Monday Boozin' on the Cheap: Lilly's Pizza in Raleigh

It was a happy accident that I found myself at Lilly's last Monday night (after checking out a new brewery in Five Points), but it lead to an amazing discovery:

Lilly's has $2 drafts on Monday's. 

Their pizza alone is good enough to cure even the worst case of the Monday's, but pair that with $2 beer and you might just forget how far away the weekend is.

Take note of the sensual pizza kiss

Big Star: Pesto, mozzarella, Parmesan, Gorgonzola,
fontina, roasted red peppers and pistachios 

"And it rules us all..."

Being a Durham resident, I'm veryyy familiar with the Lilly's Pizza in Brightleaf Square, but had never been to the Raleigh iteration before this visit. While the Glenwood Lilly's is significantly smaller than it's sister restaurant in the Bull City, it makes up for its lack of size in edgy character.

Drinking Raleigh Beer: Nickelpoint Brewing Co.

Big shout out to raleigh what's up? on her great post about new things to check out in Raleigh this month, which inspired me to pay a visit to the new kid on the Raleigh-beer-block: Nickelpoint Brewing Co.

English IPA

Beer Happy

Meeting of the Minds

Although their taproom just opened in the Five Points neighborhood, according to their website the brewery was founded in 2013.

Nickelpoint focuses on traditional English Style beers, which was evident when I visited, as they had a Blonde Ale, English IPA and Porter on tap. There was also a higher ABV Double Barley Steak Cake Stout, which I almost had to order just on principal of the name being boss.

Wednesday Boozin' on the Cheap

Sometimes you need a little liquid encouragement to push you over the Hump(day). Two places in Durham to enjoy great beer on the cheap and celebrate the end of mid-week: Motorco and Surf Club.

Both are located on Rigsbee Avenue (aka the Fullsteam neighborhood).

Motorco features Pint Night on Wednesdays, with select discounted brews on draft, displayed below in chalk.

Pair a cheap beer with a Free Hug

Friday Beer?

It's Friday afternoon. The clock is inching further away from noon, and ever closer to 5. I find myself expectantly glancing at the screen of my iPhone, waiting for the text message to brighten the display.

"Friday beer?"

Dale's Pale Ale at Sam's Quik Shop

Raleigh State Farmers Market

Full Disclosure: I already have a pretty major obsession with farmers markets.

The co-mingling of people, produce, baked goods, homemade jellies/jams/pickles, dogs and babies on a sunny Saturday morning never fails to put me in a great mood that can last an entire weekend. But while I've made many trips to the Carborro and Durham markets, I had yet to experience what NC's capital city market had to offer.

I'm happy to say I was not disappointed by my first visit there.

Shoppers peruse the array of fresh
fruits and vegetables

Toast

What's in a name? Toast Durham lets the writing on the wall set the stage for hungry patrons waiting in line.

Toast: to make bread crisp and brown by heat.

What a great verb. After enjoying a meal here, it's easy to understand why this term was chosen to be the namesake and wall decoration for this truly authentic Italian sandwich shop. Toast takes the action of crisping and browning to another level, elevating it into an art form.

Downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo - May 4th

The first installment of the Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo series kicked off this past Sunday afternoon, and was the culmination of everything there is to love about the food truck scene in the Triangle.

Fayetteville Street was brimming with men, women, dogs, babies, strollers, a guy kicking fresh poetry freestyles in an all-white suit (food trucks are a powerful muse), all gathered together in order to bathe in the vast sea of food truck deliciousness.

FRESH. Ice Cream

I have a deep rooted attachment to ice cream.

According to family legend, a few days before I was born my mom polished off an entire pint of Rocky Road without batting an eye. I like to think that thanks to this ravenous pregnant appetite, my infant body developed an undeniable physiological need for ice cream, as if chocolate covered peanuts and marshmallow swirl now course through my veins alongside plasma and white blood cells.

I say all this to properly explain how excited I get at the prospect of eating ice cream, and how much MORE excited I get when I find a Triangle ice cream spot serving a quality product that's not only naturally made, but also locally sourced.

FRESH in Raleigh has me practically giddy.

Peanut. Butter. Cup.

Cafe Meridian

If having a lot of choices at lunchtime is something that overwhelms you, you may want to consider bringing a brown paper bag to Cafe Meridian. Deep breaths. You really can't make a bad decision. It'll be okay.

With a massive list of hot sandwiches, daily/rotating specials and more homemade sides than you will know that to do with, Cafe Meridian is certainly not lacking in menu variety.

BLT+ with Pesto Bowtie