Where Italy Meets the Intracoastal: La Duna Paradiso Debuts at Trailborn

At Wrightsville Beach’s newly rebranded Trailborn Surf & Sound resort, chef Michelle Matthews is offering a dining experience that draws from global fine dining while remaining grounded in simplicity.

For La Duna Paradiso, the property’s main restaurant, Matthews has created a coastal Italian menu that reflects not just her Michelin-starred training but her intention to let ingredients speak for themselves.

“Everything I put on the plate is something that comes out of me to try to express who I am,” Matthews said.

Born in Okinawa, Japan, to an American father and a Korean mother, Matthews spent much of her childhood traveling and living in various locations around the world as dictated by her father’s military career. She began her own career as an engineer, eventually making the dramatic shift to culinary arts by enrolling at the former French Culinary Institute in New York City (now the International Culinary Center).

Following graduation, Matthews worked her way up in New York kitchens, including legendary Michelin-starred spots like Daniel and Eleven Madison Park. These positions taught her the techniques and discipline necessary to advance in her career. She would eventually move to San Francisco to broaden her horizons at several renowned restaurants before accepting the position of executive chef with the Canopy by Hilton San Francisco Soma. Here, she oversaw three onsite restaurants in addition to the hotel’s extensive catering operations.

While her background is primarily classical French and Spanish, Matthews draws from a wide range of cuisines and global techniques.

“For me, I try to bring the world into the food I cook,” Matthews said.

At La Duna Paradiso, Matthews said she feels she’s been given the great gift of being able to highlight the abundance of ingredients native to Southeastern North Carolina.

“This platform here is beautiful,” she said. “We try to use everything fresh off the dock, local produce, local farms, hydroponics. It’s all right here.”

Her current menu features the flavors of a coastal Italian summer with a vibrant, simplistic approach. She believes in letting ingredients speak for themselves.

“I try to make it elevated yet approachable,” Matthews said. “It’s about taking a dish that has an element of familiarity to it and offering it in a new way.”

La Duna’s summer menu includes fresh salads, pastas and seafood with condiments such as preserved lemon Gremolata, Salmoriglio and eggplant and olive Caponata. The house-made focaccia is crispy on top and light and chewy on the bottom with just the right amount of salt and rosemary, and the Burrata with Cerignola olives, raw honey and peaches offers a delicious balance of sweet and salty.

One standout dish is the spaghetti with blue crab, cherry tomatoes, spinach and lemon topped with parmesan, espelette and Bottarga. Another is the 32-ounce sous vide then seared aged ribeye sourced from a local small farm. Also on the menu currently is a diver scallop crudo with crushed pistachio, basil, citrus, chervil and espelette, and an octopus carpaccio with lemon oil, capers and baby arugula.

Despite Matthew’s impressive resume, there’s an unmistakable humility in her approach to food. Her cooking is deeply personal and is meant to connect, not just impress.

“Whatever you taste, I want it to impact you and leave a lasting impression,” Matthews said.

As the seasons change, so will the menu. And Matthews is working with the resort’s gardener to create garden beds for lettuces and herbs in the communal spaces on the resort’s lawn so that guests can see produce being grown just steps from the restaurant.

The open dining space offers a variety of seating options, including oval banquettes for larger parties and a private dining space for up to 14 guests. There’s also a large, covered patio overlooking the grounds, which will be open for service throughout the summer months.

La Duna Paradiso also offers a daily breakfast and will expand to brunch service in the coming weeks. Dinner is offered Wednesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and reservations are recommended. For a quick bite and to enjoy the resort’s beachfront lawn and gardens, check out the poolside Blockade Surf Bar, which offers snacks and sandwiches, as well as beer, wine and cocktails from 11 a.m. to dusk daily.