TRIANGLE FOOD BLOG

Featured Restaurant News

• WRAL shared that this Saturday, November 7th, two blocks of Glenwood Avenue from West Jones to West North streets will be closed for extended outdoor dining from 11 am to 9 pm. Part of Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s “Dine Out Downtown” program, local restaurants will be offering extended dining for people to enjoy dishes outside. There will also be live music. To see a complete list of participating restaurants and the music schedule, visit their website here.

Wake County Restaurant News

• Over in Apex, Chris Thorpe with DePersia & Associates shared the news that The Pizza Dude in Apex is under new ownership and a new name. Owners, Vittorio and Lucia Vitolo (you can call them Vic and Lucy!) have opened Mezza Luna Pizzeria at 1763 W Williams St in Apex in the Peak Plaza/Food Lion. Born in Italy, Vic and Lucy previously served the Bronx and upstate New York area for nearly 40 years. This is definitely worth a visit – check them out here.

• Looking for all the outdoor dining options in Downtown Raleigh? The Downtown Raleigh Alliance has put together a great list of those options, and they even divided it up by district. Check out that list here.

Durham, Orange & Chatham Restaurant News

• The Triangle Business Journal reported this week that Yung Nay, the chef and co-owner at Fusion Fish in Chapel Hill’s Meadowmont, is opening a new spot in Carrboro called Iza Whiskey & Eats. They will be serving up Japanese style izakaya serving small plates, sushi and ramen along with cocktails including whiskey and sake. It will be located at 307 E. Main Street in the spot formerly occupied by Tom + Chee and One Fish Two Fish Poke. Nay will operate his successful catering business out of the new space. Fusion Fish will remain open. An official open date will be announced soon, but expect it within the next month. Follow announcements on their Facebook page here.

• Over in Durham, the folks at Taste Carolina notified us that Beer Tooth Taproom is now open in the Homestead Market shopping center doors down from Milk Lab, Zenfish, Bean Traders and Mad Popper. If the wife ever kicks me out of the house, look for me along this strip! Follow them on Facebook here.

• Also in Durham, Bites of Bull City reported that Boxcar has reopened its bar and pizza kitchen for table service only. The patio, and indoor seating at 6 feet apart, are available. The arcade remains closed at this time. Hours are 12-11pm on weekends and 5-11pm on weekdays. Visit Boxcar here.

• In Chapel Hill, the Triangle Business Journal notified folks that Linda’s, a popular Chapel Hill bar since 1976, is now serving up breakfast. Breakfast service begins at 10 a.m. Check out Linda’s here.

Closings / Cancellations

• A bit of an unusual “closing” this week as we see the retirement of a “local legend” in the Triangle food scene. After a 25 year stint, the News & Observer’s anonymous food critic Greg Cox announced his retirement this week. He will be missed, but he did hint at an occasional return. Congrats on retirement Greg! You will be missed. A job very well done. Read about the announcement here.

Food Trucks 

• Bites of Bull City introduced us to a new “morning” food truck in Durham called Bull City Eatery. Owner Kishia Swift serves up fresh, homestyle-inspired food for breakfast and lunch and is conveniently located in Downtown Durham right off of East Chapel Hill Street (parked at the little island with the fountain). The menu includes classics like shrimp and grits, a croissant sandwich (scrambled eggs, thick sausage patties, and melted cheese) and avocado toast. You can also get breakfast items a la carte, such as muffins, bagels or grits, and even a kids breakfast. Check it out here.

• Triangle on the Cheap shared the news that Food Truck Flix is a recurring event that combines drive-in movies with food trucks, for a safer entertainment experience just announced their schedule for the upcoming weekends (Friday and Saturday nights). The events will be taking place at Frontier RTP, 800 Park Offices, Durham, and at Focus Church, 7000 Destiny Drive, Raleigh. You can purchase tickets in advance for any of the drive-in movies. The price is $25 per car. Of course, you’ll also want to bring money for the food trucks. Get the movie schedule, purchase your pass and get all the details here.

• Here are a  couple of sites to find and stalk your favorite food trucks here and here.

Events

• Many people are looking to Thanksgiving dining options this year – it is a great way to support our local restaurants. Look to the News & Observer and WRAL to provide links to restaurants offering Thanksgiving packages. Again, this would be a GREAT way to support your favorite, local restaurant. Visit your favorite local restaurant’s social media pages for menus (for instance, here are Boulted Bread’s holiday offerings and here is the offering from ACME in Carrboro).

• Like most things in 2020, this year’s Sip+Savor wine and food event is coming at us with a cool little twist – you’ll get to select an at-home food and wine experience for contactless pickup on Nov. 7 at Johnson Lexus of Durham! Each of the four adventure options (Latin, Roots, European and World) includes dishes prepared by some of the best chefs in the Triangle and a handpicked wine flight. Your adventure includes: 5 dishes for two, 4 split bottles of wine, coffee and a swag bag. In addition,chef-tells-all video and virtual wine class by Ryan Vet, Sommelier at the Oak House. Cost is $145. See the offerings and get all the details here.

• On Saturday, November 14h from 2-9 p.m., Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro will hold their Third Annual Oyster Roast with live music by Tommy Edwards and Carolina Lightning. Visit Carolina Brewery here.

• As The Pit in downtown Raleigh celebrates its 13th birthday, the restaurant will be cooking up Thanksgiving again this year, offering guests the opportunity to dine in at the restaurant or order the meal to-go. Guests can also order from an a la carte menu with all the meats, sides and desserts to fill in any gaps on the Thanksgiving table. Their dine-in family-style Thanksgiving dinner is $34.99 a person ($19.99 for kids 12 and under) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26. See their menu here. The Pit’s sister restaurants, Gravy and Sitti, also have Thanksgiving packages.

Food Bank Corner

• Since 2013, community members have celebrated their Thanksgiving at Plates Neighborhood Kitchen. To celebrate the restaurant’s eighth annual Thanksgiving charity initiative, Plates Neighborhood Kitchen is partnering with Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina on “Plates for the Community.” This year, Plates wants to make sure they can still provide the same level of satisfaction while keeping everyone safe during this unprecedented time. Through Monday, November 23, chef David Mitchell is offering Thanksgiving meal packages designed to feed six to eight people in the comfort of their own homes. Owners of Plates, Steve Day and Justin Gallus, have pledged to provide a $20 donation to the Food Bank for each package sold. The donation from each package purchased is enough to provide 100 meals for those in need right here in our local community. Get the details on their Facebook event page here. #noonegoeshungry

Triangle Restaurant News
Triangle restaurant news…that not everyone knows. Impress your co-workers at the water cooler.

Featured Restaurant News

• The News & Observer reported that starting next month Morrisville will be the beneficiary of the expansion of Sister Liu’s Kitchen. They will be opening a second location in the former Buns Barn location at 3524 Davis Drive. For those not familiar with Sister Liu’s, they serve up handmade dumplings and Chinese hamburgers from their original location in Durham’s Straw Valley shopping center (near the intersection of Interstate 40 and 15-501). Congrats to Cuiying Liu Blythe and her husband, John Blythe! Oh, and they are very close to unveiling their food truck! Check them out!

Wake County Restaurant News

• Ashton Mae Smith shared via twitter (and RalToday picked up on it) that Iris Coffee Lab officially opened at 725 Tucker Street in Glenwood South giving us another spot to enjoy a great cup of coffe, tea or a bite to eat. Give them a look here.

• Shannon Helm notified me that she and her husband have opened Black Fire Brewing , a nanobrewery (2bbl) in Raleigh off of Progress Court (E. Whitaker Mill/Five Points area). A unique feature of this brewery is that they offer both regular and gluten removed versions of all of their beers on tap. You can see their beer offerings on their website here. Give them a visit soon!

• David McCreary passed along that Esteamed Coffee, a nonprofit coffee shop that will employ people with various disabilities, will open soon at 114 S. Academy St. in downtown Cary. I can already tell it is going to be great as the two founders are UNC grads! Start to get familiar with them here.

• Bullseye Grill, located in the “lobby” of the Triangle Shooting Academy at 6501 Mount Herman Road, will have their grand opening this Sunday, November 1st. Their menu features burgers, custom mac-n-cheese, melts, soups, salads and even apple cobbler. Give them a shot! (see what I did there…)

• ELK Local Foods, a specialty foods retail store, will hold their grand opening on November 3rd in downtown Apex (103 E. Chatham St.). They will be selling high-quality, artisanal foods sourced from all across North Carolina including coffees and teas, spices, sauces, oils and vinegars, nut butters, jams, honey, snacks and sweets from vendors like Big Spoon Roasters, Carolina Kettle Chips, Slingshot Coffee, Videri Chocolate Factory, Crude Bitters and more. Learn all about them here.

• And down in Smithfield, Jersey Mike’s Subs opened about a month ago at 1233 N. Brightleaf Blvd. Jasmine Mobley is the operating partner. Visit Jersey Mike’s here.

• Looking for all the outdoor dining options in Downtown Raleigh? The Downtown Raleigh Alliance has put together a great list of those options, and they even divided it up by district. Check out that list here.

Durham, Orange & Chatham Restaurant News

• The folks at Bites of Bull City let us know that Goorsha’s new cafe, GoJo, opens in soft open mode today (Friday, October 30). They are located directly behind the restaurant at 910 W. Main St. By day, GoJo will serve Ethiopian coffee and tea along with lunch offerings and in the evening it will be a lounge and bar serving beer, cocktails, food and eventually hookah. Take a peek at their menu here.

• WRAL’s Sarah Krueger shared the news that Indian Monsoon Restaurant & Bar has opened at the corner of Morgan and Mangum streets (105 W. Morgan St.) in downtown Durham (on the Durham Loop). Visit their website here to learn more about them and see their menu.

• Giorgios Bakatsias’ 29-year old flagship restaurant Parizade introduced The Grande Café at Parizade this week. Open weekdays from 10 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., it is a European café popup offering a full coffee program, local pastries, and in-house nibbles with plenty of socially distanced seating, both inside and in the garden courtyard. You can check it out yourself here.

• Kudos to Bull City Ciderworks as they expand their operations into nearby Greensboro. Triangle Business Journal shared the news that they will open before the end of the year in the former Gibb’s Hundred Brewing facility at 504 State St. TBJ shared that they were founded in 2014, and are the Triangle’s first locally owned and operated cidery, and one of the largest cideries in the Southeast. Visit them here.

Closings / Cancellations

• This is a sad one. Jeff Gimondo shared that Papa Shogun, the unique concept that blended Classic Italian dishes with traditional Japanese ingredients and techniques, has closed their doors due to Covid-19. But their farewell note left the door open for “something cooking.” Fingers crossed.

• Kimberli Holton was the first to share with us that Subconscious Subs in Raleigh on Hillsborough St has closed permanently. They had been serving up subs to Raleigh and NC State since 1984. Sorry to see them go.

• On the same day, several readers also noted that the IHOP, which had moved down Hillsborough Street from its iconic store front, has also closed.

Food Trucks 

• Triangle on the Cheap shared the news that Food Truck Flix is a recurring event that combines drive-in movies with food trucks, for a safer entertainment experience just announced their schedule for the upcoming weekends (Friday and Saturday nights). The events will be taking place at Frontier RTP, 800 Park Offices, Durham, and at Focus Church, 7000 Destiny Drive, Raleigh. You can purchase tickets in advance for any of the drive-in movies. The price is $25 per car. Of course, you’ll also want to bring money for the food trucks. Get the movie schedule, purchase your pass and get all the details here.

• Here are a couple of sites to find and stalk your favorite food trucks here and here.

Events

• Today (Friday, October 30) the Downtown Raleigh Alliance will hold their Dine Out Downtown from 5 to 9pm in the Warehouse District. West Street will be closed for extended outdoor dining from local restaurants (like Morgan Street Food Hall, Heirloom Brewshop, and Barcelona Wine Bar) and will have other tables to enjoy takeout. Get all the details here.

• This Saturday from noon until 4 p.m. (or until the pig runs out) is the final day of Whole Hog Saturdays, where St. Roch chef/owner Sunny Gerhart will welcome pitmaster Wyatt Dickson and co-owner and pig farmer Ryan Butler to serve their Eastern North Carolina Whole Hog pig pickin’ style barbecue from Picnic at St. Roch. Proceeds from the $9 BBQ sandwiches and plates will support downtown Raleigh’s A Place at the Table. Reservations for Whole Hog Saturdays at St. Roch can be made by calling 919-322-0359 or by reserving via RESY. Walk-in’s are also welcome, and orders may be called in for curbside pickup as well. Visit St. Roch’s here, Picnic here and Wyatt’s here.

• Harvest Dinner, Raleigh City Farm’s annual fundraising event to celebrate a successful growing season, has a new format this year! Harvest Dinner “At-Home Edition” is a four-week series of take-home Sunday dinners featuring amazing local chefs. The final date is with Andrew Gravens of A Place at the Table on November 1. The event series helps support the farm and local agriculture as well as the local restaurant community. For more information, visit here.

• Like most things in 2020, this year’s Sip+Savor wine and food event is coming at us with a cool little twist – you’ll get to select an at-home food and wine experience for contactless pickup on Nov. 7 at Johnson Lexus of Durham! Each of the four adventure options (Latin, Roots, European and World) includes dishes prepared by some of the best chefs in the Triangle and a handpicked wine flight. Your adventure includes: 5 dishes for two, 4 split bottles of wine, coffee and a swag bag. In addition,chef-tells-all video and virtual wine class by Ryan Vet, Sommelier at the Oak House. Cost is $145. See the offerings and get all the details here.

• On Saturday, November 14h from 2-9 p.m., Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro will hold their Third Annual Oyster Roast with live music by Tommy Edwards and Carolina Lightning. Visit Carolina Brewery here.

• Ashley Christensen Restaurants are now doing Picnic Pop-up at the Park at the North Carolina Museum of Art. You order your picnic (take-out breakfast, picnic boxes, snacks, and beverages) ahead of time and pick it up on Thursday and Friday 8 am til 2 pm and/or Saturday and Sunday from 9 am til 6 pm. Order ahead here and get contactless pick-up located along the walking path on the south side of the brick East Building at NCMA, behind the amphitheater, facing the sculpture park.

• Alley Twenty Six, one of Downtown Durham’s staple businesses, announced a weekly outdoor pop-up event titled “Alley Freezes Over” happening every Saturday and Sunday (weather permitting) from 12 pm to 8 pm. It continues throughout the summer and early fall. The pop-up includes new frozen cocktails and the choice of “boozy” or alcohol-free snow cones using their local, all-natural Alley Twenty Six syrups, plus a revamped food menu from chef Carrie Schleiffer. Seating will be available outside, in the namesake alley (26 Alley) located directly adjacent to the cocktail bar and will be following safety guidelines, including mask wearing, practicing social distancing, and sanitizing surfaces between guests. Visit them here.

Food Bank Corner

• It is nice to find good news it what has been an extremely difficult year for so many. But I am excited to share the news that the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina was named Feeding America’s Food Bank Member of the Year!

• From the Food Bank: At this difficult time, we are humbled and honored to receive this distinguished award, out of our 200 peers across the nation. sexlocals.ch Our mission is to nourish people, build solutions, and empower communities, which we could never do without your support. Receiving this award affirms the work we are proud to do, and your investment in our community. Of course, we could not do what we do without the support of our: Partner agencies who help us serve the front lines of hunger; Programs that help us target our most food insecure neighbors; Volunteers that help keep our operation lean; and Donors like you! You have invested in our mission and you make this work possible. Thank you for helping us become Member of the Year! Visit this page to learn a little more about their 40 year history. #noonegoeshungry