Whenever I travel, it’s an opportunity to eat somewhere new. So I research. What’s wrong with that? I had planned on eating at Lantern in Chapel Hill. But it was closed. It’s closed on sundays. So I decided to go to Poole’s instead. It’s closed too. Fins? Closed. Second Empire? Closed. Foundation? Closed. Bloomsbury Bistro? Closed. ARGH. I’d never really experienced this restaurant being closed on sundays phenomenon before. It was so alien to me. It literally took me a few hours to find a place open. And no, I refused to go to fast food or a chain. But finally, I ended up at Busy Bee Cafe.

What a friggin cool place.  First off, it gets kudos for being open every day, including sunday! It’s in downtown Raleigh too, which is also quite cool. There was nothing much going around in the neighborhood, but the busy bee was still kickin. The place is adorable. Exposed brick, exposed joists, exposed ductwork, cool flooring, cool art, just cool everything. Did I mention that they were actually open? When you first come in, it looks a bit like a coffee shop. Then there’s a big bar with a dizzying number of booze bottles and an impressive beer selection. There’s a bunch of tables in the bar area. Then there’s a surprise upstairs dining area. Who knew?

So I didn’t plan on getting grits again. Really, I swear I didn’t. But I couldn’t help myself. I asked the tattoo sleeved and well ear gauged server too and he said they were really good. So yeah, I got the shrimp and grits. C’mon, look at this thing! Cheesy grits with big ass shrimps, andouille sausage, and bell pepper. Savory and zesty, with the juicy crunch of shrimp and sausage, and the soft mush of grits. It was so good, I could not help myself! I’ll probably never have many chances to eat grits again, so I’m just trying to satisfy my grits tooth while I’m here.

There’s kind of a mix of items on the menu, including sandwiches, burgers, some taco type stuff, salads, and a few entrees. Something that I particularly liked was that all sandwiches and burgers came with your choice of sides. And this even included mac & cheese. I saw someone else order this so I had to order a side of it. It was made with penne, which is different, and it was very cheesy. It was good, but not great. The penne was a bit too al dente. Al dente is fine when it’s in a pasta dish, but it’s a bit too hard when it’s mac & cheese. I think it would have also been better if it had been baked. It was clearly not baked at all, and instead was just pasta drenched in a thick cheesy sauce. It was a high quality cheese sauce, but mac & cheese, especially in a restaurant, should be baked!

Good food, very affordable, and friendly service. And open every day of the week. These are all wins in my book! And man alive, could the male restaurant staff be easier on the eyes? Ladies, and some gents, take heed! When in Raleigh and in need of good drink and good food and some good visuals, to boot, look no further than Busy Bee Cafe! On sundays or any day!

After going on an extremely long hike around Portland, we were pooped. How about a quick bite and some drinks? We decided on the Deschutes in the Pearl District. Deschutes is an Oregon brewery, home in Bend Oregon. In fact, when I visited Bend a few years back, we visited the brewery itself.
It was late, and they have a special limited late night menu. We got a couple of these thin crust pizzas. There’s some stinky cheese, some nuts, and pancetta, along with those leafy greens.
I’m not into stinky cheese, so for me, I had this giant soft pretzel. It came with a cheese sauce and mustard. On this nice but fairly brisk night, it was nice to eat something hearty and warm. We sat outside, and we had dogs with us. When outside, Portland is very dog friendly.
I also had this delicious beer. You can get little glasses, and that’s all I wanted, but of course, I picked out this Wit beer, and it only came in this giant anniversary bottle. Two people can easily drink this. But it was delicious. And the best part? $5.
So the actual restaurant itself is ginormous on the inside. It’s all woodsy and cabin like. Huge timber beams and posts everywhere. But despite the lodge like feel, the bathrooms are all modern and sleek. These sinks were awesome.

I continued this lazy Easter Weekend with a quick stop in Old City at Triumph Brewing Company. This place is a local chain, and I’d been to the one in Princeton years ago. I didn’t remember it very much. I guess it wasn’t that memorable!

The spot in old city is surprisingly big. The downstairs has a big bar that takes up the whole right side, there are a good number of tables alongside the bar. On the other side are a bunch of booths. There are several large sections that are “lounges”. And upstairs there’s even more dining and a small bar. There have many large tables to accommodate large parties.

The place looks pretty cool… lots of clean lines, dark woods, some mod decor. It wasn’t very crowded (which was nice!) and when we first got there, it was pretty chill, and they were playing some classic rock on the speakers at a decent volume.

We sat in the lounge area which had tables on wheels that looked like a surfboard. There were some barcelona-esque style chairs with retro fabric, which looked cool, but didn’t really make for the best seating. It was nice to be tucked away from the general bar noise and crowd.

We didn’t eat dinner, but pecked on some appetizers: edamame with maldon salt and lime, calimari, and crab cakes with shitake and asparagus. The edamame were good, if not a bit too overloaded with the salt. They also could have been cooked a wee bit more. The calimari was ok, certain bites were a bit too spicy. The crab cakes were good, especially with the asparagus.

We tried the honey wheat, amber beer, and schwarzbier. The honey wheat smelled funny, but it was alright. The amber was pretty good, and the schwarzbier was my favorite of the night. The service was pretty good, they were attentive and quick to get rid of used plates. As the night progressed, the music changed and got about twice as loud. Also, more people showed up so it got even more noisy. That was a sign for me to skidaddle. Old City is not really my scene (but then what is really?) but it’s not a bad spot. If it’s crowded and loud it would be just as terrible as any of the other spots, but earlier on in the evening, it was fairly nice and relaxed and casual. It’s all about the company anyway… and watching your friends get drunk. That’s fun any time and anywhere!