La Bedaine is a tiny French bakery on the outside, but on the inside, it specializes in French cuisine that you can take home to cut a few steps out of dinner. That means vacuum-packed meals such as duck confit and coq au vin. For simple meanderers, such as myself, La Bedaine’s cheery yellow display
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Neumanali is one of Hayward’s few fine dining restaurants. Bijou, just a few blocks up B Street, is the only other one that immediately comes to mind. Neumanali is tucked away by the downtown Hayward BART station in a beautiful Victorian that most people don’t even realize is a restaurant as they walk past. I’ve
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I came across the Barrel Room on a night out with an old high school friend, which pretty much describes every night out I’ve had since moving to the Bay Area—I have a lot of old friends to rediscover in this neck of the woods. We wanted somewhere to extend the evening but still hear
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My husband and I celebrated the sale of our North Carolina home with a prix fixe meal at this modern, French-inflected New American restaurant on Hayward’s downtown stretch. Using an Amazon Local deal, we dined on three courses each for only $40 including a glass of champagne. It was the second time I’d been to
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Saint Jacques 6112 Falls of Neuse Rd. North Raleigh Website $25-$40 Saint Jacques is not cheap, but it is my favorite fine dining experience in recent memory, by which I mean since winter or so. My memory is that bad, I promise. Regardless, Saint Jacques is an oasis in a North Raleigh strip mall. Cream
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KoMo KoMo Afternoon Tea 1305 NW Maynard Rd. Maynard Crossing, Cary Website Tea Service: $14 plus the cost of tea or coffee Komo Komo calls itself a Korean French kitchen, and it’s having a lot of fun with the idea of fusion cooking, at least in terms of afternoon tea. They offer it for only
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City Kitchen 201 South Estes Drive University Mall, Chapel Hill Website $9—26 City Kitchen is part of the Giorgios Hospitality Group. It is a remodel from Spice Street, transitioning the huge, open space from a restaurant with dramatic, international flair to more of a French corner bistro writ large. The redesign is definitely keeping with
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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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On our fifth day in California, it rained. And rained. And rained. Downtown LA isn’t the most fun or convenient place to be in the pouring rain; I think it’s fair to make that claim of any large downtown. But I had a mission that hadn’t been fulfilled yet, and this was our last day
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