The Wandering Moose to open first brick-and-mortar
Not all who wander are lost… And this fan-fave food truck has found its new brick-and-mortar home in North Raleigh, expected to open end of June/early July. The tavern-style outpost boasts a batch of rough-cut barn wood details throughout the interior, complete with barstools, tables and chairs sourced from recently shuttered Sawmill Taproom (co-owner Matt Lundgren previously tended bar there for 10 years)—plus pinball machines (!) and a patio area with sunshades, tea lights and plants. The food truck will be stationed outside, dishing all your Wandering Moose faves—with the op to get food to-go—while the full bar will feature 10 beers on tap and five to six signature ’tails (think an old fashioned, margarita, bloody mary, etc.). “We want to have that just kind of simple neighborhood bar feel,” says Lundgren. “We’re not doing anything over the top; it’s gonna be really simplistic. Our goal is to have a bar for everybody.” That includes sports fans… as the entire space—both indoors and out—is littered with TVs, making it a prime game day spot. @wanderingmoosenc
Over the past 10 years, Trophy Brewing Co. has churned out nearly a thousand-some beers—but the brand is about more than just beer. The award-winning brewery has also spent the last decade contributing to the community in immeasurable ways. For starters: A big chunk of those labels were brewed in partnership with—and to benefit—local nonprofits, community organizations and beyond.
Since Trophy’s inception, the team’s top priority has been to give back. “We always wanted to become a bigger part of the community,” says Trophy co-owner Chris Powers. “We make it a priority. It’s something we think about on a regular basis—like what can we do?”
It started with putting nonprofit imagery and QR codes on cans that were distributed across the Triangle as a way to establish authentic connections. It worked—and Trophy’s contributions to the community have only escalated since.
Take the pandemic, for example. The Trophy team saw how much the community—and particularly those in the food and beverage industry—were hurting. And, so, they started a public pantry of sorts, serving up the likes of food, toilet paper, etc., open to all.
“We’re still focused on running a business and trying to make money 80–90% of the time,” says co-owner David Meeker, “but if we can give 10–20% of our time to help the cause, we want to be doing that. And hopefully other businesses see it working for us and do it too.”
It’s not unusual for a brewery such as Trophy to provide so much to the community, given the craft beer industry as a whole is pretty generous, according to Chief Brewing Officer Les Stewart. But it’s an MO the entire team stands behind—and one that’s constantly evolving as they think up new ways to be great neighbors.
“Through the partnership we have as a team, as well as now in our community—because it is our neighborhood, it’s where we live—it allows us to really continue growing our roots and leave this place better than it started,” says COO Rebecca Couch.
Adds Stewart: “One of those ways we look at our business model is it’s valuable. It’s a good business practice to reinvest in our community. We see people appreciate us for that and come back to our taprooms for that.” Clearly, the love goes both ways. trophybrewing.com
Trophy Treasures
Trophy Pizza
Trophy Maywood
Maywood Hall & Garden
Young Hearts Distilling
State of BeerBusy Bee + The Hive (now defunct/precedes official co.) Trophy Tap + Table (now defunct)
Trophy Stats
1st brewery 500 sq. ft. —> now production area 15K sq. ft. (then till now)
400 barrels of year —> 5K barrels per year (then till now)
The NCRLA Chef Showdown isn’t just a competition—it’s a platform.
Like a simplified local version of Top Chef, the NCRLA Chef Showdown is a big deal. The annual competition—now in its seventh season—pits chefs, pastry chefs, mixologists and distilleries from across the state against each other to battle it out for the crown of NCRLA Chef of the Year, Pastry Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year and Distillery of the Year.
But let it be known that these aren’t your Ashley Christensen, Vivian Howard or Scott Crawford gourmands. Instead, the Showdown provides a platform for industry peeps on the comeup to stand out, get noticed and make a name for themselves.
Take rising star chef Saif Rahman, NCRLA Chef of the Year in 2021 who returned in 2022 to judge the competition—and hopes to return to judge this year as well. “You get a lot of local media attention,” he says. “[Winning] gives you a platform—but it also helps the chefs to represent North Carolina in a different way versus just in their own restaurants.”
Rahman says winning provided him a career boost, local recognition—and bragging rights, natch. And he’s just one of many local names the comp has bolstered—see also: Asheville’s Steven Goff, 2019 NCRLA Chef of the Year and now the owner and executive chef of Tastee Diner; 2022 NCRLA Chef of the Year Oscar Johnson, co-owner of Jimmy Pearls in Charlotte; and 2022 NCRLA Pastry Chef of the Year Lydia Greene of Machete in Greensboro.
“The Chef Showdown has become the place to showcase the incredible talent of the North Carolina hospitality industry,” says NCRLA President and CEO Lynn Minges. And this year’s competition promises to be fierce—and perhaps the most competitive and star-studded yet—with an elite cast of 62 chefs, 14 pastry chefs, and 18 teams of bartenders and distillers in the mix (the most in any year to date) making their way through the rounds from May to August.
And Raleigh came not just to play—but to win (!)—repping in both strength and numbers in this year’s lineup—from culinary contenders Longleaf Swine BBQ’s chef Marc Russell and Cheeni Indian Food Emporium’s Preeti Waas (hey, 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist!) to mixology contenders Wye Hill’s Zac Rogerson and The Willard’s Jessica Rossabi (also the 2022 Bartender of the Year first runner-up. (See the full list of competitors at raleighmag.com.)
Each preliminary round takes place at community colleges across the state, with Raleigh’s own Wake Tech Community College School of Baking and Pastry Arts hosting July 12. A partner of the Chef Showdown for several years now, the college offers ample room and great equipment for the competitors—NTM “the culinary students are so interested in helping where they can,” says Heidi Billotto, a Charlotte-based restaurant, food and travel writer who conceptualized the Chef Showdown in 2016 and continues to contract with the NCRLA to organize the event.
Only 15 chefs and five pastry chefs will move on to compete in the regional rounds and grand finale—with the final elite six of the highest scoring mixology teams set to shake and stir things up for the public at the grand finale. “I’m proud to say this is our biggest year ever—and it’s going to be spectacular,” adds Billotto. Clearly, this year’s NCRLA Chef Showdown will be one for the books. Grande Finale, open to the public, Aug. 14, The Pavilion at Angus Barn, ncrla.org
NC ranks No. 9 in costliest romance scams in the country.
Ghosted. Catfished. Gaslit. All very unfortunate dating scenarios (raise your hand if it’s happened to you). But getting scammed? That’s a next-level low—and many North Carolina singles are falling for the bait.
A recent study by Social Catfish found that NC victims lost a total of $18 million to romance scams in 2022, making it the No. 9 state in the U.S. for total money lost to romance scams (!)—up 4% from $17.3 million in 2021. Across the country in 2022, a record $1.3 billion was scammed in the name of “love,” up 138% from $547 million the year prior.
So what gives? Well, if there’s anything we’ve learned from Netflix’s viral The Tinder Swindler, these scam artists can be quite convincing (see the costly and elaborate globe-spanning dates on which “Swindler” Shimon Hayut took women before tricking them into sending him money).
According to Social Catfish, the most common lies told by scammers to solicit $$ are: They’re “sick, hurt or in jail,” or “I can teach you how to invest.” Um—yeah, right. Here, three other common scam scenarios to avoid and how to dodge them.
Celebrity Romance Scams
No, Justin Bieber is never going to DM you on Instagram to ask you for money. As a matter of fact, if any celeb asks you to cough up some cash, it’s most likely a scam. (Don’t shoot the messenger…) Beware of fake accounts with strange handles and not a lot of followers. Clearly, peeps like Biebs would have a million-some followers.
Cryptocurrency Romance Scams
Sure, crypto is all the rage—and many people have managed to make a lot of money on it, but if a stranger claims they’ve “gotten rich in crypto” and tries to convince you to invest with them, just run (and block).
Military Romance Scams
Ah, who doesn’t love a good military meet cute?! Unless—boy meets girl, boy steals a military photo from the internet and claims to be stationed overseas, boy asks for money to fly back home so they can “finally meet and be together.” Oh, wait… Always do a reverse image search whenever chatting with any stranger on the internet before meeting them or sending them money. The more you know.
Reverse image search suspected scam to see if you are talking to someone real or a catfish.
After adding one parking app too many to our phones and pulling a $100+ parking ticket, we investigated the puzzle that is DTR private-lot parking.
Downtown is back. People are flocking in droves on the daily—whether it’s for dining and drinking, events, festivals, or concerts. But Downtown parking can seem like a labyrinth, a search that’s cumbersome at best, a straight deterrent at worst. Despite myriad decks and lots, finding a spot alone can feel nearly impossible—never mind having to then navigate lot restrictions, or download and learn some new app.
Last month, we learned a Raleigh resident was slapped with a $125 parking ticket in the private lot directly across from the One Glenwood building. The CVS-long ticket was littered with fine print—“if you pay within 15 days you’ll get a $90 discount; if you pay within 30 days you’ll get a $60 discount,” and so on.
So it got us thinking… Why are there so many different apps—and which are even legit? Most importantly: Do you really have to pay?
For starters, turns out there’s actually only one parking app the City of Raleigh contracts with across its 10 parking decks and two lots: Passport Parking. “And that’s it,” says Matthew Currier, parking manager for the City of Raleigh Transportation Department. “Everything else—which is a lot of operators and private owners, etc.—is all done Wild West-style.” Translation: The property owner can easily establish a private lot and charge whatever they want. So rates and rules can vary widely even with the same app in different lots.
“It’s just a form, and all [they do] is collect your license plate, your money and attach the amount of time you can be there,” explains Currier. “That’s a really easy thing to spin up from an app-developer perspective. … I’m not 100% sure what ramifications they have or what access they have post-issuance of a citation,” says Currier.
So wait? Does that mean there are no consequences? This revelation of course befell a set of new questions. Beyond the apps, who’s monitoring these lots, and who’s tracking ticket payment—and to what end? After reaching out to various parking app operators and property managers of local private lots, ultimately neither takes responsibility for procuring ticket payment.
One verified DTR lot owner told us, “We use The Car Park [app] to monitor and collect payments when our tenants are closed at night and weekends, but we have no involvement with their operations.”
The latter conflicts with what the app operators told us. “We do not enforce payment with the lots we partner with,” said a representative for Honk Mobile, which was echoed by ParkMobile. “Each parking lot is owned by their own operator and each operator has their own enforcement on who to ticket/tow.”
So while it’s unclear if there are any real ramifications for not paying those private tickets, you’ll have to decide if it’s a risk you’re willing to take.
Got a City of Raleigh parking ticket?
$ You have 21 days to pay. $ After 21 days, if you still haven’t paid, the ticket goes up by $10. $ Still haven’t paid? You’ll get a notice in the mail. $ After 200+ days of no payment, the city sends the citation to NC Department of Revenue Debt Setoff Unit, which procures payment via lottery winnings or state income taxes. $ If you have three or more outstanding citations for 90+ days, the city notifies you and is permitted to boot your car.
Here are a handful of credible apps you’re likely to see around town. *Allows you to reserve a parking spot in advance
Passport Parking passportparking.com Contracted with the city; zone-based parking
ParkMobile* parkmobile.io *Contracted with NC State; reserve a spot in advance via spot finder map
ParkWhiz* parkwhiz.com Find and compare prices for now or later; pre-purchase discounts; snag mobile parking passes for events in advance (e.g. Canes games, concerts)
The Car Park thecarpark.com Find and compare prices; join waiting list
Honk Mobile honkmobile.com Offers prepaid pack of parking credits; doesn’t require app download via QR code
