Another homegrown business has joined the lineup at The Crossroads at Independence.
 
Live.Eat.Surf Restaurants is opening a K38 Baja Grill location at the Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center being built at Carolina Beach Road and Independence Boulevard.
 
K38 joins Wilmington-based Port City Java at Crossroads, whose completion has been slowed due to the nationwide steel shortage, according to Dean Scarafoni of Live Oak Development Co.
 
A Live.Eat.Surf spokesperson said the new location, its seventh and the first on the southern side of Wilmington, is expected to open this summer. Live.Eat.Surf signed on to the project last March, despite the impact COVID-19 has had on much of the restaurant industry.
 
“We found a great location that works for our brand in the Wilmington area,” Live.Eat.Surf wrote in a statement to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. “We didn’t want to pass it up. Harris Teeter makes it “a great anchor that fits well into the community and has great visibility.”
 
Another big factor for choosing the location is not visible from Carolina Beach Road but dominates a nearby stretch of River Road – the thousands of residents of the massive Riverlights community. Hundreds of new apartment and condominium units have also gone up on the west end of Independence Boulevard, Echo Farms and Carolina Beach Road.
 
The original K38 opened in 1993 on Oleander Drive. Although some of the subsequent locations are branded differently, they are all Baja-inspired, Mexican-themed, the statement from Live.Eat.Surf said.
 
“The menus vary slightly by location and give the public different options, but the core menus are very similar.”
 
As for the restaurant's look: “It will be a mixture of both K38s,” the spokesperson said. “The bar will be similar to Porters Neck. It will have garage doors, and it will have the first semi-covered permanent patio.”
 
Live.Eat.Surf attributes its long string of success to three basic ingredients: “We haven’t changed who we are, recipes have stayed consistent, great price point and we continue to give back to the community.”