There isn’t a day that goes by that Mike Barden doesn’t think about surfing. A Wilmington native, he’s been on a board for 35 years, and as the owner of Wrightsville Beach’s iconic Surf City Surf Shop since 2003, Barden has been influential in supporting the area’s surfing community. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the industry needed something a little different.
So in 2013, he opened Annex Surf Supply. “I wanted it to have the same feel as Surf City, but with brands the community hadn’t seen, and in a place that brought people together,” Barden says.
At Annex, you’ll find locally made leather wallets and turquoise jewelry, T-shirts and beachy dresses, surfboards and iced coffee, plus a comfy space to talk about weather and wave conditions.
“Annex’s DNA is in surf culture,” Barden says. And so is Barden’s. “It’s innate,” he says. “Whenever the waves are good, I make time to surf.”
Annex Surf Supply
530 Causeway Drive
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
(910) 256-2265
annexsurfsupply.com
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
