Go HERE to read Greg's review of the newest Rocky Top Hospitality restaurant. (Dean's Seafood Grill and Bar used to be Rockwell's.)
I've been remiss in posting links to Greg's recent reviews. (I've been sick or my toddler has been sick the last few weeks.) So here they are:
I'll be at the Southern Women's Show today and Saturday so please stop by and see me.
We can talk coupons and frugal living. Or you can just say hello.
I'll be at The N&O booth near the cooking stage in the Expo Center from 5 to 7 p.m. today and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
I'll have freebies for the first five blog readers each day who stop by to chat.
My story today explained plans for a "Raleigh Beach" that would offer sand, pools and summer fun on a West Hargett Street site near downtown Raleigh.
If the plans go forward, it wouldn't be the first "Raleigh Beach." That name was given years ago to a once popular swimming hole on the Neuse River, just below the Milburnie Dam east of the city limits.
Land around the site is now owned by the city for a future Milburnie Park. The park won't be developed soon, but it's an access point for the Neuse River Greenway trail that officially opened Thursday. One of the streets nearby is still called Raleigh Beach Road.
A 1990 News & Observer detailed Raleigh Beach's colorful history:
"All I know about Raleigh Beach is terrible things, " rails Elsie L. Seymore, a silver-haired woman in a pink sun dress out collecting butterbeans at a friend's home near the river. "Murders and illegitimate children. Terrible things."
The beach made headlines occasionally for murders, drownings and drunkenness, but it remained popular.
"There used to be a sand bar down there, " says Ms. Seymore, who has lived near the swimming hole for most of her life. "People in Raleigh who couldn't get to the beach but could afford gas up here used to come with their children. Then it got into all kinds of things."
Skinny-dipping and casting for catfish used to be the main attractions of the wide pool below the dam. N.W. Poole, 67, who runs a well-drilling business on Old Milburnie Road, remembers people getting religion in the same waters that served as a kind of "lover's lane."
"I seen blacks and whites down there baptizing their people, " he says. "I'd be sittin' on the big rock peepin' at 'em. The place was covered in violets."
But Mr. Poole says the river contains "suck-holes" that pulled some swimmers to their deaths. And Mrs. Seymore says visitors took to hard drinking. Twenty years ago Mr. Twiggs, then owner of the land, began blocking off the roads to the beach. The sand bar washed away. But people still sneaked in.
Eleven players from Wake County were among those honored with scholarships this week from the National Football Foundation. Each one of them at the annual scholars banquet of the NFF's Bill Dooley Triangle/East Chapter was presented with a plaque and will receive a $1,000 scholarship to be sent directly to the university of their attendance.
This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:
North Carolina native Beth Flynn, who learned her trade from bakers up and down the East Coast, has sold her bakery in Virginia and returned to her home state to set up shop. Located in a strip mall across from Olde Raleigh Village, Groovy Duck Bakery (3434-110 Edwards Mill Road; 919-787-9233; groovyduckbakeryllc.com) offers a display case filled with a colorful assortment of cakes and pastries.
The selection varies, but you'll usually find Flynn's signature shortbread dipped in a yellow glaze. You can count on a rotating assortment of muffins, too, from her repertoire of nearly 50. There's typically at least one sugar-free option.
Other temptations cover the spectrum from homespun cookies and such (giant oatmeal raisin, Snickerdoodles, brownies, lemon bars) to pastries with a pedigree (Linzer tarts, almond horns, Rugelach). Flynn also bakes wedding cakes and other custom cakes for special occasions.
Espresso and coffees from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasters, a friendly staff and a setting as cheery as the bakery's name are icing on the cake. Groovy Duck Bakery is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Sunday.
Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.
Do you feel like you spend way too much at the grocery store? Tired of paying outrageous drugstore prices?
Registration is now open for my next coupon workshop, a three-hour class on Saturday, June 15.
Learn how to save 50 percent -- or more -- in this fun and fast-paced class. On top of that, we'll feed you breakfast and send you home with a nice bag of freebies.
I'll be teaching this class, covering basic and advanced coupon techniques, in Raleigh at The News & Observer's downtown offices, 215 S. McDowell St.
The half-day session will include information on:
Its wealth of highly educated people, low cost of living and large research industry make Raleigh the No. 2 city in the country to start a small business, according to a recent study. The City of Oaks also earned an "A" as its small business grade.
In calculating the top cities, NerdWallet, a consumer finance resource company, used five criteria, including how easy it is to obtain funding, business-friendliness, how the local economy is faring, the affordability of the city and ease in getting hired.
Here are the top ten cities on the list:
1. Atlanta
2. Raleigh
3. Austin, Tex.
4. Tulsa, Okla.
5. Oklahoma City, Okla.
6. Tampa
7. Seattle
8. Minneapolis
9. Houston
10. Omaha, Neb.
For the complete report, go here.
We have two winners in the ticket giveaway for the Southern Women's Show.
Each will receive a pair of tickets for the show, which runs Friday through Sunday at the State Fairgrounds.
If you didn't win but plan to go anyway, please stop by and see me at The N&O booth near the cooking stage in the Expo Center.
I'll be at the show from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday. I'll be chatting with folks and answering questions. Oh, and I'll have freebies for the first five blog readers each day who stop by to chat.
The winners are:
The Tour D'Coop, Wake County's annual tour of backyard chicken coops, is hosting a "COCK-Tail Party" at 6 p.m. Sunday to benefit Urban Ministries of Wake County.
Guests will gather at the North Hills home of Anna Baird and Hunt Choi for food, drinks and a silent auction featuring garden items, chicken-themed prizes, artwork and gift certificates to local businesses. Tickets cost $25 per person. To order tickets, go to urbanmin.org/cock-tail-party.
Last year's cocktail party raised $10,000 for Urban Ministries, a nonprofit that helps Wake County residents in need of food, shelter and health care.
This year's Tour D'Coop will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 18, rain or shine. The tour showcases hen houses in Raleigh and Cary, various chicken breeds and the "how-tos" of chicken keeping. All tour proceeds benefit Urban Ministries of Wake County. Tickets cost $10 per person, $20 for a family. Info: tourdcoop.com.
This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:
Veteran restaurateur and Vietnamese chef Quan Tran has opened Pho Super 9 (6401 Triangle Plantation Drive; 919-878-1599; phosuper9.com) near Triangle Town Center mall. The chef owned Pho 9N9 in Durham before selling it three years ago, and was a partner in Pho Cali before that.
Tran has given the old Hibachi Express space in Plantation Point Shopping Center a thorough makeover, transforming it into a casual contemporary setting with full table service and a granite bar where, pending permits, beer and wine will be served.
The main draw, not surprisingly, is the Vietnamese beef noodle soup that is the restaurant's namesake. But it's by no means the only attraction. A six-page menu offers a broad cross-section of the Vietnamese repertoire, making Pho Super 9 the chef's most ambitious venture yet.
Pho Super 9 is open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant's website is still under construction, but you can find them on Facebook.
Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.
