If Wilmington, Delaware, and the Brandywine Valley are on your vacation radar, here is what’s new for foodies, families and all visitors to the historic, riverfront city as we head into summer.
What’s New & Coming Soon
For Foodies:
- Ezme: Located in the heart of downtown Wilmington, Ezme is the newest concept from award-winning Bardea Restaurant Group and Chef Antimo DiMeo. Inspired by travels through Turkey, Greece and the Aegean Coast, Ezme serves modern coastal Mediterranean cuisine
- Moro Bistro: Chef Michael DiBianca is reviving his once-popular downtown Wilmington bistro, which operated in a townhouse a few blocks away, from 2002 to 2016. The new business isn’t a reprint, but it revives a few favorites: bone marrow and “tuna study.”
- Constitution Yards: After closing in 2024, this riverfront beer garden is back. Offering classic American fare, an ever changing rotation of craft beers, seasonal specialty cocktails and wine. Plus live music on Fridays and Saturdays, sports on the big screen and axe throwing.
For Golf Enthusiasts:
- Coming soon to the Riverfront, The Clubhouse of Delaware is set to open in August. This 8,000-square-foot venue will feature nine high-tech golf simulators and it will be the first facility in the nation to include a real putting platform at every simulator, as it is designed to replicate natural green undulations for a true short game experience. The space also includes a full service restaurant and bar built around shareable dishes.
For Families:
- Strike Zone Arena: brings immersive battle zones, structured gameplay and Nerf action. Coming soon.
- The Delaware Children’s Museum: Delaware’s first and only kid-centric museum, with 37,000 square feet of interactive fun experiences has opened an immersive Net Maze where kids climb, problem-solve and build confidence through multi-level pathways, climbing chimneys and suspended bridges.
New Arts & Cultural Exhibits
- Living Indigenous at Delaware Art Museum: this new exhibit showcases and celebrates the creative contributions of Indigenous artists living in and connected to Delaware.
- The historic Du Pont estate, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, has opened At Home at Winterthur, a major new exhibition that invites visitors to experience the full story of Winterthur as a landscape, a home, a place of work, and a world-renowned center for decorative arts, scholarship, and conservation. The exhibition coincides with the 75th anniversary of the museum.
Luxury Hotel News:
The new Gatsby Garden Retreat package ($1,250 per night) at the iconic Hotel du Pont celebrates the hotel’s history as a haven for creatives during the Jazz Age, famously welcoming F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald, who frequented the hotel’s elegant Green Room, now known as the award winning Le Cavalier restaurant. The Gatsby Garden Retreat package includes a two-night stay in a signature suite; dinner for two, including a Gatsby Garden-inspired cocktail flight at the hotel’s Le Cavalier in the iconic Green Room, and two private tours of Du Pont legacy estates: the Hagley Museum and Library and Nemours Estate, where manicured gardens and grand landscapes echo the opulence and illusion of Gatsby’s world.
Plus in-room amenities:
- A curated library featuring The Great Gatsby, alongside works by Fitzgerald and his contemporaries and muses, including Ernest Hemingway and Edith Wharton, as well as writings by Zelda herself.
- A Hotel du Pont branded tote bag and leatherbound journals and pens.
- Afternoon pick- me- ups with fresh flowers delivered to the room, reflective of the seasonal blooms found at nearby estates
