An evening in Wilmington

So for my first evening in the city I decided on a few things, part tourist and part traveler. I started with a visit to the nearby Front Street brewery, followed by a horse drawn carriage tour ('cos you know I love me some local history), then dinner at Caprice Bistro, followed by the nightly ghost tour (am yet to meet one though). You can walk into the brewery at any time and ask for a little tour. They sell limited seasonal craft beers made locally so your tasting would be one of a kind. This is Wilmington's only restaurant and brewery in one and their brewmaster Kevin Kozak won a prestigious gold award at the World Beer Cup. No, didn't meet him, although I wish I had the time to. Add to that the charm of being located in a historic building and whats more to ask? The carriage tour was fun because of all the fun facts the guide was able to share. You'll see many houses of different architecture styles, colors and also notice that quite a few have little plaques up front that tell you the history of the building. Kinda cool to live in one of those but might be kinda awkward to have strangers at your gate staring at your door trying to read what each plaque says! The French restaurant Caprice was quite the surprise of the evening. Firstly, I did not expect to be eating French food here. Secondly, for what looks like an unassuming hole in the wall eatery, they are pretty darn good when it comes to food. Basically French food with a Belgian twist and bang in the middle of the historic district. Of course, French student in me took this opportunity to converse in French with the hostess Patricia Moity  who also happens to be the chef's wife. Chef Thierry and her ran restaurants in Charlotte and NYC before calling Wilmington home. Glance at what I ate on the images below :) To help digest all that good food, I chose to end the night with the ghost walk tour - nowadays every city has one and they all have some local folklore attached to it. I am not into ghosts and find most stories unbelievable but its always fun to see how easily other folks fall prey to the tales. Never the less, we had a very animated guide who took us through alleys and dimly lit buildings as well as the nearby cemetery in his attempts to scare us. After all, Wilmington is considered one of the most haunted city sin the world! All of these activities were in the central city area and that is just a 10 minute walk from the inn so very convenient to leave you car and stroll around.