NC restaurant known for housemade pasta is named one of America’s best
The coastal outpost of an acclaimed Raleigh chef has been named one of the best restaurants in the country.
Olivero in downtown Wilmington landed on USA Today’s list of America’s best restaurants for 2025. It was the only spot from North Carolina on the 44-restaurant list.
Of Olivero, USA Today noted the restaurant’s blend of the familiar and the new.
“Olivero’s menu is familiar with unexpected twists — house-made pasta with octopus Bolognese, beignets topped with mortadella and fontina fonduta, a shareable plate of grilled chicken thighs with crispy okra,” reads the blurb.
Owned by chef Sunny Gerhart and led by chef and partner Lauren Krall Ivey, Olivero specializes in Italian dishes with a coastal North Carolina backbone. That means freshly made pastas, at least a half dozen nightly, wood-roasted fish and locally harvested shellfish.
The team behind Olivero
Gerhart and Krall Ivey were both recently named semifinalists for the James Beard award for Best Chef: Southeast. We’ll find out if they’re finalists on April 2 when the James Beard Foundation narrows down its list of nominees.
This is Gerhart’s second semifinalist mention, following his 2022 inclusion for St. Roch in Raleigh. For Krall Ivey, who previously helmed the kitchen at Ashley Christensen’s Death & Taxes, it’s her first.
Similarly, Gerhart comes from the Ashley Christensen restaurant universe, starting as a sous chef on the opening team of Poole’s Diner in 2007.
In 2017, Gerhart opened his first restaurant of his own, St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar. The Louisiana-accented oyster bar gives New Orleans vibes with North Carolina seafood. While creating downtown Raleigh’s best raw bar, St. Roch also offered glimpses of Gerhart’s pasta dreams, serving a rich alligator bolognese over thick housemade rigatoni.
Housemade pastas are the heart of Olivero
With Olivero, Gerhart blends Spanish and Italian influences and has created a cozy corner on the edge of downtown Wilmington. The prize seats are at the kitchen counter where diners can watch the magic of dishes being constructed and feel the warmth of wood and embers.
But it’s the pastas where Olivero finds its heart.
“I love making pasta, your hands are in it, building a dough, working on a craft,” Gerhart said in 2022 while building Olivero. “Your hands are in the flour, you’ve got flour on your apron, you’re rolling out a dough. That’s a big part of what I love about cooking.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
