Random Alias

You can walk it - about 1/4 mile.

Gourmandises de France seems to be doing fine. More a pastry shop than a bakery, but small, independent, not attached/associated with a restaurant. It's in a strip mall anchored by a Food Lion at Creedmoor and Milbrook. Their location probably didn't hurt - the part of Raleigh between Lynn and 540 has added thousands of homes since they opened and there wasn't/isn't anything like it nearby. http://www.gourmandisesdefrance.com I bet if you could open a bakery near the Harris Teeter at 540/Leesville you'd do okay. There's also a new Lowes grocery store nearby, but it doesn't have the traffic that HT does yet. The suburbs aren't cool, but there sure are a lot of potential customers nearby.

I hear Jeff Skilling makes a mean brisket.

Earthfare has a pretty good selection of cheeses. Including locally made, and U.S. made cheeses in addtion to the usual suspects. There's one in Raleigh at Brier Creek and another in Chapel Hill in the old Southern Season building. I've only been to the Brier Creek location, I'd say their cheese counter is equiv. the the Wellspring/Whole Foods on Wade. Or at least close enough for me.

In case you missed it, there was an article in the N&O. http://www.newsobserver.com/business/v-pri...p-9163588c.html

Hate when that happens. If I'm not mistaken Magnolia Grill also allows smoking at the bar, while Enoteca Vin and Fins do not.

According to our server at Nana's on Saturday, 6/18, Scott is now affiliated only with Nana's. Server said Scott felt that he was being stretched too thin...duh...so he pulled completely out of all the other places: N's Chophouse, Q-shacks, etc. Indeed, we saw Scott scurry through the dining room at one point. ← I am actually glad to hear he did that. I heard that a few weeks ago via a mutal friend. The Chop House was a big dissapointment for me. I love the Q-Shack, but beforewarned the one of Hillsborough St. apparently closes early in the summer. ← Bought a pound of pulled pork from the QShack at North Hills today. Couple things: 1. 1 lb apparently weights 13 ounces (yeah, I weighed it) 2. There was so much sicky sweet vinegar based sauce on it, there was no hope of actually tasting the pork. This is the first time they've served a pound of pulled pork to go in a styrafoam tray, usually it's in a pint sized container. I noticed right away there was an awful lot of liquid mixed in with the meet and that there didn't seem to be enough. Makes me wonder if these are changes due to the new ownership of not. I'll give them another try, but if it's the same that'll probably be that.

Ahhhhhh yeah! That's a lot of strawberries.

I've damaged the edge of an 8" trident by chopping through chicken bones with it. This was probably 7 or 8 years ago. About 2 inches up from the bolster, there's a ripple in the ege that you can't feel, but if you catch the light right it's easy enough to see. It's not a lot of damage, and it never seemed to change the way it cut. Still, it bothered me a lot at the time and I stopped chopping chicken bones with that knife after it happened. Here's a craptacular picture - sorry it's the best I could take.

It's $175 at Amazon with coupon code: JUNQUCKDSCNT Plus from the KA website above, there is a mail in offer for a set of 3 cutting boards when you buy a the KA 12-cup processor: http://www.kitchenaid.com/assets/pdfs/othe...board_Promo.pdf

Not yet open, but they're building an Earthfare at Brier Creek in NW Raleigh (kind of near the airport off 540), and one in the old Southern Season building in Chapel hill. Chapel Hill store opens this month, Raleigh store next month.

This is an interesting article from awhile back that discusses umami for a bit, and it's worth a read regardless. http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html

There's also the El Mandado supermarket on Capital which serves food. I'd bet there are a couple other smaller hispanic grocery stores that serve food as well.

http://www.pekinggardenraleigh.com/page6.html Peking Garden in N. Raleigh has some vegetarian options.

One option - Stamey's http://www.hollyeats.com/Stameys.htm http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/bbq/jnt5.htm Heh...another review, they don't like it: http://www.ibiblio.org/ch-scene/bbq/stameys.html