The annual Good Food Awards honoring artisan food and beverage producers has named a handful of North Carolina companies among its finalists:

• Alamance County's Blessed Earth Farm won in the preserves category with its Summer Squash Curry Relish and Chapel Hill's Farmer's Daughter Brand won for its Rosey Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves.
• In the beer contest, Fullsteam Brewery in Durham won for its First Frost brew.
• In the confections category, Raleigh's Escazú Artisan Chocolates won with its Dark Chocolate Basil Ganache and Asheville's Looking Glass Creamery won for its Caramelita.

To see a complete list, go HERE.

The winners will be announced Jan. 8.

The Cookery is kicking off the first of what will likely be many future pop-up restaurants with Hakanai, a Japanese restaurant by the folks behind Toast in Durham.

The Cookery, a culinary incubator, now has its Front Room, a gorgeous event space with a full bar and outdoor patio. Billy and Kelli Cotter, owners of the Italian sandwich shop Toast, will use the space to open their Japanese restaurant for dinner Feb. 1-3.

Chef Billy Cotter's menu will feature "handmade soba noodles, steaming bowls of dashi, and even a bonito made in-house, which requires brining, smoking, and baking fish in order to utilize it in a finely shaved and particularly flavorful form," according to a press release.

Reservations will open online at 10 a.m. Dec. 9 at durhamcookery.com.

A couple local coffee roasters have special blends available, which would make excellent stocking stuffers:

Carrboro Coffee Roasters has developed a special PTA Thrift Shop Coffee Blend to help with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools PTA Thrift Shop's community building campaign.

A half-pound bag costs $10 with 100 percent of profits going towards the project. Those can be purchased at Caffé Driade in Chapel Hill, Open Eye Café in Carrboro and PTA Thrift Store locations. For more information about the campaign, go to ptathriftshop.org.

Then Counter Culture Coffee in Durham has its annual Holiday Blend available for sale at local coffee shops, such as The Morning Times in downtown Raleigh, and online. A 12-ounce bag costs $16.50. To order online, go HERE.

Kmart is closing its Durham store and laying off 79 people, the company has notified state officials. The store, which operated for nearly three decades at 4215 University Drive, is slated to close Jan. 20.

Liquidation sales will get underway this weekend.

"These decisions are never easy, because Kmart appreciates being a member of the community," said Kmart spokesman Chris Brathwaite. "However, we made a business decision to not renew the lease at this location based on its performance."

The majority of employees are part-time and will have an opportunity to apply for openings at area Sears and Kmart stores, Brathwaite said.

Both retailers are owned by Sears Holdings Corp., which operates 46 Kmarts and 4 Sears stores in North Carolina.

Go HERE to read Greg Cox's list of Triangle restaurants serving up Thanksgiving dinner.

Chef Ricky Moore, a New Bern native and former Top Chef contestant, has dipped in and out of the Triangle restaurant scene for several years. He has been the executive chef at Glasshalfull in Carrboro. He has run several kitchens for Triangle restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias. He taught cooking classes at the now-closed Bickett Market in Raleigh.

Moore has surfaced again. This time, he has opened a 250-square-foot seafood shack in Durham called Salt Box. He offers fresh seafood, spice griddled or fried, alone, on a sandwich or as a plate with two sides. It's takeout only.

Salt Box is located at 608 N. Mangum St. and is open noon-8 p.m. or until the fish runs out, Tues.-Sat. For more information, call 919-908-8970 or go to facebook.com/SaltboxSeafoodJoint.
 

Durham's public access television channel, Durham Community Media (DCM18) will hold a grand opening launch party on November 16 to introduce their new website and to celebrate their new location in the Cordoba Center for the Arts in Durham.

The event will feature live music by guitarist Andy Danser and original artwork for sale by local artists Murry Handler, Doug Stuber, Eduardo Lapetina, and many others. Proceeds from the silent auction will benefit DCM18, which is a nonprofit endeavor.

You can watch DCM18 on channel 18 in Durham.

Attendees will also get the opportunity to attend a DCM18 class for free by bringing two cans of non-perishable food to donate to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Fresh off our story on the "Build a Better Block with Tootie" comes word that Durham is a finalist for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge. The competition inspires cities to generate innovative ideas that improve city life – and that ultimately can be shared with other cities across the nation.
 
Durham was selected based on its idea to create entrepreneurship hubs in three distressed neighborhoods "to positively impact job creation, family stability, workforce training, and overall economic growth in those areas," according to a news release. Submitted by the City’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department’s Urban Innovation Center, the proposed project will now compete against 19 other cities across the country for a $5 million grand prize as well as one of four additional prizes of $1 million each.
 
The Innovation Center partners with residents to creatively meet community challenges, just like project manager Wanona Satcher is doing with the folks in East Durham on "Build a Better Block" (left). The program is sprucing up the corner of Angier Avenue and Drive Street -- painting trash cans, planting a garden and building a bus shelter -- and offering businesses a free month's rent in the hope that some of them will stay and attract others. 

“This project presents Durham with an exciting opportunity,” Mayor Bill Bell says of the Bloomberg competition. “To be selected as a finalist from more than 300 submissions across the country speaks volumes about the potential value of this project to Durham and to other cities.”
 
A team from Durham will attend the Bloomberg Ideas Camp, a two-day gathering in New York City this month, to further refine its ideas. Coming out of the Camp, the Durham team will have access to additional technical support to prepare its ideas for final submission. Winners will be announced in spring 2013, with a total of $9 million going to five cities to jumpstart implementation of their ideas.
 
 

Durham has been named one of 20 finalists in Bloomberg Philanthropies $9 million Mayors Challenge.

The competition will award $5 million to the city that proposes the most innovative idea to solve a problem in its city. Four other cities will receive prizes of $1 million.

High Point was the only other North Carolina city to be a finalist for the awards. To submit an application a city had to have more than 30,000 residents.

A few local businesses are now taking orders for Thanksgiving meals and desserts.

You can order a whole cooked local turkey plus sides and desserts to feed four people or 20 dinner guests from The Q Shack at North Hills in Raleigh. Prices start at $45. For more information, call 919-786-4381 or go to theqshack.com/turkey_order.php.

Durham bakeries, Scratch and Hummingbird, also have order forms for their baked goods if you don’t want to make your own desserts.

For more information about Scratch’s menu, go to piefantasy.com or call 956-5200.

For Hummingbird, call 919-908-6942 or go HERE. (I've also attached a copy of the Hummingbird bakery order form below.)

If there are more that should be added to this list, send me a note at andrea.weigl@newsobserver.com.

And check out Greg Cox's list of Triangle restaurants serving dinner on Thanksgiving Day in Wednesday's paper.

UPDATE: Here are a few more options if you want to order Thanksgiving dinner:

• Southern Season is offering a holiday catering menu. Turkeys start at $99. Go HERE to see the menu from cheese to desserts.
• Foster's Market in Durham and Chapel Hill is offering a holiday catering menu, including a Thanksgiving meal for four people for $99. Go HERE.
• Whole Foods stores across the Triangle also are offering Thanksgiving feasts. (There are Whole Foods stores in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill and North Raleigh.) You can go online to see each store's menu and order what you like.
• Weaver Street Market with locations in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough also is offering complete dinners with turkey or ham or vegetarian for $69 to $99. To order, go to weaverstreetorders.com.