BONUS POST: Webb Custom Kitchen, Gastonia, NC

June 26, 2017

That's Webb Custom Kitchen. It's in an old movie theater in Gastonia, North Carolina.

I was visiting my friends Maud and Austin in Black Mountain, NC last weekend. It is much more civilized to fly into Charlotte and drive two hours than to take Allegiant into Asheville or even worse -- drive all the way from Florida.

My return flight was late last night, so I did some research and found Webb Custom Kitchen in Gastonia, about a half hour from the Charlotte airport. They had universal raves on both Trip Advisor and Yelp, they were in 'downtown' Gastonia (I am a sucker for old downtown areas), and I could find the whole thing on a map.

Downtown Gastonia, like many throughout the country, has seen better days commercially. They are trying to re-purpose the area as an artsy/arts and entertainment district, and WCK seems to be one of the earliest settlers.

Despite many of the stores being closed, it's a beautiful Downtown, including an old Five & Dime store.

And there's Webb, right where the movie theater used to be:

They gutted the theater seats downstairs and put in a bar and restaurant seating. In the area where the stage and screen should have been is the kitchen, with a screen above, showing snippets of old black & white films.

Everything has been beautifully restored, and according to Megan, my server, a lot of it was done by the restaurant's owner and his family.

The former balcony was cleared and outfitted with tables overlooking the kitchen. That's where I was seated.

The menu was very interesting. It's what I would call, "Fancy American Food." If I lived locally, I would have to visit a few times to order all the items that caught my eye. Seeing as how this will probably be my only chance here, I told Megan what I was thinking about, and gave her the opportunity to counter-offer and change my mind. She told me that I picked the two best items, and I should sit back and enjoy. There were more expensive things on the menu that she didn't try to sell me, so I believed her.

My Appetizer was called Angry Lobster.

This was four Baby Lobster Tails, battered in what was supposed to be a spicy breading, then flash fried. It came with a Jalepeno Honey Mustard Dip. The Lobster was great. The Dip was tasty, but I was enjoying the Lobster so much, I didn't want to alter the flavor. It wasn't spicy at all, but that didn't matter to me.

For my main course, I went with the Flat Ironed Duck Duo.

As all of the Internet knows, I love Duck. And this one furthered my infatuation.

The Breast was smoked and had a great flavor. The Leg quarter was slow-roasted-ish. It didn't quite fall off the bone, but it was close. And really good. I let Megan recommend the Country Potato Cakes. These were crunchy on the outside and soft inside, and really heavy. I only ate one, and am now regretting leaving the other one over.

I passed on Dessert, but I'm sure it would have been excellent, too.

This was high-quality dining, excellent service, and a unique location. And relatively cheap, too. Dinner was $41 plus tip. I didn't have dessert, and only a soft drink, but food of this quality, in this setting, could have cost more and I still would have thought it fair.

I probably won't get back to Gastonia any time soon (or possibly ever), and that's too bad. If you're in the area, you could do much, much worse than to stop by here for Dinner.