THE SOUTH
Vivian Howard Opens Theodosia, a Restaurant Inspired by Southern Lore and Local Waters
By Eric Barton | June 13, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Chef Vivian Howard has made a career out of honoring the South without romanticizing it. Her food tells stories—of farms and front porches, of aging cookbooks and aunties who never wrote anything down. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that her newest restaurant, Theodosia, comes with a built-in ghost story.
Located on North Carolina’s Outer Banks at the newly transformed Sanderling Resort, Theodosia is Howard’s first coastal concept and her most theatrical to date.
Chef Vivian Howard
Named after Theodosia Burr—daughter of Aaron Burr, rumored to have vanished at sea near the Outer Banks—the restaurant borrows from the 19th-century mystique of maritime legends, layering Howard’s signature storytelling into every detail, from menu to décor.
“Every aspect of Theodosia is influenced by its setting,” Howard says. “The tides, traditions, and tight-knit communities here—they all shape how we eat and gather.” It’s her first project on the Outer Banks, and her first since A Chef’s Life wrapped up, reminding us Howard is more than a TV personality; she’s a working chef with something to say.
Tuna belly tartare
Her menu leans on coastal Southern classics but spins them in ways only she can. There’s flounder toast with crab rice and basil beurre blanc, duck glazed in blueberry barbecue sauce, and slow-baked grouper in a Frogmore-style broth, served with crisp-edged cornmeal dodgers. A shrimp cocktail might arrive traditional—or in the form of “Miss Vivian’s Shrimp Ball,” which feels like something your great-aunt might have made for bridge club, only better. The sleeper hit? Flaked bluefish and potato puffs with herbed horseradish cream, the kind of dish that walks the line between comfort and elegance like it’s easy.
Petit crab claws
Lemon pie
And then there’s dessert. Howard’s lemon pie with a Ritz cracker crust manages to be nostalgic without pandering—a trick she’s mastered better than almost anyone cooking Southern food today.
The cocktail program, meanwhile, reads like someone raided a rum-runner’s hideout. Built around cane spirits and whispered legends of Prohibition-era stills hidden along the Alligator River, the drinks list leans moody and complex, pairing nicely with the soft lighting and views of the Currituck Sound.
The space, designed by Ward + Gray, looks ripped from the pages of Southern Living: rich textures, dusky tones, and a view that seems to stretch into the past. It’s all part of the Sanderling’s $15 million renovation in honor of its 40th anniversary.
The Sanderling Resort
For Howard, the opening marks another chapter in a career that has ranged from New York fine dining to PBS stardom to a line of smart fridges called Viv’s Fridge. She still runs restaurants in Kinston and Charleston, and she still writes—cookbooks, essays, occasional heartbreaks disguised as recipe intros.
Theodosia
Howard
But this restaurant feels different. Maybe it’s the water, or the ghost story, or the fact that it’s seasonal—open when the Outer Banks is humming and then gone with the tide. “Theodosia is about this place,” Howard says. “And about the stories we tell when we’re gathered around a table.”
And maybe also about the stories we leave behind.
