Wooden Nickel Pub (WNP) in Hillsborough, NC

The Wooden Nickel, Bonafide Sandwich Shop and the Creole restaurant called LaPlace are all owned by the same restaurateurs and their food and drink presence in downtown Hillsborough is very much alive. The Wooden Nickel is a small, dark and intimate pub with seats at the bar, a few little nooks by the windows and then a "rail" in the middle where you can stand and drink a beer. 

There are also a few benches outside and it fills up quickly. You have to come early or just wait for someone to leave and grab a table. Wooden Nickel also has an interesting beer theme where they serve one brewery's beer all month on their 12 taps. They will always have one sour on tap and then if a beer runs out, they switch it out with another local beer. March, for example, is all Lagunitas beer. The taps have Sucks, Hopstoopid, Cappuccino stout, Dogtown, etc.If one of the Lagunitas beers is out, I saw them change it out with something like and Evil Twin or D9. The bartender said to check out their instagram and facebook feed to learn about which brewery would be featured each month. It sounds like Stone and Wicked Weed will be coming up soon and I like the concept to feature a brewery each month. They also offer beer in bottles, mixed drinks and wine. 

You can see the kitchen from the open bar window and it is amazing what comes out of that small kitchen. For a small establishment and bar, I was very impressed with the caliber and quality of the food. It rivals some of the best restaurants and their wings are some of the best around. 

You can get wings in 6, 12 or more and then pick your sauces. We had mild buffalo and that had just the right amount of heat and the wings are really huge and piping hot. For my entree, I had the daily special which was fried flounder (lightly breaded) over Jicama salad with smoked pepper crema. It was tropical in flavor and the combination with the jicama salad worked perfectly. Daniel had the chicken tacos and the meat was braised in beer and served on corn tortillas. 

All of the ingredients are fresh and from local farms and next time I want to try the hamburgers. They have two smaller TVsvand it is a small yet lively place on Hillsborough's main street and each time we went, it was bustling. I would highly recommend stopping in when in Hillsborough.