Sbarro pizza places in malls across the country are giving away free bags of cookies for Valentine's Day.
The freebie is good at the Sbarro locations at Cary Town Center and at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh.
The offer is posted on the Sbarro Facebook page.
Redeem the offer in one of three ways: Print it out, show the post on your smartphone or simply mention it to the cashier and the cookies are yours free.
The city of Raleigh says it will team up with Zipcar to make two cars available for city residents to rent by the hour or by the day.
Residents can join the car-sharing service for a $25 application fee plus $50 a year. The cars can be reserved at rates as low as $7.50 per hour or $69 per day. The service is available for drivers 21 and older, and for students at N.C. State University and Meredith College.
A Ford Focus and a Toyota Prius will be available, to be located on Glenwood Avenue at Lane Street.
"This will be an important asset for our transit, bicycle and pedestrian commuters," David Eatman, the city transit administrator, said in a news release. "If someone needs to run an errand or attend an appointment, these vehicles are invaluable. They will also be a huge asset for our growing residential community in downtown Raleigh."
Rex Hospital and Sweet Tomatoes have teamed up this month to offer folks a free lunch or dinner when they complete an online assessment for heart disease risks.
Lent is just around the corner and so are Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers and Friday night fish fries.
Here are two that popped up on my radar:
And if you know of any more, please share them in the comments below!
Saddle up, cyclists. Raleigh plans this spring to install its first on-street parking corral for bikes.
It will replace an automobile parking space on the south side of East Hargett Street, just west of South Wilmington Street, near the Raleigh Times bar and restaurant.
A corral is a big bike rack. This one will have room for 10 to 12 bicycles, said Eric Lamb, the city's transportation planning director. It's being donated by Saris Cycling Group, a Wisconsin bike-rack maker.
Raleigh has regular bike racks, enough to provide free parking for about 100 bicycles, installed on sidewalks around the downtown. Sometimes these bikes compete for space with pedestrians on busy sidewalks. A sidewalk rack nearby will be removed when the on-street corral is installed on Hargett, Lamb said.
“If it gets good use and we don’t have any problems with maintenance or damage, maybe we can expand this to other locations” downtown or along Hillsborough Street, Lamb said. When this parking space is taken out of circulation for cars, the city will add two new metered parking spaces in a little-used commercial loading zone nearby.
Lamb said he knew of only one other on-street bike corral in the state -- in Wilmington.
There are lots of ways to measure traffic problems. By one national measure, the Triangle area doesn't have much of a problem.
The Texas Transportation Institute's annual Urban Mobility Report finds that the average driver in the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area, population 1.14 million, wastes 23 hours in traffic jams and delays each year. That may sound bad. But, compared to the situation in other cities, it's good.
In fact, this number gives the Raleigh-Durham the least rush-hour congestion of all the 47 metro areas that have at least 1 million residents. Less congestion than lots of smaller cities, too -- including Greensboro, Knoxville, Columbia and Charleston (SC), Baton Rouge, Oklahoma City, Richmond and Albany. While Raleigh-Durham ranks 40th in population, it ranks 83rd in rush-hour delays.
Who's worst? Washington, D.C., where the average driver loses 67 hours in traffic jams every year. Charlotte comes in at 25th worst, with 40 hours of delays.
For those of you mourning the loss of the recently shuttered Kroger store on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh, the store will reopen tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 7) as a Carlie C's IGA.
The store at 4111 New Bern Ave. will open for business at 7 a.m.
Mack McLamb, Carlie C's president and son of the founder, said Tuesday that a grand opening will be held in late April or early May after renovations at the store are complete.
Among the better sales that will be available this week:
This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:
The Fiction Kitchen is now open at 428 S. Dawson St., serving dinner Tuesday-Saturday. Owners Caroline Morrison and Siobhan Southern plan to add Sunday brunch by the end of the month.
The brunch service will no doubt open to a ready-made following. Morrison and Southern have been catering a vegan brunch at The Pinhook, a private bar in Durham, for nearly three years now - out of a borrowed kitchen, which explains the rather unusual name of their establishment.
They kept that name for their brick-and-mortar location, where they're cooking their seasonally evolving menu with a strong emphasis on local and sustainable produce in a real - albeit small - kitchen. The bulk of the offering is vegan, though a number of dishes can be adjusted for a less restricted vegetarian diet. These options are clearly denoted on the menu, as are gluten-free dishes.
Regardless of dietary lifestyle, you're likely to find temptations among a varied offering that currently includes NC apple fritters with bourbon-agave syrup, root vegetable chips with edamame hummus, chipotle soy "tinga" tacos, and a coconut curry of seasonal vegetables. Throw in a full bar with six local brews on tap and a seasonally changing cocktail list (Troy & Sons moonshine and blackberry jam, anyone?), and you can count me in.
Please send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net.
This post was written by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:
Bella Mia has reopened under new ownership, just a few weeks after the original owners closed the restaurant in late December. The interim was an intensive training period for new owner Dan Morrison and his staff, who were learning the ropes from former owner Rick Guerra and his family.
A key area of focus was the coal-fired pizza oven, whose 900 degree heat can turn out a pizza in 90 seconds and leaves little room for error. Prior to the restaurant's closing, Guerra's sons Anthony and Louis had mastered the technique so well that Bella Mia earned my selection as Restaurant of the Year in 2011.
Judging by the two pies I've sampled so far since the restaurant's reopening, it looks like the new pizzaiolo crew are fast learners. It probably doesn't hurt that Morrison , a native of Long Island, is a friend of the Guerras and has been one of the restaurant's biggest fans since its inception.
"I know that the pizzas are the heart of the business," Morrison says. "There's no way I'm messing with them."
But he does plan to expand the menu a bit to include a few panini and pasta dishes. And he hopes to add lunch service, possibly as early as February 15. Naturally, that depends on how quickly he's able to train a new pizza baker for the lunch shift.
The restaurant is still located at The Arboretum, 2025 Renaissance Park Pl., Cary.
Greg Cox can be reached at ggcox@bellsouth.net.
Take your Lego-loving child to the Lego store at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh this Tuesday, Feb. 5, to build a free mini model.
The Lego store is hosting its February Mini Model Build at 5 p.m. while supplies last.
Kids ages 6 to 14 will build a tiny log cabin in a nod to Abraham Lincoln and the upcoming Presidents Day holiday.
For more information, head over HERE to the store's website.
