Top 50 Food Magazine

I find it really shocking that you excluded Giorgios Bakatsias from your Top 50. He is responsible for so much of the evolution of the dining scene in and across the Triangle that you, yourselves, (whomever made up this list) must be newcomers! Each of the GHG restaurants was, in it's time and still is, a unique concept to this area and in the case of some, unique to the restaurant industry. For the N&O to provide years and years of praise of GB's talents and them omit him from your list makes me wonder if you had amnesia or forgot to check your N&O archives' column inches devoted to Bakatsias' ventures when making up your list. While it's nice to profile Beard Award winners and female chefs, and , other, new fangled "local restaurant chains", get back to us in 20 years and let me know if they are still standing!

Maximillians in Cary. I'd rather that place stay secret and not become too fashionable.

There are any number of fine restaurants in the Triangle, many fine sources of good food, many good things about our area that are worthy of being included on such a list. To allocate 2 -- numbers 12 and 13 -- of the entries to activities that are primarily about vomiting is not only inappropriate but disgusting.

I would like to add a few to the list.
1. While Counter Culture coffee's reputation is well-deserved there are other very good coffee roasters in the area: Larry's Beans in Raleigh, Joe Van Gogh in Hillsborough, and Carrboro Coffee Company in Carboro. Carrboro CC also operates two outstanding coffee shops in Chapel Hill (Cafe Driade) and Carrboro (Open Eye Cafe) that are super cool and have award winning baristas making your coffee.

2. Matthews Chocolates in Hillsborough is making the most interesting and delectable chocolates in the Triangle. His background in perfumary gives him a unique talent that he brings to his chocolates.

are you kidding me? who comes up with this stuff? have you ever gone to 109 e. davie st, in
raleigh, nc? it's been there since 1938, it's called CLYDE COOPER'S BBQ. go look at the awards
that business has won because of the quality of bbq and food they serve. they do a hugh
business during the day, not to mention, their catering business. this is a business that still
does things the way the original owner start on january 1, 1938!!! and as for a "pit master"
james bolton has cooked at cooper's for nearly 30 years. they cook upstairs on two hugh pits!!!

Ms. What????

Many thanks for hailing the outstanding food purveyors in our region, of which there are too many to count. But let's not forget the 250 sustainable farms on the rural fringe of the greater Triangle area which grow this outstanding food, and the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, which helps new farmers get started and has attracted so many to our region. Chatham County deserves special credit as a fertile landscape for so many of the pioneering farmers, activists and entrepreneurs behind the Triangle's local real-food scene.

Dee Reid, Pittsboro

http://sustainablegrub.wordpress.com