The PubScout and Father Dave check out WilmyWoodie Wood-Fired Pizza and The LBC Bottle Shop in Hampstead — and when two Jersey guys say a pizza is “damned good,” it’s best to pay attention.
Jersey guys like me are experts on many things: high taxes, toll roads — and pizza. Probably bagels, too.
But Father Dave and I did not drive an hour looking for bagels during a recent trip to Hampstead. We drove all the way from Ocean Isle Beach to check out the legendary WilmyWoodie Wood-Fired Pizza truck and The LBC Bottle Shop on U.S. Highway 17.
There was good news and bad news about our February visit. The good news was that it was not as Arctic-cold as it was the week before. The bad news was that it was still cold enough. But that did not faze us inside the on-site Quonset hut with open doors at both ends, thanks to some strategically placed gas heaters and beers that would please any beer nut.
And it did not faze the hardy visitors to the Cupid’s Valentine’s Day Market. The site hosts a lot of the market-type events all year round, with vendors hawking everything from jewelry to homemade sourdough breads. At these markets, the pop-up vendors dot the wooded site owned by Kevin and Erin Langston, which houses both the WilmyWoodie Wood-Fried Pizza truck and The LBC Bottle Shop.
The LBC is a small operation overseen by General Manager Mark Beach, Operations Manager Chris Smith and Assistant Manager Cami Corrado, with coolers of top-notch canned and bottled beer available for purchase. Celebrating its one-year anniversary, it opened in February 2025, just after a snow storm that hit the area. It was not as bad as the one we had in January 2026, but snow is snow, and few folks in southeast NC even have snow shovels — which is another thing us Jersey guys know about.
In the Quonset hut, there is a nice variety of beers. There are also QR codes inset in the furniture that allow patrons to order pies from the pizza truck outside.
And that pizza blew these Jersey guys away.
The pizza end of the operation began with Kevin in 2018. He wanted to make pizzas like no one else was making. And he has succeeded.
So strong was his attraction to the unique that even his pizza boxes come from Australia in pallets of 10,000 at a time. The colorful containers are dubbed “pizza bibs” because you can put your face in the perforated cut-out on the lid for fun photo ops using various cartoonish characters from Minecraft to Taylor Swift.
Neither is hard to imagine wanting to dive face-first into this pizza box. The dough is considered by many — including Father Dave and me — to be among the best in the region. We decided it was worth an hour’s drive to come back for it.
Kevin was understandably chary about sharing specifics of the recipe, but the sauce and the toppings (we had a meat lovers’) combined to bring a broad smile to our faces.
Like many of the best pies, it’s made in a wood-fired, tiled oven. This one just so happens to hang off the back of the WilmyWoodie truck. Asked about the source of the name, Kevin allows that the movie industry coming to Wilmington caused many to call the town “WilmyWood” in a nod to that other film-making place on the West Coast. He added the “ie” ending as an homage to his son Brodie.
Whatever it’s called, it’s “damned good pizza,” as quoted by Father Dave, himself an expert in the genre and one not known for easily gushing praise. He was even moved enough to pose in the “pizza bib.”
And the beer available inside the hut is quite good. Believe it or not, yours truly does not often have beer with pizza, a fact that causes my bartender buddy Brittany to repeatedly heap scorn upon me.
But both Father Dave and I had an exceptional Outer Dunes Blonde with our pie, and the pairing may have been enough for me to consider altering my practice. Even if just to avoid Brittany’s snarky jibes.
I would not drink beer with just any pizza, though. And WilmyWoodie is not just any pizza.
You can modify any of the pizzas on the menu to suit your taste — save for one. The style called the Honey Blue Bleu is served as is, with hot honey, Muenster cheese, fried chicken breast, blueberries and bleu cheese, although it can be made vegetarian with mushrooms.
Erin is responsible for the business end of things, though she allows that her marketing degree from UNC Wilmington is only so helpful in these fast-moving days of AI and internet promotion. She and Kevin use a service to schedule and organize events like their regular markets, which they claim takes much of the stress away.
And the event on that February day must have been well-publicized because we saw a steady stream of patrons. With the balmier weather of spring, it is easy to see how the parking lot should pack out, with or without a market event.
Eventually, Kevin and Erin say, the WilmyWoodie truck will be put out to pasture because a new wood-fired oven and kitchen will be housed within the Quonset hut itself.
The smart money says to get to The LBC/WilmyWoodie facilities early if you want to enjoy what Kevin and Erin offer. Whether the pie is made on the truck or in a new kitchen, if they have Outer Dunes Blonde on tap, order it. It will pair well with those blueberries on the Honey Blue Bleu.
TAKE A TASTE
WilmyWoodie Wood-Fired Pizza and The LBC Bottle Shop & Beer Yard
15670 U.S. Highway 17, Hampstead
(910) 821-9005
wilmywoodie.com
thelbcbottleshop.com
