by Kelsie Barton | Mar 28, 2024 | April 2024, Real Estate & Home
Elevating local spaces with sustainable wood creations
These days it seems like the impeccable craftsmanship of Raleigh Reclaimed can be spotted just about anywhere, from the sleek sycamore dining tables at Brewery Bhavana to the chic railway-inspired accents inside The Line Downtown Apartments (a custom oak flipboard cabinet to welcome residents? Genius).
The family-run furniture business has quite literally helped our city rediscover its roots by repurposing local trees into thoughtfully designed creations for a wide range of residential and commercial clients.
What started by reclaiming wood from old structures such as tobacco barns and textile mills has evolved over time to include reclaiming freshly sawn or fallen trees, especially as co-owners Billy Keck and Melody Ray learned more about what was happening to many of the large trees in our area.
“We incorporated this idea of urban salvage back in 2013,” explains the business-savvy Ray, whose background as a business litigation attorney perfectly complements Keck’s engineering experience and heart for craftsmanship. “We invested in a sawmill, as well as kilns, and began diverting trees that were otherwise going to end up in local landfills to our facility, where we would cut them and dry them and take them all the way to finished furniture.”
Today, urban salvage makes up the bulk of Raleigh Reclaimed’s projects and has cemented its reputation as a champion of local sustainable design. But beyond being environmentally friendly, urban salvage lumber also tells a story.
“I think, for us, it really is about helping folks have a tie to their sense of place or to the land,” says Ray. “We have clients who, on the residential side, will have an individual tree that came down in their yard that we’re putting back into their home.” She adds that their team “tracks every tree that comes in and follows it through its process with us,” noting doing so provides clients with a connection to a truly unique piece.
Although Raleigh Reclaimed celebrates the traditions and techniques of the past, the innovative business is very much focused on the future and showcasing the breadth of what can be made using urban salvage. “There’s so much need for it,” says Keck of their bespoke character-rich pieces. “To have a space like this where you have 50 employees building nothing but custom projects every single day… that didn’t really exist before us inside the city limits of Raleigh.”
With projects in the pipeline at North Hills, Raleigh Iron Works, Dix Park and more, it’s clear there’s no shortage of clients interested in collaborating with the design-forward duo and their team.
“Anytime you can partner with skilled, passionate, local craftspeople working with real materials, your project is better for it,” says Kane Realty Corporation Director of Design Josie Reeves, who has worked closely with Keck and Ray on several developments, including the aforementioned The Line in Smoky Hollow and One North Hills. “The contributions of Raleigh Reclaimed across our projects have added soul, story, texture and patina,” which is a critical layer in working in new construction especially, she adds.
“To me, it’s so rewarding and fun and challenging too because each one of our clients has their own vision and our job is to help them execute that,” adds Ray. “And to take this incredibly talented, curated team of people we have and help execute a client’s vision, and have that be unique every time and every space, is what’s so exciting for me.” raleighreclaimed.com
by Kelsie Barton | Mar 28, 2024 | April 2024, Eat
Locals Seafood opens a full-service fish market in East Raleigh with a restaurant on the horizon.
It’s ofishal: Locals Seafood has a new home in the City of Oaks. Since closing its popular oyster bar at Transfer Co. Food Hall in 2022, Locals—which supplies restaurants and grocery stores throughout the Triangle with the freshest NC seafood—has been working hard to build out a new HQ off of New Bern Avenue in East Raleigh. Now, that space has received a face-lift (think a brick exterior painted a deep ocean blue and bright white signage) and is ready to welcome the city’s seafood lovers to shop, shuck and socialize.
The heart and “sole” of Locals’ new East Raleigh outpost is a full-service fish market carrying a variety of premium seafood brought in from the coast each week. Although Locals’ team of fishmongers regularly sells seafood at farmers markets across the region—including, most recently, in Asheville—this “inland fish house,” as co-founder Lin Peterson calls it, will display their largest offering of fish that can be cut to order or dressed with herbs and ready to take home to cook.
It’s a full-circle moment for Locals, which champions buying seafood straight from the source and was born out of a desire to give NC folks who live further inland better access to freshly caught fish. “We make four to five trips each week picking up seafood up and down the coast and bringing it to Raleigh,” says Peterson. “It’s a pretty special thing, but it’s kind of hard to paint that picture because we are our own supply chain. … Now, finally, we have a market attached to that operation so we can tell that story.”
Beyond selling superfresh seafood, the market will allow Locals to expand its retail offerings to include salads, smoked fish dips and other chef-crafted items, plus accoutrements such as seasonings and housemade sauces. And with almost 2 acres of outdoor space at the new property, Locals is destined to become the host with the most when it comes to oyster roasts and other local events. There will even be a lineup of educational classes—everything from how to fillet a fish to oyster shucking 101.
With plenty of room for growth at the new HQ, Peterson confirms a restaurant attached to the market is “in our sights.” (And for those wondering, Locals’ existing resto inside Durham Food Hall is still going strong.) The co-founder points to Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. as a source of inspo for their long-term vision. But during this initial phase, the focus will simply be setting up Raleigh’s home cooks for success.
“From shuck-at-home oyster kits complete with sauces to stuffed whole fish and marinated shrimp skewers, we’ll have everything you need to prepare amazing seafood at home—and teach you how to do it!” shares Peterson. He adds they will even be dry-aging fish on-site, “allowing home cooks to sear the most perfectly crisp fish skin, just like the pros.”
As spring weather beckons us outdoors and our palates begin to crave a taste of the coast, one thing’s for sure: Thanks to Locals and its seafood prowess, Raleighites are in for one shell of a good time. localsseafood.com
by Kelsie Barton | Jan 23, 2024 | Buzz, February 2024
Surge pricing is expected to ~surge~ in the restaurant industry.
You may have heard of—or even visited—Berliner Republik in Berlin, a pub boasting a “beer stock exchange” where the price of beer fluctuates based on demand. At this spot, the sky’s the limit for what you might pay to sip a popular brew during peak hours, making seats at the bar a must in the event a “stock market crash” tanks prices for a short period of time.
The German watering hole attracts tourists from all over the world—and, yet, its concept isn’t all that unique given more and more restaurants have adopted a dynamic pricing model as they contend with the elasticity of demand across the industry. Think of it like Uber surge pricing, but for food and drink—and chances are you’ve experienced it firsthand if you’ve ever been charged more for dinner at 7pm versus 5pm, or paid a fee just to secure a brunch reservation.
“I think restaurateurs are looking for ways to battle inflation,” says Trophy Brewing co-owner Chris Powers. Not to mention deal with labor shortages, supply chain issues—the list goes on… “The pros are you can steer customers to slower days, and you can make more money at busier times when your restaurant is in demand.”
The dynamic pricing model—which is expected to, well, surge in the coming years—has the potential to help restaurants thrive and maintain some control over their bottom line. “The purchasing aspect of the business we’re in right now is just so up in the air that it really does make sense to look to the future and see what kind of ways you can maximize revenue,” says Union Special owner/baker Andrew Ullom.
Though he’s quick to admit his own restaurant doesn’t have the capacity to set up dynamic pricing given its first-come, first-served system, “I think for restaurants on the reservation model and the dine-in model, it does make sense,” he shares. “At St. Roch or Crawford and Son, I think something like that could take hold. … It’s not a bad idea to take a stab at it.”
The flipside: For consumers already leery of surcharges and the feeling of getting nickeled and dimed to death, the demand-based concept may not take hold. “Guest perception could hurt business,” says Powers, “and dynamic pricing options are an add-on service with some POS.” Ullom notes previous attempts by some to add automatic gratuities or service fees onto tickets in Raleigh—“and that went over like a lead balloon,” he quips.
Ultimately, time will tell if—and when—the trend takes hold locally. As Ullom explains, “Raleigh’s market is still pretty tight-knit and still pretty small. I think everyone right now is doing everything we can to just get folks in the door.”
If it does gain traction, it’s crucial restaurants are upfront with customers about any changes in cost. “I have already heard of other places dipping their toes into it, and I haven’t heard many folks complain about it,” says Powers. “I think transparency of what is happening is very important and can help anyone considering dynamic pricing avoid angering any guests.” We’ll certainly prost to that.
by Kelsie Barton | Jan 23, 2024 | Buzz, February 2024
The Women’s Center delivering Safe Haven program to better aid women in crisis with housing
The Women’s Center is kicking off the new year with big news that moves Raleigh one step closer to ending homelessness among women. After recently receiving several grants to assist with funding, Wake County’s only day center exclusively for marginalized single women experiencing homelessness plans to expand its services to include a Safe Haven program.
“Based on our review of programs being offered locally, no one in the Wake County/Triangle area has a Safe Haven program,” says Executive Director Amy Smith. “Safe Haven is different because there are very few, if any, barriers.” Indeed, this form of supportive housing is designated for “chronically and long-term homeless women,” she explains, many of whom “tend to have severe and persistent mental illness, which keeps them from being able to thrive in a standard overnight shelter.”
Smith estimates The Women’s Center will be able to accommodate 12 permanent beds on its lower level for Safe Haven clients, with four to five of those beds reserved for medical respite thanks to the organization’s collab with WakeMed. “They’ve been incredible partners,” says Smith, “and we’re so happy to have that relationship with them.”
In this intimate, trauma-informed environment, staff will provide women with daily meals, clothing and storage space; help them obtain vital docs; and more. “With such a small population of 12 people, we can work intensively with them while they’re here,” maintains Smith. And, once Safe Haven is up and running—“by the end of March, for sure, is our goal,” she reveals—the nonprofit will introduce a recovery program five or six nights a week to round out its support offerings.
Ultimately, Smith sees Safe Haven as an opportunity for the community to get involved and learn more about The Women’s Center, as well as homelessness among women. “If you drive around Raleigh, you don’t see a lot of women outside who look homeless. You see far more men,” she says. “So it will give it a face and it will help people understand women experience homelessness as well—and they experience it differently.”
She hopes as awareness of the issue expands, so too will the number of individuals willing to dedicate their time and resources to breaking the cycle of homelessness and empowering women in crisis to realize and fulfill their dreams.
“My challenge to the staff is let’s work ourselves out of business,” Smith emphasizes. “We will know when there are no homeless women in Raleigh that we can close our doors—that will be a success.” wcwc.org
by Kelsie Barton | Dec 20, 2023 | December 2023/January 2024, Eat
Ring in Veganuary with the inaugural Raleigh Vegan Chef Challenge.
Move over, Dry January—there’s a new health-focused challenge helping us kick off the new year, and it has the potential to inspire a plant-astic lifestyle change.
Starting Jan. 1 and lasting through the end of the month, the Raleigh Vegan Chef Challenge invites both local chefs and residents to give vegan eats a try. Participating restaurants will showcase delicious plant-based dishes created specifically for the event, while diners in the community will show their support by eating out, sampling the options and voting for their faves online, with the winning dishes announced in early February.
Raleigh is the latest city to embrace the vegan vibes with this challenge, which is hosted by Vegan Outreach in partnership with Veganspired and sponsored by the Triangle Vegetarian Society, Mathematics Institute of the Triangle and Plant Dining Partnerships.
“As a food justice activist, I was looking for ways to grow awareness in my city about the benefits of plant-based eating,” says local organizer Colleen Kane of Veganspired. “In my search for outreach opportunities, I came across the Vegan Chef Challenge. This now-national challenge began in Durham in 2010, when Eleni Vlachos noted the limited vegan options available. Her friend, a chef, encouraged her to come up with a contest to pique chefs’ interests.”
The concept eventually caught the attention of Sacramento, California-based nonprofit Vegan Outreach, which now supports and facilitates Vegan Chef Challenges in over 30 cities nationally, with more slated to debut in 2024.
The monthlong stretch coincides with international “Veganuary” campaigns, in which people across the globe take up 30-day vegan challenges, as well as the restaurant industry’s usual post-holiday sales slump.
“January is a popular month for people to try new things and take steps to improve their lives,” shares Roberta “Birdie” Celebrano, Vegan Outreach’s assistant Vegan Chef Challenge coordinator. “By featuring delicious vegan food, local businesses participating in the Raleigh VCC not only appeal to those seeking a lifestyle change, but also tap into the burgeoning plant-based market, which boosts their sales in a typically slow month. It’s a fantastic opportunity to entice both loyal patrons and curious foodies who might not have visited before.”
Local faves including Sassool, Gringo A Go Go and 13 Tacos & Taps have already signed on to compete in the buzzy challenge, with more restos expected to join in the creative fun (see the full list of participants here).
“Restaurants that already have at least some vegan and vegetarian options have been more inclined to participate, as they already carry ingredients to make simple swaps like a plant-based butter for dairy butter, or tofu for meat,” explains Kane. “Among those who can’t participate this year for logistical reasons, quite a few have already requested to be invited next year.” She adds, “as plant-based eating becomes more and more popular, restaurants that have no or very few options will realize they need to adapt to keep up with the competition.”
Both Celebrano and Kane are excited for what the next month holds for the City of Oaks. “People who are veg-curious, environmentalist or health-conscious will be delighted to see these new plant-based options debut at local restaurants,” Kane maintains. “Often, people think moving to a plant-based diet means giving something up. But with innovation that replicates the familiar texture and flavor of animal products or invites you to explore new foods, you don’t miss out on a thing, and can even enjoy expanding your culinary horizons.” Sounds like the perfect “veganning” to a healthy new year!
