Broken Eagle restaurant to open with new owner

A Herritage Street restaurant vacant for more than a year will open again with a familiar face at the grill.

Bobby Carraway, long associated with fine food and gracious dining in Lenoir County, has purchased the Broken Eagle Eatery, 220 N. Herritage St. The restaurant, previously owned by Jan Barwick and Ted Sampley, closed just after Christmas 2004. Carraway will retain the Broken Eagle name, but hasn’t decided whether he will call it “Bobby Carraway’s Broken Eagle Eatery” or Broken Eagle Eatery, Bobby Carraway, Chef and Operator.

Carraway left his Frenchmen’s Creek restaurant on March 6.

“We’ll start getting things ready in earnest tomorrow,” Carraway said Wednesday. “We’ll probably be able to open in two weeks, I hope.”

The restaurant will be open seven days a week. Lunch will be served daily with a buffet-style on Sundays. Dinners will be served Mondays through Saturdays.

The Broken Eagle, known for its large fireplace in the main dining room, antique furnishings and Charleston-style patio out front, will feature menu items that include steaks, seafood, Eastern North Carolina dishes and recipes with Cajun and Charleston flavors. Carraway will continue to use the fireplace during cold months and has more plans for the patio.

“We might set up a wine bar out there,” he said. “We’ll have music on tape, some jazz and some easy listening. It will be an outdoor area for casual dining, or for a glass of wine and some hors d’oeuvres.”

The 1700s-1800s furnishings will remain. Carraway said the restaurant will have a “casual, laid-back and relaxed atmosphere.”

The wine list will offer an excellent selection, including several North Carolina wines, Carraway said. The Broken Eagle also will have a full bar.

The gift shop in the front of the restaurant will be eliminated and Carraway will add more seating.

Excellent service was the hallmark of Carraway’s former restaurant. He hopes to bring the same service to the Broken Eagle Eatery.

“We’ll start interviewing staff the first of the week,” he said. “We’ll be hiring a couple of cooks and some service people.”

The public will get a chance to meet Carraway and the new restaurant’s staff a couple of days before the official opening. He will host an open house, with wine and snacks, before getting down to the serious business of serving paying customers.

“People can come in, see the restaurant, look at the menu and see what we’re doing,” Carraway said.