My friend and I are headed to downtown Raleigh tomorrow for the weekend, and we would love current suggestions for BBQ, breakfast, etc. (bonus points if we do not have to drive to Durham!). I did a search here, but many of the places mentioned in older posts have since closed. (@johntannerbbq I did check your blog, but the latest post is from three years ago.)
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Got a friend in Chapel Hill - want me to ask him?
Sam Jones is still the best place in town for NC barbecue. if you want a little drive, Stephenson’s.
There are brisket places — Prime and Dampf Good that I haven’t tried
I went to Sam Jones there (and the original) but didn’t have anything new to say. When I hear of or suspect changes I go check. See eg Gradys
Looking for details about this Durham restaurant and another with the same owners. I think the chef might be on the upcoming season of Top Chef
ETA I think it’s M Koko, and I think Michael Lee was on a previous season of Top Chef. My sister in Durham recently said;
“Love M Sushi. You may recall that we had lunch at the little Korean bistro they operate at their back entrance. It’s called M Koko or something similar. “
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Sure, can’t hurt!
As per my friend Tom:
For the absolute classic NC breakfast, they should hit Big Ed’s City Market. It was a favorite of Jesse Helms! But good people eat there too. They have a sign on the door that says “Come back when you can leave your kids at home.” No doubt the place once was filled with cigarette smoke, but alas, even NC got “woke” on cancer.
For classic bbq, Clyde Cooper’s is probably the standard setter. I hear Sam Jones is also good. For hipster bbq, they should try the BBQ Lab. The burnt ends are special.
If they find themselves in Durham, Picnic is the spot for 'cue.
If she gets a hankering for a burger, she should go to Char-Grill. Another NC institution. Wash it back with a Cheerwine.
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Bringing my fat pants.
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Elastic everything.
The M restaurants are great. I especially love M sushi, but doubt you could get a spot this weekend, and it’s in Durham which you’re understandably trying to avoid because of the drive from Raleigh.
If you do end up coming over to this side of the Triangle, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen in Chapel Hill is what most people would recommend. I would recommend Breakaway Cafe, because I don’t eatpork and the Sunrise biscuits have lard in them.
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The Sunrise biscuits are very good.
I think the Farmers Market may have the best traditional breakfast, although I recently heard high praise for Watkins Grill
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I am now wondering how many of the biscuits I ate in North Carolina (not chain) restaurants (house made back then) years ago had lard rather than butter. I’m guessing a lot, or most, and back then it would have commercial lard or shortening full of trans fats.
I’m not great at making biscuits myself, but at least I know it’s not pork.
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I always ask, and they almost always have lard.
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So, reporting back on what we ended up eating in Raleigh:
Lunch on Friday at Dampf Good BBQ. It was very good, but we didn’t realize it was just a truck with picnic tables outside under a shed roof, so in the 45-degree drizzle it was also Damp Cold. I had a chopped brisket sandwich, my friend had the pork BBQ, and we had mac and cheese and cole saw as our sides. I liked the mac and cheese just fine, but the cole slaw was too finely chopped and too sweet for my taste. The meat was excellent.
Since we’d had a big and somewhat late lunch, we decided to have some cocktails before attempting dinner. This was accomplished at Foundation Bar, which we really liked. I had an excellent boulevardier and my friend had a Sazerac (I am constitutionally prohibited from drinking these outside New Orleans, where I live, especially if they are not made with Sazerac rye, which this one wasn’t). We asked the bartenders for a dinner recommendation and they came up with Brewery Bhavana a few blocks away. There was some mention of another nearby option “if we couldn’t get in.” Magically, we got in, snagging two vacant seats at the bar after the hostess told us it would be a TWO AND A HALF HOUR WAIT for a table. (The place is very large.) It is entirely possible that we should have waited for those bar seats too, but we just walked up to them and no one said anything, so we plunked ourselves down and started ordering. None of the cocktails appealed to me, plus I’d just had a strong one, so I went with a very nice glass of Vinho Verde. We shared a shrimp and corn dim sum (this was the best thing we ate, really nice), a ginger salad (OK not great), and an order of what were billed as xiao long bao…which were tiny and very lacking in the soup department, unfortunately. They were tasty, but they were not xiao long bao as I have had them anywhere else. Still, the food was fine and not too expensive, and we were pretty happy just to get a seat!
The next morning, we were starving after an Iyengar yoga class and opted to go to the closest decent place, which turned out to be a chain restaurant called First Watch. The food was quite good regardless of the chain part—we split a plate of bacon-potato hash with poached eggs on top as well as a side of grits, which was plenty for two people.
I did not know that soft pretzels had become hipsterized, but in Raleigh they have. We had passed a place called Crofton’s on our way into downtown, and then passed it again en route to the NC Art Museum that day, so I veered into the parking lot. I do love a soft pretzel but I do not expect to have to wait 15 minutes for it; for me a soft pretzel is just something you pull off a shelf, not a custom-made item stuffed with things like cheese and dill pickles that costs almost $10 with tax. I got a plain pretzel (good but too much salt for my taste); my friend’s cheese-dill pickle pretzel was REALLY good, and enormous. Next time I’ll know to budget more time, money, and stomach space.
Dinner that night was at Sam Jones BBQ and it was very fine. The two of us split the two-meat platter with chopped pork BBQ and pork ribs—we ended up with ribs because they were out of smoked turkey, our first choice. The chopped pork was superb, very vinegary. The ribs were good, but not falling-off-the-bone enough for me to really rave about them. For sides we had collards (excellent) and black-eyed peas; the sweet potato muffin was really good too, not too sweet (surprisingly).
Our final meal on Sunday morning was at Big Ed’s City Market. I had a biscuit sandwich with country ham and an egg, and it was absolutely everything it should have been. The ham was perfect, not super salty, the egg yolk was runny, and the biscuit was delicious and a fine texture for mopping up egg yolk. My friend had “hobo eggs” (scrambled with sausage) and grits—her plate did not look as appetizing as mine, but she liked it.
Finally, we stopped at the Raleigh farmers’ market on the way to the airport. There were some excellent vendors there, including a bakery where I bought some nice sourdough and my friend got a chocolate cookie that tasted like it had at least a tablespoon of butter in it (not a bad thing). I also bought some more soft pretzels from a German bakery—good, but didn’t have enough lye-assisted browning for me. The owner was very nice though.
Niceness in general was a major feature for literally everyone we met in Raleigh. I live in New Orleans, where people are also very nice, but not as uniformly nice as the people in Raleigh. My friend lives in Washington DC, where most are really not nice at all, so she was very appreciative. The whole city was a very good place to do a weekend trip—way more good, interesting restaurants and a much livelier downtown scene than I had expected. I’d go back!
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Fun report, sounds like a great weekend!
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What a nice report!
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Thank you for this detailed report and to everyone who provided their recommendations! I’m heading there in a few weeks for spring break.
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