Standing next to the shiny copper still at Top of the Hill’s microdistillery in Chapel Hill, proprietor Scott Maitland easily links his newest venture to his well-known microbrewery down Franklin Street. “I think of this wheat whiskey like a porter,” he said. Maitland’s whiskey is made with organic wheat, as opposed to corn and barley, reviving a rare style much like the campaign years ago to save the porter beer style in Britain.

Top of the Hill is bringing together its new line of Topo small-batch spirits with its craft beers Sunday at the Bootleggers Banquet. The dinner celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition and debuts two new beers: the “Old 96” pale ale and an imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels.

The pale ale uses 96 percent locally sourced ingredients thanks to North Carolina-grown grains from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. Top of the Hill’s brewery is one of many local craft brewers, including Fullsteam in Durham and Aviator in Fuquay-Varina, to start incorporating Riverbend into their beers. Read this week's full Pintful beer column here.

Southern Living magazine is running a contest to let readers decide the "Tastiest Town in the South." Right now, Durham is in the lead with Memphis right beside. For much of the voting, it was between Durham and Asheville.

That dead heat convinced chef Justin Rakes to organize a dinner featuring chefs from both North Carolina towns. At 7 p.m. Sunday at Durham's Four Square Restaurant, diners can enjoy a six-course meal prepared by these chefs:

• Jacob Sessoms of Table in Asheville.
• Brian Canipelli of Cucina 24 in Asheville.
• Justin Rakes and Scott Martin of soon to open Salted Pig (Rakes is the former chef de cuisine at Four Square. Rakes is being tight-lipped at the moment about his next venture, the Salted Pig, but I will share details as I learn them.)
• Matt Kelly of Mateo in Durham.
• Shane Ingram of Four Square in Durham.

Tickets cost $75 per person. Wine pairings will be made available by Four Square
Sommelier Brandon Carr. Reservations can be made online at opentable.comor by phone 919-401-9877.

Be sure to cast your vote for your favorite Southern town. Voting ends Feb. 28. To vote, go HERE.

Warren Wilson College is the only N.C. school out of 16 colleges that received the highest score — a 99 — in the Princeton Review greenest colleges list.

The fifth annual Clash of the Carolinas all-star soccer games will be played this Saturday on Daniels Island, near Charleston, S.C., where UNC's Farrell Sweeney, an East Chapel Hill alumna, UNC Asheville goalie Dan Jackson (East Chapel Hill '11) and UNC Wilmington midfielder Jamie Dell (Chapel Hill '11) will be on the N.C.  teams.

Linamar, a Canadian manufacturer of auto parts and other industrial components, plans to open a new plant in Asheville and create 363 jobs over the next four years.

State officials approved a state incentives package this evening worth $2.5 million if the company meets hiring and investment goals.

The company is also receiving $10 million in incentives from the city of Asheville and Buncombe County.

The incentives include $7 million for the purchase of a building and $3 million in cash grants.

Gov. Beverly Perdue and Secretary of State Keith Crisco are both scheduled to appear at The Grove Park Inn in Asheville this evening to announce the project.

The new jobs are expected to pay $39,931, above the Buncombe County average of $33,800.

Linamar, which is publicly traded and based in Ontario, also considered sites in South Carolina.

The company makes engines and transmissions as well as components used in the energy industry and for a host of other industrial uses.

The Asheville plant is expected to make engines and other parts for large trucks.

The company is creating a new North Carolina company that will be a Linamar subsidiary.
 

The direct-selling industry, where consultants hold home parties to sell jewelry, makeup, sex toys and other products, is getting a new player: The Biltmore Co.

The Asheville tourist destination, which is one of North Carolina's best-known landmarks, announced today that it plans to start Biltmore Inspirations next year to sell more products with the Biltmore brand, including food and kitchen gadgets.

Biltmore Inspirations will unveil its product line in early 2011, and recruit a national team of consultants to start holding parties by April. The products will only be available through consultants, and not at the Biltmore estate.

But expect similar products to what visitors can now buy at the estate or online, including wine, food such as dips, dressings and cheeseball mixes, and home items such as linens and china.

Earlier feasibility studies said it looks like a good idea to extend passenger train service to the western and southeastern North Carolina, so the state DOT Rail Division has requested $6.7 million in federal planning funds for further environmental study, engineering and design work.

One proposed line would run west from Salisbury to Asheville. The other would link Raleigh and Selma to Wilmington by one of two routes - passing through Goldsboro, or passing through Fayetteville and Pembroke. ... [MORE]

UNC-Chapel Hill has received the blessing of the UNC system's governing board to create a satellite pharmacy program in Asheville.

The program will link with UNC-Asheville and Mission Hospital with the aim of increasing the pool of pharmacists in the western end of the state.

It did not come easy.

The idea was vetted this week by UNC system President Erskine Bowles and then by a committee of the UNC system's Board of Governors. Both Bowles and that committee were selecting between the UNC-CH proposal and a larger, more ambitious plan to build a new pharmacy school at UNC Greensboro.

In opting for the UNC-CH plan, UNC-system officials put a stop to UNCG's initiative.

A Thursday meeting of the UNC system's planning committee was occasionally contentious. At one point, UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady and Provost David Perrin argued they were falling victim to a technicality. They only wanted permission to continue planning a pharmacy school, a far cry from actually asking for the UNC system to establish one.

But Bowles disagreed, saying he'd told the UNCG contingent they had one shot to make their best sales pitch.

"You had plenty of opportunity to put your best shot forward," Bowles said.

A day later, committee chairman Marshall Pitts referred to the pharmacy meeting as a "smackdown."

 UNCG officials have pushed hard for a new pharmacy school, saying it would be a shot in the arm to the economic development climate of the Triad, creating hundreds of jobs there.

Meanwhile, UNC-CH officials presented a smaller, far less expensive proposal patterned after a successful satellite venture already in place linking the Chapel Hill campus with Elizabeth City State University using distance education.

A key issue is demand for pharmacists. While it has long been assumed that North Carolina needs more pharmacists, that appears no longer true aside from in rural areas of the state that are usually under-served. A recent report by a UNC-CH health services research institute found
that the state no longer has a shortage except in some rural areas.

Asheville is one of those regions, a justification for the UNC-CH program there, officials said.

Here's another way to look at the supply and demand issue. Until recently, new pharmacy school graduates had their pick of high-paying jobs, particularly at chain and other retail drugstores. Some paid sizable signing bonuses.

But no longer. The job market has tightened considerably.

In 2008, 90 percent of the graduating class had accepted positions by May 1, according to surveys. 

In 2009, that number dropped to 75 percent, according to David Etchison with the UNC-CH pharmacy school.

The man behind FX's snarky, boozy, potty-mouthed and funny animated spy show "Archer" is a nice guy from Asheville named Adam Reed.

Reed's the creator and an executive producer of the show, and as he tells it, his entry into animation was unexpected. (That's him on the right.) It all started after his 1992 graduation from UNC-CH.

"I graduated with no plan whatsoever," says Reed, who majored in English. He packed a bag and went to France, living and working odd jobs in Chamonix. Then the money ran out.

Whether you classify it as good news or bad all depends, but Barack
Obama's ability to attract 28,000 people to a rally Sunday in Asheville
has to rate as remarkable.