Firebelly Lounge leaves downtown for Monkey Junction

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — If you go to downtown Wilmington to eat, you might be wondering where Firebelly Lounge went.

After more than a decade downtown, the bar and restaurant closed its doors and followed a recent trend out of downtown and into Monkey Junction.

Owner Dan Boyle says he opened Firebelly in 1999 as a place where people could come eat, drink and listen to live music. However after a noise ordinance was passed in 2002 and multiple complaints from a neighbor, he was forced to abandon that model and turn Firebelly into strictly a restaurant.

Boyle says the move to Monkey Junction will allow Firebelly to once again have live music, with room to expand seating as well as its Tex-Mex menu. But Boyle says there are other factors that led to the move.

“It’s growing, and it doesn’t stop. It seems like Myrtle Grove has been trending on the upswing now for ten years, and it just keeps on growing,” Boyle said. “This is a market that’s really untapped. I’ve been wanting to get out here for quite some time, and I’ve finally been able to get that.”

Boyle says he hopes the new location in The Village at Myrtle Grove Shopping Center can open some time in early 2014.