Meet NC Catch’s Newest Chef Ambassador

Austen Schindler, the executive chef at Covey, was recently named an NC Chef Ambassador by NC Catch. The organization works to promote North Carolina seafood, educating consumers on the importance of buying their fish locally and maintaining a robust seafood economy throughout the state.

For Schindler, relying on local sources for produce, meat and seafood is a vital element of Covey’s success in the community.

“We’re in a very unique area where if you go within an hour of here, you could find pork, beef, chicken, seafood and produce,” he said. “You’re gonna get wild or farmed oysters, any fish you could imagine along the coast … I feel like it’s almost a responsibility to support local.”

He also notes that there is a communal element to this kind of partnership between chefs and their suppliers.

“Getting to know the farmers over these years and going and hanging out with them, shoveling compost with them or picking oysters out of the little beds in the water,” he said. “Just seeing everything that they do and you really do taste and see the difference. Once you do, you really can’t go back.”

Schindler experienced that can’t-go-back feeling early in his culinary career when he completed his first finance internship as part of his degree program and quickly decided that route wasn’t for him. He had a job as a dishwasher at the time at Spoonfed Kitchen & Bake Shop and realized that culinary school may be a better fit for him.

“I like getting my hands on stuff and meeting different kinds of fun new people,” he said. “It was really the people that did it.”

Growing up in Charlotte, Schindler said he “always played a role” in helping to prepare the food for big family gatherings. “It was a lot of fried chicken and ribs outside on the grill,” he said. “And my dad’s side of the family is from New York, so there was that deli influence, too.”

This background all comes together on the menu at Covey. Schindler, who was part of Covey’s opening team in 2023, became the restaurant’s executive chef in early 2024. Over the last two years, he has evolved the program and expanded not only the menu but the definition of comfort food.

“We don’t limit ourselves to any single terminology,” he said. “Most of the original inspiration is Southern-rooted neighborhood, but elevated. Since my takeover, we’ve branched out just from the Southern part of it, and I’d say now it’s more any background where anyone might find comfort in a staple dish.” So, yes, the menu has shrimp and grits, but it also has house-made pastrami and a crab shakshuka dish during brunch.

With a broadened menu, it’s no wonder Covey’s clientele also includes a broad array of diners.

“We’re the first fine-dining restaurant in the Midtown area, which makes us unique,” Schindler said. “But also, it’s a place where you can come in and sit at the bar, get a really good burger and a beer and leave for $20. Or you can invite 11 people, sit in a private dining room and do a seven-course wine pairing dinner. There have been many nights when we’ve had a wedding reception in one room, business dinner in another and then walk-in patio diners.”

For Schindler, using local Wilmington ingredients “elevates and refines” the whole Covey experience. Being named an NC Catch Ambassador is a testament to his stance that once you’ve gotten to know the people behind the food, there’s no going back.

“I want as many people in town to get that same experience,” he said.

One way Schindler is walking the talk is with Covey’s new local purveyors dinner series. Every third Wednesday of the month this year, Covey will be hosting a course-paired wine dinner with a local purveyor. Past partners include Zora’s Seafood Market and Kitchen and Shell’em Seafood, with Joe Choi at Wholesome Farms, Red Beard Farms and Trask Family Farms in the coming months.

“For me, it’s — once again — just getting to know all these people and wanting to highlight them,” Schindler said. “And on a selfish note, for us on my kitchen team, it gives us a chance to really have some fun, or quote unquote ball out on some dishes that we wouldn’t normally cook day-to-day.”

He adds, “Maybe there are people who come to Covey all the time who wouldn’t know to go to the farmer’s market and buy these people’s produce, or maybe it brings in people who go to the farmer’s market but don’t come here to eat. Mutual success is the goal here.”