What’s the secret behind the cult favorite onion rings at this Wilmington pub?
In the timeline of Copper Penny’s Beer Battered Onion Rings, there are a few significant markers.
From the time the pub and restaurant opened in 2004 at 109 Chestnut St. in downtown Wilmington, the chefs dipped and coated the rings to order. They were popular, but weren’t ordered, necessarily, in larger quantities than other favorite menu items.
Then, in 2018, Copper Penny was one of the places that celebrity chef Guy Fieri visited for his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Food Network series – along with restaurants like Cast Iron Kitchen, Ceviche's and Fork N Cork.
Ask any of these restaurateurs who were featured on the show, and they'll tell you the dishes can take on a life of their own. Fieri knows this, too, and warned Brian Cadwallader, owner of Copper Penny, on his way out the door. As soon as the episode aired, demand soared. Especially for the onion rings.
Then came the pandemic, which changed a lot in the hospitality industry. One of the unexpected consequences was those same beer battered rings were taken off the menu for 18 months, because they are time consuming and labor intensive.
"We just couldn't do it," Cadwallader said.
Fans were outraged and grumbled frequently.
“It was our No. 1 complaint,” he said.
Cadwallader and his staff, including managers Andrew DeVoid and Brendan Todd, had created a pared down menu for a leaner kitchen staff. In recent months, though, they've been building it back. The onion rings officially returned last summer. And they may be more popular than ever.
“Yes, everyone loves them,” Cadwallader said. “We generally go through 150 pounds of them a day.”
They have one staff member who preps the onions for most of her workday, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., first cutting the jumbo onions into thick slices. And then doing the first steps in their double-dip, double batter process.
“It is a big production,” he said. “I don’t think people realize how big a job it is. We are always trying to speed up the process. We don’t want to bog the kitchen down.”
Now, they freeze the onion rings after their first dip in a buttermilk-beer wash and coating in pepper, garlic, salt and more.
“Honestly, the breading is the secret,” he said.
Once they’ve rested the requisite amount of time in the freezer, they’re pulled out as ordered for another dip-and-batter before they’re fried into savory bands of gold. They rest on parchment before being carefully piled in baskets for serving, sent out of the kitchen with ramekins of house-made ranch or honey mustard dressing.
Despite the hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of onion rings they make and prep daily, Copper Penny still regularly sells out of them.
Sure, having some time on a national television show helps. Cast Iron Kitchen still sells the Dirty South Biscuit that Fieri loved. And you can still find beef Wellington bites and duck wings on the menu at Fork N Cork.
There’s also a little intrigue that diners were deprived of the onion rings for months. But more might be ahead for the onion rings.
Maybe, just maybe, they’ll get a chance for their own spotlight. Cadwallader has been talking to Cargo District developer Leslie Smith about the possibility of having one, or maybe two, outposts at a new food hall currently under construction on 15th Street. Could one be devoted to onion rings? It's a possibility, he said.
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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Copper Penny in Wilmington, NC, has cult following for onion rings
