You may not be able to go out and visit all your favorite local restaurants and stores but there’s one thing you can do: color them!
Owen Barr, a junior at Saint David’s School, and his father, Todd Barr, started Raleigh Colors, a free, printable online coloring book as a way for Raleighites to exercise their creativity while stuck inside during North Carolina’s stay at home order. Together they went out and took photographs of some of their favorite locales as well as of some iconic Raleigh spots. They then used Photoshop to turn the images into coloring pages. “It’s just a fun way for people to pass the time,” Owen says.
Trophy Brewing Co. coloring page
Coloring pages include the giant chair outside of Snoopy’s Wake Forest Road location, the original Krispy Kreme neon sign at Person Street (pg. 78), the Color Pop Corner at Marbles Kids Museum and Ashley Christensen’s Poole’side Pies restaurant.
Owen says he hopes colorers will support the businesses they’re coloring by ordering takeout from them—if they can—or buying a gift card and tagging the businesses with their social media handles written on each corner of the coloring pages.
“We’re supporting people in Raleigh by giving them something fun to do as well as the businesses on the coloring pages,” says Owen.
Todd and Owen Barr
The homepage of the Raleigh Colors website also has a link for donating to the NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund or Raleigh Rescue Mission in an effort to provide for those in need during this time.
Owen and his dad are in the process of photographing additional celebrated places around Raleigh to make into coloring pages. They’re also accepting submissions of either photos to make into coloring pages or coloring book pages that have already been made using Photoshop.
Owen says the father-son duo plans to continue Raleigh Colors even after the stay at home order has been lifted. For now, Owen and Todd say they are hopeful the coloring pages will bring to mind great memories of some beloved Raleigh locations as we patiently wait for them to open their doors again.
WEB EXCLUSIVE Homemade bread is trending. If you’ve been on Instagram or Facebook in the last couple months, you’ll have seen a lot of people are baking bread with their extra free time in quarantine. And if you haven’t, you might’ve realized that flour and other baking supplies are scarce on grocery store shelves.
Some breads are harder to bake than others. Banana bread is an easier project that anyone can master with cheap, over-ripened bananas. Focaccia is also fairly easy and can be decorated with leftover produce in your fridge or herbs from your garden. Sourdough bread, on the other hand, is trickier, as it requires a sourdough starter that takes time and patience to develop.
The recently launched company specializes in sourdough starter culture, as well as kombucha starter culture, that kick starts the process of baking sourdough bread for you. The starter contains a mixture of flour and water combined with wild yeast and healthy bacteria. To get the sourdough process started, simply add fresh flour and water to the starter and let it ferment for a few days before baking.
Endless Ferments Sourdough Starter
Although Endless Ferments launched just in time for the current bread craze, co-founder Patrick Hill of e-commerce agency Backpack Partners and his team have been working on the product for a few months now. Hill got into making sourdough through his brother, and since he’s been staying at home, has taken up baking as a personal hobby. He says it’s a great way to avoid going to the grocery store and ultimately saves him money as he’s not buying bread from the store.
“[Baking bread] is something that we think everyone should do,” Hill says. “Endless Ferments are all alive, active and ready to go so can start instantly and continue indefinitely.”
Carroll’s Kitchen, a nonprofit social enterprise restaurant in downtown Raleigh, is currently growing Endless Ferments starters. The restaurant was looking for more work, as right now it’s only able to offer takeout, so the partnership came about naturally. “We needed help growing the sourdough and they needed help providing for their employees, so it really worked out,” says Hill. For every sourdough starter sold, 10 percent of the sale goes to Carroll’s.
The kombucha starter, on the other hand, is made out of Endless Ferments’ facility on Ebenezer Church Road. Endless Ferments’ kombucha cans contain live starter culture to grow your own SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast)—the “mother” of kombucha. To get started, just open the can, add black tea and ferment for about seven to 14 days. Once it has fermented, you can bottle the kombucha with fruit, herbs, extracts or other ingredients like ginger to create any flavor you desire.
Endless Ferments Kombucha Starter Culture
Hill says that there are benefits of brewing your own kombucha at home, too. For starters, it’s way more cost-effective than buying an average five dollar bottle of kombucha at the grocery store. Many store-bought kombuchas are also pasteurized and don’t have as many probiotics as if they had been brewed at home. Kombucha is said to be great for gut health and skin.
Once you purchase the kombucha and sourdough starters you can use them over and over again, as long as you continue to feed and ferment them. “The hope is that Endless Ferments makes it easier for everyone to make [sourdough and kombucha] at home,” Hill says. Hill and his team are using the kombucha and sourdough starters for the initial launch of their company; later, they hope to expand into other products as well.
Purchase Endless Ferments kombucha and sourdough starters at endlessferments.com.
WEB EXCLUSIVE A shelf of books on Martin Street, a cardinal on the sidewalk at South Salisbury Street, a giant letter “E” on the side of a building on East Cabarrus Street. These are just some of the 100-plus unique pieces of public art you’ll currently find scattered around downtown Raleigh. As you walk around and bike through the area, use Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s interactive map to try and see all downtown’s murals. Here, we’ve listed a few of our favorites we challenge you to seek out–take a photo and tag us on Instagram! For the full list of murals, visit downtownraleigh.org/explore/public-art.
“Untitled” by Luke Buchanan, 2020 428 S McDowell Street
Luke Buchanan, the local artist behind the famous All Are Welcome mural on the side of Ashley Christensen’s Poole’side Pies building, created a new mural to pay tribute to Raleigh’s restaurants and bars. The painting depicts an oak tree with branches phasing through spring, summer, winter and fall, along with roots covered in the names of several local businesses including Kings, Death & Taxes and Bida Manda.
“Sardines” by Scott Nurkin, 2019 500 W Peace Street
A head-turning spectacle on the side of an office building, Scott Nurkin’s Peace Street painting is, just as expected from the title, a half-opened can of sardines—sardine smell not included. Nurkin is also the artist behind the John Prine mural on East Martin Street.
“Indian Summer” by Louise “Ouizi” Jones, 2018 227 W Davie Street
This gorgeous, floral painting, completed in time to promote the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art in fall of 2018, serves as the perfect backdrop for a spring photoshoot. Ouizi is a Detroit-based painter known especially for her large scale floral mural installations which can be found all over the United States.
“Push The Ship”, Jank Archives, 2019 505 S Blount Street
Land ho! This ship-shaped mural at LUMP Gallery reads “push the ship,” translated from a Lithuanian expression, “stumk laivą,” that means “buzz off.” Janks Archive is a project exploring insult humor from cultures around the world.
“Raleigh Skyline” by Alec Chambers 615 W Morgan Street
On the side of the recently-closed Calavera Empanadas building, you’ll find a perfectly rendered painting of Raleigh’s skyline—signature buildings, trees and all. When you can’t get a good photo of the actual skyline, a photo of this magnificent mural works just as well.
WEB EXCLUSIVE This Friday (5/8) at 4 p.m., chef Kenny Gilbert of the soon-to-be-opening Cut & Gather will take over our Instagram (@raleighmagazine) to show us, and our readers and followers, how to make his Hey Y’all moonshine cocktail and strawberry shortcake with vanilla buttermilk biscuits, strawberry rosemary compote and whipped cream. Scroll for the ingredients lists and recipes to get yourself prepared for the live cooking demo.
Chef Kenny Gilbert | Photo by Agnes Lopez
Hey Y’all
2 oz. Sugarland Strawberry Moonshine 2 oz. strawberry puree (see recipe below or buy your favorite purée) ½ oz. lemon juice ½ oz. simple syrup Prosecco Strawberry for garnish (optional)
Strawberry Puree 6 pints strawberries, washed and stemmed 1 tsp. xantham Gum Powder 1 pint water Equipment: Blender/mixer
Equipment: Shaker, strainer, glass (mason jar), cup of ice
Place all ingredients except for Prosecco and strawberry garnish in a shaker with ice. Shake hard. Strain into a mason jar with ice and top with a splash of Prosecco. Garnish with the strawberry.
Strawberry Shortcake
Biscuits 1 quart all purpose flour ½ cup sugar 1 tsp. salt 2 Tbsp. vanilla extract 1 Tbsp. baking powder 1½ tsp. baking soda 1 cup margarine, butter or lard 1½ cup buttermilk
Compote 1 pint strawberries, stemmed and halved 1 cup sugar 1 Tbsp. rosemary, chopped 1 Tbsp. cornstarch 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 1 pinch salt
Whipped Cream 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Make the biscuits: Combine all dry ingredients. Cut in fat until it reaches the size of small peas. Add vanilla extract and buttermilk and mix well. Scoop biscuits in 2 oz. balls, 12 per sheet pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 8 minutes. Rotate the pan then bake for an additional 6 minutes.
Make the compote: Combine all ingredients and place into a small pot. Mix well. Place on stove and turn heat to medium, stirring occasionally. Cook until mixture comes to a simmer and is bubbly. Let cool.
Make the whipped cream: Place cream into a cold stainless steel bowl. Whip with a whisk until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and whip until medium to firm peaks form.
To serve: Cut biscuits in half then top with compote and whipped cream.
WEB EXCLUSIVE Restaurants might have closed their dining rooms but purveyors and farmers still need to sell their food to someone–and, obviously, we all still need to eat. The solution? kō•än’s new ko•mmunity Hub, spearheaded by kō•än chef Drew Smith, Tabletop Media Group founder Kristen Baughman Taber and Jenn Rice, a local journalist and brand consultant.
Inspired by Carrboro United, a multi-weekly community hub led by chef Kevin Callaghan of Acme that has been successful in Carrboro since its launch in late March, the goal of ko•mmunity Hub is to “bridge the gap between the purveyor and the public,” says Smith. Through the hub, Smith can continue buying products from purveyors to sell to the community. “Our mission is to help small businesses, local farmers and purveyors keep afloat during these hard times by uniting the community together at kō•än—and directly funneling money back into our food and beverage community.”
Smith says to think of ko•mmunity Hub like a more specialized farmers market, with an elevated feel and more items available other than just produce. Confirmed purveyors include Botanist and Barrel, Slingshot Coffee Company and Sugar and Spice Kitchen. Many of these products will be available in CSA (community-supported agriculture)-style boxes, including a picnic box with two ciders from Botanist and Barrel and two cheeses from Boxcarr Handmade Cheese and a homemade salsa duo box with chips for snacking from Mama’s Salsa. G&D Produce in Norlina, NC is also offering a produce box that will change weekly depending on what’s available. Other local farmers will contribute to the boxes as well, so customers can expect anything from mushrooms to strawberries to honey.
Lettuce from G&D Produce
“In a normal setting you’d usually subscribe and get a box a month or every two weeks,” Rice explains. “But here, we’re looking to tie together farm produce and products into one box from different farms in the area.”
ko•mmunity Hub will also feature meal kits from Triangle-area restaurants and beyond. Whiskey Kitchen is offering a chicken and broccoli casserole that feeds six to eight people; Baba Ghannouj Mediterranean Buffet in Durham is offering a “Greek Night” kit consisting of chicken kebabs, lamb and beef gyros, rice, pita bread, hummus, tzatziki and baklava; and Under the Oak in Smithfield is offering a three-course meal kit for two, including chef Blake Gotliffe’s homemade charcuterie and a dessert from his wife, Megan, a pastry chef. Smith says the hub provides an exciting opportunity for folks like the Gotliffes because it’s one of the only channels that’s currently available to get their products to Raleigh consumers.
Having so many products in one location is convenient and safe as it limits the amount of time people are out of their houses shopping in different stores. And, where else can you get a meal from Wye Hill, a cold brew from Slingshot and specialized groceries like curry, cookie dough and granola from kō•än? “I don’t know any other concept where you can get so many different things in one place,” says Smith. “If you wanted to get all these things you’d have to go to three or four stores in one day.”
Photos from day one of kō•än’s ko•mmunity Hub | Photos courtesy of Tabletop Media Group
Smith hopes that, instead of running to Harris Teeter or other chain grocery stores, people will turn to ko•mmunity Hub for products from these local farmers and purveyors. It’s also possible that, with food shortages predicted in the near future, people will have to rely on more local suppliers anyway.
Smith, Baughman Taber and Rice say they will continue to reach out to more local farmers, purveyors and restaurants to get them to participate in the program as well. “We’re all pretty excited about this,” Smith says. “We can’t wait to see it come to fruition and help the people that need it most right now.”
ko•mmunity Hub’s first pickup day is this Saturday, May 9 at kō•än from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Orders must be placed by Thursday at 3 p.m. in order to give partners and chefs time to create the meals and boxes ordered. Place your order at koancary.com/kommunity-hub.
