BOLIVIA N.C.
The signs are in place, the menu board is on the wall, and black cast-iron pots are being readied for the first dishes, offering tastes of the Caribbean with nary a palm tree or sandy beach in sight.
For Ray and Elisa Wood, the work of “feeding the soul” along with hungry bodies is just beginning.
This week, the Bolivia couple are opening Brunswick County’s first nonprofit restaurant, a new venture they hope will provide good meals to many, and contribute to spreading a wealth of good works by volunteer and social service agencies in Brunswick County.
Called Elisa’s Caribbean Pot, the restaurant sits at a spot familiar to many county residents: the site of the former Brad’s Grill, just off U.S. 17 on the eastern edge of the small town of Bolivia.
“Everybody knows where this place is, so that’s a plus,” Ray Wood said as he recounted steps taken to get the restaurant building and its nonprofit status in order.
The Woods, newcomers to the county, were visiting his stepfather and mother in Bolivia when he spied the vacant building. It ignited a long-held idea of opening a restaurant that the couple had joked about when they first met, then married, two years ago, he said.
