Southport Magazine

Ashley Reams (left) and Sheila Barbee, owner (right), welcome guests daily to Dry Street Pub and Pizza, a Southport restaurant within an old historic home. Photo by Drew Pearson

Dry Street Pub and Pizza is a place where, literally, everybody knows your name. Owner Sheila Barbee told me right when we started chatting that, “Dry Street is the place where the locals go.” A homey feel, the restaurant is more than just a pizza shop.

Owners John and Sheila Barbee II have been providing a cozy refuge offering down-home cooking, pizza and other delectable tidbits for locals and visitors since 1996. Starting with just pizza, over the years their menu has blossomed, offering anything from soup and quiche to sandwiches on homemade bread, fish or shrimp tacos, to crab cake sliders, and even homemade desserts.

The sweet end-of-meal treats include chocolate cake, hummingbird cake (made with pineapple, banana, cinnamon, nuts, and a cream-cheese frosting), key lime pie in the summer, and bread pudding in the winter. Their blueberry cobbler, which is offered everyday, one customer even deemed “X-rated,” it is so good.

What makes Dry Street so unique is that though their menu is sufficient to say the least, they still offer five to six original specials a day. All the desserts rotate, too, so the owners suggest calling ahead if you want one in particular. And all this aside, Sheila and John will make their customers what they want. If you like a certain kind of bread or are craving a kind of quiche or pizza—just ask, Sheila says. Chances are, they’ll be able to make it for you.

Homemade crab cakes—from Sheila Barbee’s mother’s recipe—are served on slider buns with a lemon-dill mayo and coleslaw. Photo by Drew Pearson

At Dry Street, you don’t feel like you’re walking into a stuffy restaurant but rather your neighbor’s house for a friendly meal. It helps that the restaurant resides in an old Southport home.

Indeed, some of the Dry Street menu is named after some of their beloved customers—for example, “The Gwen.” Sheila told me Gwen always wanted a turkey sub with feta, bacon and Italian dressing. Everyone else liked it so much, you now can find “The Gwen” on the menu.

Sheila kindly shared with me how some of her passion for her recipes comes from her mother. Growing up in Charleston, and her husband hailing from Caswell Beach, the Barbees’ menu is inspired by Southern cuisine. Sheila makes her mom’s vegetable soup, a comfort food from her own childhood, in addition to the crab cakes and hummingbird cake.

“The soup was one of those things I knew would be there when I got home—homemade vegetable soup waiting on me,” Sheila told me, reminiscing about visits with her mom.

Blueberry cobbler is the most popular item on the Dry Street menu, while the fruity and nutty hummingbird cake is derived from an old family recipe. Photo by Drew Pearson

This sense of family permeates the restaurant, from the décor, staff, Sheila and Ashley (Sheila’s “left hand”), to even the garden of greens and fresh herbs out front. Plus, Dry Street is a family-run business. John and Sheila’s children even work in the restaurant, lending a hand where needed, when needed. Expanding on this feeling of kinship, Sheila told me, “What I really enjoy is it’s like family. I get to know my customers.”

Some of her customers are there every day, a true testament to the feeling of home Dry Street exudes.

Ashley, who does anything and everything from marketing, waiting tables, baking and keeping the books, told me, “Everybody comes in and we know what they want—what they want to drink, what they’re going to order.”

Since the menu and specials are so varied, there is truly something for everyone, every day. Salad and homemade soup for one, pizza for another, and a Reuben on thick rye is nothing short of variety. Dry Street also hosts parties and large groups, and if you call ahead, you can plan on reserving the screened-in porch for your gang.

Spinach salad pizza is a specialty menu item, featuring a white pizza base with spinach, cranberries, toasted almonds, bacon, goat cheese, mozzarella and roasted garlic. Blackened shrimp tacos with mango/avocado slaw rest on a bed of lettuce with a dollop of sour cream. Photo by Drew Pearson

I tried the pizza, cobbler and crab cake sliders while I was there and can say first hand that the food is filled with flavor. Dry Street Pub and Pizza is a place with good food and a nice, friendly environment. No matter what you order, you can’t go wrong.

Dry Street Pub and Pizza is located at 101 E. Brown Street in Southport. For more info, visit www.drystreetpubandpizza.com or call (910) 457-5994.