Golden Era Foundation Downtown Raleigh Website $10   Foundation has another wonderful cocktail to add to its list with the Golden Era. Bourbon has been my spirit of choice for the past year or so, but recently, it’s been a bit too harsh for my palate. So I’ve gone back to my first love, rum.
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On occasion, I get the pleasure of an invitation to the swanky, fun, creative parties put on for Yelp Elite members. Last Sunday night was one of those occasions, and the theme was mobsters and molls. That theme happens to fit the venue, a few-month-old club in Durham called the Roxy, to a tee. The
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Bloomsbury Bistro 509 Whitaker Mills Road Five Points, Raleigh Website Entrees: $19–$35 Bloomsbury Bistro is located in a shopping center right near the Five Points intersection in Raleigh. The restaurant is cozy with French provincial coloring and a mural on the back wall of what looks like a relaxed afternoon in the country. The rest
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Beasley’s Chicken + Honey 237 S. Wilmington Street Downtown Raleigh We tried Beasley’s with a bunch of fellow foodies, two of whom are huge fans of the spot. It’s a concept restaurant by Ashley Christiansen, a two-times James Beard nominee, which is a huge honor. The space sells only fried chicken and sides. You can
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La Volta 411 Fayetteville Street Downtown Raleigh Website Entrees: $13–$20 La Volta is an Italian restaurant on Fayetteville Street, right off the pretty City Plaza stretch of downtown Raleigh, which means it’s a prime location for people watching, especially if there’s a costume convention in town. There are plenty of outdoor tables, but I found
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Capital Club 16 16 W. Martin Street Downtown Raleigh Website Entrees: $10–$18 About a week and a half ago, I went to Capital Club 16 with the Social Media Supper Club, which is always a fun time of trying a restaurant together. I quite liked Capital Club 16, which may be related to its reputation
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Mole-Mole bu·ku, Downtown Raleigh This thick cocktail should be listed as a dessert. With both chocolate vodka and crème de cacao in the ingredient list, it’s awfully close to drinking a Mexican hot chocolate in cold cocktail form. The Navan, which is a vanilla cognac as I just learned, is very subtle in the mixture.
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Last week, a group of about 40 other foodies and I took a Taste Carolina tour together as part of a TriFoodie Tweetup. If you aren’t aware of these tweetups and you are a lover of Triangle-area food, then start following @durhamfoodie and @andreaweigl on Twitter now, so you can get details on the next
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Vinos Finos y Picadas 8450 Honeycutt Road Lafayette Village, North Raleigh Website Bites: $3–$8 Cheese & Meat Plates: $10–$30 Vinos Finos y Picadas is a South American wine bar in the new Lafayette Village shopping plaza that’s designed to look like a European village in the tradition of Epcot and Las Vegas before it.

I was invited to my second Yelp open party this past Friday night (5/6). This one was hosted by the Crabtree Tavern, a huge sports bar type of restaurant that’s across a bridge from the Crabtree Valley Mall. The theme of this Yelp extravaganza was Mathletes vs. Athletes, which I’m pretty sure was just an
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