- This program is made possible in part by generous support from the American Battlefield Trust, connecting you to the places where our nation was forged.

Visit battlefields.org today.

[piano stinger] - Next on North Carolina Weekend, join us as we dig into some good eats.

We'll uncover the smoke at Huli Sue's Hawaiian Barbecue.

Check out home cooking at Chele's and taste sweet treats at Peterbrooke Chocolatier.

Coming up next.

- Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

♪ - Hi everyone, welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are digging into some good eats.

And there's probably no better place to do that than right here at the Can Opener, Downtown Durham.

This family-friendly food venue has seating for around 350 people with indoor tables, covered outdoor seating, even a rooftop patio.

They even have this really fun double-decker bus with ice cream.

Dessert is a great place to start.

Producer Teresa Litsky shows us how a European-style chocolate created in Florida has now landed in Mooresville.

Now, if it's made with chocolate or covered in chocolate, you'll find it at Peterbrooke Chocolatier.

(upbeat music) - The history of this Peterbrooke Chocolatier started in January of 2025.

And we were the first Peterbrooke in the Carolinas and the only Peterbrooke in the Carolinas.

And we're bringing that great goodness that started in Jacksonville over 40 years ago to this community here in the Lake Norman area.

- And actually my husband and I in college, we traveled in Europe together as part of a study abroad.

So I sampled a lot of chocolate there and it just had that very smooth, creamy taste.

And that was the same thing that I tasted with the Peterbrooke chocolate.

- Casting their former careers aside, the Leslies purchased a Peterbrooke franchise and became chocolatiers.

- Well, they have everything that you would need as far as chocolates.

They have caramels, they have the chocolate covered potato chips, they have the Oreos, the marshmallows, they have gifts, they have gelato, pretty much whatever you could think of.

- And it all starts with that special chocolate.

- Peterbrooke has a European blended chocolate that is very difficult to find in the United States because it's a true couverture chocolate.

- And so then I learned later that that had to do with the amount of cocoa butter in the chocolate.

- Which is a much higher percentage than standard chocolate.

- Our chocolate doesn't have oils or additives to it.

So when we make all the great things, you can probably see behind me like pretzels and Oreos and dip stuff or nuts, you don't get any aftertaste, no waxiness, just the pure indulgence of the chocolate.

And it's pretty fabulous.

- I thought it was excellent.

I got the chocolate covered potato chips, which are my favorite.

I love the salt with the chocolate, the salt and the sweet together.

- Yeah, we do a lot of potato chips.

Those are hand dipped.

It's like a double potato chip.

- And that quality is available no matter the type of chocolate you prefer.

- So we always have milk chocolate, dark chocolate, making it on site every day, our signature blends.

But we're also hand tempering and small batching white chocolate, 72% dark chocolate, 85% dark chocolate.

- You name it, they cover it with all that chocolatey goodness.

- Well, our chocolate covered popcorn is always one of the big favorites for everybody.

And that's an item that we not only sell in six ounce or 12 ounce type packages, we also put it inside chocolate items every season.

So we'll make pumpkins with chocolate covered popcorn in 'em.

We'll make footballs.

- So all you do is you just break it open like that and you've got all your chocolate covered popcorn there to eat and the shell itself is good too, I promise.

- Add to that chocolate covered pretzels, toffee, gummy worms, they even make chocolate pizza.

- What most people do is they put it in the oven for five minutes at 350 and you have a home fondue kit.

- And a wide assortment of truffles.

- We have everything from key lime to caramel, to coconut, to double dark ganache.

- It's a double dark ganache inside.

- Dark on dark.

So the caramel apples that you see in the truffle case over there, we make all kinds of caramel apples, like Oreo blend, turtle.

- You'll even find freshly made Dubai bars.

- The Dubai chocolate bar has a pistachio cream ganache with a katifi, which is a shredded phyllo dough that's crunchy on the inside, with a little bit of tahini, which is a sesame nut butter.

And it makes these beautiful bars that have gone viral online because they look like that on the inside.

- They also serve another European treat, gelato.

- It's actually lower fat, but it has a higher dairy content to it.

So that's what makes it very creamy.

We also carry a couple sorbetos 'cause we do have some dairy-free people.

- So dietary restrictions are no problem.

They have chocolates that are sugar-free, nut-free, even gluten-free, with baskets perfect for any occasion.

- Chocolate is like the perfect gift.

- And it's fun.

The Leslie's hope to introduce Peterbrick Chocolate to the masses with events that feature their chocolate way of life.

- We can do a 45 minute event up to a two or three hour event.

We can do full chocolate dipping, making, almost all of our events, the kids will leave with a whole bag of items that they made on site.

And we're building little addicted chocolatiers.

(upbeat music) - Peterbrooke Chocolatier is located in Mooresville near Lake Norman at 356 Morrison Plantation Parkway, Suite B3.

They're open every day except Mondays.

For complete hours and more information about their chocolates, give them a call at 980-435-5600 or visit them online at peterbrooke.com.

(upbeat music) - I'm here with Ernest Harris, co-owner of The Can Opener here in downtown Durham.

Ernest, thank you so much for sitting down with me.

Tell me about The Can Opener.

- Okay, so The Can Opener is a food truck park with a coffee bar hall on the inside.

So you can come and you can sit inside and get your drinks.

You can come outside, get your food.

You can be covered from the elements at all times.

We have quite a few local craft beers and some from out of the area here, but you can also get wines, cocktails, we have great baristas who are always coming up with new drinks and coffee ideas.

And it's always something new, fresh, exciting, interesting, but you can come out and get some of Durham's nicest food truck food.

- [Deb] I love the concept.

How did it come together?

- The Can Opener is pretty unique in that most places where you see food trucks, they're asked to come there by the owners of the establishment.

But here, the owners of the establishment are the food trucks that are here.

So Bulkogi, myself, Chick-N-Que, and Gussie's Greek, we all came together to build this establishment for us.

Bulkogi is a Korean barbecue.

Gussie's is authentic Greek cuisine.

Chick-N-Que is chopped chicken barbecue.

So everything we do is chicken or some type of poultry or fowl.

The breakfast truck right now is Queen Express.

- And what's feedback been like from your customers?

- Oh, they love it.

They love it because it's so relaxing.

It's a good family location.

It's a good date night.

How could you not like it if you have the outdoors?

We have an upstairs area with a good view of this area here in Durham.

- [Deb] And I think one of the views includes that bridge.

Tell me about the name, the Can Opener.

- When our realtor first came to us about this building and he told us that it was right next to the Can Opener Bridge, immediately it was like, we'll call it the Can Opener.

(upbeat music) - I'm in Durham along Gregson Street at one of the most notorious bridges, not just in Durham, but actually all over the world.

- It originally was at 11 feet, eight inches.

And so when some of the commercial trucks would come through, the top of the truck would hit the bridge and it would peel it off.

So almost like a can opening it.

You know what I mean?

So it's been pretty amazing.

While we were working on the space, four or five vehicles hit the bridge while we were here.

- [Deb] Oh my goodness.

- Then the first week that we were here, a shrimp truck from Savannah, Georgia hit the bridge and it peeled, it crumpled up a piece of it.

If you come out, you'll see it.

A lot of people think it's artwork, but it's actually the top of a 26 foot refrigerated shrimp truck.

- Oh, that's what's hanging out here.

- It peeled it and crumpled it up.

- It is kind of artistic.

- Yeah, the first week.

- Well, we have managed to pick a perfect day to be out here.

- It is beautiful.

- We'd love for this to be a destination point for them.

- I think it already is.

(laughing) Ernest, I have had so much fun sitting down and talking with you.

I look forward to looking around a little bit more.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - The Can Opener Food Truck Park is located in Durham at 205 South Gregson Street.

The park features a rotating lineup of food trucks, including Chick-N-Que, Gussie's Greek, and Bulkogi.

For hours, the food truck schedule, and special events, visit canopenerdurham.com or follow the Can Opener Durham on Instagram.

Our next spot is a lively Asheville eatery rooted in Aloha spirit.

Huli Sue's Barbecue and Grill is a delicious fusion of Hawaiian island flavors plus Southern-style barbecue.

So you're gonna find everything from pulled pork brisket to poke bowls with fresh fish options.

And the guests just rave.

[upbeat music] - Huli Sue's Barbecue and Grill is modeled after the Fish and the Hog, a restaurant in Hawaii.

And we lived there for 15 years and fell in love with the Hawaiian cuisine, but also had a tremendous love for barbecue.

So when we came and moved to Asheville, we decided to bring a little bit of the Aloha spirit.

- So my background is a Texas style barbecue.

And then coming from Hawaii, obviously spending 15 years there, influenced me a lot in my cooking and my recipes.

And coming to Asheville, we noticed there was kind of a gap there and an opportunity to introduce the local population to Hawaiian style.

- So we rented the space, it was a real estate office in the historic Grove Arcade, which was built in the early 1900s.

And we had the challenge of matching our ambience and our vibe that we have in Hawaii.

And so how to mimic that in this art deco-y kind of post-modernism building was a little bit of a challenge, but I think we got it.

We just made it bright and cheerful and threw some Hawaiian eclectic art on the walls.

And we have the surf channel going all day.

If you've gone to our restaurant in Hawaii, even though it's 180 degrees different from here, you'll feel the same vibe.

You know, we have Hawaiian and Asian influenced flavors all through the menu, something that you can't get anywhere else in the Blue Ridge Mountains, really.

So it's a challenge to create such a big menu.

We do have a big menu, but it's important for us that you can come with your wife and your wife chooses, you know, poke nachos, but you get barbecue and then your kids can have a hamburger or we'll have fish tacos.

So you don't get bored of what you have here.

- The first time I came here with my family, we were welcomed like we knew these folks forever.

In fact, Lisa, one of the owners met us at the door, sat us down, talked to us.

And really ever since then, it's just like being family coming in here.

Not only that, but the menu has something for everybody.

I am eating the Hawaiian teriyaki burger.

I have not had this before.

This is a first time, first attempt.

I tend to go for the bowls, either the poke bowl, hooli chicken bowl, amazing stuff.

- So I've got their French dip and it's a beast, man.

It's got their brisket and cheese and bacon.

And then it's got some jus to dip it in.

What I love about Huly Su's are the owners.

That's first and foremost.

Ben and Lisa are two of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.

And of course the food.

The food is a lot of it's stuff I had never had before.

So unique to my palate and unique to downtown Asheville.

- My favorite thing here, okay, two things.

The poke nachos are amazing.

And also Ben makes really great homemade spam, which he recently put on the menu as a spam bowl.

And it's phenomenal.

- Oh, I have the combo bowl.

So this is the hooli chicken and then the pork katsu and the chili shrimp.

There's not a bad thing on the menu.

It's like everything I try is better than the last thing I had.

And I'm from Texas.

So I think that the barbecue is really authentic.

- So out of our bar, we do a number of Hawaiian style tropical drinks.

Three days out of the week, we run a bunch of specials on that.

We have a Mai Tai Monday, where we get $4 off of our Mai Tai.

We have Aloha Fridays, which is we give a discount off of all of our tropical drinks.

And then on Thursdays, we run something fun called 808, which is you get a beer and a shot for $8.08.

We just want to feed people.

It's large portions.

It's fun food.

It's approachable.

It might be a little bit out of somebody's comfort zone, but we have a large menu and there's something for everybody.

- Well, we want the guests to feel Aloha all day long.

And Aloha means sharing and love.

And, you know, we want a guest to enter as a stranger and leave as a friend.

It's all about the experience.

Of course, it's about the food, but it's about the hospitality.

It's about exceeding expectations, about feeling as soon as you walk in here, you've known everyone from day one.

It's family.

- Huli Sues Barbecue and Grill is located in Asheville, inside the Grove Arcade.

They serve lunch and dinner from noon to 8 p.m., Monday and Thursday through Sunday.

They're closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

You can visit them online at hulisuesbbq.com or give them a call at 828-505-0397.

- Our producer, Seraphim Smith, loves hole-in-the-wall mom and pops, and he recently found a sweet soul food spot called Chele's while painting a mural in Snow Hill.

Let's find out why Seraphim cannot stop talking about their yams and hush puppies.

(upbeat music) - I've spent a lot of time in the last year working in Snow Hill.

And while I'm painting a mural, I'm also working up an appetite.

My favorite crave, these hush puppies.

I found these golden treasures on my way to pick up paint at the hardware store.

The signs pointed me here to this hidden gem, Chele's.

[phone ringing] - [Judy] Chele's Cafe.

We have chicken pastry, barbecue chicken, fried chicken, turkey barbecue, pork barbecue, cabbage, mac and cheese, boiled red potatoes, coleslaw, yams, potato salad, green beans, fried okras.

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

- This country cuisine tastes homemade, and it essentially is.

Mother Judy, daughter Michelle, and father Melvin are quite the team.

What do you like to eat here at Chele's?

- Turkey barbecue all the way.

- We make about 100 pounds of barbecue turkey a week.

Pork is about 60 pounds a week.

- This barbecue is special because of all the care put into it.

It's picked through thoroughly, so there's no weird surprises here.

The chopping block becomes more bowl-like with every whack of the cleaver.

Made by hand and cooking by feel.

- Yep.

- So what do you like to eat here at Chele's?

- I like the turkey.

I like the pig feet.

I love everything here.

They are excellent cooks.

- While they're known for turkey barbecue, the chicken pastry is their second best seller.

- Chicken pastry?

- Chicken pastry, yes, sir.

- Now, if you're a fan of chicken pastry, you've come to the right place.

This chicken pastry is velvety, it's rich, lots of pepper.

It's just delicious.

And if this pot were big enough, I wouldn't mind going for a swim.

What made you open up a restaurant?

- I've been doing it all my life.

I started out when I was 15 years old, working at a restaurant.

I was working for my mom and dad at Grandpa's Kitchen.

I was cooking hushpuppies at 15, so.

- You're so good at it.

- Yes.

- Practice makes perfect.

- This hushpuppy is to Eastern North Carolina what a beignet is to New Orleans.

My favorite thing to do is just to dip 'em in the yams.

And because this is North Carolina, they have fish on Fridays and Thursdays.

Besides the hushpuppies, it was seeing this that really attracted me to Chele's Cafe.

I mean, look, they're frying fish in a skillet!

They're doing it right in small batches.

- I had a friend that told us about it.

So everything, 10 out of 10, it's in.

- The banana pudding was good, too.

- One of the things that I love about your restaurant is how you give people an opportunity to write down what they're thankful for.

- Yes, my mom came up with this idea, let people write how they feel about life and what they're thankful for.

- People who are in the know drive in from far away to get some of Chele's good cooking.

- We know our customers very well.

We have known them for a long time.

And my workers, I'm very close to my workers.

We're like a family around here.

We're very blessed.

Because we love all the love, all the love.

- And it's this spice of love that's going to keep me coming back for more.

- [Deb] Chele's Cafe is in Snow Hill at 423 West Harper Street.

They're open Wednesdays through Sundays starting at 10.30 a.m.

They close at various hours throughout the week.

So for specific information on their hours and the daily specials, call them at 252-747-2626 or find Chele's Cafe on Facebook.

[upbet music] This year, America celebrates its 250th.

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in Eastern North Carolina was a short engagement, but made North Carolina pivotal to the outcome of the revolution.

The First in Freedom Festival brings this battle to life.

And producer Lucas Pruitt shows us the historic site is well worth a visit.

- This is Moores Creek National Battlefield, located in Curry, North Carolina.

It might not look like much, but this tiny bridge played a big role in Revolutionary War history.

But to understand how, we have to go back in time.

Have you ever wondered why the British largely stayed out of North Carolina until the later years of the Revolutionary War?

The British plan was simple.

Sail to the Carolinas, arm the Loyalist militia in Wilmington along the way, crush the Southern Rebellion, restore the royal governor, and take back Charleston.

But when a Patriot militia started marching toward Cross Creek, the North Carolina Loyalists jumped the gun and began their eastward trek before the British invasion fleet could arrive.

These Loyalists were Highlanders from Scotland, and only around 300 of them had weapons.

Not firearms, but broadswords.

So when 1,100 fully armed Patriots set an ambush, it was a disaster.

First, the Patriots greased the beams of this bridge with soap and tallow.

So when roughly 70 Highlanders charged the bridge at Moore's Creek with their swords, they slipped and fell as the Patriot militia fired from concealed positions.

(gunshots) The battle lasted less than 15 minutes, but the Loyalists lost bad.

So bad, North Carolina declared independence two months later, and the other colonies soon followed our lead.

As for the British fleet, they spent some time raiding along the North Carolina coast, but ultimately failed to take back Charleston in 1776 and abandoned the Southern Theater for several years.

And that brings us back to this bridge, an unassuming crossing that helped shift the course of the war in North Carolina.

Congress agreed, and in 1926, they authorized the establishment of Moore's Creek National Military Park, where today nearly 70,000 people visit each year.

(drumming) (fife) - Conceivably, some say that you wouldn't have had a July 4th, 1776 Declaration of Independence without a April 12th, 1776 Halifax Resolves.

And conceivably, you wouldn't have had a Halifax Resolves without the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge.

- There was a big debate about whether we could ever survive without British rule.

And I think early victories like here at Moore's Creek just served as that fuel to light the passion in people to move forward.

- We love doing historical things like this, so this was another fun experience to let our boys enjoy that and learn history in a meaningful way.

- We have four trails that take you through the park through the various ecosystems that we have here, the upland pines, the seasonal wetland savanna that's behind me, and all the way to the bottomland hardwood forest.

We've got a history trail that takes you through the battlefield, takes you across Moore's Creek, and then brings you back around and gives you the perspective of what the Loyalists would have seen on the early morning hours of February 27th, 1776.

Our visitor center was built in 1959.

Inside of it, we've got some great exhibits that take you through the American Revolution.

- When you celebrate things like this, it just sort of grounds you in history.

If we don't preserve places like this, then we lose that collective memory.

- Even if I do this, you know, he's even-- - This tells the American story, and it doesn't matter when your family came to America.

As we live here today, all of these places are a part of the American story, and so for us to preserve this, we're preserving not only our history, we're preserving our culture, preserving our heritage, and we're preserving these special places so that future generations can enjoy these and learn from them.

(gentle music) - Moore's Creek National Battlefield is located in Curry, North Carolina.

The Morris Creek Visitor Center and Bookstore is located at 40 Patriots Hall Drive, and they're open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

The park grounds are open from 9 to 5, seven days a week.

They offer various events and tours throughout the year, plus group tours by reservation.

For more information, visit them on Facebook or at the National Park Service website, nps.gov/mocr.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We have definitely found some good eats here at the Can Opener, and if you're ever in downtown Durham, you'll find something for everyone in the family.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, for all of our stories on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

(upbeat music) ♪ - Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by VisitNC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

- This program is made possible in part by generous support from the American Battlefield Trust, connecting you to the places where our nation was forged.

Visit battlefields.org today.

(upbeat music)