Harnett County Is a Melting Pot for Ethnic Cuisines
ethnic cuisine, food, restaurants,
Sal Evola has fond childhood memories of watching his grandmother churn out fresh pasta and homemade sauces in his native Carini, Italy.
“She was such a great cook – anything the old lady touched, you couldn’t forget,” Evola recalls. “She could take a little of this and a little of that and make a wonderful meal. She was an amazing lady.”
Lucky for Evola, she imparted a bit of her cooking wisdom to her grandson.
“There were no toys, and she had a little devil like me running around,” he says with a chuckle. “You know how many times she gave me the job to cook?”
Those early cooking lessons are now serving Evola well. He and his brother, Bart, own Casa Carini in Lillington, where they offer up authentic Italian food to eager diners.
“We make garlic knots and breadsticks fresh every day,” Evola says. “We also make our own vinaigrette, and we cut up all the vegetables on our salad bar daily.”
Casa Carini serves up traditional Italian favorites, such as lasagna, chicken Parmesan and fettuccine alfredo, as well as more unusual dishes such as veal torentino and chicken francaise, which is coated with lemon sauce.
“My favorite is the seafood,” Evola says. “We do pescatori sauce, shrimp, mussels and clams. And lately we’ve been doing wine tastings, which have been really successful.”
Before opening Casa Carini in 2007, the Evola brothers were both cooks in New Jersey, where they settled in the ’80s after immigrating to the United States. But North Carolina seemed to be calling their names.
“I’ve been in love with North Carolina for the last 20 years, and I would take trips here,” Evola says. “Me and my brother came once and found this little town. We fell in love with it, and the same day, we put an offer on this building.”
Now the brothers are content to be living in Lillington and doing what they do best.
“Anybody from Italy, especially from my time,” Evola says, “even if you don’t know nothing, you can cook.”
In nearby Dunn, when diners get
a hankering for international cuisine, they head for the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet on West Broad Street. The restaurant offers Japanese, Chinese, American and Mexican dishes.
“Hibachi is a Japanese word that means ‘grilled,’” says Michael Hee, manager of the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet. “Our hibachi bar is very popular because we have steak, chicken and pork, and when you select your food, the chef cooks it just for you. It’s our secret weapon.”
In addition to the hibachi grill, the restaurant has a full salad bar, a sushi bar and two bars devoted to Chinese dishes such as General Tso’s chicken and sesame chicken.
“We have many Hispanic customers, so we also provide tortillas and spicier dishes,” Hee says. “Our hibachi chef can even cook your food special to make it taste like a Mexican dish.”
Speaking of Mexican food, one of the best places to get it is Las Brisas, also in Dunn. Opened five years ago by Mexican owner George Nunez, Las Brisas specializes in fajitas, carne asada and spicy shrimp à la diablo.
“We’re an independent Mexican restaurant with real Mexican food prepared fresh daily,” Nunez says. “The restaurant industry is mostly fast food anymore, and Mexican restaurants are leaning that way, too, because it’s more profitable. But I still chop onions with my own hands and prepare salsa daily. We prepare food in the moment.”
Story by Jessica Mozo
Photo by Todd Bennett
