North Carolina Cuisine

Carolina Cuisine

words by > Nancy Davidson

EATS TRIANGLE

*The best of Southern traditions—from authentic barbecue to haute cuisine

North Carolina’s Triangle, comprised of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, is steeped in traditional Southern cooking and barbecue. But the three towns are also home to a burgeoning new restaurant scene that is as sophisticated as anywhere in the US, while also paying homage to the area’s home-style roots and benefiting from the bounty of the land. No matter what brings you to the Triangle, you’ll want to visit at least one Southern café, one barbecue joint and one trendy new eatery.

Southern-style Comforts

If you only go to one down-home Southern joint, make it Big Ed’s City Market Restaurant (919-836-9909) in Raleigh. “Big Ed” Watkins and his family have owned and operated this eatery for over 40 years—though the recipes in the kitchen and the tools that hang from the ceiling are much older than that. Go for the quintessential country breakfast: biscuits, authentic dry salty country ham, grits, red-eye gravy and eggs. It’s no wonder that the not-to-be-missed platter-sized hotcakes are sweet even before you add syrup; Big Ed adapted the recipe from his mother’s pound cake recipe. If you’re lucky, Big Ed himself will be there in his large overalls and outsized personality.

If Big Ed’s not there, you can see if Mama Dip is in her Chapel Hill restaurant. Mama Dip’s Kitchen (www.mamadips.com) is another old-time country place with a cult following. Mama Dip, a.k.a. Mildred Council, likes to tell the story of how she started her venture in 1976 with $64, and how she bought food for the next day with the money she made on the first day. Since then, Mama Dip has been discovered by the masses. Try her chicken and dumplings, smothered pork chops or fried chicken and gravy, catfish gumbo, fresh fruit cobblers and butter layer cake.

For a lighter and less traditional take on the classics, head to Foster’s Market (www.fostersmarket.com), an upscale version of a country market with a homey and hospitable atmosphere. First opened in 1990 in Durham, it was originally designed to be a takeout store. But Sara Foster’s customers wanted to hang out and enjoy her fresh baked muffins, cakes and sandwiches, lingering over coffee while they spread her piquant seven-pepper jelly and cream cheese on homemade biscuits. So she added more tables (and another location in Chapel Hill). In both, you can also find a pantry of jams, sauces, candies and other treats, including Foster’s own brand of backyard barbecue sauce.

Barbecue Joints

Speaking of which, in the annals of barbecue lore, the Carolinas lay claim to inventing the first American barbecue. They cooked whole hogs over wood burned down to coal and served up what’s known in these parts simply as barbecue: pulled pork. At Allen & Son (919-942-7576) in Chapel Hill, Keith Allen is one of the remaining few who still follows the tradition of rising at dawn to start the hickory wood fire to make the coals. He piles pork shoulders (also called pork butts) or whole hogs in the pit, with no sauce or seasoning. His famous cider-vinegar sauce, which he serves hot, has a secret ingredient (it might be butter, because it congeals at room temperature). Straight out of the pit without sauce, his pulled pork is moist and tender with a lightly smokey flavor.

Cooper’s (919-832-7614) in downtown Raleigh doesn’t have the most authentic barbecue (city laws prevent them from cooking with smoke), but it makes up for it in atmosphere. Dating to the 1920s, Cooper’s has wooden booths, gingham tablecloths, black and white photos of old Raleigh, plus pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, pork rinds, hush puppies, collard greens and surly attitude from the staff. It’s worth a visit for historical value alone.

The Barbecue Joint (919-932-7504) in Chapel Hill represents the next generation of BBQ in the Triangle—barbecue as imagined by trained chefs. There’s impressive ribs and pulled pork, but they also serve smoked duck and gourmet side dishes. You order at the counter from a blackboard menu, and the menu changes daily.

Nouveau Southern

There’s a rash of new restaurants that have opened in the past few years, and while not all of them make overt references to the South, they all benefit from the heritage of Southern cooking and are often helmed by chefs native to the area. But most of these young chefs have trained at culinary institutions and gained experience at some of the best restaurants in the country.

Part of the excitement of this new dining scene is the repurposing of old spaces and the revitalization of neighborhoods. Nana’s Chophouse (www.nanaschophouse.com), a steakhouse where you can build your own antipasti platters from the finest cured meats, cheeses and olives, is located in a converted brick warehouse in Raleigh. The recently opened Raleigh Times Bar (www.raleightimesbar.com) is housed in the now defunct newspaper’s former office. And Enoteca Vin (www.enotecavin.com), a very popular wine bar, was once a Raleigh creamery.

The chefs exude a passion for local products—seasonal vegetables, heritage pigs, local chickens. At Chapel Hill’s Lantern (www.lanternrestaurant.com), Chef Andrea Reusing builds her Asian-inspired cuisine around the best ingredients that local farmers have to offer. In summer, that means crispy fried local okra with Indian spices;

Chapel Hill Creamery fresh bacon with spicy pickled green tomatoes; coconut-braised Fickle Creek Farm chicken; and cocktails such as Thai One On (spicy chile and Thai basil vodka with pickled cherry tomato).

Then there’s Duke University’s Nasher Museum Cafe (www.nasher.duke.edu), where chef Amy Tornquist, a Durham native, highlights products “raised, caught, smoked, pickled or cured within a two-hour radius of the cafe.” That means cheese from Celebrity Goat Dairy and Chapel Hill Creamery, meats smoked at The Barbecue Joint, and vegetables from her own garden. Recent menu choices have included shrimp and grilled bread salad over local greens, and local bratwurst in a Guglhupf soft pretzel roll.

Raleigh-based chef Jay Beaver brings his experience with farmer’s market-driven cuisine at Gramercy Tavern and refined European techniques at Cafe Boulud in NYC together at Frazier’s (www.fraziersbistro.com), with local ingredients such as Ashley Farm’s chicken and North Carolina wahoo. The result is elegant bistro fare. This summer, he’ll be featuring dishes such as pan-roasted grouper with corn velouté, fresh peas and tomato risotto.

The glamorous interior at Bin 54 (www.bin54restaurant.com) in Chapel Hill sets the tone for this American steakhouse—cushy circular dark leather banquets, red suede paneling and Brazilian cherry wood floors. Chef de cuisine Dale Ray elevates the humble iceberg wedge with grilled pancetta and Niçoise olives. In addition to four kinds of potatoes, sides include farro risotto and Anson Mills grits with brie and caramelized onion. But nothing prepares you for the meat: prime bone-in rib-eye, venison, dry-aged strip steak—basted in brown butter, perfectly charred over a wood fire and sprinkled with Maldon sea salt. Seafood and meats come with your choice of sauce, but the flavors are so intense already, you may forget to dip.

New restaurants are opening in the Triangle every month. Once you get a taste of Southern tradition and a peek at the future, you’ll be hungry for more.