How To Plan A Date Night in Johnston County, NC (40-mins from Raleigh)

Craig and I are always on the hunt for unique date night ideas and are often tired of the same old options in the Raleigh area, so we opted for a date day out in Johnston County. Whether it’s daytime or nighttime dates, Craig and I are always crafting unique ways the two of us can connect via experiences.

We typically put exploration and travel at the center of it and attempt to do more than one thing – it can’t just be dinner. We have to add in a cocktail drink (or brewery) before it, and maybe a concert after it, or do some outdoor activities. If you’d like to know how you can have a romantic day out in Johnston County from Raleigh, and make it a special day with a special someone, here is how you can up the romance and enjoy a date to JoCo…

Where is Johnston County?

Before we get into the ideal date itinerary, you might be wondering where exactly Johnston County is and how to get there. Johnston County is the next county south of Wake County and is situated at the crossroads of I-95 and I-40. The closest town to Raleigh, and the one that has seen the greatest growth and revitalization, is Clayton, NC. The other two biggest towns in the area are Benson and Smithfield, the county seat of government. Mixed in are smaller rural communities like Pine Level, farms, and plenty of space! Johnston County is one of the largest counties in North Carolina and has a rich history in farming and agriculture.

Depending on where you are departing from in Raleigh and going to in Johnston County, it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour’s drive, perfect for a day trip or an evening out. We’ve been visiting this county just south of Raleigh since I was first placed in South Smithfield Elementary as a fifth-grade teacher in 2004. I always love returning to connect to those memories, but also to see how Johnston County is progressing and growing.

JoCo, as the locals call it, still retains much of its rural charm with experiences to match like fruit picking, Fall farms, wineries, festivals that celebrate mules, and good old southern cooking dripping with good manners and welcoming hospitality. You’ll also find pockets of hipster modern with award-winning chefs and farm-to-table restaurants; classy craft cocktail bars that feel like you’ve stepped into the mountain town of Asheville; boutique stores that support local and important causes; and craft breweries on the move!

How to enjoy a date day out in Johnston County

We wanted our date day to be special, so we split our day up between two towns in Johnston County: Smithfield and Clayton. We started in Smithfield for lunch, shopping, wine tasting, and learning about the life of local sophisticated icon, Ava Gardner, and ended with a delicious dinner and fantastic craft cocktails in Clayton.

Lunch at The Gilded Pear Brew House

We began our date experience in Johnston County with lunch at the Gilded Pear Brew House in downtown Smithfield. The Gilded Pear has been a local favorite since its inception and is well known for its crepes – both savory and sweet. And I’m here to tell you, it’s now known for something even better: incredible coffee! If you know us, you understand how excited we get when we discover a brew that’s worth drinking a few.

The café has a relaxed gathering feel with upstairs seating, cozy nooks, and modern decorative touches like bright paintings, murals, hanging shelves of plants, and a wooden bookshelf behind the bar. The wooden floors, high ceilings, and antique furniture bring in a touch of nostalgia for what was once a department store. I loved the seated nooks in the window display where mannequins would have shown off the latest Smithfield fashion. Parents will love the kiddie corner set up in one of them!

The slower Smithfield pace gives you a chance to linger over lunch and chat (and time for more coffee!). If you’re a people watcher like me, you will enjoy seeing the locals stop at each other’s table to greet old friends and catch up on their news. It’s the Smithfield Way.

The menu has a variety of bubble waffles, English muffins, crepes, wraps, and sandwiches, with modern dishes such as flatbreads with toppings like goat cheese and pear, or sausage with cheese and chili oil. (Many of which can be made gluten-free!)

If the corn chowder is on the specials menu, start with a warming bowl of this creamy delight, which is just as good as a clam chowder from up north.

And leave room for desserts – with another cup of coffee! Guess what, gluten-free eaters – there are plenty of options for you, including banana bread and Bundt cake!

The Gilded Pear Brew House is a delightful lunch spot. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed teacher workday lunches with my colleagues: good food paired with friendly southern conversations.

• Address: 234 East Market Street, Smithfield
• Website: gildedpearbrew.com/

Shop Local in Smithfield

With a full belly, you can now walk the downtown streets (mostly E Market and Third St) to peruse the local retail offerings from boutique clothing, handmade goods, vintage décor, and fine jewelry. What surprised me on this visit to Smithfield was the growing number of independent stores and boutiques in the main downtown area. 

The Dragonfly Boutique

The Dragonfly Boutique is more than a clothing store. It has a mission to empower its customers to live a life of confidence and community. Owner and creative, Brittany handpicks each product and even has her own handmade clay earrings line in the store.

You’ll find trending and affordable clothes, jewelry, and accessories, many sourced from locally owned and women-owned small businesses. Don’t miss the beautiful, naturally lit, reflective space upstairs where you can sit on a swinging chair or leave a request on the Prayer wall.

• Address: 228 E. Market St., Smithfield, NC
• Website: shopthedragonflyboutique.com/

The Twisted Willow

What started as a place to house old church pews has turned into a rustic store filled with a wonderful mix of antique furniture, vintage wares, modern home décor, farmhouse furniture, and lovingly restored church pews! You’ll be surprised at this hidden gem the minute you open the doors and walk into this unexpected gigantic space over-brimming with goods for your home.

The Twisted Willow is in a gorgeous historical building on Third St. Instead of covering over the brick walls and stunning timber roof trusses with a modern look, owners John and Terri kept them exposed, maintaining the historical integrity of the building and allowing eons of stories to seep through. I couldn’t imagine the Twisted Willow to be any other way!

• Address: 119 S 3rd St, Smithfield, NC
• Website: the-twisted-willow-home-decor.myshopify.com/

Visit the Ava Gardner Museum

This was our second time visiting the Ava Gardner Museum on E. Market Street, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first. The Museum has been renovated since our last visit and includes brand-new exhibits featuring costumes from Ava Gardner’s five-decade career in film and television, the new Ava’s Husbands Exhibit, and Ava’s Collections Showcase with new artifacts loaned to the museum from collectors and Ava’s family.

Ava grew up just 7 miles east of Smithfield in Grabtown. She starred in numerous Hollywood movies alongside leading men such as Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, and Richard Burton. You can learn more about the real Ava Gardner away from Hollywood in the interactive room Ava: My Real Story. It dives into her NC roots, important friendships, charitable work, and her love for Frank Sinatra.

She was quite the woman of her time: a beautiful leading lady of the 40s and 50s, a strong-willed woman who demanded feminine independence and chose to live overseas to escape the limelight – one of the first of the Hollywood elite to do so.

People visit from around the world to visit the Ava Gardner Museum. There’s a short film sharing her life, and within the museum are displays showcasing movie posters, portrait paintings, costumes, scripts, and personal effects.

Each year, in October, Smithfield hosts an annual Fall festival in her honor, and in 2026, it will be held on October 2nd-4th. And for your date experience, there are lessons on love in the displays – what worked and what didn’t!

• Address: 325 E Market St, Smithfield, NC
• Website: avagardner.org/

Wine Tasting at Hinnant Family Vineyards

How did I not know about Hinnant Family Vineyards, the largest Muscadine winery in North Carolina? I drank plenty of wine with my teacher friends, and none of them told me that the Hinnant Family has been growing grapes on their 100-acre vineyard in Pine Level since 1971. Sitting on the back patio overlooking the vines here with a glass of wine feels like you’ve stepped into the wine regions of the Columbia Valley, Washington State. 

You may even have a glass of chardonnay that tastes like it. That’s because Hinnant gets the dry grapes from Columbia Valley for the wines they can’t produce in the North Carolina climate. They bottle and label the dry wine range at the vineyard. So, if sweet Muscadine wine is not your palate, you’ll be able to find a drier wine to suit. I was quite impressed with their chardonnay, rosé, and the Meritage, a wine I had not heard of before, and it is quite special with its own special society. 

Meritage is a New World wine blended in the more traditional Bordeaux-style. A red Meritage wine must contain at least two Bordeaux grapes, and together they create a silky-smooth, robust wine that is highly rated. What’s also fun are the special labels for each bottle from the dry range. Designed by an artist from Bryson City, each label features a different animal playing a jazz instrument. Line them all up, and you get the jazz band! Purchase each bottle and show it off in your home bar. 

If you like Muscadine – and we tried some that were quite good – you’ll be pleased to know Hinnant has 17 North Carolina varieties. We enjoyed a wine tasting experience at the bar with Ashleigh, who was very knowledgeable about the wines – what kind of food to pair each one with and creative ways to drink them, like a wine margarita cocktail made using their citrusy Wine Candy as a base. 

Be sure to taste the Electric Pelican, their award-winning double gold wine from the 2019 NC State Fair. It’s their best-selling wine and is the perfect summer pairing with spicy shrimp by the beach or pool.

You can tour the winery, enjoy wine tasting, purchase wine flights, or wine by the glass. On weekends, they have live music and charcuterie boards (best to order in advance).

The winery is located in Pine Level, Johnston County, about a 15-minute drive from downtown Smithfield.

• Address: 826 Pine Level Micro Rd, Pine Level, NC
• Website: hinnantvineyards.com/

Dinner

We had a delicious dinner at Scott Crawford’s Cookshop. Unfortunately, that is now closed!! We don’t have any personal experiences to now recommend a date night dinner in Clayton, but here are some ideas based upon our research and others’ recommendations.

• Manning’s Restaurant has modern American dining mixed with southern flair, upscale dining and a more relaxed rooftop.
• The Clayton Steakhouse has grilled-to-order steaks, seafood, and other seasonal entrees and is located in a quaint brick building.

After Dinner Drinks at Revival 1869 (A Drinkery)

I was intoxicated by Revival 1869 as soon as we stepped inside the dark interior and breathed in the earthy citrus aromas of their elixirs. What is this place? Co-owner Mike Stojic, a twice-deployed former Marine who spent some time at Camp Lejeune, sat us down at the bar to explain. They’d just finished mixing their homemade tonic and presented it to my nose. For the first time, I learned that proper tonic has a tinted color and a rich aroma. I don’t think I’ll touch that supermarket bottle stuff ever again. Apothecary Magic. 

Pre-mixed syrups, fake juices, and obscene flavored alcohol are banned at this Clayton bar, which we’ll now call a Drinkery. Revival 1869 only has room for classy cocktails meticulously made with freshly squeezed juices, tonics, and tinctures made on-site with real ingredients. And yes, you can tell the difference. Light, earthy, and refreshing with a hint of magic. You won’t understand what that means until you have your first sip of a Moscow mule with a real ginger zing. I felt seen and healed. 

Deepening my healing journey was the Fresh Cut…Grass, a vodka cocktail with green chartreuse, fresh lime, coconut water, cucumber mint, and topped with a CBD tincture. There’s no guilt needed when sipping on a cocktail here! And if something on the menu doesn’t suit you, you can put your complete faith in long-serving bar staff by telling them what you feel like, and they’ll create a concoction to match on the spot. Quality doesn’t end there. Mike is meticulous in selecting only the best liquor, which he demonstrated by showing me a bottle of Pluma Negra, an artisanal Mezcal I’d never heard of.

A ladder rolls across the back bar for the staff to pick out your favorite dram, nip, or shot from over three hundred whiskies and spirits stacked upon the shelves.

Elevating the sophistication of this drinkery is their live jazz on Thursday and Saturday nights. And their patio with heaters, and the welcoming absence of TVs help achieve the Drinkery’s mission of reviving the art of celebration and conversation with new friends and old. Like Scott Crawford, Mike chose Clayton as the spot for his unique concept, as he recognized not just Clayton’s phenomenal growth, but its emergence as a community-forward town.

One that’s focused on gathering in the town’s main streets to create its own Southern personality that’s now quite a mixed salad of backgrounds. Revival 1869 is cool. Not the fabricated kind that tries to copycat a trending formula, but the kinda cool that just IS because it’s an Enigma. While Revival is not a speakeasy, it has that throwback vibe of an insider secret hiding behind nondescript doors. It reminds me of the Crow & Quill in Downtown Asheville – another bar dedicated to the craft of drinking whiskey in an apothecary kind of space. 

Before you leave, take your drink into the Ava Gardner lounge to close the loop on this JoCo date experience. Be sure to read the golden plaque on the wall with her quote, “I wish to live to be 150 years old, but when I die, I want to have a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other”. I shared with Mike the quote of Ava’s that resonated the most with me in the museum,

“If I had my life to live over again, I’d live it the same way.”

To live that kind of life, you need to be able to crack your own enigmatic code, discover your essence, and keep reviving to continually express that. Just be warned. Revival may so captivate you that you’ll need to get an Uber home! 

• Address: 222 East Main Street, Clayton, NC
• Website: revival1869.com

Final Thoughts

If I were to live my date experience in JoCo again, I’d do it the same way! It was fun, unique, and gave us the rich learning and connecting to LOCAL culture experiences that we love. After 25+ years traveling the world together, Craig and I need way more than to just look at each other across a candlelit dinner.

More Date Night Ideas in Raleigh

If you’re on the hunt for more date ideas, here are some other ways we recommend for a date in Raleigh:

• Dinner at Second Empire Restaurant
• Explore the North Carolina Museum of History
• Admire Artwork at North Carolina Museum of Art + a Picnic in Jim Goodnight Museum Park
• Bike Ride the Trails along the Neuse River – read more about trails in Raleigh here!
• Unique And Fun Date Night Ideas For Raleigh (For All Occasions)
• Date Ideas In Raleigh For Valentine’s Day, 2024 (There’s Something For Everyone!)