Eat at Joe's!

Doorway... To HELL!!!

Scary pumpkins at Pop's BacKDoor:

Scary religious figures pouring blood at Wine Authorities:

Happy Hallowe'en from Eat at Joe's!.

Breakfast At Dos Perros

Dos Perros will start serving breakfast tomorrow morning (Monday, 26 October 2009).  Breakfast hours are at 7:30 am → 10:30 am, Monday → Friday.  

And The Newest West Village Tenant-To-Be Is... Pop's

According to one of the principals at Pop's, the restaurant will move from its original location to a new one in West Village by this spring.  Principals signed a lease yesterday (23 October 2009), and the next few weeks will be taken up building out the new, larger kitchen.  The new dining floor should seat between 200 and 250 people, and there will also be private party rooms for private functions.  The restaurant will have frontage on Main Street, and back doors opening onto a pool area.  I'm also told the new place will try out a lunch menu.  

Pop's will be staying in business at their Peabody Place location until opening at West Village.  Additionally, Pop's Backdoor will continue to run their pizza delivery operation from Peabody Place even after the restaurant proper moves.  

Good luck, folks.  

Raar

The seafood "cassoulet" I just had at Vin Rouge was one of the best tasting things I've ever put in my mouth.  

Guglhupf, Dinner, & Maxfield Parrish

Guglhupf, who added a nice café onto their baking side a long time ago, will have that café open for dinner for the first time tonight (6 October 2009).  The café has always looked really neat inside, but now it has some new lighting:

I couldn't help but be reminded of Maxfield Parrish's "The Lantern Bearers":

 

All images should link to larger copies, but Maxfield Parrish with a cellphone I'm not. :)

 

---

Guglhupf
2706 Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard
Durham, North Carolina     27707
919 401 2600
http://www.guglhupf.com/

WBF at DAP on SAT

In case you live under a rock, the World Beer Festival is tomorrow (3 October, 2009) here in Durham, NC.  It's also back at its previous location: the newly renovated Durham Athletic Park.  Woo-hoo!  

Tickets are sold out, of course, so you'll have to beg and grovel and luck up and get one from someone who has an extra.  For Durham residents, I suggest your local neighborhood electronic mailing list, because I've seen them there sometimes.  

Anotherthyme Closed?

I'm told by a friend that Anotherthyme served its last meals tonight (30 September 2009).  Can anyone verify that?  

OK, I *Know* We Have To Have Some Female Homebrewers Out There Somewhere

Fullsteam is looking for a female homebrewer to try to maintain some semblance of gender parity at their upcoming homebrew event.  You XXs out there help him out, k?  :)

"I want a chicken salad sandwich"

I am addicted — addicted, I tell you — to the chicken salad sandwich for lunch at Rue Cler.  

That is all.  

Oh wait, it isn't:

Or, if you're already familiar with that, you might like this:

Now go get your Jack Nicholson freak on and watch The Shining or whatever.  :)

Get Your Wine Freak On

Tomorrow (Thursday, September 10th, 2009) is the 2nd birthday party at Wine Authorities, so go get your wine and OnlyBurger freak on.  Details on their web site.  

Edit: date corrected.  Argh.  Sale prices on wine run through Friday, 11 September.  Party was packed, like it was last year.  :)

Blogs Keep Popping Up All Over

When did the Down Under Pub get a blog?  I realize it hasn't been updated in several months, but still....  Gentle Readers, you're holding out on me.  ;)  The DU may be just the antidote to all the, ahem, "boneless wing" ads I've been seeing on TV.  The last time I had the wings at the DU, they were really, really good.  The DU also served a BLT back when bacon wasn't cool, and even served a grilled cheese sandwich.  And the beer prices wouldn't break you like they will at a lot of other places these days.   

WTF is a boneless wing, anyway?  They look like escapees from the nugget factory at the boneless chicken ranch who then got caught in a sauce spill from the theme Asian restaurant sauce pumping station.  :)  Edit: I'm glad someone else noticed.  

Community Supported Seafood

Last year I worked on a huge post about community supported agriculture programs and their ilk.  Alas, it never made it to publication, as I had a computer die, along with all my research.  Maybe that was when I first heard of DukeFish and their effort to start a local community supported fisheries program.  Apparently, it's gotten rolling: it's called Walking Fish.  You can sign up using this form (PDF alert), and mail it in along with a check for your desired share.  Seafood will come from near Beaufort, NC in Carteret County.  

Beaufort is also the home of the Duke Marine Lab, and probably has more than a few DukeFish people down there.  Neat how that works out.  :)

Edit: story in today's Herald-Sun.

toiletry

....

---

... spilled milkshake in back alley.  tire tread on strawberry ice cream.  this In-N-Out Burger is afraid of me.  i know its secret menu.

---

need non-food item.  think "supermarket."  wait several days.

get in crappy, nondescript car, choose supermarket.  drive 2+ miles, passing at least 2 closer groceries.  park outside non-grocery.  walk through non-grocery, seeing about 5 examples of item, plus number of foodstuffs.  resist all.  leave non-grocery.  

enter supermarket.  walk through, resisting items not of reason for trip.  locate area for items.  choose cheapest per-unit price for item meeting criteria: 1 2-pack for $2.  walk through more of supermarket.  resist.  resist cheap beer.  go to register.  present item.

"$3.98"

"Um, the tag says $2."  present discount card.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter."

"Take it off, please?" and let next customer check out.  return to shelf.  inspect item, shelf, and price tag.  correct tag definitely says $2.  date on tag says July something.  inspect other sale tags.  some say as early as May.  realize reason for date is not clear.  go to customer service.  "Hi, this item rings up for too much."

"Yeah, it says $3.72."  Register repeats $3.72.

"Do you want to see the shelf tag?"

"Yeah."  walk to shelf tag.

"See? $2."

return to customer service.  item is marked down.  

"$2.37"

no offer of free or discounted item.  "Uh, that's not right either."

"I'm sorry."  additional markdown subtracted.  "$2.18." aside to other customer service person:  "Can you go over to [area of store]?  A bunch are wrong."

give up on remaining money due; pay $2.20.  get 2¢ change.  wonder why didn't drive 6 miles down highway to über-evil not-necessarily-food Ninja-death-chain of death.  or why didn't go in back yard and make substitute item from handy tree.

[thank End :( Happy for use of quotation.]

We Get Links

For what it's worth, I so totally don't have anything to do with this.  I usually try to stay out of things that aren't food-related here, and I don't think I've ever owned anything more sophisticated than a rubber band gun.  But I do think it's kind of a shame for people to have to go to such lengths to complain about traffic in their neighborhood.  I also think it's misguided to characterize any of the activist folks I know in that neighborhood (and I know a lot of them) as violent enough to actually shoot paintballs at passing cars.  Other than signs in a traffic circle often used for creative expression, there's no evidence anyone has done or will do anything like shooting paintballs at cars. 

By the way, I don't live in Duke Park. 

Thanks for indulging me in this interruption.  We now return you to your previous sporadic stream of food-related posts. 

What Does a Fish Say When Someone Pokes It in The Butt?

"Yelp," perhaps?

Drinking?

Expensive. 

Barhopping inside the loop?  Priceless.  

Dos Perros Open

Dos Perros should be open today for lunch (11:30 am → 2:30 pm, Monday → Friday) and dinner (5 or 5:30 → 10 pm, depending on which part of the site you believe, Monday → Saturday).  Go knock yourselves out.  [Edit: according to their web site, they are closed for dinner tonight (10 August 2009): they were so busy for lunch today that they ran out of food.  Así es la vida.  They're currently planning to open tomorrow (11 August 2009) for both lunch and dinner.]

I ate there over the weekend; the place was packed, despite having a partial menu and no alcohol license, and they even ran out of some things.  I may write up some comments later, but as I don't know much about Mexican food, I'll hold off for now.  I definitely liked everything I ate.  :)  

Phone there is 919 956 2750 if you want to call and ask questions, like "Can I get a beer there yet?"  :)  They're in part of a big yellow building at 200 North Mangum between City Hall Plaza and Parrish Street.  (It's currently grey in this location shot from Google Street View. ) When you get there, check out the (I believe) Mexican movie posters, and the collections of framed pictures and clippings near the bathrooms.  I laughed my posterior off on some of them.  :)

I wonder if the free wireless from City Hall will get to the bar there? :)

[Edit 2: Liquor license acquired.  Restaurant back on aforementioned schedule. Flan really good.  ;)  ]

q.v.: http://jhv.blogs.com/eatatjoes/2009/08/cinco-quatro-tres-dos.html

Farmers Market Polls Update

I posted back in June about a couple of national farmers market polls, and encouraged people to vote.  Durham does pretty well sometimes, even if they do get our name wrong.  :)  However, we're not doing so well this time around.  The Durham Farmers' Market is 3rd in one poll (although the Carrboro Farmers' Market is 2nd — our vote is being split!).  In the other, we're in the "Large" category, and we're 15th out of 20 (Carrboro's market, also "Large," is 17th).  Geez, I really thought I could Whip you Gentle Readers into a Voting Frenzy.  Oh Well.  :)

Dos Perros: Cinco, Quatro, Tres, Dos...

From looking at the Dos Perros WWW site and some traffic on Facebook, it looks like Dos Perros is really close to opening.  The WWW site says they'll be open to the public on Monday (10 August 2009).   I took a walk by a few days ago, and the space inside looks pretty close to ready, even though they still had people inside working on some details.  I went to Jujube a couple weeks ago; it was "taco night," as Charlie Deal put it, and they were trying out a bunch of their food on folks who'd come for another preview of what was in store.  I had my mouth made up for "almost Asian" at the time, so despite Charlie and Diana's both telling me they had some Dos Perros offerings available, I had some noodles.  :)  But I did get to look at some of the food coming out of the kitchen, and I'm certainly interested.  I guess Eno will hopefully be opening soon right next door; both are right around the corner from Rue Cler (essentially on the other side of the parking deck).  

Another thing I'm looking forward to:  Charlie said they're hoping to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night hours eventually at Dos Perros.  That's not happening right away; so far the WWW site lists hours for lunch of 11:30 am → 2 pm Monday → Friday, and dinner hours of 5 pm → 10 pm Monday → Saturday.  

Good luck, gang.  

[Edit: just walked by again; smells really good. :) ]

q.v.: http://jhv.blogs.com/eatatjoes/2009/08/dos-perros-open.html

Woo-hoo!

Bull City Rising says King's Sandwich Shop is supposed to reopen sometime in the near future.  (If you're not familiar with the establishment, read some history about King's at Endangered Durham.)

Whiskey (Durham NC)

If you're a transplant to North Carolina, one thing you might find odd is the lack of real bars.  North Carolina has a patchwork of restrictive, antiquated alcohol legislation.  Serving liquor by the drink only became legal in N.C. in the 70s, and then only as local option: communities could decide for themselves whether they would allow mixed drinks to be sold.  Those drinks still had to be sold only at establishments which also served food, and the amount of income derived from the liquor sales could not be over a certain percentage of total sales.  

However, there's an exception: the "private club."  Private clubs may serve liquor by the drink without serving food.  Such clubs will have a membership roll; use of the club is restricted to members and their occasional guests.  Such a club is about the only legal place you'll be able to have a drink without also being able to buy food.  And there's about to be a new wrinkle: there's a specific exemption in the new no-smoking ordinance for private clubs.  Soon they'll be about the only place you can go have a drink and light up [see comments].

All this is preface to telling you that we have a new private club in town: Whiskey.  Whiskey is located at 347 W. Main St., in the location previously occupied by the failed Five Points Cafe, and right next door to Toast.  There are a few other private clubs within the loop, most notably The Pinhook, but Whiskey feels more like a bar than any other local private club I've been in.  I first met the proprietor, Rhys Botica, a long time ago when he worked at James Joyce.  Those of you who've been in the Joyce know what a long, narrow, dark place it is; oddly, that's part of its charm.  I think the same thing is true of Whiskey.  But it's comfortable: the long bar proper is commodious, and there's also a number of arm chairs for more more intimate drinking.  There's also outdoor seating on the broad brick sidewalk out front.  

The first thing I noticed behind the bar was, well, whiskey... and whisky — Canadian, Irish, Scotch, and probably some others.  :)  Other liquors abound, including the first legal absinthe I've personally seen in a bar in this state.  The second thing that caught my eye was on the drink listing: about a half-dozen of Unibroue's beers in the bottle.  There are also a number of beers on tap, with a big listing over the bar of the North Carolina ones.  There's also wine.  You should really be able to find something to drink here.  :)  

Membership in the club is $3, so it's not going to break you.  You're within walking distance of the aforementioned Pinhook and their occasional live music, and a couple blocks from the DPAC, which is outside the loop across the tracks.  You're also within a few blocks of a number of eating establishments, including Toast, Bull McCabe's (domain expired when I checked, so no link — D'oh!), Revolution, Rue Cler, and Piedmont.  And American Tobacco is behind Whiskey, next to the DPAC.  

As a long time Durham resident, I'd like to say that I'm really glad to see more and more businesses opening downtown.  It's particularly pleasant to go downtown, have a number of places to go to, and be able to walk between them.  And it's really, really heartwarming to see foot traffic downtown, see other people on the sidewalks having fun, and even run into friends walking to their own destinations.  So go downtown, have a drink or a nosh or both, and enjoy yourself at one of downtown's venues.  Maybe you can even go on a Third Friday and check out an artistic exhibit or three.  Have fun.  It's good. 

Edit: hours/contact information [thanks, kph!].

Second Harvest At Local Farmers' Markets

Phil at The Archer Pelican remarks on farmers' markets in Carrboro and Durham sending their leftover produce to feed the poor.

George's Garage Gone for Good?

Giorgios Bakatsias shuts George’s Garage door for good

I have to say that as much as I like most of Mr. Bakatsias's restaurants, George's Garage was my least favorite.  The place was often a zoo, and very noisy.  I didn't like the food selection.  A lot of things were overpriced.  I never used the takeout side.  There was a while when I went for their beer specials to drink with friends, but that was about it.  It seemed like more like someplace to soak Duke students than anything.  But, if that kept George's other places open more, in particular Vin Rouge, then I was all in favor of it.  

How Local Is Local?

Speaking of local food:  How do you know your "local" food is really local?  If you grow it yourself, you know.  If you buy it from a farmer, you know.  If you buy it through a CSA or at a farmers' market, you can feel pretty confident, I guess.  If you buy it at a grocery, you maybe can't be so confident.  And when you buy it at a restaurant — say someone says the asparagus or beef in their stir-fry is local — how do you know?  Eventually, you have to trust someone, but as the chain gets longer and longer, the web of trust extending from your mouth to the land — that local dirt — gets more and more tenuous.  If Frito-Lay buys potatoes from someone 300 miles from their factory, then ships their potato chips another 300 miles to you, is that local?

In my opinion, this is the organic problem all over again.  The "USDA Organic" definition has already been causing backlash for a while, and it's still going on.  It's probably resulted in more use of terms like "biodynamic," and maybe to a lesser extent in the interest in truly local food, and in the web of trust it implies.

Suggestions, O Gentle Readers?  Whom do you trust, and how do you do it?  Are we reduced to that supposed quotation from Stalin: "Trust, and verify"?  

Local Awesomeness: Lemon Balm Sorbet

In case it hasn't been clear from previous posts how much I like the refreshing nature of sorbets, and how easy they are to make:

Lemon balm sorbet by local SEEDS/DIG teenagers a hit at Farm to Fork 

References:

• SEEDS (South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces)
• DIG (Durham Inner-city Gardeners)
• Farm to Fork 
• lemon balm 

These teenagers grew the herbs for their sorbet and made it themselves.  How's that for local food?  And it impressed the Farm to Fork folks, who are mostly local farmers, restaurateurs, and food workers.  I think that's pretty cool.  

If you like ices, sorbets, granitas, &c, I'd also suggest digging up a copy of

• The Curious Cook by Harold McGee

It's out of print, but worth the effort, even if for no reason other than his article called "Fruit Ices, Cold and Calculated."  Its several pages of simple tables should get you started on making ices from most any common fruit, and some other foods like coffee and wine.  You want Chapter 10. :) The tables are easy, and allow you to pick a fruit, then look up how much sugar you need for the type of ice you want. McGee may also recommend a little lemon juice, if you want, to balance out the sweetness from the sugar you'll need to get the texture of ice you desire.  

For your extra credit project, I can add one piece of advice to McGee's wisdom: substitute about 25% plain corn syrup by volume -- less, if you like -- for his sugar recommendations in the softer ices like sorbets.  The corn syrup will improve texture by making the ice crystals smaller, while also making it slightly less sweet.  There aren't many good culinary reasons for keeping a bottle of Karo syrup in your pantry, besides making pecan pie and perhaps sweetening mixed drinks: putting it in sorbets is a nice extension to your culinary repertoire.  (By the way, I believe I stole this piece of advice from Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.)

Now, go to the farmers' market, a fruit stand, or a local grocery store.  Buy the best, cheapest fruit they have in season.  Go home and make some sorbet.  You'll need an ice cream freezer -- 20 years ago, mine cost me about $20.  You may also want a blender for some stuff.  And enjoy. :)

Did I ever post about that blackberry sorbet I made last year?  Hmmm....

Edit:  By the way, I'd forgotten that Varmint has been making really cool ice pops at home.  I never got myself to buy any molds, but I always wanted to give that a whirl.

I Really Wish I Spent More Time Reading Other Food Blogs

Via Carpe Durham:

• Durham Drink Specials
• Barfly Durham