Wizarding Weekend serves up special Potter-themed food and drink

Looking for a love potion, a butterbeer or a Ron Cheesely hot dog to satisfy your Harry Potter appetite?

No need to wave your magic wand for Harry Potter-themed food and drink at the upcoming Wizarding Weekend events Friday to Sunday in downtown Wilson —  the participating bars and restaurants will do that for you.

The Fantastic Drinks and Where to Find Them Bar Crawl is taking place again this year with an expanded list of participating bars and restaurants. If participants choose, they can grab a card at any one of the six participating bars and have them stamped at all the bars between Friday and Sunday. Turn in the completed card to Casita Brewing Company by Sunday, and you’ll be eligible for prizes at a drawing Sunday evening at Casita. Top prize is $100. Other prizes include gift cards, Wizarding Weekend T-shirts (only available by winning),and assorted Harry Potter merchandise.

PARTICIPATING BARS

• Casita Brewing Company at 217 South St. S. will be open on Friday from 11 a.m. to  to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Casita will feature butterbeer frozen slushies (non-alcoholic and alcoholic), ButterBEER, Mim-OH-sahs, along with its full range of local craft beer, hard seltzer, cider, wine and soft drinks.

• Downtown Public House, 113 Goldsboro St., turns into Borgin & Burkes, a wizard’s antique shop, Friday and Saturday, from 2 p.m. to midnight and Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m. DPH will feature two Potter-themed drinks: the Amortentia, a love potion made from gin, a French liqueur, lavender syrup and crème de la violet and topped with edible flowers; and the Green Ghost, a death potion, featuring gin, green chartreuse and lime juice.

“The idea for Fantastic Drinks and Where to Find Them is that it’s like a bar crawl that you take at your own pace,” said Maddie Murphy, a bartender at Downtown Public House. “You can go to one bar early and one bar late, if you’d like. It is all at your discretion.”

Murphy said Downtown Public House staff look forward to the Wizarding Weekend as it brings new and regular customers to the bar.

“It’s going to be a nice influx of people coming into Wilson from Raleigh, Greenville and other places to partake in a nice weekend where they can share their love of Harry Potter. There’s going to be different things like people dressed up in their clothing, they are going to have their wands, everybody will be from their (Hogwarts) sorted houses, and there are tons of different events that can be found on the Wizarding Weekend Facebook page, brought to you by Casita Brewing. It’s just going to be great.”

• The Hub, located at 211 South St. S., will be part of the bar crawl both Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

• Ice & Fuel Co., at 117 Barnes St. W. is featuring four new drinks for the Wizarding Weekend’s pub crawl, each one color-coordinated to represent a Hogwart’s house: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

“We were a part of it last year, and Wizarding Weekend has grown every year and we’re so excited to be a part of it again,” said Taylor Carlone, co-owner of Ice & Fuel Co. “Our whole team are Potter-heads, myself included, so we can’t wait to nerd out with everyone.”

Ice & Fuel Co. will be open Friday and Saturday from noon to midnight, and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.

• Larema Coffee House, 109 Tarboro St., will host Coffee is Magic on Friday and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Larema will offer butterbeer coffee and themed table games. The games will be free to play.

• Ruckus & Redemption, 220 Barnes St, will be part of the pub crawl on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

MAGICAL FOOD AND TREATS

• Take part in the Horcrux Hunt at Honeydukes in the new location of Treat Yo’ Self Bakery, 100 Pine St., Suite C at Centro at Pine/Nash from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Find all seven horcruxes to defeat dark magic and be entered into a drawing to win a magical prize. Enjoy sorting hat cupcakes, chocolate frogs, acid pops, magical candy potions, gummy slugs, soft pretzel wands and butterbeer floats.

• Charge your wands with the power of possibility at the Whirlidogs Café & Training Center at 215 Goldsboro St. from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Visitors can cast their disappearing spells on Whirlidogs’ specialty hot dogs: the Wilt-sonian Wizard, Lord VoldeBark, Ron Cheesely, Ravenslaw, Death Eater and The Dog that Shall Not Be Named.

• Whirligig Popcorn Shoppe, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 222 Tarboro St. W., will have plenty of magic popping in the kettles. Find popcorn for every Hogwarts house and pop into a magical flavor blend with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Popcorn.

• Two food trucks will be parked outside Casita during Wizarding Weekend. Enjoy the magic of Bruno’s Burger Bar food truck on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m., and fall under the spell of Empire Eats food truck on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

Begin winding down the weekend by celebrating Harry Potter’s birthday on Sunday with a free cupcake giveaway from noon until the cupcakes run out at Casita Brewing Company, 217 South St.

The full weekend schedule can be found on the Casita Brewing Company Facebook page, at the shortened link tinyurl.com/mu42rc56 .

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