The Copper Penny
| Address: | 109 Chestnut St, Wilmington, NC 28402, USA |
| Phone: | +1 910-762-1373 |
| Site: | copperpennync.com |
| Rating: | 4.6 |
| Working: | 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–11PM 11:30AM–10PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 7
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Erik Whitmore
Voted best lunch or best wait staff (one of those two) by Encore magazine (local publication) year after year. However, my experiences at The Copper Penny are not always stellar. Certainly acceptable, just not 5 stars. When I eat here its always 1130am (I take an early lunch) and it never fails, while the restaurant is open and the door is unlocked the wait staff is never fully ready and they do not seem pleased to see me at 1130am. I cannot ever recall a smile when Im greeted. Also, the dining room almost always smells like rotten bar at 1130am. You get used to it pretty quickly but Ive worked in the restaurant industry for 12 years (Ive been out the game for 5 years now) so I know that smell and I know its easy to let it creep up in your establishment unintentionally. They are open til 2:00am every night as a regular bar (gets pretty busy) so ya know, bar tenders are tired at 3 and 4 am and it stands to reason that the bar is not thoroughly cleaned at night. The beer tap drains must be flushed with hot water and sanitizer nightly or otherworldly beer cheese will form in the drains accompanied by that rotten smell. Also, the floors, including all the nooks and crannies and corners, and underneath the equipment must be scrubbed and mopped well or else, yep, that smell... bar mats must be thoroughly cleaned. Hosed off with hot water,?run through the dishwasher at the end of the night or whatever the procedure is but it must be done well or else...that smell...cant you smell that smell? Hell yeah!
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Kevin I
Wasnt thrilled with dinner at the Copper Penny during this visit. My last visit had been about a year ago, and though I wasnt blown away, I had a good dinner. We got their spinach and artichoke dip again, which is what we remembered most from our previous visits, and it was just as good as we remembered. It was hot and fresh, low on spinach but had a good amount of artichokes. However, my main dish was more disappointing. I had their French dip sandwich, which came with fries, horseradish sauce, and au jus. Everything was under seasoned. Their house made roast beef was a little chewy, but juicy enough, but tasted like no salt added roast beef. It also came out cool, like fully room temperature. The au jus could add nothing to the sandwich because it tasted like it had no salt as well. I added plenty of salt from the table and that improved things. The horseradish sauce was as mild as sour cream, really lacked the flavor I was looking for. My moms sweet potato fries also were cold when served. Im not sure if this will stop us from coming back, but it definitely wont be a restaurant we think of when deciding where to eat. Maybe if there is a game on we want to watch.
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Jolanda Dowell
This pub is not your typical bar with over average good food. My wife and I had dinner around 5:30 PM and unlike any other pub we have ate at there were families all over the place with kids along with couples on dates and groups of young adults. The mix of people was nice and the fact that there were kids around kept the young adults calmed down and the fact that the place was packed with older people kept the parents on top of their kids. No sour old beer smell and the staff was super quick and spot on about cleaning when people left. To be such a packed small place the servers kept up and it didnt feel uncomfortable sitting so close to others. The food was was seasoned really well and the portions were good sized. I had onion rings as a starter and they were probably the best onion rings Ive ever had. I also had the shrimp plate with fries and coleslaw and not much to say other than seasoned perfectly and cooked right. My wife had some type of chicken sandwich and discovered she didnt like the pesto sauce so she didnt enjoy the sandwich but enjoyed the fries and salad she got. I highly recommend The Copper Penny
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L Hamm
We were looking forward to going to the Copper Penny since we had read many great reviews. So this is where we chose to go to celebrate my husbands birthday. The atmosphere is fun-your typical sports bar decor. The menu was a little more extensive than I have seen on some sports bars. We started out with an appetizer of beer-battered onion rings. They looked amazing but there was literally no flavor-none. The crispy coating was bland at best. My husband ordered a steak and cheese sub which was nothing to brag about. One son ordered the crab cake burger which he said had no taste of freshness at all. I ordered a hot roasted pork sub and it was so so and my other son ordered a classic reuben-not much you can ruin there so it was decent. We had their regular potato fries and sweet potato fried both which were satisfactory. Our waitress had no personality at all. She kept half of our drinks filled but did not make an appearance other than to deliver the food and the check. Such a huge disappointment for our special family dinner. We will not be going back.
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Mappisson Mappisson
The Cooper Penny is 1 of 4 pubs in the downtown Wilmington area I actually recommend. The place is always pretty busy, even late into the evening, no matter what time of year it is, so be ready and willing to deal with a crowd; if youre looking for a quieter place to go, this is not it. The bartender Ive always had is always on top of his game (bar counters FTW) and the burger and fries I always get is always cooked PERFECTLY, and is probably the tastiest burger out of all of my favorite downtown Wilmington pubs. Also, get the sweet potato fries. Besides the bar counter, there are booths along the walls, and high tables between the bar counter and booths. Plenty of seating options, at least. The prices are affordable - and a decent value for the money - I usually end up paying just a little over $10, and thats including tip (20%). I really dont have anything bad to say about the place, so this review is short.
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Kevin Dougherty
Food well worth the price..Sandwiches, fantastic 1/2lb burger that everyone has been raving about. Baked potato soup was awesome and they have more soups aswell. Bar had great nostalgia with street signs, ballpark signs, nice tvs, drawings of sports stuff tastefully decorated around the bar..yes this is a bar but tables were away from the actual bar for the most part and the food is wayy better then any bar you have been too. Our server, (Tim) was the man. Knowledgeable about the menu, accomodating, and easy going. He checked up on us at all the right times even when they were busy. (Clearly everyone else knows that this place is a diamond in the rough)...BOTTOM LINE if your looking for a place to have lunch or a bite to eat like I was and you are reading this, just do yourself a favor and head down there. I am a server and know what to look for in a proper food running establishment.
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Karen Tulloh
Being fairly new NC residents, we decided to drive over to the coast to check things out on Mothers Day. After a short visit to the beach (Wrightsville Beach) we went into Wilmington to see where we might like to have lunch. The Copper Penny turned out to be perfect. No wait (did I mention that it was Mothers Day?), though the place was hopping with activity. I had been thinking about a shrimp po boy and sure enough, they had it on the menu. Had that with onion rings and the onion rings were out of this world. Fantastic. The sandwich was also excellent. My husband had the crabcake and fries and he said his lunch was also excellent. Totally recommend this place, and cant wait to go back.
