Category: Locally Notable

Notable items of local interest.

Locally Notable

Yahoo Travel: The Best BBQ Across America

More from Yahoo Travel, but this one’s a little bit of a head scratcher. According to this article, the best barbecue in North Carolina comes from little known Backyard BBQ Pit in Durham, NC:

It is a tall order to produce the best barbecue in this state, but Backyard BBQ Pit in Durham upholds the standards with sweet sauces and tender pork ribs. If you can pry your fingers off of those ribs for a few, try the fried pork chops. Holy pig’s feet! They are delicious.

I work right around the corner from Backyard BBQ Pit and yet I’ve never been. That means I’m unqualified to renounce this selection. But with so many other great barbecue joints in the Triangle and beyond, I find it hard to believe Backyard BBQ Pit is even the best barbecue in Durham. Tastes, they are subjective.

Locally Notable

The Heritage Flag Company

Large scale manufacturing and retailing might still rule the economy these days, but the maker and shop local movements are growing leaps and bounds every second that passes. The Heritage Flag Company is masterfully crafting beautiful wood flag art pieces, and it’s just down the road in Southern Pines, NC:

All of our flags are hand made in North Carolina. No two flags that leave the shop are identical. We take pride in maintaining the character of the original wood, so colors and finishes may vary.

Their flags are called The Full Barrel, The Half Barrel, and The Small Batch. I’ll give you two guesses where the wood comes from.

Locally Notable

‘Compton’ By Way of Raleigh

Detox may never see the light of day, but Dr. Dre is not going to drop the mic quietly. Compton: A Soundtrack arrives this Friday exclusively to Apple Music and iTunes (with a sneak peek available Thursday evening on Apple Music). Please pardon the particular excitement of Triangle and NC music fans as Raleigh’s own King Mez is one of several new or heretofore unknown artists appearing on the album:

Born Morris Wayne Ricks II, 25-year-old rapper/producer King Mez is a native of Raleigh, N.C. He’s been releasing music since 2009, and his latest album, Long Live The King, came out in 2014. An introspective and thoughtful MC, Mez has collaborated with fellow North Carolinians J. Cole and producers 9th Wonder and Khrysis. The Morgan State alum cites Nas and MF DOOM as two of his main influences.

The new (and supposedly final) album drops just in time to coincide with the release of Straight Outta Compton, a new biopic about N.W.A. Here’s to hoping the album is more magnum opus than opportunistic fluff.

Locally Notable

Triangle Food Blog: La Farm Bakery in Cary Expanding ↬

Got word this week, and confirmed through several sources, that La Farm Bakery over in Cary is expanding into the space next to them. No word yet on a timeline or what changes the expansion might bring.

I love La Farm, but the quarters are pretty tight in there, especially on a busy day. Hopefully this expansion will allow them to increase the number of seats and make it feel a bit roomier.

On an unrelated note, it sounds like Larry’s Beans will have a retail shop in the new SkyHouse Raleigh building in Downtown Raleigh. I’m excited, but I’m not holding my breath.

O&F
Locally Notable

Bullish on the Bulls

Five or six years ago I bought a Durham Bulls cap in the team store and it’s still my favorite hat. My wife, daughter, mother and I went to a game a couple of weeks ago and I had to go see what I could see in the team store again. I wanted to walk out of there with everything, and I don’t even really like baseball that much. I managed to hold myself to just a hat for my daughter, but there’s no denying the Bulls are doing something right with their product:

MiLB started keeping sales stats of its 160 teams back in 1993. Since then, the Bulls have ranked in the top 25 in merchandise sales each of those 22 seasons, while the Mudcats ranked 17 times.

Same thing goes for the Carolina Mudcats down the road in Zebulon (albeit on a smaller scale).

There may not be a big market here for an MLB franchise, but I love what we have with the Bulls and the product seems to get better every year. If you haven’t been to a Bulls game yet this year, make sure you check ’em out. They play 21 home games in August, so you’ll have plenty of chances to catch them.

P.S. And if you like a frosty beverage every now and then, make sure you check out the beer that’s brewed in house and served using the bottoms up filling system. You’ll even get a souvenir magnet as a reward for drinking it up.

Locally Notable

Sprudge: Gray Squirrel Coffee In Carrboro, NC ↬

Sprudge, as part of their Build-Outs of Summer series, profiles Gray Squirrel Coffee in Carrboro, NC:

At just 250 square feet, this space is small, but like the squirrel species, it contains multitudes. Top-of-the-line gear? This place boasts kit you’d be impressed by in a shop 5 times its size. An interesting hook? This coffee bar exists inside a hip local brewery. The team at Gray Squirrel have created something that punches above its weight class, something capable of showing unexpected grace and dexterity, smaller than the larger mammals surrounding it but wholly its own, a being perfectly adapted to its environs…not unlike the humble squirrel from which it takes its name.

O&F
Locally Notable

Kickstart Something New for Muddy Dog

When I first started buying locally roasted coffee, the first local roaster I got into was Muddy Dog Roasting Company in nearby Morrisville, NC. They are a smaller, family owned and operated roaster that sells direct to the public out of their small shop. Recently, they announced a new Kickstarter project to help them finish their planned expansion into vacant adjacent space that they’ve already purchased. The new space will house their roasting and packaging equipment, while the new space will offer a customer training area and a small cafe. Check out the Kickstarter page and seriously consider contributing to the project. Even if you don’t buy their coffee yourself (though you really should), if you’re a coffee lover and you like to support local businesses, this is a great way to show your support and help a viable business (they’ve been around since 2006) continue to grow in this community.