Welcome to Friday Night Bites, your weekly round-up of local food and drink news and events. Have a tip for us? Email [email protected].
NEWS
Ashley Christensen and Vivian Howard Will Headline the Thrive NC Festival
Thrive NC, a two-day event featuring a summit, day of service, and two-night culinary festival returns on May 9 and 10. The evening festivities will take place 6:00–9:00 p.m. in City Market in downtown Raleigh and will include bites and sips from top local restaurants and breweries, live music, and chef demos, including headliners Vivian Howard, chef-owner of celebrated Kinston restaurant Chef & the Farmer and A Chef’s Life star, and James Beard Award-winning chef and Raleigh restaurateur Ashley Christensen. Tickets to Thrive NC presented by Blue Cross NC can be purchased on GoThriveNC.com or Etix.
Vicious Fishes Tap & Kitchen Opens in Fuquay Varina with Food from a Momofuku Vet
Vicious Fishes Brewery, an Angier-based brewery known for its fruited sour beers and lagers, has opened Vicious Fishes Tap & Kitchen in downtown Fuquay-Varina and has its sights set on a third taproom in downtown Apex. The Fuquay location features sixteen taps of Vicious Fishes beer alongside an eclectic menu of snacks, small plates, and shareable larger platters from executive chef and Raleigh native Ryan Miller, who honed his chops in New York City kitchens, most notably with David Chang’s Momofuku Group. The craft beer will also feature in several of the dishes, including mussels steamed with pilsner, house pickles made with IPA, and a brown-ale-braised roast beef and brown-ale-spiked mole sauce for lamb shank tacos.
Mike D’s BBQ’s Sauces Brings the Heat at World Hot Sauce Awards
Mike D’s BBQ, a Durham-based barbecue sauce and rub company, placed in two categories at the fifth annual World Hot Sauce Awards on February 24, including second-place finishes for its jalapeno-laced Spicy BBQ Sauce and for its smoky-sweet BIG Sauce in the Lexington Style Sauce category.
EVENTS
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler at Whitaker and Atlantic’s Mardi Gras Bash
Chef Coleen Speaks of Hummingbird and PoshNosh Catering is bringing back her annual Mardi Gras bash at Whitaker and Atlantic this Sunday, March 3, from 2:00–6:00 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include a crawfish boil, red beans and rice, and King Cake, as well as live music from Side Car Social Club. There will be a full cash bar along with specialty cocktails such as a blackberry Sazerac and a blackberry absinthe frappe. To purchase tickets, click here, or for more information, visit the Facebook event page.
Snag Tickets to Brewery Bhavana’s First Beer Fest
Brewery Bhavana recently announced on Instagram that it will host its first annual Soft Beer Fest from 2:00–6:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 31, which will highlight brews with “subtle and nuanced fermentation flavors, complex aromatics, silky carbonation, and pillowy textures.” The Bhavana team will release the full beer list in the coming weeks but has so far announced they’ll pour beers and ciders from the likes of Brewery Vivant, Civil Society, Fonta Flora, New Belgium, Oxbow, Shacksbury, TRVE, and Zillicoah Beer Co. Tickets are $70 each and include unlimited pours, food, and music. Only three hundred tickets will be available for purchase online beginning at noon on Wednesday, March 6. Click here for more information.
Spend a Tasty Evening at the Museum with “La Experiencia Latina”
In conjunction with the City of Raleigh Museum’s current exhibition, Al Norte Al Norte: Latino Life in North Carolina, the Friends of the City of Raleigh Museum is hosting a three-course dinner featuring three local chefs, each representing a different Latin American country: Chef Eli Rodriguez of so•ca is representing El Salvadorian cuisine, chef Angela Salamanca of Centro and Gallo Pelon is representing Mexican cuisine, and chef Danielle Centeno of Escazu Chocolates is representing Venezuelan cuisine. Guatemalan music will be provided by Blanchee Reyes and family. Tickets are $75; to purchase, click here.
BITE OF THE WEEK
Last week a friend asked me, “Where have you eaten lately that’s good?”
A fair question, especially given my job as a food editor, but I think my answer really surprised her.
“Well, I had really amazing fried chicken at Chicken Hut the other day.”
“Oh! Chicken Hut? Is that new? Where is that?”
I explained that no, it wasn’t new. That The Chicken Hut, located on Fayetteville Street in Durham, has been around since the 1960s, and is a classic meat-and-three where you’ll find some of the Bull City’s best fried chicken—rip-roaring hot, juicy, crazy crunchy crust—as well as classic Southern fare such as smothered pork chops, baked chicken, and ribs, plus all the fixins (go for the collards and mac and cheese).
At a time when dining out is a national obsession bordering on competitive eating, it’s so easy to focus on the shiny new thing (and then Instagram it, because if you didn’t, did you really even eat it?). And it’s also easy to overlook the stalwarts that are just as vital a part of the local food community, whether you’ve lived somewhere your whole life or are a transplant, and especially so when you work in food media (guilty as charged). So today, I’m raising a glass (OK, fine, a Styrofoam cup) of sweet tea and saluting institutions like Chicken Hut that turn out plate after plate of consistently good food with a side of down-home hospitality without any of the fanfare.
And in case you’re wondering, it turns out that the fried chicken is mighty photogenic, too.