Category / News

by Leo Suarez

Summer 2014 Restaurant Roundup

Death and Taxes
Summer nights in Raleigh are good for sweets and ales. Maybe not at the same time but if you happen to like a beer after a sweet treat, this season’s eats news has you covered.

For a complete list of eats, drinks, and coffees in and around downtown, make sure to bookmark the DT Eats page. Try something new!

  • We’re still waiting on the newest Ashley Christensen restaurant, Death & Taxes, to open at the corner of Salisbury and Hargett Street. Fancy signs are up covering the windows. Oooooooo.
  • Nearby along Fayetteville Street, Happy and Hale has opened in one of the city plaza kiosks. Their salads and juices look pretty tasty.
  • The dessert and cocktail bar, Bittersweet, has opened in PNC Plaza along Martin Street.
  • After closing down Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern at 112 Fayetteville Street, the guys behind the outfit have opened a Roaring Twenties themed bar called Common 414 at 414 Fayetteville Street. They officially open in less than two weeks.
  • Meanwhile back at 112 Fayetteville, someone else has put some work into the space and is opening up another bar. No official word is out there about it but I heard they have had a soft opening and should be open soon. [UPDATE: Just learned today that the place is called Capital City Tavern and they are indeed open.
  • A small shop, Harvest Sundries & Deli, has opened in the Progress Energy building. Sounds like a good place for a cheap breakfast or lunch.
  • The people behind Tasty 8’s Hot Dogs is doing a big renovation job at the space where Spize Cafe used to be and I think it looks great. Gourmet hot dogs are in our future.
  • Lucettegrace is a bakery that’s “Coming Soon” according to their website. They plan to be on Salisbury Street kind of behind Capital Club 16.
  • A new coffee shop is coming to Seaboard Station. Brew plans to open in the row of shops along Seaboard Avenue and they are crushing their kickstarter! Raleighites love their coffee.
  • Also in Seaboard Station, Night Kitchen Bakehouse and Cafe will be opening in October, according to a TBJ article. The bakery will have “breads, pastries, sandwiches and salads” and be open for lunch and breakfast.
  • A bread shop, Boulted Bread, has opened on South Street. You can find their goods at the shop or at the Wednesday afternoon Farmer’s Market at City Market each week.
  • Work is slow but progressing on the empty space between Second Empire and the Holiday Inn, future home of Taverna Agora. The restaurant is relocating from Glenwood Avenue to this space on Hillsborough Street. Their website says they will move this winter.
  • Chef Scott Crawford has, or is, leaving his spot at Herons, the fine-dining restaurant at Cary’s Umstead Hotel. He is taking on two new projects in downtown Raleigh. First, is Standard Foods, a grocery and restaurant in Person Street Plaza.
  • Crawford’s second project is Nash Tavern, a classic American style tavern, in one of the buildings on the south side of Nash Square. A lot of planning is going into this one so it most likely will be a 2015 project.
  • In Glenwood South, DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli has opened in the 222 Glenwood building.
  • Clouds Brewing, formerly called Storm Clouds Brewing, in the old Napper Tandy’s space near Powerhouse Plaza is looking close to opening. There are some construction photos on their Facebook and the TBJ has a nice article about them, saying they will open next month.

you’ll be able to pay when you enter, receive a bracelet and pour your own beer from 40 different taps.

*Hey Triangle: Order your fall beers from Facebook

  • Visible work hasn’t yet started on the Raleigh Beer Garden or the 100 taps that will be inside this place.
  • We’ve watched construction on the building at the corner of Tucker Street and Glenwood Avenue, planning to house a Carolina Ale house, all year. I read awhile ago that they planned to have the Ale House open before football season so there really isn’t much time left. Will they make it? Not sure.

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh [ ] Space Kickstarter Seeks Funds For First Parklet in Downtown Raleigh

Go to the Raleigh [ ] Space Kickstarter page

The folks behind the Raleigh [ ] Space project, which plan to bring a parklet to Salisbury Street, are trying to raise awareness for their Kickstarter campaign. I want to pass along the message that an anonymous donor has emerged with plans to match the funds but only through Friday July 4.

If you’ve seen it before and are holding off on contributing, please consider it this week for this very reason.

The Salisbury Street parklet would be the first in downtown Raleigh. The funds would be used for materials, permits, and the cost of the parking fees as two spaces will be displaced for this community space.

For more info, jump over to RaleighSpace.org

by Leo Suarez

Medical Services Expanding in Downtown Raleigh

MedFirst Medical Center

I noticed recently that 131 South Wilmington Street, the space where the Pop-up Ice Cream Parlour used to be, was made into a small medical office. By chance, they then contacted me to in order to try and get the word out about the new business.

Restaurants and bars are great but residents needs stuff and services too. A few years ago, WakeMed opened a primary care physicians’ office on Davie Street, which was new at the time and was pointed out as another sign of downtown Raleigh’s revitalization by the news.

Medfirst Medical Center on Wilmington Street is now the only stand-alone urgent care facility in downtown. Locally owned and operated, they specialize in urgent care, basically non-emergency situations that still need to be seen within 24 hours. Walk-ins are welcome without appointments.

Make sure to check them out.

by Leo Suarez

RalCon Turns Seven Today, Stride Isn’t Slowing Down

Downtown Raleigh, July 2006.

Downtown Raleigh in July, 2006.

Lucky number seven? The blog has made it another year and maybe this time I will figure out something to do to celebrate it. A Raleigh beer perhaps?

What I do like to do is use this time to dig into the photo vault and take something out. Sure we all like the real historic photos but it can be amazing to see the difference in just a few short years. Above is a shot from the Wilmington Station Deck looking south on a warm July day in 2006. What’s different?

I’m thinking of throwing a party at number 10. Until then, we can plan for it and enjoy the downtown. Cheers!

by Leo Suarez

Two Triangle Startup Spaces Announce Expansions in Downtown Raleigh by Derrick Minor

[I’m reposting this article with permission from the Innovation Raleigh blog and author Derrick Minor. Rather than rewrite last weeks big news of the expansion of the local startup community, Derrick is the perfect person to be sharing all the details. Thank you, Derrick for allowing me to repost for RalCon readers. – Leo]

American Underground and HQ Raleigh logos

The old adage “When it Rains, it Pours” definitely applies to this morning’s news. With almost simultaneous releases, both American Underground and HQ Raleigh announced expansions in Downtown Raleigh, further bolstering the already growing startup scene in Raleigh and the Triangle.

HQ Raleigh (formerly HUB Raleigh), which is currently located in the Junior League building on Hillsborough St in Downtown, announced this morning that they will be expanding into a 14,000 SF space in the growing warehouse district of Downtown Raleigh. At approximately 4 times the size of their existing space, the new digs will allow HQ to house a lot more companies and host much larger events, both of which are a high demand in Raleigh. This news also comes on the heels of the recent partnership announcement between HQ and the Wireless Research Center of NC, an incubator in Wake Forest that enables inventors and corporations from around the world to develop cutting-edge wireless devices. I look forward to seeing how this partnership flourishes once the expansion into the larger space is complete. HQ anticipates a Fall 2013 move-in date.

In equally great news, the American Underground, with 2 existing startups spaces in Durham, announced that it would be opening a 3rd location in the Triangle… This one in Downtown Raleigh. Underground @Raleigh will be located on Fayetteville St and will house 25+ startups, as well as Bandwidth Labs, the incubator division of Raleigh-based Bandwidth.com. I don’t know much about Bandwidth Labs, but I look forward to learning more, as it sounds completely awesome. Additionally, this move will bring new relationships, resources, and programming to the local startup community in Raleigh and will also help AU to create a regional network of startup spaces throughout the Triangle. @Raleigh is expected to be delivered in the Fall as well.

So the big questions you may be asking are, “Do these two expansions create a saturation point in the market and is there enough demand in Raleigh to allow both of these spaces to be successful?” I fully believe these announcements will actually create more demand for flexible spaces for startups and in my opinion we are far from being saturated. A few facts I considered when coming to this conclusion.

  1. HQ Raleigh has only been open for 10 months and they were basically at capacity by month 7. There are currently 31 companies on the waitlist for only 6 existing office suites and I know they receive new inquiries on a daily basis. Once they move to their new space, I expect the inquiries to increase, as they will now have the space to accommodate new entrepreneurs and companies. The expanded space will also allow for more robust programming and partnership opportunities that are currently unavailable.

  2. American Underground has already built a very unique and successful brand throughout the Triangle and there are startups in the area that may identify more closely with the AU brand than with the HQ brand – and vice versa. In addition, AU will be located in the denser core of downtown on Fayetteville St and HQ will be located in the gritty and growing warehouse district. Each space will have its own unique features, characteristics, partnerships, and programs that will be attractive to different entrepreneurs and companies… But that’s Ok. Having a diversity of successful brands, spaces, programs, and resources will further push Raleigh and the Triangle forward as a great place to start and grow a company.

  3. I have identified over 300 startups and growth companies throughout the city of Raleigh and those are just the ones I know about… I suspect there are many more startups and early stage companies that are either working in a silo or operating in stealth mode, waiting for the right opportunity to announce their presence. I regularly uncover new companies and I am excited to see how these above announcements may draw out even more companies and entrepreneurs that are currently unknown by most of the market. Granted, not all of these companies will want to be physically located in either HQ or AU, but most will want to attend events or take advantage of the programs and resources offered by both spaces, creating additional density and opportunities for beneficial collisions to further spur new activity and energy feeding the creation of new ideas and new companies. With new talent and entrepreneurs regularly moving to the region and startups regularly coming out of the university system or spinning out of our local companies, I firmly believe we will continue to see substantial growth in our local startup ecosystem. And with a growing network of successful startups and spaces throughout the region, I know we will begin to see additional exposure on a national and international level as well, as further solidified by this afternoon’s TBJ article.

The next few months will be exciting times as both spaces come to market and I look forward to working with both AU and HQ to help further build out this awesome Triangle ecosystem. How do you plan to contribute to helping to push our region’s startup community forward?

[Derrick Minor is the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager for the City of Raleigh and serves as a community builder, catalyst, and connector for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth companies throughout the city. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Innovate Raleigh, HQ Raleigh, ThinkHouse Raleigh, and the NC State Technology Incubator. Derrick’s mission is to elevate Raleigh and the Triangle region as a top 5 destination for innovation and entrepreneurship in the country within the next 5 years.]