The freezing temperatures have thrown an unexpected wrench into Ali Rudel’s plans to open her long-awaited pie shop in East Durham. But that doesn’t stop her from being optimistic. She started 2018 announcing a surprise on Instagram: “New year, new shop, new name!” she wrote. What was known to local pie fans and Kickstarter supporters […]
Iza Wojciechowska
Bio: Durham's Iza Wojciechowska (@iza_woj on Twitter) has written for The New York Times, The Millions and others.
Posted inFood & Drink
More Tasty Treats Are Now Available at Monuts. Which Means Fewer Donuts, But Happier Bakers.
For years, the display case at Monuts in Durham has been reliably filled with four cake donuts and four yeast donuts of varying seasonally inspired flavors. The owners, Lindsay and Rob Moriarty, were so confident in the restaurant’s signature offering that they put it in the name—a portmanteau of Moriarty and donuts. So it may […]
Posted inFood & Drink
One Fish, Two Fish, Local Fish, Ugly Fish
Over the last ten years, 40 percent of North Carolina fish houses have closed because of heightened demand for imported, familiar kinds of seafood. But the provenance of these cheaper, prettier fish can be sketchy: it’s often not clear what boats the fish came from, how and where they were caught, or if they followed […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Rose’s Swaps the Butcher Counter for Full-Service Lunch and Dinner
Rose’s Meat Market and Sweet Shop 121 North Gregson Street, Durham www.rosesmeatandsweets.com Katie and Justin Meddis opened Rose’s Meat Market and Sweet Shop in 2013, serving the unusual double duty of a pastry shop and a butchery. The shop gained a devoted following for ice cream sandwiches, lard caramels, ramen bowls, and homemade sausages. For […]
Posted inFood & Drink
King’s Sandwich Shop Reinvents 1950s Durham Fare in a Shiny New Airstream Trailer
The sun was hot, but the tater tots were hotter as patrons gathered earlier this summer in a vacant parking lot on Geer Street decked out with picnic tables, a giant Jenga game, classic tunes, and a 1950s Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight. The star of the show, though, was a sleek, refurbished silver Airstream trailer doling out […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Hop to It
On a Saturday morning, eighteen people file into Bull City Homebrew’s “Brew School” and are welcomed with a strong ten o’clock IPA. “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning!” announces Scott Michaels, Bull City Homebrew’s co-owner and one of the session’s instructors. Another mantra repeated throughout the morning: “Relax, don’t […]
Posted inCulture
Peak Potter-Mania Has Passed, but the Old Magic Lingers at the Regulator’s Cursed Child Release Party
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Release Party Saturday, Aug. 30 The Regulator Bookshop, Durham There was magic in the air on Saturday night at the Regulator Bookshop. An hour before midnight, the store was filled with an assortment of witches, house elves, Hogwarts professors, stuffed owls, and no shortage of nostalgia. The Regulator—along with […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Why Was it So Hard to Buy Durham Distillery’s Gin in Durham?
Last weekend, Durham Distilleryposted a simple plea to its Facebook page. All Durham County ABC stores, they wrote, had let both the distillery’s Conniption gins go out of stock for weeks. Not only could hopeful customers not buy the local, award-winning gin, but neither could bars like Alley Twenty Six and Counting House, which feature […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The Long Road of Counter Culture’s Lem Butler to the United States Barista Victory
In 2003, after graduating from UNC, Lem Butler started a band. The band broke up, and he needed a job. So Butler responded to an advertisement in the Daily Tar Heel for a job as a barista at the on-campus shop, Daily Grind. He wasn’t a coffee drinker, didn’t even know what a barista was, […]
Posted inArt
What Kind of City is “Durm,” Anyway? Runaway Ventures an Answer With Its New Downtown Store
Devotees of Runaway gear are standing in line outside 212 W. Main Street in Durham. It’s the morning of Saturday, April 2, and Gabriel Eng-Goetz and Justin Laidlaw are ceremoniously unlocking their first brick-and-mortar store. After selling their wares online, in boutiques, and in pop-up shops for several years, the small company known for its […]