This post is by Chapel Hill News correspondent Matt Goad:

Pepper's Pizza, a popular Chapel Hill eatery for students and townies alike for more than 25 years, will be closing for good today, according to owner Pepper Harvey.

"Downtown is just not busy enough to support us anymore," Harvey said. "The last three years has just been a struggle for us."

Harvey blames expanded on-campus dining choices for the demise of the restaurant.

Pepper's changed locations from 127 E. Franklin to 107 E. E. Franklin in 2006, but Harvey says the change did not affect business for the first two or three years.

In the last four years, however, Harvey said, business is down 40 percent, and he just cannot remain open.

This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:

Kimbap (111 Seaboard Ave.; 919-900-8053; kimbapcafe.com) rolled into Seaboard Station last Friday with a cargo of local produce, translated into a contemporary Korean-inspired menu.

The restaurant is named for kimbap (sometimes spelled gimbap), Korean seaweed-wrapped rice rolls that resemble Japanese nori rolls in appearance only. The rice in kimbap is seasoned with sesame seed and sesame oil, and the filling is not raw fish. Nor is wasabi part of the deal. Think instead along the lines of braised brisket and basil, or spicy quick-pickled vegetables, two options on Kimbap's inaugural menu.

The offering goes beyond the restaurant's namesake specialty to include a brief but varied assortment of Korean dumplings, noodles and rice paper-wrapped fresh rolls with fillings ranging from NC shrimp to braised pork belly. A sweet potato curry with speckled trout earned high marks from the opening weekend crowd.

Kimbap is the first restaurant venture for Kim Hunter, whose previous position as manager of the Western Wake Farmers' Market is evident in the menu's emphasis on fresh local ingredients. Hunter plans to supplement the core menu with seasonally evolving offerings to showcase the local harvest.

If that sweet potato curry sounds tempting, for instance, be advised that the fish could change frequently depending on the catch. But you've still got several weeks before the local corn harvest, when the entire dish will give way to a sweet corn curry.

A compact 25-seat restaurant with a small bar, Kimbap serves a modest selection of beer (including a rotating selection of local brews), wine and sake. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner every day but Sunday.

Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.

The public relations firm working with SeaPak Shrimp & Seafood Co. tells me that the Raleigh market is one of the top cities for buying the company's products.

The company has just launched a new product, Shrimp Spring Rolls. They offered me a sample. I begged off citing the paper's policy against taking free food. They sent a coupon for a free product (up to a $7.99 value) to giveaway to a reader.

So leave a comment below this post before noon, Friday, March 8th. I'll choose a winner at random. Good luck!

Cleaning off my desk, I discovered that Baskin Robbins sent me a $31 gift card to give away to readers for a holiday cake promotion.

Of course, I lost track of the gift card and forgot about my promise to post a giveaway tied to the promotion.

Regardless, here's an opportunity to win a gift card from Baskin Robbins. Leave a comment below this post before noon, Friday, March 8th.

I'll choose a winner at random. Good luck!

The Cookery in Durham is offering a series of mixology classes taught by Scott Ritchie, formerly a co-owner of Whiskey in Durham and now a consultant. Here is the schedule:

• 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday, "Rise of the Cocktail: The Birth of Mixology," which will cover the base spirits (bourbon, rye, tequila, gin and cognac) and Ritchie will help create a customized classic cocktail for attendees. Ritchie also will take attendees through the history of each ingredient, offer a list of tools to start a home bar and recommend a reading list for history buffs.
• 6:30 p.m. April 17, "Bohemian Bar: The Grandeur of 1920's Parisian Cocktails" will show how to make a Negroni, boulevard, Manhattan and a martini.
• 6:30 p.m. May 1, "Post-Prohibition to Present: The Polishing of the Modern Cocktail" will cover Tiki cocktails, Cosmopolitans, old-fashioned cocktails and others.

All the classes cost $50. Bread, cheese and fruit platters are offered during each class. To register, go to durhamcookery.com

More than 50 trucks will gather from 12:30-4:30 p.m. Sunday for another food truck rodeo at Durham Central Park.

Organizer Brian Bottger of the Only Burger truck and restaurant, says the trucks will be lined up on Foster and Hunt streets, as well as under the farmer's market pavilion. There will be live music and a deejay. Fullsteam brewery will be selling beer. Vega Metals will have several artists on hand.

Information and a full list of trucks: durhamcentralpark.org/events/food-truck-rodeo/.

The state's first wild food ad herb market is from 1-4 p.m. Sunday in Carrboro.

The monthly Wild Food + Herb Market is similar to a farmers market but features foragers, herbalists, wild food cultivators and local plant educators.

Co-founder Jenny Schnaak said this Sunday's event will include at least 16 vendors selling tea blends, tinctures, syrups, nuts, seeds, barks and early spring greens, including dandelions. Plus, instructor Kim Calhoun will be a 30-minute edible plant walk at 2 p.m. starting from the Carrboro Town Commons where the market is being held. There also will be live music and children's activities.

Schnaak, who works for The Abundance Foundation, and co-director Josh Lev, founder of the Carrboro Herb Guild, were inspired to start the market after learning that well-known foraging expert Alan Muskat was launching a wild food market later this spring in Asheville.

Go HERE to read Greg's roundup of Cheap Eats across the Triangle.

Go HERE to read Debbie's column that ran in Sunday's paper.

This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:

Dos Taquitos, longtime favorite Mexican restaurant and watering hole in North Raleigh, opened its much-anticipated second location on Glenwood South last Friday. Dos Taquitos Xoco (410 Glenwood Ave.; 919-835-9010; dostaquitosnc.com) is a joint venture of Dos Taquitos owner Carlos Salamanca and Niall Hanley, whose Hibernian pub across the street should reopen soon after being closed by a fire in December.

"Xoco" is derived from an Aztec term for "little sister," and this newcomer is every bit as brash and playful as her older sibling. Rainbow-hued serapes, piñatas, bar lighting fashioned from glowing green skulls wearing re-purposed sombreros, and ceilings strung with constellations of colorful fairy lights are just a few highlights of a festive decor that has become a Dos Taquitos trademark.

A vintage VW bus is slated to become a private dining room, available by reservation only. The patio - already the most colorful on Glenwood South - should really start hopping as soon as the heaters arrive.

Xoco has faithfully copied her big sister's menu of Tex-Mex and regional Mexican specialties, too, right down to the tricolor enchiladas de Puebla and signature "Carrrrne Assssada!" (It tastes better if you say it that way.) It's a good bet she'll be mixing plenty of margaritas, too.

Dos Taquitos Xoco serves lunch and dinner daily. The bar stays open Thursday-Saturday nights until 2 a.m.

Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.