Little Blue Cottage Quenches Thirsts, Appetites

Hampstead’s food and beverage scene continues to ferment with the recent addition of Little Blue Cottage bottle shop and beer yard (LBC), located on U.S. 17 in Hampstead.

With a grand opening on Feb. 28 that included beer, pizza and the local band Holy Heat, LBC provides another option for craft beer connoisseurs and fastidious foodies seeking dedicated spaces of delight in Pender County.

“Hampstead needs more [of this],” said co-owner Kevin Langston, 41, with excitement, referring to niche venues like LBC designed to sell alcoholic beverages in bottles or cans usually, but not always, for off-site consumption. “We wanted to help fill a need and create something for people to enjoy.”

LBC’s origins begin not with bricks and mortar but with wheels. Kevin Langston and his wife, Erin, 42, also co-owner of LBC, founded WilmyWoodie, a well-known wood-fired pizza truck that first hit Port City roads in 2018. As the city’s only four-wheeled pizza purveyor, it was an instant hit.

“But we always had a plan that we wanted to have a place, you know, our own kind of bottle shop, so we spent years going to other people’s bottle shops, breweries, and building relationships,” said Kevin Langston.

Then in April 2023, the Langstons purchased the roughly three-acre tract of land in Hampstead on which sits the 85-year-old cottage. (The future sale of the rear portion of the lot reduced the tract to 1.5 acres.)

“We fixed it up and painted it blue,” said Kevin Langston, a New Bern native, referring to the cottage.

But it wasn’t just the future that drove the buying decision; it was also a dash of the past.

Kevin Langston credited the “cool” New Bern neighborhood he and Erin grew up in where the couple had a “core group of best friends” as an influencing factor in the close-knit community they wanted to carry over to LBC. “It was a nod to our past that we’ve tried to recreate here.”

Today, that friendly, community vibe resides in the spacious, fully renovated cottage, which includes a bar, comfy seating and an extensive array of craft beers for carry-out or enjoyment at the venue with quirky but memorable names like Electric Squeeze, Three-Legged Dog and Pillow Talk. Some wines are available too.

Merch also abounds, with LBC-branded tees and hoodies on shelves and racks. Nearby, a fiddle plant with leaves twice the size of a human hand lets in the natural world.

“We didn’t want to just create a business; we wanted to create a brand,” said Kevin Langston.

Behind the cottage, emerging almost magically, sits a cavernous Quonset hut, with its characteristic dome-like roof made of corrugated steel. The open-air structure boasts a full bar with a long row of shiny beer tap handles, generous seating, mounted flat screens, overhead heaters for cool nights and a nearby stage for live entertainment. In a recent Facebook reel, patrons, beers in hand, dance late into the night under string lights.

For LBC’s overall aesthetic, Kevin Langston says it’s all Erin. “She loves to design stuff, and she’s fantastic at it,” he said.

As far as fare, hot, wood-fired pizza is the main grub at LBC, still cooked in the WilmyWoodie food truck stationed behind the Quonset hut. For kids – the Langstons have two and other families with children are always welcome – there’s popsicles and ice cream bars.

Future plans for LBC include construction of a formal, onsite kitchen. “Then we’ll be able to offer more food items and a more diverse menu,” said Kevin Langston. “We want to continue to add on and do what we can to grow over time.”

Perhaps one of the most important takeaways from this spirited endeavor – and the months, if not years, of envisioning and planning – has been its impact on the Langstons themselves.

“I’m the dreamer. I’m the one that says, ‘Hey, we should build this, we should do this,’ and she’s the one that says, ‘Here’s the paperwork and how and what we need to file.’ We’re the perfect team.”