At 112 and 114 North Howe Street, a cookie counter and a tea bar now sit side by side. Southport Cookies is at 112. Southport Spices, run by Manuela Suslik, is next door at 114. In June, the StarNews named both among the downtown shops facing their first North Carolina Fourth of July Festival crowds this year.
Calling the cookie shop new is only half right, though. The same is true of most of what changed on Howe Street this year. Walk the corridor block by block and you see a business district rearranging itself from within. Owners already working in Southport moved, merged, reopened, or put family property to work. The one truly new building downtown is still behind a construction fence.
A bakery that moved, not one that arrived
Southport Cookies opened in February 2024, according to a July 2026 profile of owner Joelle Ingram in WILMA. In its January/February 2026 issue, Brunswick Marketplace reported that the bakery had moved to 112 N. Howe St. and planned to open there in mid-January. The menu covers cookies and baked specialties, with vegan and gluten-free options.
The move put the bakery in the heart of downtown, steps from established stops like Spike's Dairy Bar at 201 N. Howe St. and Bull Frog Corner, the longtime candy and children's shop where Howe meets Moore. Next door, Southport Spices has settled in quickly enough to host the Southport-Oak Island Area Chamber's "Tea with the Girls" morning on Tuesday, Sept. 15, with Suslik speaking about teas and spices.
Around the corner on Nash, two shops became one
One block east, 114 E. Nash Street shows the same pattern from another direction. The State Port Pilot reported that Amanda Lake and Tori Howard used to run their businesses in separate locations. When the Nash Street space came open, they combined them into Needful Things & Moody Bean Book Café. The Chamber held a ribbon-cutting there on Sept. 2.
The pairing is practical. Needful Things is an independent bookstore that carries best sellers, local authors, and gifts, and it hosts book signings regularly. Moody Bean runs the coffee side from the same small shop. Two existing local businesses now share one downtown address, and the merger opened up a spot for browsing and a coffee that neither offered alone.
The corner that is still a fence
These shops all moved into existing storefronts because downtown has had almost no new space to offer. The exception sits at the corner of W. Nash and N. Howe streets, where the old Carr Insurance building stood.
The StarNews reported in June that crews had broken ground there. The project had been in the works for six years, and the old building was torn down and the lot cleared more than a year before construction started. The plan calls for a three-story building with a rooftop bar, seven retail shops, office space, and four rental units.
The schedule has slipped. Earlier StarNews coverage from October 2024 said the hope was to finish in fall 2026. That story also reported that Barbee Enterprises of Southport filed the site plan, which the Planning Board approved in 2023. The June 2026 headline now points to a 2027 opening. No tenants have been named publicly, and that includes the rooftop bar. For at least another season, then, Howe Street's changes will keep coming through turnover in the buildings it already has.
Up the 500 block, a family property and a neighbor's burgers
North of downtown, the 500 block holds the biggest new arrival on the corridor, and it also grew out of local roots. Cape Side Brewing opened in April 2026 at 511 N. Howe St. The StarNews reported in March that the property had been in the family of Alan McDonald's wife for 50 years.
The brewery's website lists these hours:
- Monday through Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m.
- Sunday, 1 to 9 p.m.
The tap list runs from Basic Beach lager and Low Tide, a Kölsch-style ale, to East and West Coast IPAs, a sour, and a tangerine wheat. Cider and sparkling wine are on the menu too.
The October 2026 calendar shows how much the brewery leans on its neighbors. On Oct. 1 it listed a 4 p.m. delivery from Dot's on Howe, a family-owned spot on the same block at 501 N. Howe St. that serves burgers, barbecue, and beef hot dogs. Other nights that week brought Johnny Cheesehead Food Truck, Ted's Smash Burgers, and Coastal 523 Food Truck, plus live music from The Salty Dawgs, Brown Dirt Cowboys, and The Doorsmen. Cape Side Yoga Club met on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 11:30 a.m. The month also includes a run club, Mahjong, and Capetoberfest.
Farther north, a reopening and a ribbon
The 800 and 1100 blocks add two more examples. Murphy's Boutique has a Chamber ribbon-cutting set for Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 807 N. Howe Street, Suite A.
At 1102 N. Howe St., Southport Smokehouse shut down after a fire on June 16. It reopened Saturday, June 27, eleven days later and just ahead of the Fourth of July festival, the StarNews reported.
Here is the corridor at a glance, south to north:
| Address | Business | What changed in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 112 N. Howe St. | Southport Cookies | Moved here in January; first opened in February 2024 |
| 114 N. Howe St. | Southport Spices | New tea bar, owner Manuela Suslik |
| 114 E. Nash St. | Needful Things & Moody Bean Book Café | Two shops that ran separately now share one space |
| W. Nash at N. Howe | Former Carr Insurance site | Under construction; opening planned for 2027 |
| 501 N. Howe St. | Dot's on Howe | Family-owned; delivers to the brewery up the block |
| 511 N. Howe St. | Cape Side Brewing | Opened in April on a family property |
| 807 N. Howe St., Suite A | Murphy's Boutique | Ribbon-cutting Oct. 13 |
| 1102 N. Howe St. | Southport Smokehouse | Reopened June 27 after a June 16 fire |
Off Howe, the pattern holds and then changes
Head over to North Atlantic Avenue and the pattern still holds. Indochine Express at 1131 N. Atlantic Ave. closed on New Year's Day after its restaurant group reorganized, Port City Daily reported. By mid-April, the StarNews reported that Parichat Mongkhonkham, who owns a popular Asian restaurant on Oak Island, had begun soft-opening service in the same space. Her new place, Nour, serves Thai, Vietnamese, and French dishes. She calls the concept "where passion meets flavor." A restaurant owner from just across the bridge took over a dining room the town already knew.
Out on Long Beach Road, the openings take a different form. Torii Hibachi Express, a fast-casual hibachi and teriyaki concept from Lazo Hospitality Group, is going into 4961 Long Beach Road SE, beside Papa John's in Live Oak Village Shopping Center. Port City Daily reported on Oct. 7 that it is targeting a late October or early November opening. In March, Ray Ray's Chicken Shack opened at 5028 Southport Crossing Way, according to a StarNews roundup. New quick-service spots are landing in shopping centers along the highway corridor. Downtown Howe Street, meanwhile, has been filling its existing storefronts with operators who already had ties to Southport.
Questions about any block on Howe Street, from the lot at the Nash corner to what's opening near your favorite coffee stop, are the kind we enjoy talking through over a walk downtown. Vic R Rosado and the team keep up with these changes because we live and work here too. Contact Us whenever you'd like a local perspective on how Southport's main street is changing.
