unWINEd 237 Center Grove Church Road Moncure 919-548-9384 website Facebook Friday–Saturday 1–8 p.m. Sunday 1–6 p.m. The vines that once entwined Unwined wine shop had nothing to do with grapes. Brambles and scrub saplings had choked the life from the squat, 1920s building that began life as the grocery-store-filling-station in the heart of Chatham County’s […]
Amber Nimocks
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Posted inFood & Drink
2011: A year like corked wine
To take a big sip of corked wine at the end of a long day is among life’s most bitter disappointments. A sharp, mysterious liquid coats the tongue. You wince, hoping that you are mistaken. You stick your nose deep into the glass. You flinch. And, as the unmistakable scent of wet dog and moldy […]
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Straw Valley Cafe: an oasis near the interstate
Straw Valley Café 5420 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. Durham 919-349-5649 Sunday–Monday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Ormond Sanderson and Robert Black bend their heads over architectural sketches of their old home, perusing the pages as if they were leafing through a family album. In a way, they are. Straw Valley, a rambling but elegant […]
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Teetotalling at the fair
Judges in North Carolina’s commercial wine competition tasted 444 wines and awarded 343 medals. Childress Vineyards of Lexington took home 34 medals, making it the state’s biggest award winner. Among the amateur winners, Best of Show was awarded to Daisy King of Pinnacle for her blackberry dessert wine. She won five first-place awards in this […]
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The best wine isn’t always the most expensive
I recently was browsing the racks at a nearby mall where the rows of freshly plumped cashmere sweaters and neatly cut tweeds in autumnal hues made my mouth water. And though I relish updating my fall wardrobe, the season’s cuddly offerings got me yearning to try my luck on a new cabernet sauvignon. With my […]
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L’Uva, a new addition to the American Tobacco dining scene
L’Uva Enoteca 406 Blackwell St., Durham 919-688-8181 Mon-Sat, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. It took months for the patio at L’Uva to come together in a cozy corner of downtown Durham’s vibrant American Tobacco Historic District. Upon its completion a couple of weeks ago, those of us who had been watching the project take shape remained as […]
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Turkish eatery Troy Mezze spices up Raleigh’s City Market
Troy Mezze Lounge 317 Blake St. Raleigh 919-834-8133 Tuesday–Saturday 11:30 a.m.–2 a.m. Sunday 11:30 a.m.–midnight Foot traffic on the cobblestone streets of Raleigh’s City Market has ebbed and flowed since 1914, when farmers and housewives first gathered there to haggle over fresh fish and baked goods. The 2004 fire that gutted former anchor tenant Greenshields […]
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Niche Wine Lounge: It’s Cheers, but with wine
Niche Wine Lounge 109 N. Main St. Holly Springs 919-552-2300 Monday-Thursday 4-11 p.m. Saturday noon-2 a.m. Sunday by reservation only Telling someone where to go is never easy. As a food and wine writer, I get asked a lot. But to provide a solid recommendation, you need to know as much about the people asking […]
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Go ahead, say it: Wine in a box
It’s 95 degrees in the parking lot, 105 in the backseat of your car. You didn’t leave your wine in there the whole time you were in the grocery store, did you? Ick. Maybe you could use it to clean the windows or polish the silver, because after sitting around at those temperatures for more […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A mix and match of cheese and hard apple cider
In the realm of food and beverage pairings, hard apple cider is the quiet stranger at the summer cookout. Beer is everybody’s buddy, always up for a burger or something hot and saucy from the grill, while wine is cloistered in a corner, decked out in the bright hues of the season, waiting to cozy […]