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.

Go HERE to see Greg's list.

Southern Season's cooking school has a series of classes to help with menu inspiration for the holiday season. Here are a few of the classes:

• 6 p.m. Nov. 8, Justin and Katie Meddis of the future Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop in Durham are teaching a Thanksgiving class. The menu includes pork pie, cornbread dressing, fresh cured ham and roasted beets and tarte tatin. It costs $35.
• 5 p.m. Nov. 14, Katie Coleman of Durham Spirits Co. will teach a class on holiday pies and tarts. The class includes instruction on how to make flaky pie crusts, pate brisee and pate sucree, plus walnut streusel pumpkin pie, spiced apple and cranberry pie, bourbon-laced chocolate pecan pie and pear and dried cherry custard tart. The cost is $45.
• 6 p.m. Nov. 17, David Hirsch of the famous Moosewood vegetarian restaurant is teaching a Thanksgiving class. The vegetarian menu includes creamy chestnut soup, a crisp autumn salad, stuffed squash, yams with crystallized ginger and dried fruit and for dessert, hazelnut truffles. It costs $55.
• 2 p.m. Nov. 18, Hirsch will teach how to make a holiday vegetarian feast with the following menu: potato florentine soup, avocado citrus salad, polenta lasagna, figs baked with pistachio and chevre, red cabbage and cranberries and chocolate cherry rugelach. The class costs $55.
• 5 p.m. Nov. 19, the cooking school staff will teach holiday fun food, including sparkling wine cocktails, brisket tacos with guacamole and lime crema, penne pasta with easy chicken sausage and pesto, and milanos for dessert. The cost is $45.

The gourmet food and housewares store is at Chapel Hill's University Mall. To see the full class schedule, go to www.southernseason.com. To register, go online or call 919-929-7133.

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.
 

If you have ever wanted to dine at the Fearrington House but didn't think you could afford it, here's a good deal for you.

Through the end of September, the fine dining restaurant is offering a specially priced three-course dinner for $59 or a four-course dinner for $69. Just mention "Summertime" when reserving your table by calling 919-542-2121. To see the menu, go HERE.

The restaurant is also offering a vegetarian tasting menu for $95 per person. Wine pairings cost an additional $75. For pacing reasons, if someone at your table orders the vegetarian tasting menu, everyone at the table must order that menu or the chef's tasting menu, which costs $125. Those meals include an amuse bouche, four courses, a cheese course, a pre-dessert and a dessert. To see the menus, go HERE.

And save the date for Sept. 12 when The Granary, a more casual restaurant at Fearrington Village, will offer a dinner with bestselling author Frances Mayes and her husband, Ed. The couple recently published, "The Tuscan Sun Cookbook."

Dinner includes a copy of the cookbook, a reception and the following menu: potato ravioli with zucchini, speck and pecorino; osso bucco with garlic flan, green beans, black olives and gremolato; and for dessert, lemon gelato with panna cotta and wine cake.
No price has been set yet for the event.

For more information, call McIntyre's Books at 919-542-3030.
 

Greg Cox reviewed Sai Krishna Bhavan, a Morrisville restaurant specializing in southern India cusine. Go HERE to read his review.  

Do you want to lessen your impact on the environment? No matter your living situation, there's a little something all of us can do to be a bit greener in 2012. Just adopting one new green habit can make a difference. Here are some tips to help get you started:

photo courtesy of julia simon

I ran across Julia Simon's blog, no face plate, last week while perusing one of my favorite food blogs, the kitchn, and found some really great vegan and vegetarian recipes.  Julia works as a personal chef in Charlotte doing gluten-free, vegetarian meal planning and prep and she is also working on a cookbook.  She is a vegetarian about eight months out of the year (due to her love of artisanal cheese) and chooses a vegan diet to cleanse the other four months out of the year.  Check out this super creative burrito sushi recipe Julia came up with.  Wow!

A friend recently pointed me to this lovely Canadian food blog, butterfly food, and I asked permission from Ashley Colbourne, the lady behind the beautiful photos and blog, for permission to include her roasted beets recipe.  If you have not seen it, the blog is definitely worth a spin.

OK. So artisanal tofu may not be an entirely new concept but we may see it tempt eaters on a wider-scale.

Check out this interesting USA Today article about the Hodo Soy Beanery backed by John Scharffenberger.  They haven't hit the East Coast yet but hopefully it will just be a matter of time.

Also, the beanery has an interesting website with tofu recipes!