09/21/2026
For the past 35 years, we have considered it an honor to feed, entertain, and provide a gathering place for our local community. We’ve had the joy of owning and operating several restaurants throughout Beaufort and Carteret County over the years, with so much of that journey culminating in City Kitchen.
For us, restaurants have always been about more than what is served on the plate and if there is one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that restaurants have a way of creating families of their own.
That is what we always hoped City Kitchen would be. Of course, we wanted to provide exceptional food, service, and an experience we could be proud of—but more than anything, we wanted to create a place where people felt at home. Somewhere our staff could become family, our guests could become friends, and those same faces would find their way back to our tables year after year.
So, when we knew it was time for us to retire, it only felt right that family would play a part in what came next.
We established a foundation of trust and respect while working with the team behind Beaufort Restaurant Holdings, when Bryan and his family sold the Rhumbar to BRH. We knew they understood the things we have always valued most, and that they love City Kitchen for everything it already is. There is something very special about knowing that as we step away, City Kitchen is joining familiar hands and familiar faces once again.
Our wonderful staff will remain, our recipes will stay the same, and the family that has grown around City Kitchen will continue on.
We are immensely proud of what City Kitchen has become, but even more grateful for the people who made it what it is.
To our staff: thank you for becoming part of our family and for the loyalty, hard work, and heart you have poured into this place alongside us.
To our Patrons: thank you for welcoming us, supporting us, and gathering around our tables for 35 years. Thank you for the meals, memories, friendships, celebrations, and ordinary nights that somehow became some of our favorite ones.
And to City Kitchen: thank you for becoming everything we dreamed you could be.
City Kitchen will reopen on October 1st, this time under the capable ownership of BRH.
While this chapter is coming to a close for the two of us, it feels a lot less like saying goodbye and a lot more like watching someone you love move into their next chapter.
We’ll just be enjoying it from the other side of the table now.
With love and gratitude,
Bryan & Karen Carithers
