Amber Nimocks

Wilmoore Cafe 223 S. Wilmington St. Raleigh 919-424-7422 Monday–Friday 7 a.m.–5 p.m. From the window of the Wilmoore Cafe, downtown Raleigh’s newest independent sandwich shop, you can watch lunchtime diners stream into the national chain grab-and-go sub outlet across Wilmington Street and muse on the words of James Beard: “Too few people understand a good […]

Geer Street Garden 644 Foster St. Durham 919-688-2900 Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Brace yourself, language purists, I’m about to use the g-word. Yes, I mean gastropub. As in a bar that serves food that foodies rave about, alongside wine, beer and cocktails as carefully cultivated as the pasture-raised local beef in the […]

When I was a kid and it was time for new school shoes, my mom would haul me and my brothers to Thom McAn in the mall. As we squirmed in the vinyl-covered chairs, a friendly salesman would measure our feet with his trusty Brannock shoe-fitting device. First my right heel, then my left snuggled […]

Every now and then, it’s good to step out and see what the kids are smoking. Apparently, these days, it smells like strawberries. I caught a big whiff of Glenwood South nightlife last Saturday evening when an old friend came to town and my gracious husband volunteered to babysit at the last minute. We found […]

It’s been almost 20 years since a Florida State University basketball player deemed fans in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Dean Dome a cheese-and-wine crowd, and the Tar Heel faithful have been living it down ever since. It was all the worse that Seminoles point guard Sam Cassell made the post-game comment about lackluster cheering in the Smith […]

Your life will change. Such was the understatement by relatives and friends with children who tried to explain the inexplicable: what happens after you give birth. I pondered this ineffectuality of language on a recent sunny Saturday while my son celebrated his fourth birthday in a haze of chocolate cake and Silly String in our […]

January has once again slithered into the new year with all the cold-blooded charm of an eel. Wielding ice storms, fender benders, layoffs and lingering coughs that chase sleep from the night, the first month of 2011 has cut a wake of misfortune through the waters, bedeviling our efforts to turn our eyes toward the […]

I had been drinking wine for many years before it occurred to me to think about it. It was 15 years ago, at my first wine tasting at the Biltmore Estate winery in Asheville. The taste of the Cardinal’s Crest Claretand the tasting room attendant’s insistent reference to a favorable Wine Spectator reviewpersuaded me to […]