The Gourmez

Flights 4100 Main at North Hills North Hills Renaissance, Raleigh Website Entrees: $17–$28   Normally, I jump right into a review, leaving any musings on my experience for the end. This one requires more set up because Flights is in a transition period and it shows. So you should understand before I go on what [...]

Meadow of Love Absinthe Superieure Delaware Phoenix Distillery Walton, NY   Let’s be real — Meadow of Love is a very hippie name for a spirit. And let me be realer — hippie names speak my language. I went to college in Santa Cruz, people. I’m not an ideal hippie myself, but the culture is [...]

Rise 1800 Renaissance Parkway Southpoint, Durham Website $1–$5 Rise is the newest venture by Durham Catering Co. chef and owner Tom Ferguson, who you may know for that little food truck and brick and mortar store called Only Burger of which he is a part-owner. Only Burger has earned a lot of cred in the [...]

I’m a little (a lot) behind on the times in that I’m just now posting this teaser here, and it was published about a month ago at WRAL‘s Out and About blog. Oops! My time from reviewing a spot/drink to posting about it is on a month lag right now, so that’s par for the [...]

LaCheteau Vouvray 2011 Loire Valley, France The nose of this white wine is subdued. Honeydew and the tickle of tannins are all I get from it. On tasting, it initially reminds me of Southern white wines with a lot of sweetness. Luckily, a healthy dose of acidity counteracts that. It’s bright and buttery, and lime, [...]

Kinston, NC, Blogging: Chef and the Farmer This is the third and final installment on our recent day trip to Kinston, NC. Blog 1 covered the various ways we amused ourselves by the Neuse riverfront last month. Blog 2 was on Mother Earth Brewing, which we were delighted to discover is based in downtown Kinston [...]

Fairview Dining Room Spring 2013 Media Lunch Another spring, another media lunch preview of the new menus at the Washington Duke Inn! This was the third time I’d been invited, and getting these views into Chef Jason Cunningham’s dishes is always quite fun and delicious. In addition to a free lunch, we were gifted with [...]

Double Black Diamond Martini Firebirds Southpoint, Durham $10 This martini doesn’t have a long list of ingredients, but classic martinis never do, subsisting on quality liquor with a personalized touch of what gets the drinker’s juices flowing whether vermouth, blue-cheese-stuffed olives, or cocktail onions. The Double Black Diamond martini is even simpler than that, just [...]

Bahama Breeze Late Night Appetizers & Drinks Bahama Breeze, a chain of island-resort-themed restaurants mainly located on the East Coast with a few Midwest outposts, invited me out to sample a few menu items to promote their new late night appetizer menu. From 9 pm until closing, most of their regular appetizers are now available [...]

In my first blog on this day trip to Kinston, I mentioned being pleasantly surprised to see Mother Earth Brewing loom up as we entered downtown. My husband is a fan of their Weeping Willow Wit, a Belgian-style beer that is often his choice when picking a local draft from a restaurant, so stumbling upon [...]