I just received word that the long awaited North Raleigh Whole Foods will open Wednesday March 16th with “sneak peak” tours available on the 13th and 14th. You need to register here if you would like to attend one of the sneak peak tours. The 40,000 square foot Whole Foods store will serve as the anchor for Regency Center’s Market at Colonnade retail center. The new store is located at Six Forks Road and Colonnade Center Drive in North Raleigh, just one mile south of I-540.
Category Archives: Events
PieBird to Hold Open House Friday March 4th (6:30-8pm)
The new and highly anticipated downtown Raleigh pie shop PieBird is holding an informal open house on Friday March 4th from 6:30-8pm. This is a great opportunity to taste some of their special creations and check out the results of all the hard work that went into transforming the old Conti’s Italian Market location on Person street into a pie lover’s dream featuring homemade sweet and savory pies, local coffee, beer, wine and a full cocktail bar.
I plan to take some interior photos during the open house, but in the meantime you can view some great pictures of the shop’s transformation and cool layout on the piebird facebook fanpage. Check back here for a full review of the open house and an update on the details of their official grand opening in the very near future!
Urban Chickens at Ace Hardware Hen-side the Beltline!
I stopped in the Seaboard Station Ace Hardware located in downtown Raleigh this week and was surprised to see they had a big table set up with aluminum washtubs filled with different baby chicks. According to the people at Ace, they get a lot of requests for chicks given the growing popularity of urban chickens in downtown Raleigh. These particular birds come from the Mt. Healthy Hatchery out of Ohio and are destined to become residents of backyard chicken coops in older Raleigh neighborhoods inside the beltline.
Urban chickens provide their owner a source of fresh organic eggs, but some also view them as pets and or as an educational exercise for their children to learn about the responsibility of caring for a live animal. Either way, the popularity of urban chickens has grown so much in Raleigh in recent years that there is now an annual event called ” Hen-side the Beltline Tour-d Coup” each summer. The event features tours of dozen of coops located in the backyards of homes inside the beltline to give the public an opportunity to learn about raising chickens in a healthy neighbor friendly environment, and see how families integrate chickens into their gardening practices. The Sixth Annual Tour d’Coop will be held on Saturday May 21, 2011. For more information about the coops featured on past tours and info on how you can get tickets this year, please check out the Hen-side the Beltline website!
Steve Smith Performs at Electric Beanz Saturday February 26th!
Steve Smith, a very talented singer and songwriter based out of Raleigh is performing at Electric Beanz Coffee Bar this Saturday from 7-9pm.
As the former frontman for Raleigh-based band “the Jackhonks” and Washington, DC-based acoustic act “Stephen Fell Asunder” Steve has experience touring across North Carolina, Virginia, DC & Maryland. He recently recorded a solo album titled “Steveing the Story” and is currently performing solo-acoustic original music shows throughout North Carolina. For samples of his music and info on future tour dates check out his website and facebook fanpage.
Don’t miss your chance to catch Steve and hear some great live music this weekend at Electric Beanz. In addition to their excellent locally roasted organic coffee they also feature draft beer from Fuquay’s own Aviator Brewing Company. Music starts at 7pm (no cover).
Food Truck Round Up at Johnny’s in Carrboro!
This past Saturday I ventured over to Carrboro to check out the latest Food Truck Round Up. This one was hosted at Johnny’s in Carrboro. It was the perfect day for an outdoor event like this given the warm temperatures we have been having recently. There were seven food trucks featured at this round up set up in a ring in the parking lot surrounding Johnny’s. A good sized but manageable crowd was on hand to enjoy the beautiful weather, great food and jazzy music.
The seven trucks at the event included Only Burger, Will & Pops, Slippin Sliders, Parlez-Vous Crepes, Valentinos, Joey-D’s Hotdogs, and a Taco Truck. All of the trucks looked fairly busy, but unlike some of the other food truck rodeos I’ve been too, having such a large number of trucks there made for more manageable lines with the waits only on the order of 5-10 minutes to place your order and get your food.
Johnny’s is the perfect venue for this kind of an event because their setup provides ample room for the trucks with lots of open space left for people to mingle. They also have a nice patio out back of the store that makes for an excellent band stage. The musical group there on Saturday included a steel guitar, organ, and drums that made for some cool jazz tunes.
There was a good amount of room for seating and several large park benches located along the side of the building. I really liked that you can buy beer and wine inside the store to enjoy with your food. Johnny’s features a wide variety of beers including several local brews like LoneRider bottles and growlers from Fullsteam and Aviator.
This is the first food truck round up at Johnny’s that I know of, but they are big supporters of the movement and I understand that the Parlez-Vous Crepe and Taco Truck are regualrs there on weekends. Given the overwhelming success of this event, I bet they will host similar events in the future and I will be sure to post about them here. For more of my pictures you can view my flickr photo album of the food truck round up.
Filed under Events, Food Trucks











