favorite. Dinner for one — appetizer, entree, dessert, and one drink — cost over $80.

No, it’s not a bargain; and while it isn’t snooty or hifalutin, it is a chef-driven place (as opposed to one run by a cook) — the sort of restaurant that trend-seeking journalists like to discover and make into foodie magnets.

Nevertheless, I would be remiss in my own duty of pinpointing the best truly regional meals — whatever the cost — to not say that this downtown Wilmington storefront is a magnificent taste of coastal North Carolina.

Catfish, for example, is a dish served in 1000s of restaurants in this part of the world; and usually, it’s pretty good. The catfish served here is in a league of its own. Brined and smoked to a point of unspeakable tenderness and elegant flavor, encased in a shattering-crisp crust, it arrives on a bed of leek-creamed heritage grits populated by roasted mushrooms and Brussels sprouts, topped with green tomato slaw and floating in a pool of lemon brown butter. I swooned with every mouthful; and while my goal was to eat only some of it, thus preserving appetite for meals to follow, I cleaned the plate.

A few other inventive variants of Dixie favorites that make me hungry to return: pan-seared grouper with local snap beans and smoked cream, a seasonal roasted vegetable plate, cornbread soup with crisped country ham, North Carolina butterbean hummus, and a grilled pork chop with corn pudding and braised collard greens.

As for dessert, I cannot justify the gluten-free flourless brownie sundae as a regional taste, unless the roasted dandelion root ice cream that tops it is made from local dandelions. But I will say that the ice cream, sprinkled with smoked salt, is a deliriously good companion for the essence-of chocolate brownie it tops, and the whole shebang, surrounded by caramel sauce and candied pecans, generated nothing short of sweet-tooth ecstasy.

What To Eat

NC Catfish

DISH
Baked Oysters

DISH
Brownie Sundae

DISH
Fall Classic

DISH
Focaccia

DISH

Pinpoint Restaurant Recipes

Discuss

What do you think of Pinpoint Restaurant?

Nearby Restaurants

Dixie Grill

Wilmington, NC

The Basics

Wilmington, NC

Rolled & Baked

Wilmington, NC

Foxes Boxes

Wilmington, NC

Winnie’s Tavern

Wilmington, NC

Pine Valley Market

Wilmington, NC

Article’s & Guides Tagged Pine Valley Market

Connect with us #Roadfood