A year or so ago, I said I wanted to increase my coverage of Chapel Hill. That's unfortunately fallen to the ground with the new ditch digging job. While I get to Chapel Hill on occasion, I don't post enough about Durham to satisfy myself. I have to work, eat, and buy food, but I still love this blog, even if posting is currently thin. I'm trying not to turn into my own bitch for it, but I miss you folks, and I miss posting here. Thank you, Gentle Readers, for your continuing readership and support. You are, as always, awesome.
Having gotten that out of my system: I did get a chance to go to 501 Diner in Chapel Hill several days ago. Some of you may remember 501 filling a hole in Durham's restaurant scene several years ago. I thought they were a great little place in a great location, and did a much better job of being a mid-list restaurant than, say, Elmo's (another diner-esque place that's co-located in Durham and Orange County).
This isn't an extensive review, but: I was greeted by friendly staff, seated quickly, got good-sized portions, and was really pleased at the quality of food I got for the money. I thought the specials looked particularly good. The inside is not large, but it's cozy, clean, kitschy-cute, and not at all crowded for dinner on a weekday night. It's far enough west in Chapel Hill to be extremely easy to get to from Durham, and definitely not walking distance from UNC-CH :) [Full disclosure: I have friends who work at this restaurant. The Agents of EAJ! are Everywhere. ;)]
I've bemoaned the waning of the mid-list restaurant before. On the bottom end, we have fast food places, which are always as cheap as possible. On the top end, prices can continue to go up, and probably should, given the crazy increases in food prices we've seen over the past several years. There's a real squeeze on, it seems, and the mid-list restaurants are going to be hit the hardest. So it's good to see places like 501 Diner working hard to bring affordable, decent dining to our area. Thanks, folks.
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