Two events that may not be on your radar for the weekend:

• Counter Culture Coffee is hosting a free event from 7-9 p.m. Saturday featuring 2012 U.S. Barista Champion Katie Carguilo. The topic is "Fruit Bombs & Fermentation." Attendees will taste exotic and experimental Ethiopian coffees along with Carguilo's award-winning fermentation-inspired signature beverage that helped her win. The event is at 4911 S. Alston Ave., Durham. For more information, go HERE.
• Durham's Southwest Regional Library is hosting a Southern food cultures panel discussion at 3 p.m. Sunday. The panel will be moderated by N.C. barbecue expert Bob Garner and the panelists include chef Ben Barker of Durham's now closed-Magnolia Grill, chef Billy Cotter of Toast in Durham, chef Amy Tornquist of Watts Grocery and Hummingbird Bakery, both in Durham, and chef Walter Royal of Raleigh's Angus Barn.

Go HERE to read my story about Magnolia Grill's last month.

I got an email this morning from chef Ben Barker: there are no more reservations available between now and when the restaurant closes on May 31. 

Barker notes that walk-ins can be accomodated on most nights except for graduation and Mother's Day weekend (May 11 and 12) but there's no guarantee that you will get a table. Barker wrote, "The response to our announcement has been overwhelming." 

UPDATE Friday evening: Barker said they are maintaining a waiting list for reservations and have already called people off the waiting list to fill tables.  

If you are late to the news, go HERE to read my story about Magnolia Grill closing. 

Above: Karen and Ben Barker on the day Magnolia Grill opened in 1986. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Grill.

Here's what folks had to say Wednesday about chef Ben and Karen Barker's announcement that they are closing Durham's Magnolia Grill on May 31:

Note: Go HERE to read story in Thursday's paper.

Chef John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, Miss.: "On one hand, I'm saddened. But I'm also happy for them that they are launching this new phase of their lives."

Currence added: "Magnolia is one of those places where I remember clearly everything that I've eaten there, every time that I've went there."

Chef Chris Stinnett of Rue Cler and Pop's in Durham: "I owe him almost all the things I've accomplished....He's going to go out and live his life, which is awesome."

Chef Jason Smith of 18 Seaboard and Cantina 18 in Raleigh: "They were instrumental in my career path...I really enjoyed watching the way Ben ran his restaurant. I don't think the guy knows what the word 'shortcut' means."

Click READ MORE to see more quotes.

Durham chefs Ben and Karen Barker announced Wednesday morning that they will be closing Magnolia Grill on May 31.

In an email, the Barkers wrote that they had run the restaurant for 25 years and were ready for a change. They cited a need to spend more time with family.

“We have all of our parents, all 80 years old, or nearly,” they wrote. “We want to see them more. We have two grandchildren we’ve barely spent any time with; we want to see them more. We have co-workers we’ve been around more than our sons - it’s time for that to change."

In a phone interview Wednesday, Ben Barker added they have been debating about their future and just decided to do it. "We subsumed to do the restaurant business," he said. He continued that they didn't want to belabor or drag out the ending. He said: "We're so excited and happy about it."

Barker says they don't know if they will do another restaurant: "It might be we retire. That's as equal a possibility as something else."

The Barkers have been a fixture on the Triangle dining scene for more than three decades. Until last year, they were the only North Carolina-based chefs who had won James Beard awards.

The Triangle culinary scene was shocked to hear the news Wednesday.

Chef Scott Howell of Nana's in Durham worked for the Barkers in the early 1990s. Upon hearing the news, Howell said, "I'm sad. They were my parents when I came here. They helped me learn about North Carolina. Now we're friends."

“Wow. I’m flabbergasted,” said chef Bill Smith of Crook’s Corner. Smith worked with the Barkers at La Residence years ago.

Smith said on one hand, he is cheering for the Barkers: “Good for you. It would be nice not to have to work yourself to death.” On the other, he says, “I regret hearing it at the same time.”

Go HERE to read a story about the Barkers and the impact of their restaurant over the years creating the next generation of chefs.

The semifinalists for the annual James Beard Foundation awards were announced this morning. Among the North Carolina folks recognized:

• Sean Lilly Wilson, Fullsteam Brewery in Durham and Eric Solomon of Eric Solomon Selections European Cellars in Charlotte for outstanding wine and spirits professional.
• Katie Button of Cúrate in Asheville for Rising Star Chef.
• And among those considered for Best Chef Southeast: Ashley Christensen of Poole's in Raleigh; John Fleer of Canyon Kitchen at Lonesome Valley in Cashiers; Vivian Howard of Chef & the Farmer in Kinston; Scott Howell of Nana's in Durham; and Aaron Vandemark of Panciuto in Hillsborough. 
• Magnolia Grill in Durham for Outstanding Restaurant.

The James Beard awards are considered the Oscars of the food world. Only three North Carolina chefs have received James Beard awards: Ben Barker and Karen Barker at Magnolia Grill and Andrea Reusing of Lantern in Chapel Hill.

The finalists will be announced 11 a.m. March 19. The winners will be announced May 7 at a gala in New York City.

Several folks have asked N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox and myself for a printable version of his annual best restaurant list. So here it is:

Restaurant of the Year

Magnolia Grill

1002 Ninth St., Durham, 286-3609

www.magnoliagrill.net

Cuisine: contemporary Southern

The first question I'm invariably asked when I'm introduced as a restaurant critic is some variation on "What's your favorite restaurant?" I never answer with the name of just one. Because my tastes are wide-ranging and my "favorite restaurant" can change depending on my mood, I always mention at least two or three - and not always the same two or three.

But I always include Magnolia Grill.

It's an obvious choice, I know. The restaurant has won two James Beard Awards, after all. And it's hard to imagine what the local dining scene would look like without the dozens of culinary proteges of owner/chef Ben Barker and his wife, pastry chef Karen Barker - many of whom now run restaurants of their own.

But my reasons for including Magnolia Grill among my short list of favorites - and for naming it Restaurant of the Year - go beyond the obvious. They date to November 1986, when the restaurant opened just a month after I moved to the area. It didn't take me long to discover this oasis in a culinary landscape that looked vastly different than it does today.

Fine dining options are much more plentiful now. There are plenty of restaurants with a more elegant dining room decor than Magnolia Grill's, and a few that can match the level of professionalism of its wait staff. But when it comes to the food, Magnolia Grill stands alone.

That the kitchen has continued to perform at such a consistently high level over so many years is impressive enough. That it does so with a daily changing menu that focuses on local produce (and did so long before it was fashionable) is even more impressive. And that Ben Barker and his crew are able, again and again, to surprise and delight with flavor combinations you'd never have thought of (and, unlike so many other "creative" presentations elsewhere, rarely come off as overwrought) is nothing short of amazing.

Magnolia Grill is, in other words, a foodie mecca in the purest sense. It seems especially appropriate to choose this year to name Magnolia Grill the Restaurant of the Year. A few weeks ago, the restaurant celebrated its 25th birthday. You could call this year's award a belated happy birthday wish, and a thank you from a grateful foodie.

Click READ MORE to see the list.

Magnolia Grill is the top pick this year. Go HERE to see his complete list.

I have a story today profiling the second-in-command in well-known Triangle kitchens. Meet Jimmy Alfano and Jim Long of the Angus Barn, Amanda Forsyth of Magnolia Grill, Miguel Torres of Lantern and Sunny Gerhart of Watts Grocery.

Greg Cox gives 3 1/2 stars to The Pig in Chapel Hill. HERE is his review.

And Greg explores the Triangle ethnic food world with a new Cheap Eats column. His inaugural column explores Mongolian barbecues.

Chef Andrea Reusing of Chapel Hill's Lantern Restaurant was named the Best Chef of the Southeast Monday night at the James Beard Foundation's annual awards gala.

Reusing, 42, is only the third chef in North Carolina to win a James Beard award. From the stage Monday, she thanked her husband, Mac McCaughan, a singer and guitarist in the rock band Superchunk and co-founder of Merge Records, based in Durham Chapel Hill. And she joked about her decision to wear high heeled shoes: "You can tell I'm surprised to win by my shoe choice - not the most practical for climbing [to the] stage."

Reusing appeared on the Triangle's culinary scene in 1999 when she became the chef at the now closed Enoteca Vin in Raleigh. She was known for her seasonal cuisine and use of ingredients from local farmers. In 2002, she and her brother Brendan Reusing opened Lantern, which focused on using local ingredients to produce Asian-influenced dishes. In 2006, the new defunct Gourmet magazine named Lantern as one of the top 50 restaurants in the country. In 2009, Greg Cox, restaurant critic for The News & Observer, named Lantern as the Triangle's restaurant of the year.

Reusing also just published her first cookbook: "Cooking in the Moment." 

The state's two other James Beard award winners are the husband-wife chef owners of Magnolia Grill in Durham: Ben and Karen Barker.

James Beard was a cookbook author, cooking instructor and food writer known for his championing of America's regional cuisine. After his death in 1985, friends founded the foundation in his name to honor chefs, restaurants, wine professionals, cookbook authors and food journalists. The annual awards are often described as the Oscars of the food world.