Andrea Weigl of The News & Observer has compiled an interactive list of the top 50 Triangle food icons. This is truly amazing. Everything from the VarmintBites blog to Ed Mitchell, women chefs, J.Betski’s, the World Beer Festival, Tookie’s chicken salad, and the Carrboro Farmer’s Market is included. Of course there are some notable absences, but that just goes to show how the Triangle has become one of the top foodie destinations in the country. Check it out.
Triangle one of the top foodie destinations in the country?
It’s not even the best foodie destination in the state (drive 3 hours south on 85)
Raleigh is an awesome city and all but c’mon…..
Title of the article says “Triangle” yet you use “raleigh” in your post…interesting way to go about starting an argument!
I have to agree with Matt W. The Triangle has had quite a food revolution over the past few years; but, it is by no means a foodie destination. There is not one single restaurant in Raleigh worth driving more than 20 miles to go to. Chapel Hill and Durham have some standouts (Magnolia Grill, Lantern, Rue Cler, etc.) but still not enough to consider this area a “foodie destination.” While I am pissing off people….The Pit is way overhyped and overpriced.
Is this in the print edition today?
BCB: Fins is well worth driving for.
It’s great how some people can take a couple of words like “foodie destination” and use them to ignore the point of the article, debasing what was meant to be a celebration of the good food spots in the TRIANGLE (not just raleigh).
I was a little surprised that Fins didn’t make the list either.
Overall I thought it was a fun read and the photography was very good.
Is Charlotte 3 hours west on I-85? Because if so you have to be joking. Charlotte does in fact do several things better than Raleigh. To name a few - helping to ruin the nation’s economy, buying very expensive clothes, having no music scene. Food however is not one of them.
tc, I was responding to this quote from the article—“that just goes to show how the Triangle has become one of the top foodie destinations in the country.”
I don’t think I was ignoring the point of the article, considering that was the closing statement. I don’t mean to imply that there aren’t some great restaurants ‘round these parts, because there clearly are. I just can’t let that kind of hyperbole go unchecked.
To guest, yes, I was referring to Charlotte, which for all of her faults (and there are many) has some ridiculously good restaurants that I would rate above anywhere in the Triangle. I have personally lived in both cities, and while I prefer Raleigh to Charlotte in almost every aspect, Charlotte’s culinary scene beats the Triangle hands down in terms of variety and consistency.
yeah charlotte has the best chili’s and TGIF i have ever been too.
I thought it was a great article. Way to go, Andrea. Great work.
Charlotte has better restaurants than the Triangle? Really? Examples please. And don’t try and say Johnson and Wales makes a difference. Culinary schools do not necessarily great local restaurants make.
just for the record, wake tech’s culinary program is better than johnny wales anyways.
i’m sure charlotte has very good restaurants, but this isn’t new charlotte now is it?
between raleigh, durham and chapel hill, the triangle had become a food lovers paradise.
Although there are some excellent restaurants in the area (Betski’s, Fins, Vin Rouge, etc.), I don’t agree that it’s a foodie paradise. This area was just recently a culinary wasteland. Options are still few and far between. Diversity is not yet a highlight of the area. It’s still young, yes, but paradise? Please.
Btw, if you have a great PR team you can sell water to a whale.
I’m gonna have to give matt w points for using the word “hyperbole”
I have to chime in on this argument about the triangle being a foodie paradise.
Being a foodie paradise doesn’t just entail having great fine dining like Betski’s, Fins, Magnolia Grill, etc.
It’s an atmosphere that fosters creativity, has access to great produce and meats (great farmer’s markets and an ever growing list of organic/heirloom/humane growers in the area), fresh seafood, a thriving regional brewing industry, a cultural heritage rooted in agriculture, great events (World Beer, The Krispy Kreme Run, etc.) and a fair number of icons.
Its not fair to judge a region’s foodie-ness on the quality of a few high end restaurants.
Messo, you’re absolutely right. My only problem is that the ethnic foods aren’t quite diverse enough, and the ethnic foods we do have aren’t really that great. That’s not to say we don’t have some gems, but places that do have something to offer get no shine because we like talking about places that serve beer and sandwiches all the time (and lord knows we have too many of them).
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