The Gourmez

Flirtini West 94th Street Pub Woodcroft Shopping Center Durham This cocktail came with an unappealing pink film on top, but that is often the case for drinks made with crème de anything.  This one was crème de banane and its compatriots in the martini glass were watermelon pucker and vodka.  I tend to stay away [...]

Pirate’s Punch Sunset Grille-Cary Harrison Pointe Shopping Center Cary The Pirate’s Punch is, of course, a rum drink.  With pirate in the name, you wouldn’t expect any other base, would you?  This was good old Captain Morgan, mixing it up with some amaretto and pineapple juice.  The flavors were disparate but that was fine; it [...]

This red wine is packed full of berry, with a touch of citrus.  Blueberry and unripened blackberry are the main elements and now I wonder if that citrus was really just the tartness of the blackberry.  There is an earthiness of soil as well. I couldn’t make it through a glass.  I blame the blueberry.   [...]

Caipirinha Mez Research Triangle Park Durham My Mez review Caipirinha is a great cocktail that a friend introduced me to a few years back.  It consists of limes muddled with sugar and cachaça, a rum-like Brazilian alcohol.  Mez’s caipirinha has all these things but the proportions were a bit off to me.  I’d have liked [...]

Mez 5410 Page Road Research Triangle Park, Durham http://www.mezdurham.com/ Entrees: $11-19 Mez is the newest offering of the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, with sister restaurants of 411 West, 518 West, Squid’s and Spanky’s. It bills itself as contemporary Mexican, which I would describe as the missing link between your local taqueria and the upscale fare [...]

Two Vines Chardonnay Washington State 2005 Columbia-Crest The oak is strong in this one.  And it’s an excellent oak that imparts smokiness to the wine and a touch of sweetness.  It has a very clean minerality, by which I mean that there is a taste of wet pebbles that’s refreshing, not too bitter or out [...]

I learned yesterday that my desire to stalk celebrities is not really that strong.  Knowing that I only had two days left to at least attempt to find the “Main Street” shoot in downtown Durham, I decided to give it a go and see if I could catch a glimpse of the action.  I headed [...]

Glen Lennox Shopping Center, Chapel Hill www.jujuberestaurant.com I went to my fourth wine dinner at Jujube in Chapel Hill last night.  I am a big fan of these recession dinners, so dubbed because they partner up with Hope Valley Bottle Shop to pair less expensive wines with the meal, resulting in a dinner that costs [...]

227 South Elliot Road Chapel Hill www.3cups.net 3 Cups is a wine, coffee, and tea shop that is very focused on bringing a new appreciation to those liquids we love so dearly.  There is a tasting menu for tea and coffee that ranks the beans and leaves by taste complexity and a wine tasting area [...]

Last night, I dragged my husband with me to the 30 Threads Blogger Bash at the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC).  For those of you unfamiliar with 30 Threads, it’s a website run by Ginny Skalski, a journalist based in Raleigh, and exists to help us get the goods on which Triangle area websites and [...]