7 egg-cellent eggs Benedicts in Raleigh to celebrate National Eggs Benedict Day.
Scrambling to find a primo eggs Benedict in Raleigh? We’ve gotcha covered with these seven egg-stra-special Bennys at popular brunch spots around town in honor of National Eggs Benedict Day, Saturday, April 16. So whether you’re looking for a pick-me-up at the crack of dawn or a leisurely 2pm brekky staple, these restos are sure to eggs-cite. (All yolks aside, make those rezos stat!)
Mornings got you feeling a little crabby? Let the early birds have the worm and indulge in a fried green tomato and crab Benny on Plates’ greenery-filled patio that’ll (hopefully) save you from the morning grouch—and maybe a hangover. (Plates menu is ever-evolving so get it when it’s on offer!)
Happy hollandaise indeed as Midtown Grille takes it back to the basics with its classic country Benedict with your choice of smoked salmon or country ham, garlic spinach, and hollandaise. Enjoy that side of home fries too—because brunch calories don’t count.
Farm to table to belly. Poached eggs (from chef Sean Fowler’s Mandolin farm!) and Johnston County Country Ham are the star in this breakfast staple. It doesn’t get much better than that!
You can’t go wrong with any of Famous Toastery’s Benedicts (despite the name, the Bennys are equally deserving of a nod), but the avocado Benedict—made up of a split avocado baked with Cajun seasoning and topped with two eggs, melted pepper jack cheese and pico de gallo—is sure to fill that pit in your stomach come brunch time.
Regardless if you’re a meat-eater or a pescetarian, you can enjoy National Eggs Benedict Day at Irregardless, thanks to its brisket Benedict and salmon Benedict—both of which are topped with poached eggs and hollandaise. How eggs-quisite!
Going green never tasted so good. … Order up NOFO’s fried green tomato Benedict with pimento cheese, smoked bacon jam, two poached eggs and tomato relish on a buttermilk biscuit (!) for your daily dose of veggies. Still counts, right?
Choose your fighter: the veggie Benedict (served with spinach and Piménton hollandaise) or the serrano Benedict (with pan tomate and hollandaise). Either way, it’s a brunch win.
David Meeker is on a mission to preserve Raleigh’s character and culture—one project at a time.
The No. 1 fear you hear from locals? Raleigh losing its identity… morphing into a built-up blueprint of dotted skyscrapers with no forethought of connectivity or personality. Just a concrete and glass jungle where our humble but thriving tree-dotted small city built on Southern charm and a ton of history is but a memory.
Our warp-speed growth—and skyline, with new developments and tower rezoning requests announced on the daily—only serves to simultaneously accelerate our fair city’s cosmopolitan feel and people’s anxiety over losing our traditional culture. But one Raleigh investor is determined to preserve the places and spaces that make Raleigh, well, Raleigh.
Likewise fearing Raleigh is on the fast-track to becoming another Charlotte, Raleigh native and Carpenter Development managing partner David Meeker’s MO has been to keep the character of the City of Oaks with adaptive reuse projects, and he is now branching into new construction with a focus on sustainability via a handful of current projects.
A true investor in his home city, Meeker’s newest endeavors will take his mission of maintaining Raleigh’s personality even further. “We need the density because, without it, we couldn’t have the smaller spots,” he says.
Case in point, SoHi—a two-story, 25,000-square-foot, four-building development featuring retail, a restaurant and a yoga studio, with top-floor offices and coworking spaces to boot.
First announced in 2019 for an otherwise underdeveloped area just a mile south of Downtown on South Wilmington Street, SoHi (dubbed for its location south of I-40) will be one of the greenest developments in Raleigh. Think solar panels on every roof, water cisterns for every building—NTM more bike racks than parking spots (!).
“We are all personally into sustainability and stopping climate change, so it just made sense for us to do as green a development as we can afford to do,” says Meeker. “Hopefully we will have a lot of success with it and others will do the same.”
Projected for 2024 and anticipated to be one of the area’s first new spots, SoHi, Meeker hopes, will revitalize the area. “South Wilmington Street is the old southern entrance to Downtown Raleigh before South Saunders got the I-40 exit,” he says. “SoHi will hopefully bring back life to South Wilmington Street.”
Focusing his efforts elsewhere in Downtown, Meeker, who is also a partner in super-popular Trophy Brewing Co., is arguably positioned to define the future—while preserving the past—of Morgan Street.
In 2020, when now-former owner Arthur Gordon looked to sell Irregardless Cafe—one of Raleigh’s longest-running and most-popular Downtown restaurants—to someone who wouldn’t change it much, he sold it to Lee Robinson and Meeker, who grew up dining there.
Meeker recognizes the growing energy of Morgan Street and how it’s getting built up to become part of Downtown—thanks in large part, he says, to Bloc[83] and The Black Dollar Corp. CEO Johnny Hackett Jr.’s new creator’s space, The Factory. “Johnny’s coworking space (right behind Trophy Morgan) is a gamechanger for our neighborhood,” says Meeker. “The number of people he’s bringing here every day is just wonderful. … And I feel like we have a ton of energy now because of it.”
Now, down Morgan Street, Meeker’s other project —on “the bend” between Irregardless and Trophy Brewing + Pizza, where he bought three houses from a local business owner—will breathe new life into the otherwise arguably undeveloped strip that bridges Downtown to the Hillsborough Street Corridor and Village District. “I didn’t want them to get bought up by someone who was going to build a tower [there],” he says.
Dubbed The Bend, the trio of concepts—slated to bow in fall 2023—will be connected via an almost boardwalk-like shared front porch, so you can traipse back and forth between what Meeker envisions as a coffee shop, wine shop and neighborhood bar—each of which he hopes will be in partnership with established local concepts. The Bend will also include an outdoor area with tables, and a potential shipping container bar and semipermanent food truck.
Clearly, not all heroes wear capes—and this one is quietly quashing Raleighites fears of a concrete jungle while preserving our fave city’s authentic identity—one project at a time.
WEB EXCLUSIVE Outdoor diners and drinkers rejoice!
If you’re outdoorsy in that you like drinking on patios, your outdoor imbibing sesh just got a huge upgrade. Enter the City of Raleigh’s new outdoor seating regulations that allow for (more) “streeteries” to be implemented at DTR bars and restaurants beyond the pandemic. (Can we get a cheers?!)
You’ve likely already tossed back a brew or two on a streetery—which converts on-street parking spaces to provide more outdoor seating for patrons—in the past two-plus years (Crank Arm, Irregardless Cafe and The Raleigh Times are just a few local businesses that added one to their patios during the pandemic), but now you’ll see them cropping up at more and more at sip and sup spots around town thanks to a $500,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan.
And before any DTR parking rants start… hear us out (and, TBH, we rec an Uber for that spirits sesh anyway). While streeteries may take away from local businesses’ parking spots, they will ultimately help locally owned Raleigh restaurants and bars thrive—so a chicken and egg situation, if you will. According to Crank Arm owner Adam Eckhardt in a November 2021 interview with Spectrum News 1, the streeteries helped gain a lot of positive feedback from customers and helped his business survive during the worst of COVID.
But streeteries aren’t the only thing sticking around. Raleigh City Council also just approved an ordinance to codify temporary curbside pickup zones into the City Code—meaning, whether you like it or not, they’re here to stay. A result of DRA’s Public Realm Study, the now-permanent curbside pickup zones provide customers of local businesses a safe spot to park their vehicles and pickup takeout orders, which have remained a prominent option for a lot of local restaurants—and for Raleighites who enjoy cozying up on their couches with a good, local meal. (Again, yes, street parking takes the backseat—but without that spot to pull up in DTR how often were you really considering takeout…)
So whether you dig dining or drinking outside or pref easy no-fuss pullup to grab that to-go box in your PJs to nosh on at home, Downtown Raleigh has plenty of ops for how and where you want to eat and drink.
Valentine’s Day has been a treasured holiday for centuries, the annual opportunity for lovers to express their feelings via romantic dinners, floral bouquets, decadent sweet treats and even marriage proposals. But much more recently—in 2010, to be exact—another holiday centered around love emerged. On Galentine’s Day, the point isn’t to receive a shot from Cupid’s bow; rather, it’s to celebrate friendship, specifically among women. The fictional Galentine’s Day holiday originated on an episode of the hit sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” where leading lady Leslie Knope explains that, every February 13, “My lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home and we just come and kick it, breakfast style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”
Ever since, Galentine’s Day has been celebrated as a popular pastime across the country; Raleigh is no exception, with its own Galentine’s Day traditions from which local ladies can choose.
Your first option is to get a head start on this fun fête by brunching at The Irregardless Café on Saturday, February 8 at The Geek Girl Brunch Presents: Galentine’s Day. Eat some delicious food, enjoy some drinks and possibly go home with some great swag! If you already have weekend plans, celebrate on Thursday, the actual Galentine’s Day, at Vidrio on Glenwood South. Toast the women in your life with drinks and small bites at the bar. The restaurant will serve Veuve Cliquot and assorted mini-desserts and you can enjoy fresh Mediterranean flavors and original menu options. Looking for something more interactive? Visit Dove & Olive Mercantile on Bickett Boulevard where you and your gals can attend a jewelry workshop and receive an Infinity Collection bracelet that’s sized to fit your wrist and safely welded on. Enjoy charcuterie platters from Raleigh Cheesy and take home a beautiful bouquet from The Gray Cottage.
Ladies, these are just a few of the local places where you and your girlfriends can honor Galentine’s Day in style. You may not have time to pull a Leslie Knope and make personalized mosaic tile portraits of each of your friends but you can make a few phone calls and rally the crew. Exchange handmade gifts or share priceless memories over drinks and snacks; Galentine’s Day is a celebration you’ll want to make an annual tradition.
There are lotsof ways to get your groove on in. Raleigh is way beyond the clubbing scene of your 20s. Today’s dance scene is a little more, ahem, elevated–from salsa to swing and everything in between.
Jazz at Humble Pie
Dancers cut a rug every Wednesday night at Humble Pie, where two of the city’s favorite jazz bands perform under rafters merrily strung with lights.
Peter Lamb and the Wolves play the first and third Wednesday of the month. The quintet got together for a one-time gig at Humble Pie’s 2008 presidential party, but its onstage electricity fused them into a full-fledged band. Sets range from New Orleans jazz standards to clever modern covers.
Sidecar Social Club plays the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Lisa Veronica Wood fronts this five-piece band of jazz veterans, adding her sultry vocals to covers and originals that would be at home in a 20s speakeasy.
When: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Admission: free. Bonus: $5 highballs. Humble Pie is located at 317 S. Harrington Street in downtown Raleigh’s warehouse district.
Salsa at Carmen’s Cuban Café
It’s tucked away in a strip mall near the airport, but Carmen’s Cuban Café is a salsa-dancing hotspot. Its Tuesday night dance party has been going strong for more than 12 years; according to DJ Betto Herrera, it’s the longest-running salsa night in the state.
Drop in after work for cocktails and authentic Cuban cuisine. Stay to mambo and dance the Cha Cha. Beginners can come early to gain confidence and learn basic steps before they hit the floor with more experienced dancers.
When: Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Admission: $5. Bonus: Hour-long beginner class for $10 (starts at 7 p.m.). Carmen’s Cuban Café is located at 108 Factory Shops Road in Morrisville.
Saturday Night Jazz Club at Irregardless Café
Irregardless Café has had live music every night for over 40 years. And for the past decade and a half, fans have packed the place for its Saturday Night Jazz Club.
The evening starts with live music over farm-fresh fare. After dinner, the tables are cleared and a second band starts to swing.
Dancers jump and jive on the new dance floor to a rotating calendar of jazz acts. Past performers include Carolyn Mitchell and La Fiesta Latin Jazz Quintet.
The latter recently played the “Caribbean Nights” Taste of Jazz open house at the Glenwood Club, Irregardless Café’s new event venue. Guests sampled themed cuisine at tasting stations and danced to tropical-flavored jazz. Keep an eye on the website for details on the next Taste of Jazz event.
When: Saturday nights at 9:30. Admission: free. Bonus: Half off dessert nightly with theater ticket stub. Irregardless Café is located in downtown Raleigh at 901 W. Morgan Street.
Want more?
West Coast Swing Friday Night Dance Party: 8 p.m.- 2 a.m. at Loafers Beach Club. Members, $8 (memberships available at the door), guests $10.
Sunday Swing at the Raleigh Elks Club: join a hundred other dancers every week from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. $10 cover charge (free beginner’s lesson at 6:15 p.m. with paid cover). Cash bar.
