Introducing EATS, the INDY’s 112-page Look at Local Food

For the last five years, the INDY has issued an annual food magazine, EATS. In previous editions, EATS largely pulled together our favorite food-and-drink stories of the last year or spotlighted favorite dishes or trends in Triangle dining, along with a thick section of restaurant and bar listings.

This year, though, we took a different approach. The fifth EATS, out this week, is a 112-page look at the local food ecosystem. We tour farms with brewers and farmers and chefs, spend time in local kitchens, ask the area’s fleet of small organic growers what’s on their mind, and think about the ways exotic produce can become integrated into our local diet. We explore the “local” angle of coffee and dissect five of our favorite Triangle dishes ingredient by ingredient, sourcing each one to its location. We go foraging and go into the basement where some of the Triangle’s best mushrooms are grown. We profile ten local food artisans doing incredible work, and we provide a short summary of resources that can help you explore local food on your own.

Perhaps most exciting, though, is the better-late-than-never addition to the INDY’s regime of annual awards. During the last thirty years, the INDY has honored hundreds of remarkable people. Since 1983, the year of the newspaper’s inception, our Citizen Awards have acknowledged those working to make the Triangle a more just, equitable place. And since 1990, the Indies Arts Awards have celebrated those making our communities more vibrant and engaged through music and dance, film and painting, organization and inspiration.

At last, we are thrilled to launch the third phase of our annual awards, the INDY’s Food Triangles. Each year, we will honor three individuals or institutions whose contributions have expanded or transformed our regional food infrastructure. Though we will certainly honor chefs and artisans, it is not our intent to name the area’s best chef or buzziest trend; instead, we will focus on the people whose work with food and community has made the Triangle a more vibrant, equitable, and engaging place to be and to eat. The inaugural Food Triangle winners—April McGreger of Farmer’s Daughter, Vansana and Vanvisa Nolintha of Bida Manda, and Katherine Gill of The Hub Farm—certainly fit this mold. Congratulations to all of these deserving winners.

We’re putting the whole thing online, story by story, this year, which we’ve (strangely) never done. Find it all here. You can find it in coffee shops, bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and breweries where the INDY has permanent racks, starting this week. It is free. If you would like to carry EATS, we can bring them to you; email Brenna Berry at [email protected].