Hamilton Impresses in Derby
MLB rising star
Josh Hamilton
showed up to the Home Run Derby last night and didn’t disappoint. The Athens Drive High School grad set a record with his
28 first round homers
(video), but unfortunately wasn’t able to deliver in the last round to win it all. Hamilton plays for the Texas Rangers and
currently ranks
18th in Major League Baseball, batting .310.
North Carolina Ducks Starbucks Closings
The first wave of Starbucks’ nationwide store closings includes 600 units, none in North Carolina. According to TBJ , about 70% of the underperforming stores opened since 2006.
Thank goodness! I’d hate for one of North Hills’ three Starbucks stores to close before I got a chance to finally try their product.
CBS Drops Packer
A long time fixture of college basketball in this area, BIlly Packer, has been dropped by CBS. Packer, a former Wake Forest star, began his broadcast career in this area with the C.D. Chesley network. He and Jim Thacker were fixtures for many years. National network executives appreciated Packer’s brutal honesty, and moved him on to eventually being the face of CBS’ basketball coverage. Packer covered ACC games during the week on the regional network, and a national game each week of the season. As the Final Four approached, viewers got more exposure to Packer.
Billy Packer has been an abrasive figure. From calling an active, black guard a “little monkey” one time, to questioning Cameron Indoor Stadium security with the “don’t you know who I am” excuse for not carrying his credentials, Packer has been more and more comfortable with his opinions. After chastising the NCAA selection committee this past season, as TBJ reports , he responded with,”I could care less what somebody thinks.” (shouldn’t that be “could not “?).
About ten years ago Packer was the face man for a local loan shark named “Mr. Cash”. During a period of about two years, local residents suffered through Packer’s second-rate sell-out ads, leaving many wondering how CBS could allow the face of one of their biggest operations to stoop so low.
With more time on his hands, Packer is bound to find himself back on our local airwaves in one way or another. Possibly ESPN will pick Packer up or, more likely, Raycom will use his game call more in this region.
Traffic Signal Snarls Morning Commute
It’s incredible how something as simple as the timing of a single traffic signal can cause so many problems. For years now I’ve noticed how one improperly tuned signal has far reaching effects into North Raleigh. Without fail traffic exiting I-440’s “outer” side onto Lake Boone Trail overwhelms the intersection at the bottom of the exit ramp. Daily delays see the intersection’s
cue
queue dangerously running one quarter to a half mile down the shoulder of I-440. Cautious (read: half-awake) drivers tap breaks in response to the anomaly, setting off a morning rush chain reaction.
The resulting 4-mile stop-and-go backups on I-440 present exponential risks for having an accident and cause workers to be late. Meanwhile Lake Boone Trail itself sits with exceptionally light traffic. All it would take is a simple adjustment of a traffic light to ease everyone’s morning burden and risks.
Canes Announce Exhibition Schedule
The Carolina Hurricanes announced their exhibition schedule today. The fun begins on September 21 with the Caniac Carnival and Red/White Scrimmage, a free event.
- Sun., 9/ 21 Caniac Carnival/Red-White Scrimmage (TBD)
- Wed. 9/24 Washington (7p)
- Thu. 9/25 @Washington (7p)
- Sat. 9/27 @Philadelphia (7p)
- Sun. 9/28 Philadelphia (5p)
- Thu. 10/2 @Nashville (8p)
- Sun. 10/5 Nashville (3p)
I still can’t help but think that they could market their product so much better by playing exhibition games in Greensboro, Fayetteville, and Charlotte. Does anyone remember how exciting it was to have the Washington Redskins in town for an exhibition game?
Sleep To Live Coming to North Hills
The
Sleep To Live
(Kingsdown) store will be taking the former Porto location in North Hills in the late summer.
Raleigh 10th in New Residents
The Census estimates for 2006-2007 are out and they report that Raleigh ranked 10th in raw number new residents. The list included (in order, top to bottom): Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Fort Worth, New Orleans, New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh.
Cary ranked 5th in proportional growth for cities over 100,000. Raleigh ranked #13 while Durham was #27, and Charlotte was #31.
Arrested Development Added to Raleigh Wide Open
Atlanta soul/hip-hop group
Arrested Development
is showing
on their website
that they will be a part of the Raleigh Wide Open, 2-day fiesta.
(
read about
how John Mayer is linked to AD at this previous post)
Char-Grill Closes For Repairs
Those of you headed to the Hillsborough St. Char-Grill location for a fix may want to take a detour. That location is closed until July 28 for repairs. The other locations (Atlantic Ave and Edwards Mill Road) are open to serve you.
McCormick & Schmick’s Now Open
The long-awaited Raleigh location for
McCormick & Schmick’s
opens today. The high-end chain was rumored to be going into about 12 different new projects in Raleigh at one time or another, but in the end they settled on Crabtree’s dreadful parking deck expansion.
The restaurant is basically seafood’s answer to Sullivan’s, and if Wednesday night’s grand opening party is any indication, M&S will be a perfect fit for a market needing high-end seafood that even land-lubbers would like. The decor is extremely buttoned down, contemporary with a hint of Asian influence. Three stained glass light fixtures over the bar honoring the area’s major college’s remind us that we aren’t in Anywhere, USA. While we were able to sample only a small portion of the menu at the special event, the samples were all we needed to know that their deep-frying techniques and sauce-making are spot-on.
They’ve done a couple of lunches this week that have already gotten rave reviews. My trusty sources started out with the delicious Shrimp Flat-bread Pizza appetizer (w/ tomatoes and mozzarella). It was just under 12″ in diameter and had a very thin crust. Next, they moved on to the Bacon and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad and the Seasonal Mixed Greens Salad. Both were delightful. In fact, they commented that a fantastic lunch for two would be for each to get a salad and share a pizza.
Given that these are hungry folk, they moved on to the entrees, and weren’t disappointed. They ordered an entree salad, Classic Bay Shrimp Louis, which featured much lettuce, small (but numerous) shrimp, and an excess of 1000 Island Dressing. Dressed properly, they said, this salad would have been a big hit. The other entree was the Stuffed Shrimp, which was fantastic. There were only two shrimp, but they were large and filled with a delicious crab stuffing.
The highlight of the meal came at the end, with the Tiramisu Cheesecake. While this pair does like their Tiramisu, they said this was the finest dessert they have ever eaten, which carries a lot of weight (no pun intended) with this observer.
We have some good mid-level seafood restaurants in Raleigh, but there haven’t been any that are good for those wanting a top notch business meeting, special occasion, or fine dining experience. McCormick & Schmick’s has done well in some of America’s classic seafood cities, and Raleigh will fall right in line.
Below you’ll find the menus for McCormick & Schmick’s opening day. The first image is the Dinner Menu, with the wine list following. The third image shows the Lunch menu, with the wine list following. Due to the large format of the originals, it was necessary to section the menus before scanning, and reassemble the images electronically. Please pardon any format inconsistencies or strange lines running through portions of the images.
Annuals Added to Raleigh Wide Open
Raleigh band,
Annuals
, have been added to the September 5 lineup for the Raleigh Wide Open event.
suhweet
.
Amedeo’s Brings Back The Years
Every now and then I’ll run across something that distinctly recalls feelings and memories from my childhood. Sometimes it’s a song. Sometimes it’s a smell. Sometimes it’s food. I get that whenever I eat the spaghetti at Amedeo’s. They used to have a location at North Hills (where Panera is) to go with their Western Blvd. location. Since last year there is also a North Ridge Shopping Center location to go with the home store.
Amedeo’s is a locally-owned, family-run Italian pizza parlor that is a den for N.C. State fans. The decor on Western Blvd celebrates the Pack, and even has booths dedicated to State sports legends and family friends. The North Raleigh location also gives nod to The Pack, but focuses more on local high schools with jerseys, photos, etc.
The pizza, manicotti, and hot subs are good, but I keep going back for the spaghetti with meat sauce, which is unmatched in Raleigh. Sleep and Amedeo’s spaghetti are the two things in life that stop both my daughter and me from talking. One more delicacy that takes me back is the Blue Cheese dressing. It has an extremely slight horseradish taste, but just enough to give the dressing its edge.
Another neat facet to the quirky pizzeria’s original location is the layout of the restaurant. Over time it has expanded into adjacent store spaces, so there are several different dining rooms. My high school reunion group of 15 comfortable met in the basketball room behind the bar, while my little league basketball team celebrates the season’s end each year in a portion of the large football room. They also added patio seating last summer for those who like to eat outside.
Finally, Amedeo’s is one of the few restaurants where you can conveniently feed a family without breaking into the budget too much. The menu below shows that a trip back into Raleigh’s past won’t cost an arm and a leg.
map it:
Yancy’s Expands Downtown Options
Traditionally as new restaurants open and diners have more variety, the diners get so excited with their new options that they abandon what they used to love. Thankfully in downtown Raleigh there’s a place where you can still get some down-home cooking in a modern, clean setting.
Yancy’s
has been discussed a lot recently, and indeed, the restaurant
is open
. Ever since opening two years ago they’ve offered a nice lunch buffet and a plethora of sandwiches. The menu has been pared down, but still contains burgers, barbecue sandwiches, and some other staples. I chose the buffet option, so I could sample more. Here’s what I ate:
- Tossed Salad – decent, basic salad bar with 4 dressing choices
- Smothered breaded pork chops – a bit salty for my palate
- String beans – excellent
- Baked spaghetti – not bad
- Barbecued pork medallions – excellent, almost western north carolina flavor
- Red beans and rice – cooked for a while, these beans were about to fall apart
- Stewed corn – fine
- New potatoes – delicious
- Fusilli pasta in red Italian sauce- surprisingly peppery.
While the food won’t be confused with Sarah Chase’s food in New Orleans, I still enjoyed my lunch (and isn’t that what it’s all about?). Food + Coca-Cola was $13 (about normal for a sit-down, nice, pleasant restaurant)
The restaurant was on the quiet side, but I was excited to be dining among Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West , who were in town on business. It was good to see that they were unaffected by erroneous reports that appeared online recently. (A business deserves the right to terminate underperforming employees. If these former employees wish to maturely prove their mettle, they can get on with their lives by helping some other restaurant in the area that needs excellent help.)
Yancy’s is an important part of downtown Raleigh’s fabric. Hopefully their business will get stronger as summer ends. Downtown needs a restaurant like this to maintain a healthy offering to everyone who’s hungry.
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