Passion Fruit Sunrise Nantucket Café, Durham Website This attractive swirled drink was made with mango juice, pomegranate juice, and Absolut Peach. There was much more of an alcohol punch than I expected, but I suspect that’s because I’d just told the bartender that I liked strong drinks before ordering it. It was sweet, but also
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Wine: Dancing Bull Chardonnay 2004 Region: Monterey County, California This chardonnay is very yellow. It has a nose of peaches and soup broth. When drinking, the peaches are fleeting then give way to citrus.  There’s light oak, vanilla, and a bit of cream. I’m not decrier of mass-produced wines but this is really the epitome
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Moscow Mule City Beverage Woodcroft, Durham http://www.citybeverage-durham.com/ This drink was a mix of vodka, ginger ale, and lime served on the rocks in a short glass. The ginger ale and lime combined well with each other and with food. The vodka was undetectable, which is fine since vodka isn’t supposed to have much of a
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Los Portales 6905 Fayetteville Road Southpoint, Durham $4.50-$11.50 Los Portales is a new Mexican restaurant in the shopping center across Fayetteville from the Streets at Southpoint. It replaced Bakehouse Bistro, which could never get their service up to par with their tasty sandwiches.  I asked my waiter if this Los Portales was related to the
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Wine: ? Wine (Oreana Winery’s Red Table Wine) Region: Central Coast, CA This blend of unknown wine varietals was thrown together by a winemaker who apparently got some barrels mixed up.  It is definitely a flavorful wine. Spice is the dominant presence with a good amount of plum, orange, and leather. There’s also a lingering
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Wine: Il Valore Sangiovese 2008 Region:  Puglia, Italy I smell clove and nectarines. The nectarine is replaced by black raspberry as I drink it but neither fruit is the star.  Rather, they are encased by a clove shell that dominates the glass.  I think it’s a fabulous combination of spice and fruit, in just the
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Wine: Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir 2008 Region: Languedoc-Roussillon, France The nose smells of chocolate and berry. It tastes like biting into a packaged cherry danish that has been dipped in chocolate donut glaze. Both the spice and the texture are rather thin. I don’t like the chocolate aftertaste (shocking, I know). It’s an adequate wine
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Nasher Museum Cafe 2001 Campus Drive Duke University Campus, Durham http://nasher.duke.edu/museum_cafe.php Sandwiches and Salads: $9-13 Open for lunch Tues-Sun and early dinners on Thursday The Nasher Museum Cafe is not your average museum restaurant.  First off, it’s a sit down and be served restaurant, rather than a cafeteria, where you must hope to god that
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Basil Smash Foundation Downtown Raleigh http://www.foundationnc.com/ The Basil Smash was a mix of Old Charter No. 8 bourbon, lemon juice, and basil syrup.  The basil was spicy, which means it was probably locally sourced as both my homegrown carrots and basil plants are extra spicy in NC. The basil gave way to sugar and mellow
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Last Tuesday, we went to Nana’s with a couple of foodie friends for a South African wine dinner. Hope Valley Bottle Shop hosted and a representative from the wines’ importer, Cape Classics, went to bat to handle the sommelier duties.  We met an absolutely wonderful couple at our table who forced us to give them
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