Business Profile: The Boundary House Restaurant

Business Profile: The Boundary House Restaurant

Whether you’ve been to The Boundary House Restaurant in Calabash multiple times or it’s your first visit, “Welcome home,” is how general manager Rey Mikhail greets you.

“I want people to feel at home,” Mikhail says. “Whether it’s new guests, returning guests or our staff, it’s a big deal to me for people to feel like family.”

Calabash restaurants are known for their deliciously distinctive seafood style that’s secretively seasoned and quickly fried. Variety is what helps distinguish The Boundary House from the other restaurants in the heart of historic Calabash. They have fried shrimp, flounder, scallops and oysters, but they have much more: steaks, prime rib, pastas, award-winning shrimp and grits, and a unique spin on the Calabash-style crab cake. But the flounder is the best around if you ask Mikhail: “We do ours differently. Grilled, lightly blackened or blackened. I have people tell me they travel from Whiteville and Wilmington to get our flounder.”

The Boundary House has been recognized on several local “best of” lists, including the Brunswick Beacon’s Best of Brunswick for best service for the last nine years. They’ve won A Taste of Calabash for the last three years with their famous shrimp and grits, and the South Brunswick Islands Rotary Club bestowed The Boundary House’s bread pudding with the Best Dessert in Brunswick County award in their Chilled & Grilled Food and Wine Celebration.

In addition to their tried-and-true mainstay menu items, they create special features year round. A good example is the rich three-cheese large ravioli topped with colossal lump blue crab and lobster served in a garlic butter herb sauce.

“For Mother’s Day, we offered Grouper St. Thomas, a large, piece of grouper hand-breaded in our own mixture, sautéed and topped with softened artichoke hearts and tomatoes,” Mikhail says

Always ahead of local trends, The Boundary House has a large selection of rotating craft beers on draft. Like most restaurants in the area, they started with the staple brews like Miller Lite, Budweiser, Blue Moon and Sam Adams. But as consumer tastes have changed, and the appeal of craft beer has increased, The Boundary House now offers six rotating beers.

“We were among the first to introduce some of North Carolina’s craft beers like Hi-Pitch Mosaic IPA from Hi-Wire Brewing and Pernicious IPA from Wicked Weed Brewing,” Mikhail says. “We utilize Untappd, a free app that lets us share with the community of followers what we have on tap, or lets guests know when new beers are coming up on tap.”

Located behind Callahan’s Gift Shop, The Boundary House Restaurant first opened in 2005 with a philosophy of bringing people together over food, and that philosophy rings true today. From the warm wood interior and the ship-themed aesthetics, complete with lifeboats hanging from the ceiling, not to mention Mikhail’s inviting demeanor and the fine-tuned service, The Boundary House is a gathering place. In the words of Mikhail, who has been the general manager for 11 years, “Just come try us!”  

The Boundary House: 1045 River Road, Calabash; (910) 579-8888; boundaryhouserestaurant.com