Wedding venue in Blue Ridge, GA for couples in Wilmington, NC

She stood 6 feet tall with blazing red hair, a waterfront bar-bouncer armed with a shark’s temperament and 350 pounds of tattooed muscle — the only ghost more scary while alive.

In the 18th century, “Gallus Meg” ruled the rowdy Wilmington tavern known as The Blue Post, where sailors tossed dice, croaked out sea shanties and tossed back barrels of grog.

Three centuries later, her shadow still darkens the alleyways.

“They say her biceps looked like ham hocks,” said Steve Little, a storyteller with the Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington. “Big double neck. Big double chin. Mean. Rough.”

As Halloween approaches, her story draws the curious into the narrow cobblestone alleys off Water Street, a remnant of the ramshackle district where Gallus Meg kept watch over sailors’ sinning.

The Blue Post, Little explains, was “anything but nice. It was rough. It was tough. These dudes who were coming in here were rough dudes. They were looking for four things. The first would have been alcohol. The second would have been gambling. The third would have been music. The fourth, there would have been a red light out every night of the week, where you could make instant friends. Somebody had to rule with an iron fist.”

As the story goes, Gallus Meg drew the line at sailors who abused their female company, and when she witnessed it, she grabbed the offender by the neck and shouted, “Now they’ll be no more troubles out of ya.”

She then hoisted the shocked sailor by the neck and carried him dangling out into the street — which some suspect is the source of her nickname, “gallus” sounding much like “gallows.”

As a crowd gathered, she would pummel the ruffian down to the cobblestones. And as the onlookers offered a polite golf clap, Gallus Meg showed her victims her finishing move.

“She would bite their ears off,” said Little. “Not a portion of the ear. The entire ear. Then here comes the finale. She’d go get her pickle jar and spit the ear in there. Everybody always remembered the story of the big red-headed woman who bites off ears.”

The legend persisted deeply enough that the modern-day Blue Post used to keep a pickle jar on its bar.

While it still existed, the Water Street Restaurant was known for Gallus Meg encounters inside the women’s restroom, especially for disrespectful men who made the mistake of wandering inside.

John Hirchak, who owns and operates the ghost tour, notices odd shapes showing up in photographs whenever his groups veer into Gallus Meg territory.

“The strange one was always the fog,” he said. “It would sort of engulf my lower half. One night I made a popping noise with my hand and my wedding ring flew off. I shouted, ‘Oh my God. I lost my wedding ring to Gallus Meg!’ “

One quirk to this story, which Hirchak said has circulated entirely by word of mouth, is it almost exactly echoes the tale of Gallus Mag, who worked as a bouncer in 1860s New York, had a similar penchant for ear-attacks and also stored her trophies in a pickle jar.

An Associated Press dispatch from 1940 describes her violent routine:

“A giant Englishwoman who flourish in the unsavoury dives of hell’s kitchen in the ‘90s ... This case-hardened Amazon, according to legend, wore a pistol in her belt and a bludgeon strapped to her wrist to aid her ministerations in giving the heave-ho to uncouth customers. ... After felling her victims with pistol-butt or bludgeon, she dragged them out to the gutter by the ears — and kept a jar of ears pickled in alcohol.”

Whether Meg and Mag are the same barroom hellcat in either history or the afterlife still fuels guessing.

“It appears that we have an echo in here,” wrote Rick Spilman in the Old Salt Blog. “Will the real Gallus Mag or Meg, stand up? And please no biting. Was the real ear-biting bouncer from New York or North Carolina? Did she exist at all or was she just part of the folklore of the period?”

Best not to ask. Sip your beer, tip your bartender and maybe wear earmuffs.

Follow more of our reporting on Uniquely NC

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October 26, 2024 7:28 PM

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WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Ben Folds is coming back to Wilmington. The acclaimed singer/songwriter and member of North Carolina’s Music Hall of Fame will headline a benefit concert that will support Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the western part of his home state. From Wilmington, with Love will happen at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater in Wilmington, on Tuesday, October 29. Folds tops the bill that includes Jim Lauderdale, Josh Goforth, Moonshine State, Caleb Caudle and the Sweet Critters and others.

“We stay pretty active in North Carolina, although I’m not living there at the moment myself,” Folds said from his home studio in Nashville, Tennessee. “We come there quite a bit to work on a project that we started called Keys for Kids, which is the tying together of seven non-profits in North Carolina to give kids a chance to learn music early. Through Mayor (Bill) Saffo and Governor (Roy) Cooper’s office, we were able to become a part of this. As soon as the mayor and the governor indicated they wanted to try to find ways to raise any extra money and awareness for relief, then we jumped.”

The Wilmington show is just one item on Folds’s busy plate. He is prepping to record live performances with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Kennedy Center on October 25-26, which will likely be released as an album in the future. Folds has toured with orchestras around the world for more than a decade, and became the first Artistic Advisor for the NSO in 2017.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” he said about the project. “In this era, we don’t really capture live performances that much. Most performances on the albums we hear are edited performances, and I think that we’re very good at that. But when you go on a stage with an orchestra, and we have two passes, one on Friday and one on Saturday, that’s it. There’s no safety net. Every mic on the on the stage is open, and that’s kind of rare, and it’s certainly scary for me. I mean, I’ve got to be on physically and mentally and it’s not hard not to get in your head.”

Folds is also releasing his first Christmas record, called Sleigher, a collection of original holiday-themed songs and some covers. It’s available October 25.

“I just really wanted to make a holiday record because the holidays are a reset time that resembles the last one, the last one, the last one and the last one, the only difference is you,” he said explaining the thought process behind crafting Sleigher. “Same Christmas stuff, same sales, same decorations, but you’re different, and so I found it really easy or inspiring to write from that perspective.”

Born in the Triad area of North Carolina, Folds writes in his 2019 bestselling memoir, A Dream about Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons, that he spent most of his childhood in Winston-Salem. He says he began piano and drums in the fourth grade and became proficient enough to earn a full scholarship to study at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. When that didn’t work out, Folds returned home to live with his parents and started performing. In 1985, he enrolled in the UNC Greensboro School of Music and played in several bands in North Carolina and Nashville before forming his most successful group, Ben Folds Five, with Darren Jessee and Robert Sledge in Chapel Hill in 1993.

The indie rock band released three albums: Ben Folds Five (1995), Whatever and Ever Amen (1997) and The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999) before splitting in 2000. Whatever went on to sell more than one million copies, earning Platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also contained the band’s most successful single, Brick, which rose to #19 on Billboard’s Top-100 singles chart.

Folds, Jessee and Sledge reunited for 2012’s The Sound of the Life of the Mind, which debuted at #10 on the Billboard Top-200 Album chart and rose to #3 on the Top Alternative Albums list, the highest of all Ben Folds Five records.

Folds launched his solo career in 2001 with Rockin’ the Suburbs, followed by Songs for Silverman (2005) and Way Too Normal (2008), which peaked at #11 in Billboard’s Top-200 Albums list. In 2015, Folds released So There, which he recorded with the New York-based chamber ensemble yMusic, and it soared to #1 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart. He’s done several collaborations with other artists, including William Shatner, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Nick Hornby, before 2023’s What Matters Most, which included Exhausting Lover, a Top-20 solo hit on the Adult Album Alternative radio charts.

“I think one must concentrate on everything but the sales, if possible,” Folds said. “When I was selling far more records, the industry was also selling far more records. I mean, we were in an era where selling a million records was way more common. It’s not now, you know, I’m down with the curve, but it’s also, a kid’s business being competitive in the charts. So I think it’s important to retain your dignity by making albums, it gives me the freedom to make albums that have no single. I don’t worry about that. But, you know, they do sink in. Like the album So There. It didn’t sell a whole lot by anybody’s standards, but it was number one on the classical chart for like three months, and now with audiences, people know the songs. The Piano Concerto on that, I performed, I think at least one movement of it a night for 100 shows with orchestras. Piano concertos do not get 100 performances with orchestras. So even though the album probably, gosh, it might have sold 75,000 records or something, that’s not much. We were selling 75,000 a week with Ben Folds Five, but that was a different era too.”

“So, you know, I know a lot about sales,” he said. “But I don’t try to put my worth there. I’m more excited to think I can make recordings that are what I would like to leave behind, and would like share with people.”

Tickets for the October 29 show From Wilmington, With Love have sold out, but you can join the effort to help survivors of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina by clicking the event’s website and making a monetary donation. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Ben Folds as much as I did.

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If you plan on voting in the Wilmington area Nov. 5, casting your ballot might come with a sweet soundtrack.

DJs at the Polls, a national, non-partisan get-out-the-vote group, said it will have paid, professional DJs spinning tunes outside of about 85 polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties on Election Day.

Chris Suggs, a state project manager in North Carolina for DJs at the Polls, said the group plans to have DJs at 1,365 voting sites around the state.

It will be the group's first time placing DJs at polling sites in the Wilmington area. Suggs said DJs at the Polls ran a "pilot project" in North Carolina in 2022 and 2023, but that "the level of coordination is definitely new this year. This is the first year we've reached this level of engagement."

The idea, Suggs said, "is to make election day a fun and enjoyable event," thereby increasing voter participation, which is the group's primary goal.

"We don't care how people vote," Suggs said. "We just want them to get out and vote."

As for the polling sites where DJs at the Polls will be set up, "Some are random," Suggs said, while other are picked because the precincts have high numbers of voters the group targets. Suggs said these include young voters, Black and brown communities, and what Suggs called "low-propensity voters" who vote sometimes but not always.

Suggs said some voters in the Wilmington area will be getting postcards letting them know a DJ will be at their polling site.

According to the DJs at the Polls website, the group's founder, Anton Moore of Philadelphia, started placing DJs at polling locations throughout Pennsylvania in 2008. Moore "helped design and implement DJs 4 Obama" in 2012, and later started DJs at the Polls as a non-partisan group.

The group's website said it "was founded on the belief that voting is something to be celebrated. It was expanded on evidence that having DJs play polling places measurably increases voter turnout."

The group cites a "2022 randomized control trial in Philadelphia at polling sites where our DJs performed." At those sites, "voter turnout increased 3%" over previous years. DJs at the Polls said it targets "densely populated urban areas with large numbers of underrepresented voters."

Nancy Friedman, deputy director of DJs at the Polls, said the group will have DJs outside some seven dozen polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, including the Career Readiness Academy at Mosely PLC in Wilmington, Lincoln Elementary School in Leland, and North Topsail Elementary School in Hampstead.

A full list of participating DJs in the Wilmington area wasn't immediately provided to the StarNews.

Friedman said "we haven't yet completed the matching process of DJs to locations, but we will have all of that completed by the end of the week."

Wilmington DJ James Tritten of Fort Lowell Records said he will be spinning on Election Day, though he said he hasn't yet been told where.

Another Wilmington DJ you might see at the polls is Lingam James, who DJs under the handle Infinite Spins. You can catch him spinning vinyl every Wednesday evening at Mad Mole Brewing off Oleander Drive as well as at other locations, including Satellite, Palate, and various spots in the Cargo District.

James said that DJs at the Polls reached out to him about participating, and that it was something he wanted to do because "it would open me up to another audience, and hopefully improve the mood" at the polls, he said. "Voting is something we're tasked with as Americans, so I'm glad I can do my part to hopefully make it a more pleasant experience."

James said he already cast his vote early, and that "it was a little tense in line. This will definitely help cut the tension."

If you see Infinite Spins at your polling place, he said you can expect to hear "a lot of funk, soul, disco, jazz, hip-hop, just some upbeat stuff that anyone can chill to." He said he also imports a lot of rare vinyl records into his digital set-up, and looks forward to playing those as well.

According to DJs at the Polls, DJs are paid $500 per four-hour set. Sites will host between one and three four-hour DJ sets, with some DJs performing multiple sets.

Suggs said "we are very intentional about the DJs we recruit." The group targets professional DJs who gig regularly. Some might work on local radio while others are what Suggs called "celebrity DJs."

The DJs "know their communities best," Suggs said, including what kind of music their communities want to hear. The group just asks that they play "family friendly" music that is "respectful" to the polling place, which might be at a school or church.

Suggs said DJs at the Polls is funded by many different private donors and foundations, including Focus for Democracy, a nonprofit, non-partisan civic engagement group that its website says is "dedicated to empowering donors to make the most impactful contributions possible to strengthen democracy."

So far, the group will be placing DJs in "13 states and counting," Suggs said.

Some states, like Georgia, have passed laws restricting activity near polling sites. In that state, for example, it's illegal to even give food or water to people waiting in line to vote.

In North Carolina, Suggs said, "we've been very well-received" by everyone from politicians to community organizers and "we haven't run into any issues at all" with local boards of elections.

"They realize this is a non-partisan activity," he said. "In my work of doing this, there are always critics, but we've not run into any opposition that would make us stop what we're doing."

Fans of the ABC reality show “Shark Tank” will see a familiar business when they watch on Friday, Oct. 25. Entrepreneur Danielle Mahon, founder of Topsail Steamer, will be making her case to the business investors on the popular series.

"I filmed back in the summer," she said. "It was an incredible experience, but pretty intense. You only get one chance to do your pitch with no opportunity for do-overs... The Sharks were really great. They are all curious entrepreneurs looking for a great investment, but also have a genuine desire to help coach new entrepreneurs."

She started the company in 2017 offering take-home seafood boils, featuring the signature Bay Buckets, or single-use pots, filled with seafood, corn, potatoes, and the company's special seasoning blend. Topsail Steamer’s original location is on Topsail Island and there are now nine others, including in Wrightsville Beach and Charlotte. The company also ships the buckets across the country through the Goldbelly food delivery service.

More:Three Wilmington-area restaurants make Yelp’s 2024 list of top seafood spots

"I have been hearing from my customers from the beginning 'You should be on Shark Tank,'" she said. "We have such a unique business model."

But she said she's thought more about it in the past couple of years. She applied to be on the show in January.

"I realized we have a real opportunity to grow impactfully and it would be great to have someone on our team who has experience and success in scaling businesses that we need," Mahon said.

The episode airs at 8 p.m. Oct. 25. On the show, the hosts will be having Shark Bite buckets. Topsail Steamer is offering a special, at their stores and through Goldbelly, so viewers can eat the same thing. It has clams, shrimp, snow crab, andouille sausage, kielbasa, scallops, lobster, corn and potatoes.

STAY CONNECTED: Keep up with the area’s latest food news by signing up for the Port City Foodies newsletter and following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Bourbon Street in downtown Wilmington announced they will be closing their doors effective as of Dec. 31, 2024.

According to a post on their Facebook page, the restaurant was not made aware that their building was up for sale and they were not given the first right of refusal.

They release the following statement:

“It is with deep regret that we announce the closure of our business, effective December 31, 2024. Despite numerous efforts to sustain our operations and ongoing rejections from the new ownership, we must confirm the accuracy of this news.

“To provide some context, we were never made aware that the building was up for sale, nor were we given the first right of refusal; we only learned of the sale after it had already occurred. Unfortunately, we were not afforded the opportunity to continue our presence in this location. We proposed several options to the new owners to extend our tenure by one more year, allowing us time to regroup and explore new possibilities elsewhere, but our requests were consistently denied.

“We recognize the business dynamics and growth that Wilmington is experiencing—an evolution that is both inevitable and beneficial. This city, which we have cherished since we opened our doors in 2013, has continued to flourish. However, we believe there are ethical considerations that should accompany such growth. Regrettably, we have not felt these principles were upheld throughout the process that unfolded without our knowledge.

“This location has become a beloved fixture in downtown Wilmington, drawing both visitors and local residents alike. Our journey of bringing a taste of the Big Easy to Wilmington has been truly remarkable, allowing us to connect with wonderful people and an incredibly talented group of musicians. We have cherished every moment!

“As we approach the end of the year, we are committed to making the most of our remaining time. We have an exciting lineup of talented bands scheduled to perform until December 31, 2024, and we will continue to provide the exceptional service, delicious food, drinks, and the vibrant atmosphere that our patrons have come to love.

“We are actively searching for a new location that aligns with our needs and financial viability, and we will keep you updated on any developments.

Thank you for your support, Wilmington; we truly appreciate you!”

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