The colorful interior of Dos Taquitos Centro
A Traveler Feature Article By Kat Sunlove & Layne Winklebleck
Finding really good, out-of-the-way places to eat in a vacation city can be a challenge. Avoiding tourist traps while figuring out where the locals go is tough. If you want organic or locally grown ingredients, that’s tougher still – unless you are in the Triangle metro area of North Carolina. When visiting the oak tree-studded Capital City of Raleigh, or her neighbors, Durham and Chapel Hill, you may get lucky and happen upon one of the many farm-to-table restaurants sprinkled throughout the region. Then again, you may not.
An easier and more dependable solution is a Taste Carolina gourmet food walking tour. The brainchild of self-proclaimed food junkie Joe Philipose, a former lawyer and “corporate drone,” as he puts it, and local gourmand Lesley Stracks-Mullem, Taste Carolina prides itself on guiding visitors to “restaurants and shops serving innovative food sourced locally from farm-to-table.” The pair met only a few months ago in a fortuitous coincidence. While researching her business concept, Lesley talked with Kelli Cotter, manager at Toast Paninoteca in Durham. As she was explaining her vision of a company that would offer farm-to-table restaurant walking tours, Kelli commented that someone else had just been there with the same idea. Intrigued to know her competition, Lesley got in touch with Joe and Taste Carolina was born.
Lesley conducted our mid-day tour of downtown Raleigh, hitting five deliciously distinctive food establishments in a little over two hours. This mid-day jaunt is just one of many options available from Taste Carolina, which offers unique outings that range from the Taqueria Tour to the Happy Hour Tapas Crawl, or the Southern Comforts Tour to a Whole Hog Barbeque Bus Tour. You can even customize your own excursion.
As we hiked along Raleigh’s mostly level streets, Lesley filled us in on the burgeoning organic and locally sourced food movement, which finds expression in farmers markets and upscale restaurants throughout the Triangle area. Working with the national group, Slow Food USA, the regional chapter works to preserve food traditions, promote “gastronomic culture and provide support to local agriculture. A recent initiative was planting heirloom apple trees at an elementary school in Durham.