Meet Darell Ariola, Culinary Creative Consultant at Blueberry's Grill — the standards, systems, and menu direction behind all three Carolina locations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Darell Ariola serves as Culinary Creative Consultant at Blueberry's Grill, shaping the culinary direction across all three locations: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, and Wilmington. He established the scratch-made standards that define the Blueberry's Grill experience, and his vision blends coastal Carolina flavors, Southern comfort, and modern brunch creativity.<br/><br/>That's the short version. The longer version is that almost everything you taste here passed through his hands first, from the batter recipes to the way a kitchen line moves on a packed Sunday.

Meet Darell Ariola, the Creative Behind the Blueberry's Grill Menu

Darell Ariola serves as Culinary Creative Consultant at Blueberry's Grill, shaping the culinary direction across all three locations: <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/myrtle-beach/">Myrtle Beach</a>, <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/north-myrtle-beach/">North Myrtle Beach</a>, and <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/wilmington/">Wilmington</a>. He established the scratch-made standards that define the Blueberry's Grill experience, and his vision blends coastal Carolina flavors, Southern comfort, and modern brunch creativity. That's the short version. The longer version is that almost everything you taste here passed through his hands first, from the batter recipes to the way a kitchen line moves on a packed Sunday.

Who is Darell Ariola?

Darell carries two roles at once. Brand-wide, he sets the menu direction and the scratch-made standards, deciding what Blueberry's cooks and how it should be done. Operationally, he serves as Kitchen Lead at all three locations, where his systems tie together kitchen rhythm, team movement, and equipment planning to deliver speed of service without sacrificing precision. In plain terms: he designs the dishes, then he designs the kitchen that can cook them to order for a full dining room without cutting a single corner.

What does a Culinary Creative Consultant actually do?

Blueberry's Grill runs one <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/menu/">core menu</a> across all three locations, and Darell leads all three kitchens. That structure is unusual for a multi-location restaurant, and it's deliberate. The same person who wrote the standard walks the line that keeps it, whether that line is at Grande Dunes in <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/myrtle-beach/">Myrtle Beach</a>, on the waterfront at <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/north-myrtle-beach/">Barefoot Landing</a>, or at <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/wilmington/">Lumina Station</a> near Wrightsville Beach. Daily specials change by location. The standard doesn't.

One standard, three kitchens

You can taste the approach in the details. The Blueberry Hushpuppies are an original recipe built on blue cornmeal and blueberries. The Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast starts with grilled challah and vanilla custard. The Blue Ridge Salmon gets a house-made blueberry maple reduction, and the Crab Cake Benedict is built on a house-made lump crab cake. Every one of them is cooked when you order it, not before. Come taste the standard for yourself. We're open daily for breakfast, brunch, and lunch at all three locations, and the kitchen runs the same way at every single one.

What his standards taste like on the plate

What scratch-made means at Blueberry's Grill: cooked to order, in-house recipes, one standard across Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, and Wilmington.

"Scratch-made" gets printed on a lot of menus. Here's what it means on ours: at Blueberry's Grill, every dish is prepared in-house and cooked when you order it, at all three of our Carolina locations, every day. No pre-cooked plates waiting under a lamp. Nothing dressed up from a box.

What Scratch-Made Actually Means at Blueberry's Grill

It means the kitchen starts from ingredients, not from packages. The pancakes are made with real buttermilk and fresh blueberries. The hushpuppy batter is an original recipe built on blue cornmeal and blueberries. Every French toast in the house starts with challah. The Crab Cake Benedict is built on a house-made lump crab cake, the Blue Ridge Salmon is finished with a house-made blueberry maple reduction, and the burgers are half-pound Angus. Even the coffee holds the line: 100% Colombian, all day.

What does scratch-made mean here?

Scratch-made is only half of it. The other half is timing. Your plate isn't started until you order it, which is why the eggs arrive the way you asked for them and the French toast comes off the grill hot instead of warmed back up. Cooking to order is slower to promise and better to eat, so we built the whole operation around it.

Cooked to order, not cooked ahead

Not here, and that's by design. <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/blog/meet-darell-ariola/">Darell Ariola</a>, our Culinary Creative Consultant and Kitchen Lead at all three locations, built the kitchen systems around one goal: speed of service without sacrificing precision. Kitchen rhythm, team movement, and equipment planning all point at the same thing, a made-right plate that still gets to your table fast.

Doesn't cooked-to-order mean a long wait?

Blueberry's Grill runs one <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/menu/">core menu</a> across <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/myrtle-beach/">Myrtle Beach</a>, <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/north-myrtle-beach/">North Myrtle Beach</a>, and <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/wilmington/">Wilmington</a>. Same recipes, same scratch-made rule, same cooked-to-order timing. Daily specials vary by location, and the standard never does. Yelp named our North Myrtle Beach location to its Top 100 Brunch Spots in the U.S. in 2023 and 2024, and the kitchen there runs exactly like the other two. Gluten-friendly and lactose-friendly substitutions are available. Just tell your server what you need. Come for the 100% scratch-made brunch. We're open every day for breakfast, brunch, and lunch, and the first pour of Colombian coffee is waiting.

The same standard at all three locations

The story of the Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast — grilled challah, vanilla custard, and how it became the most-photographed plate at Blueberry's Grill.

Every restaurant has one dish that gets photographed before anyone picks up a fork. At Blueberry's Grill, it's the Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast, the plate people order because a friend told them to and then tell their own friends about.

The Story of the Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast

It's our French toast built the way the name promises: thick slices of challah, grilled, with vanilla custard and the blueberry finish that gives the dish its first name. It borrows its idea from the dessert, crème brûlée, and turns it into breakfast. Sweet enough to feel like a treat, substantial enough to be the whole meal.

What is the Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast?

Every French toast at Blueberry's Grill starts with challah, and that's not an accident. Challah is rich and eggy with a soft, tight crumb, so it drinks up custard without falling apart on the grill. It holds a crisp edge outside and stays tender in the middle, which is exactly what a French toast should do. Once we found the bread that behaves that way, we stopped looking.

Why challah?

At every Blueberry's Grill, every day. The Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast is on the <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/menu/">core menu</a> at all three locations: <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/myrtle-beach/">Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach</a>, <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/north-myrtle-beach/">Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach</a>, and <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/wilmington/">Lumina Station in Wilmington</a>, where it's become a special favorite of the garden-patio crowd near Wrightsville Beach. Like everything in our kitchens, it's <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/blog/what-scratch-made-means/">scratch-made</a> and cooked when you order it.

Where can you order it?

The kitchen's answer: a cup of our 100% Colombian coffee, which cuts the sweetness cleanly. The bar's answer: a mimosa. And if your table wants a savory counterweight, the Charleston Shrimp and Grits sitting across from this French toast is about as good as a table gets. Come try the plate everyone photographs. We're open daily until 3 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 a.m. in Myrtle Beach and 7 a.m. in North Myrtle Beach and Wilmington.

What should you pair it with?

A first-timer's guide to the Blueberry's Grill menu — sweet plates, savory benedicts and skillets, and how to build the perfect table order.

First time at Blueberry's Grill and staring at a menu full of contenders? Here's the honest way to order, from the people who cook it. Everything is scratch-made and cooked to order at all three locations, so the only real question is which direction you're headed: sweet, savory, or the smart move, both.

Sweet, Savory, or Both: How to Order at Blueberry's Grill

One order of Blueberry Hushpuppies for the middle of the table. It's an original recipe built on blue cornmeal and blueberries, it arrives fast, and it gives everyone something to argue over while the mains cook.

Start the table with hushpuppies

The Blueberry Pancakes are made with real buttermilk and fresh blueberries. The Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast is grilled challah with vanilla custard, the most photographed plate in the house. And the Bananas Foster and Walnuts French Toast takes the same challah somewhere warmer. Every French toast here starts with challah. That's the rule.

If you're going sweet

Two headliners. The Crab Cake Benedict is built on a house-made lump crab cake with remoulade. The Charleston Shrimp and Grits brings sautéed shrimp, smoked bacon, and kielbasa in a bloody mary sauce. Around them sit the omelets, the skillets, and, for the biggest appetites, half-pound Angus burgers and a Monte Cristo stacked with smoked pit ham, smoked turkey, american, and swiss.

If you're going savory

Tables that know what they're doing split the order: one sweet plate, one savory plate, trade halfway. A benedict plus the Crème Brûlée French Toast covers the whole spectrum, and nobody leaves wondering what the other side tasted like.

The both strategy

Coffee is 100% Colombian, all day. The full bar pours mimosas and Bloody Marys from open to close. Pick a lane there too, or don't. Gluten-friendly and lactose-friendly substitutions are available. Just tell your server what you need. However you order, your plate is cooked when the ticket hits the kitchen, not before. We're open daily at all three locations.

What to drink

Planning brunch at Barefoot Landing? What to order at Blueberry's Grill North Myrtle Beach, when to come, the waterfront patio, and how the Yelp Waitlist works.

Barefoot Landing sits right on the Intracoastal Waterway in North Myrtle Beach, and Blueberry's Grill has held down the brunch end of it since the summer of 2018. If it's your first visit, here's how to do the morning right.

A First-Timer's Guide to Brunch at Barefoot Landing

We're open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The line builds mid-morning, so the two easiest windows are before 9:30 a.m. or after 1 p.m. Summer and weekends run on walk-ins, and you can join the Yelp Waitlist the same day through the Yelp app, our website, or a quick phone call. One tip worth knowing: check in at the host stand within 10 minutes of your time, or the system gives your spot away.

When to come

The patio, if you can get it. It sits over the water on the Intracoastal, boats going by, and dogs are welcome out there, with a cold water bowl on request. Inside works too, and on cold or rainy mornings the dining room is the move. There's no wrong answer, just a waterfront one.

Where to sit

Yelp named this location to its Top 100 Brunch Spots in the U.S. two years in a row, #39 in 2023 and #41 in 2024, and the plates that earned it are all still on the <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/menu/">menu</a>. The Crab Cake Benedict is built on a house-made lump crab cake. The Charleston Shrimp and Grits comes loaded with sautéed shrimp, smoked bacon, and kielbasa. The <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/blog/blueberry-creme-brulee-french-toast/">Blueberry Crème Brûlée French Toast</a> handles the sweet side on grilled challah, and the Smoked Salmon Benedict splits the difference. Start with Blueberry Hushpuppies either way.

What to order

Parking in the shared Barefoot Landing lot is free, so come early, eat first, then walk it off around the Landing. The shops are steps away, and the Alabama Theatre and House of Blues are a short walk from the table. Locals from Windy Hill and Barefoot Resort treat this as the regular stop for a reason; visitors just need one morning to see it. Come find out what a brunch over the water does for the rest of your day. We're at <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/north-myrtle-beach/">Barefoot Landing</a> every morning at 7.

Make a morning of it

Where Blueberry's Grill began: the 2017 Grande Dunes flagship in Myrtle Beach, doors at 6:30 a.m., and the scratch-made standard that started it all.

Every brand has a first door. Ours is on N Kings Hwy in the Grande Dunes area of Myrtle Beach, where Blueberry's Grill opened in 2017 and set the standard the other two locations were built on.

Grande Dunes Mornings: Inside the Original Blueberry's Grill

The Grande Dunes location is the original. The <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/blog/what-scratch-made-means/">scratch-made rule</a>, the cooked-to-order timing, and the quick-turn service model that keeps a full dining room moving were all worked out here first, under the standards <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/blog/meet-darell-ariola/">Darell Ariola</a> set as Culinary Creative Consultant. When the brand grew to Barefoot Landing and then to Wilmington, it grew from this room. You'll find us near 82nd Avenue North, close to the Marriott Myrtle Beach Resort & Spa.

Where it all started

Myrtle Beach opens at 6:30 a.m., a full half hour before the other two locations. That half hour matters to the first-light crowd: beach walkers, early shifts, golfers with a tee time, anyone who believes breakfast tastes better before the day gets loud. We serve straight through to 3 p.m., every day.

The earliest doors in the brand

A bright dining room inside, and a patio outside that welcomes dogs, with a cold water bowl on request. The patio also stays music-free on purpose, so morning conversation carries just fine. Parking in the shared plaza lot is free.

What the room is like

This location has earned community recognition for Best Breakfast and Best Brunch on the Grand Strand, and the plates behind that reputation are on the <a href="https://blueberrysgrill.com/menu/">menu</a>. The Blueberry Pancakes are real buttermilk with fresh blueberries. The Monte Cristo stacks smoked pit ham and smoked turkey with american and swiss. The Charleston Shrimp and Grits eats like a Lowcountry argument settled, and the Blueberry Hushpuppies, blue cornmeal and blueberries, started here with the brand. Come eat where it began. Doors open at 6:30, the coffee is 100% Colombian, and the kitchen has been doing this since 2017.

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