Rainbow 910 West Main Street Brightleaf District Website We’ve posted on plenty of great restaurant options in the Brightleaf area, but I realized recently that I’d never tried one that is smack-dab in the middle of them all: Rainbow, a Chinese order-at-the-counter spot. It’s primarily a take-out restaurant, but they do have a seating area
Read more

Fire in the Triangle Round 6 Mia Francesca versus 518 West Last night was the sixth round of the Fire in the Triangle competition. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s a six-week-long culinary adventure pitting sixteen chefs of our prized restaurants against each other. All of the ingredients for the battle come in on one
Read more

Calavera 444-101 South Blount St. Downtown Raleigh Website $3 per empanada Calavera is an empanada and tequila bar that—praise the lord—has a kitchen that stays open until 2 am. This is a wonderful, wonderful thing, as any night owl would tell you. Quality empanadas as a late-night snack? It’s divinely inspired, and Raleigh is lucky
Read more

Last time in this Minneapolis series, we strolled through Northeast Minneapolis, stopping for a sausage at a great Polish deli, had a fabulous lunch at Masa downtown then made our way through Loring Park, stopping to ogle at the dandelion fountain and the birds. Right across the Friendship Bridge from Loring Park is the Sculpture
Read more

Cocobon 2010 Red Wine California   This is one of those wines I selected based on the label design, and I’m not ashamed. Look at how pretty that brown and beige label is! I love it. The taste ends on mildly sweetened cranberries, and it starts with milk chocolate and pomegranate seeds. Those fruit flavors
Read more

Wilmoore Café *CLOSED* 223 S. Wilmington Street Downtown Raleigh Website Sandwiches/Salads: $5.75 to $8.00 M to W, 7 am to 5 pm Th to Fri, 7 am to 10 pm Sat, 5 pm to 10 pm I have passed Wilmoore Café many times, and I’m always intrigued by the protruding display windows full of tables
Read more

Last week, you and I finished exploring the skyway system downtown and were about to cross the Hennepin Avenue Bridge into the Northeast neighborhood of Minneapolis. There are two main drags in Northeast: continuing up Hennepin Ave. toward Central or heading right onto Main instead, the Riverfront District. I opted for Main St. first, wanting
Read more

It’s that time of the week again! This time, I have two food blogging items to brag about, both recent developments. First, Carpe Durham, one of the blogs I contribute to, was a finalist for the third year in a row in the Best Blog category in the Independent Weekly’s Best of the Triangle awards.
Read more

Buffalo Trace Bourbon Kentucky When tasting bourbon, I generally get a smell from it that I call “bourbon.” Fancy, I know. So from this point on, I think I’ll only comment when a new bourbon has a smell element to it beyond that distinctive bourboness. And Buffalo Trace does: a little bit of citrus that
Read more

Last year, I went to Minneapolis for the first time, and I loved it. I was impressed by how well designed the city is in terms of transit, by the great food choices, and by the general beauty of a city on a river and multitudes of lakes. The atmosphere is lovely, friendly, and very
Read more