Food Across America: Raleigh-Durham, NC
A brilliant blt salad, incredible schnitzel and hot, freshly baked beignets
"The Triangle is a lot like Berkeley now," observed my friend Amy Tornquist, "but with more ham." Like the chefs in California, those in North Carolina's Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill area, a.k.a. the Research Triangle, are now obsessed with buying meat, fruit and vegetables locally. Of course, talented Triangle cooks have been using great regional products for years: Scott Howell opened Nana's in 1992 (2514 University Dr., Durham; 919-493-8545), and I've been a fan of Magnolia Grill's Ben Barker since he was an F&W Best New Chef in 1993 (1002 Ninth St., Durham; 919-286-3609). But now there's an emerging style dubbed the "new New Southern" that features lighter dishes made with extremely local ingredients.
After spending a few days in the Triangle, I have to agree that its chefs are as fixated on local produce as they are on pigs. Amy, who just left a job as chef at the Café at the Nasher Museum of Art to open her own place, Watts Grocery, this month (1116 Broad St., Durham; no phone yet), serves my favorite amalgamation of the two: an amazing BLT salad with local greens. She took me to the excellent eight-month-old Piedmont (401 Foster St., Durham; 919-683-1213), in a former warehouse. Co-chef Drew Brown, who looks young enough to be one of the city's countless college students, has a charcuterie section on his dinner menu that includes house-made country pâté and foie gras terrine. (Brown says he was a vegetarian before he started cooking at Thomas Keller's Bouchon in Las Vegas.) Nearby, the 10-month-old, French bistro–styled Rue Cler (401 E. Chapel Hill St., Durham; 919-682-8844) sells hot, powdered sugar–covered beignets by the dozen.
The Research Triangle also has a fancy new place to stay near Raleigh, the Umstead Hotel and Spa (100 Woodland Pond, Cary; 919-447-4000), which opened in January on 12 gorgeous wooded acres full of walking paths. At the Umstead's restaurant, Herons, chef Phil Evans is using local country ham in his arugula-and-pear salad. He hasn't gotten around to curing his own—yet.
RSS
