Go HERE to read Greg's annual selection of the Triangle's best restaurants.

Go HERE to read the news about Top This Cafe now open in Raleigh and lunch bargains at local culinary schools.

Go HERE to read Greg's review of Blue Mango, a new Indian restaurant in Glenwood South.

Greg's Cheap Eats column is a list of bakeries across the Triangle, including Sugarland in Raleigh, Daisy Cakes in Durham and The Cupcake Bar, also in Durham.

I forgot to post Greg's mini-reviews last week of two pubs: JD's Tavern in Apex and Mahoney's Pub in Cary. Go HERE to read those reviews.

The ladies behind the popular Fiction Kitchen vegetarian and vegan brunches are hoping to open a restaurant in downtown Raleigh by year's end.

Chefs Caroline Morrison and Siobhan Southern are planning to open a restaurant by the same name at 428 S. Dawson St., next to Deep South the Bar. The restaurant will serve "locally-sourced comfort foods with a twist," such as their popular vegan barbecue and biscuits and gravy. They also will offer vegan cheese made in house out of cashews and a 100% local salad throughout the year.

Morrison and Southern, who both workat the cafeterias at SAS, have launched a kickstarter campaign to pay for new kitchen equipment at the 49-seat restaurant. Plus, Morrison says it will help them gauge community interest for their 100 percent vegetarian restaurant. They are hoping to raise $36,000 and so far have raised almost $10,000. For more information, go to goo.gl/LLOLW. You have until Oct. 13 to donate.

Morrison says they hope to open by late fall, noting that the last day of fall is Dec. 21.
Follow their progress on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheFictionKitchen.
 

This Tuesday night, Centro in downtown Raleigh is offering a three-course tequila tasting dinner for $50 a person. The tequilas will be Tres Generaciones. For more information about the event, go to centroraleigh.com/events. To make a reservation, call 919-835-3593.

If you like to combine your drinking with your exercise, Centro also hosts a Margarita Run on Wednesday nights.

At 6 p.m. every Wednesday, gather at Centro and head out with fellow runners for a three- or five-mile run. Then return to the restaurant and head upstairs for a $5 taco bar and $5 margaritas.
 

Go HERE to read Greg's review of Min Ga in Chapel Hill.

I heard from several readers about the closing of Fortune Palace, a much-loved Chinese restaurant on Raleigh's Brentwood Road.

I contacted Lisa Chang, president of the Triangle Area Chinese American Society. As it happens, Chang's godsister, Bobo Liew, owned the restaurant with her husband, sister and brother-in-law. The men were the chefs and the women worked the front of the house.

Chang explained the couples who both have young children struggled to run such a large restaurant with seating for more than 200 people and take care of their families. (It was likely the only Chinese restaurant in the area that had the capacity for large events, including wedding receptions.) And so when someone offered to buy the restaurant, they accepted, Chang said. The restaurant closed abruptly in May.

"You have to try to do what's best for your kids," Chang explained.

Chang did note that the couples are considering opening another smaller restaurant.

We'll keep readers posted if that happens.

Go HERE to read his review of this new Italian place in Waverly Place.

Chef & the Farmer owners Vivian Howard and Ben Knight are teaming up with Stephen Hill, a founder of Mother Earth Brewing, to open an oyster bar in Kinston.

"Everybody here loves an oyster bar," Vivian Howard explains.

They say it won't open until spring 2013. But the oystrer bar will be in an alley next to an old furniture store between their restaurant and Mother Earth Brewing in downtown Kinston.

They will serve steamed, fried and raw oysters, as well as an oyster burger (think po'boy). For the non-oyster eaters, they will have burgers on the menu.

The restaurant will have 30 to 40 seats and will be called The Boiler Room since the building's original boiler is still in the space. 

Greg Cox gives 3 1/2 stars to Taste, an "American tapas" restaurant off Dixie Trail in Raleigh. Go HERE to read his review.