Indy Week Celebrates Valentine's Day with Love for the Triangle
A couple excerpts below...
“...2. Because our beer scene is crazy good.
The other day, I was in line at Total Wine buying a six-pack. The couple in front of me told the cashier they were visiting from Maryland. “It’s weird how you all have separate stores for beer and liquor,” one said. “But it’s cool how there’s beer everywhere.” Thank you, Maryland man, for putting so succinctly what we all feel. Not only are we blessed with award-winning breweries (like Lynnwood Brewing Concern, Bond Brothers, Crank Arm, Fullsteam, and Mystery Brewing), but there are hundreds of places to enjoy a pint, local or otherwise. Beer is so common that a whole economy of beer-based events has been born. We’re not just talking trivia night and Girl Scout cookie pairings, though we have those to spare. Explore the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science with a cold one in hand on “adult nights.” Join Fullsteam to plant trees in Durham or learn about astronomy. Or just grab a stool at your neighborhood bar, raise a glass, and toast the Triangle. —Sarah Willets ...
5. Because our chefs win James Beard Awards and our restaurants make the hot-shit national lists.
Every time someone from out of town asks me about our famed local food scene, I yell, “Hot shit!” in my head like I’m Nelly about to launch into a lecture on country grammar. Except it’s more like country cooking—and dispelling myths about Southern food being ordinary. There’s a reckoning happening in our food scene, and our chefs are owning it—while racking up national accolades every year. For me, the most notable recent praise is Garland owner Cheetie Kumar’s James Beard nod for Best Chef Southeast (semifinalists will be announced February 15). A musician and chef, Kumar performs rituals in the kitchen that fuse a mastery of Indian spices with local ingredients that dance on our palates. (She just cooked up a late-night feast for Robert Plant.) And Brewery Bhavana was ranked among Bon Appetit’s top ten best new restaurants in the country—for good reason. It’s one of our most beautiful restaurants, for one, and blends Southern and immigrant hospitality effortlessly in its unique combination of Laotian entrees and Shanghai-style dim sum, a stellar forty-tap brewery, immaculate flower shop arrangements, and a woke AF bookstore. —Victoria Bouloubasis ...”
To read all 28 reasons, check out the full article...