Cary’s beloved La Farm Bakery is set to open an expanded space in the downtown center, allowing much-needed room for more production. Slated to open this winter at 220 West Chatham Street in the Sorrell Building, the 16,000-square-foot facility will feature an open-air kitchen that allows patrons to watch artisan bakers mix, shape, and bake […]
Angela Perez
Posted inFood & Drink
By Hoppy Accident, Back Alley Coffee Roasters Fuses Beer and Coffee
In downtown Wake Forest, Matt Flinn pulls a pint of dark brown brew topped with caramel-colored foam and alive with cascading bubbles. It looks suspiciously like Guinness. Upon my first sip, however, I quickly recognize Back Alley Coffee Roasters’ newest chilly beverage as, indeed, cold-brewed coffee. The brew, transformed by a nitrogen-pressurized tap, looks so […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The Other Local Popsicles: One Latino Family Wants to Take La Monarca Michoacana Triangle-wide
La Monarca Michoacana 2000 Avondale Drive, Durham (919) 423-5876 While standing in the checkout line at the Latino grocery store El Toro in Garner, a riot of colors from a nearby ice cream case caught my eye. I slipped out of line and slid open the lidpartially out of curiosity, partially to cool off from […]
Posted inFood & Drink
At An, a Rhubarb Cake Provides a Meal’s Perfect Conclusion
An 2800 Renaissance Park Place, Cary For Francisco Almaguer, dessert isn’t just some indulgent, peripheral afterthought for the main event. “At great restaurants,” says Almaguer, “the dessert is the continuation of a climax, part of a carefully constructed experience that surprises and excites.” And Anthe Cary fusion hub of Southern and Asian cuisinesis a great […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Restaurant Review: At Durham’s Makus Empanadas, There’s Too Much Fusion Inside Too Little Dough
Makus Empanadas 1125 West N.C. Hwy. 54, Durham At Durham’s Makus Empanadas, bright orange letters stretched across one wall deliver a big promise about the little pastries you’re about to eat. “Our food is made with the belief,” it reads, “that lifelong memories can be formed around something simple.” Family photos of the owners, brothers […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Restaurant Review: At Durham’s New NanaSteak, Scott Howell Wants to Rewrite Old Steakhouse Rules
NanaSteak 345 Blackwell St., Durham A confession: sometimes, I grow weary of sharing small plates, of assembling a big meal from little dishes at cool restaurants. Now and again, I long for the self-indulgent luxury of dinner on the scale of, say, a Thanksgiving fête at Julia Child’s house. I want to be pampered, overfed, […]
Posted inGuides
Our Favorite Things: Ten Outstanding Food Artisans and Their Wares
It’s not just the Triangle’s population that is expanding; in recent years, our local food culture has bloomed and evolved, too. Consumer demand seems to be at an all-time high for local, responsibly sourced produce and products, making homegrown eats and drinks a rapidly growing segment of the food industry. Take a look around, and […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Reconnecting with the Source: The Lessons of Two Days on the Piedmont Farm Tour
On Saturday morning, I loaded my Jeep with two coolers packed full of ice and headed for the countryspecifically, for the bison and bratwurst of Roxboro’s Sunset Ridge Buffalo Farm. At last, I’d decided to try the Piedmont Farm Tour, a self-guided weekend exploration of thirty-eight farms in Alamance, Chatham, Orange, and Person counties, sponsored […]
Posted inFood & Drink
What I Learned—and The Mixed Meals I Had—During Seven Days of Triangle Restaurant Week
When I decided to eat at a different restaurant every day or night of Triangle Restaurant Week, many of them for the first time, I mostly fretted that I would be tagged as an amateur eater. Restaurant staff, I feared, would mistake me for some cheap opportunist, a vulture who only dines out with a […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Triangle Restaurant Week, Night Seven: Underwhelmed in high style at Mura
Sushi in the Triangle has come a long way during the past decade. Gone are the days when our only exposure to Japanese cuisine was through flavorless California rolls and fake crab-meat hibachi. As more and more Triangle restaurants specialize in ever-fresher and inventive Japanese cooking, expectations in quality have risen tremendously. And through endless […]