Meet Me in the Middle

Winston-Salem has quietly evolved from a culinary also-ran into one of the state’s significant restaurant cities, building a food scene that’s garnering awards, drawing the attention of prestigious food publications, and delivering the global foods, haute cuisine, and cocktail experiences food obsessives crave. 

Yet the chefs and culinary minds responsible say the rest of the state has barely noticed.

“When we think of food cities in North Carolina, we think about Greensboro, Durham, Asheville, Charlotte. But here? We’re still flying under the radar,” said Stephanie Tyson, chef and co-owner of Sweet Potatoes, a Southern restaurant in Winston-Salem. 

Tyson, a native, was nominated for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southeast award in 2022 and 2023, a coveted prize previously earned by North Carolina culinary bigwigs Ricky Moore of Durham and Ashley Christensen of Raleigh. But it took decades to get there: In 2003, she and partner Vivián Joiner opened to much local fanfare, but on a figurative island.

“At the time, ours was the only restaurant on Trade Street,” she said. The Downtown Arts District was just gaining traction, striving to live up to the town’s tourism moniker: the City of Arts and Innovation.

Twenty years later, Trade Street hums with activity. Galleries, art collectives, and boutiques line the way, and colorful crosswalks celebrate the city’s diversity with a year-round Pride display. You can grab a drink from more than a half dozen spots, including a brewery and distillery. If you’re hungry, nine restaurants in a four-block span—offering everything from snacks to a casual lunch to Tyson’s salmon Florentine served over sweet potato cornbread—ensure you won’t be for long.

One of those restaurants has garnered a lot of recent attention: Mission Pizza Napoletana. Fronted by chef and co-owner Peyton Smith, Food & Wine and Thrillist cited it as one of the best pizzerias in the country. Editors noted the perfect chew of his bubbly crust, the leopard spots of char, and his innovative Pizzakase experience: an off-menu exploration of pizza styled after Japanese omakase, or chef’s choice, service.

Tyson, looking across the empty, pre-service dining room to the stream of pedestrians on Trade Street, borrows a metaphor from chef, cookbook author, and cooking show host Nathalie Dupree of Raleigh. “In the early days of Sweet Potatoes, we were like a single pork chop in a skillet,” she said. “One pork chop on its own will dry out, but when you give it some company, when you add a few more chops to the pan, they all turn out juicy.”

An Overlooked Food City

Is Winston-Salem really as overlooked as its partisans contend? After all, this is the town that gave the world Krispy Kreme donuts in 1937, Texas Pete in 1929, and those eat-a-sleeve-in-one-sitting, wafer-thin Moravian cookies (a holiday favorite of Oprah Winfrey, now available at Costco and grocers across the state). 

The city sits at the southern end of the 1.6-million-acre Yadkin Valley American Viticultural Area, home to more than 30 wineries and a popular destination for in-state and out-of-state visitors.

According to Visit North Carolina, the state’s tourism board, the culinary scene in 2022 brought in $2.4 billion, a 9.4 percent increase since 2019. Surely Winston-Salem, where hospitality accounted for $1.1 billion in total gross regional product in the same year, saw some of those dollars.

Yet chefs accustomed to sourcing locally say residents’ dining habits back up their under-the-radar claims.

“This is a status-quo town, which makes it a challenging place,” said pizza maven Smith, a Winston-Salem native. He’s not keen on “status quo,” a sentiment others shared. There’s a pervasive feeling among chefs and food insiders that the city’s “country club culture” has kept the food scene’s growth from becoming statewide knowledge. 

These diners are well-traveled and know great cuisine, but time and again, The Assembly was told, they don’t spend locally. They’re neither champions nor cheerleaders for hometown excellence. One owner summed up the frustration: “I hear it all the time, ‘Oh, it’s nice here, but we go out of town for a real culinary experience.’”

Flyover Country

Winston-Salem sits at the junction of Interstates 40 and 285, a short drive from Charlotte, Asheville, and the Triangle. Greensboro, a one-time dining up-and-comer, is right next door. 

While that seems like it could be a boon, many locals feel like the location is a detriment—people seeking a “real culinary experience” head west or south or east to find it, and visitors heading to the mountains see it as “flyover country.” 

This is not the only factor at play when it comes to what Smith calls the “relative anonymity of this place.” Another is the city’s food identity, which defies easy characterization.

Chef Tim Grandinetti’s Spring House Restaurant, Kitchen & Bar offers a menu laced with Southern tones but influenced by Mexican, Italian, and a variety of Asian cuisines. Claire Calvin’s East of Texas—a Tex-Mex barbecue joint—is Southern, just not North Carolina’s brand of Southern.

Six Hundred Degrees embraces the New American passion for the wood-fired kitchen, and Jeffrey Adams on Fourth offers dishes that span the continent.

Then there is the proliferation of barbecue restaurants and the lauded Heff’s Burger Club, specializing in smashburgers that speak to American traditions on the plate.

Taquerias and Latin dining spots dot the region, representing a broad coalition of food cultures. Thai, pho, and sushi are all found downtown. Both Bernardin’s Restaurant at the Zevely House and The Katherine Brasserie & Bar fill the French culinary slot with exceptional fine dining.

Attempts to classify Tyson’s Sweet Potatoes as a “soul food restaurant” meet resistance from its head chef. “We’ve always cooked to our roots, to the food that brought us joy and comfort. Yes, there are Black influences there, but also French, Latin, Moravian,” she said. “Our city rejects labels.”

On the Cusp

At Easytalk, a pair of cocktail bars near historic Old Salem, North Carolina School of the Arts alums and husband-and-wife team David Bowen and Madeline Fox deliver a high-spirited experience. 

Easytalk is a bar in two parts: Easy, serving an all-day café menu and rotating selection of eight cocktails, and Talk, a 10-seat, menu-free bar serving bespoke cocktails crafted on the fly.

At the latter, your cocktail springs from the imagination of the bartender after a quick conversation. You can sample a spirits flight or get playful with “Equal Parts,” a cocktail composed of three equal spirits pours that guests are prompted to suss out through sniffing and sipping.

This interactive, performative aspect springs from Bowen’s and Fox’s time at UNCSA, their experience on stage in Macau and New York, and working events like the Met Gala and MoMA receptions.

“Madeline and I experienced amazing cocktail culture all over the world,” said Bowen. “We wanted to deliver a high-end experience and be part of what’s elevating Winston-Salem’s hospitality game.” 

Easytalk speaks to a broad culinary constituency in Winston-Salem and lures in visitors from beyond the town limits. But it still needs champions.

“I believe Winston-Salem is on the cusp of being a powerful food city in North Carolina, but it’s going to take all of us—locals, chefs, bartenders, owners, landlords, food personalities, our visitor’s bureau—working to spread the word for that to happen,” he said. 

Claire Calvin and her family arrived here in 2007, and soon after entered the restaurant arena with The Porch Kitchen & Cantina, a Tex-Mex-meets-N.C. spot that, like East of Texas, does things a little differently. Both are counter-service restaurants, more akin to what she grew up with in Texas, and a far cry from formal country club dining rooms with dress codes and anticipatory tableside service.

“I wanted the kind of place where getting a meal was fun, not fussy or drawn out,” she said. “So, I created places people can eat and gather.” Calvin is now working on a food festival featuring all female chefs, as well as the Sunday Supper Club, a series of themed and ticketed dinners that allow her and her kitchen to get creative. 

There are a lot of other things brewing: downtown’s Roar, a four-story food hall and family-friendly entertainment center; another food hall under development near Old Salem; the wineries of Yadkin Valley and Swan Creek. Add those to the city’s spirited arts scene, an abundance of hotels and bed-and-breakfast establishments, and its historic charm, and Winston-Salem feels poised for its moment in the spotlight.

Right now, those who cruise past Winston-Salem can experience the breadth and depth of its culinary scene without much worry about snagging a table. But that opportunity won’t last: Reserve your “I dined there when” bragging rights now.

Jason Frye is a food and travel writer. He lives in Wilmington.