In the timeline of Copper Penny’s Beer Battered Onion Rings, there are a few significant markers.
From the time the pub and restaurant opened in 2004 at 109 Chestnut St. in downtown Wilmington, the chefs dipped and coated the rings to order. They were popular, but weren’t ordered, necessarily, in larger quantities than other favorite menu items.
Then, in 2018, Copper Penny was one of the places that celebrity chef Guy Fieri visited for his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Food Network series – along with restaurants like Cast Iron Kitchen, Ceviche’s and Fork N Cork.
Ask any of these restaurateurs who were featured on the show, and they’ll tell you the dishes can take on a life of their own. Fieri knows this, too, and warned Brian Cadwallader, owner of Copper Penny, on his way out the door. As soon as the episode aired, demand soared. Especially for the onion rings.
Then came the pandemic, which changed a lot in the hospitality industry. One of the unexpected consequences was those same beer battered rings were taken off the menu for 18 months, because they are time consuming and labor intensive.