I saw Matthew E. White at Saxapahaw with the Be Good Tonyas, and he was incredible. Had no idea he was recording any in Durham though. Great song, and great video.
Pretty cool to see so much Durham in this video…and a shit ton of the inside of my house.
Matthew E White - “Will You Love Me” (Official Music Video) (by pitchforktv)
It’s amazing how things come back around. I’m also reading old essays by noted urbanist Lewis Mumford, and he complains about food, coffee, and culture as if he was part of the vanguard of hipsters in early 2000’s Williamsburg. He says:
“Every grocer’s boasted a row of black lacquered bins holding tea and coffee in bulk, which were identified by their place of origin. One bought coffees––Santos, Rio, Maracaibo, Java, Mocha—knowing their special flavors and gauging the quality against a wide range of prices… Nothing so well indicates to me the difference between my own generation and the present one as the fact that I do not, without a certain inner resistance and resentment, accept a system of marketing in which all the decisions have been taken out of the hands of both the shopkeeper and the customer and put under the remote control of the market researcher and the packaging expert, the advertising agency and the wholesale distributor. Those who have grown up in this packaged world accept such external controls and compulsions as normal: their loss of choice, their loss of fast, they do not even notice, for they have never known anything different. We have now exchanged autonomy for automation.” (“A Child of the City,” from Sketches from Life by Lewis Mumford. © 1982)
And yet in spite of that, I spent this morning in Downtown Durham, NC sipping an excellent single origin coffee from a brand new coffee shop, Cocoa Cinnamon, and paying a premium to do it. The shop was packed, and the couple who opened the shop began as a roving tricycle, and eventually used Kickstarter to raise the funds for a brick and mortar shop.
The slow food movement, the local food movement, the revitalization of a number of urban areas have been slowly building for decades. I am optimistic that these forces will continue to mount in cities of all sizes, and we will continue to increase the number of choices we have. I hope that the stories of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents will inspire us to become more connected again, and search out unique joys, to build our local communities, and create more sustainable economic models.
This is asking a lot, but I get hopeful while drinking single origin Costa Rican coffee.
I love cities because they are supposed to have everything you need in a compact area. Sometimes as we redevelop cities they seem to become more like playgrounds for adults and restaurants and bars come which drive out useful services like tailors and cobblers. I thought this phenomenon was what caused the old Main Street Shoe Repair to go out of business, but it looks like a new shoe repair spot has sprung up in its place!
I recently dropped off a pair of black dress shoes to be repaired and they did a terrific job replacing and repairing the heel, as well as polishing them so they looked better than when I bought them.
I highly recommend giving these guys a shot next time you need some shoes re-soled.
117 East Main St. Durham, NC 27701
Come out to the Durham Tweed Ride this Sunday! Sponsored by my favorite Durham Bike Shop, Seven Star Cycles (named after the 7 stars in Durham’s flag).
See you in tweed this Sunday.
Come out to Morgan Imports, grab a drink, do some holiday shopping, some silent auctioning, and meet other people that care about Durham!
Downtown Durham’s rehabbed Five Points. With loads of great new businesses: The Cupcake Bar, El Toro, Bullseye Bikes, and the architects who rehabbed the building Center Studio Architecture.
Hello Readers,
Craig here. Matt invited me to start posting on this blog now that I’m an official Durhamite. We’re hoping to cover a wide range of topics with The Durhamist but seeing as I have a large love of all things food my posts will likely be gastronomic in nature. Introductions aside - let’s get into this shall we?
Reliable Cheese opened this past Thursday (6/16). Situated close to Rue Cler, this latest Durham addition shows a great bit of promise and instantly adds a nice touch of sophistication to the up and coming downtown area.
On opening day the shop featured a limited but comprehensive selection of cheeses, deli meats, a few pre-made sandwiches, freshly baked bread from Guglhupf Bakery, as well as some odds and ends - olive oils, various condiments, non-alcoholic drinks, and a few variatial six-packs of beer.
In the future the shop plans to offer a wider selection of cheeses, more sandwiches, wine, and local beer from the likes of Fullsteam and Bull City Burger and Brewery. In other words, this little store could be your one stop shopping destination for a fancy night of entertaining friends.
The owner/operator was quick with the samples and gushed forth knowledge of all things cheese related.
On our inital visit we picked up a small sampling of cheeses including Forsterkase, Monje Blue, Beemster XO, and Les Frere’s. While these 4 cheeses run a pretty wide gambit of styles, textures, and flavors, the Beemster XO (a 26 month aged Gouda) with its complex flavors and tasty tyrosine crystals stood out above the rest. We also grabbed a half pound of the “Johnston County Prosciutto”, which is thinly sliced country ham with all the salty/fatty deliciousness of normal prosciutto but at the low low price of only $8 a pound. A fresh baguette for good measure and our afternoon snacking was in full tilt.
I can very easily see myself swinging by Reliable Cheese after a trip down to the farmers market on Saturdays. The prices seem spot on for the quality of products you can purchase and the knowledgeable staff are sure to find you the right cheese (and meats, and bread, etc.) for your taste.
Check it out won’t you?
Reliable Cheese
Tuesday-Saturday 10-8, Sunday 10-3
405 East Chapel Hill St, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 680-3939 | Map/Directions
Durham’s famed Dogstar Tattoo has moved from it’s old digs on Ninth St. to the Golden Belt Complex and will be celebrating at the this month’s Third Friday event. There’ll be beer and music, so come check out the art at Golden Belt and meet the people who might give you your next tattoo.
TimeFriday, June 17 · 6:00pm - 11:00pmThere’s a great new Durham blog making “terrible drawings of wonderful things in Durham, N.C.”
There are only a few posts up right now, but this could be a Durham blog staple.
