Fleming Street Bakery & Southern Cuisine in Spencer, North Carolina, served its final First Sunday Buffet on October 4. Rising food costs and waste brought an end to a monthly meal that, according to the restaurant, had run for about a year and a half.
In its October 3 announcement, Fleming Street described the difficult adjustments facing small restaurants and said the buffet had become a challenge it could no longer ignore. Fleming Street remains open at 400A S. Salisbury Avenue, owned and operated by Quinta Ellis, whose work includes the restaurant, bakery and catering.
A final Sunday together
The final buffet was advertised for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the last seating at 3 p.m. Advertised admission was $24.99 for adults and $12.99 for children 12 and under, with children three and under eating free. Buffet and dessert were included in that farewell Sunday’s price.
A June 2025 Salisbury Post feature captured some of the care behind Fleming Street’s Southern cooking at its Juneteenth meal: fried chicken and flounder, macaroni and cheese, cabbage and other vegetables, with rolls, hushpuppies and strawberry shortcake. The feature also traced the Fleming Street name to Ellis’s family heritage in Woodleaf.
The restaurant’s farewell dwelled on something a buffet ticket cannot quite account for: the slower Sunday pace and the extra time to talk with guests. Fleming Street thanked the diners who had gathered with family and friends to enjoy their favorites. During that roughly eighteen-month run, the monthly buffet gave those conversations a regular place on the calendar.
