Durham, N.C. — It’s hard to imagine now, but the bustling entertainment district in downtown Durham not so many years ago was a decrepit cigarette factory filled with bat dung and pigeon droppings whose last best use was as a practice field for the local SWAT team.
The American Tobacco works were a civic embarrassment by the late 1990s. American Brands had pulled out in 1987, and the home of Lucky Strike and Bull Durham was crumbling. Its demise nearly killed downtown Durham as other businesses fled. It was an eyesore, visible to travelers along the Durham Freeway that passes nearby.
But with the help of a visionary business leader, Durham re-imagined American Tobacco. Since reopening in 2004, the development has been filled to the brim with bars and restaurants, apartments and chic new offices. The handsome home of the city’s beloved minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls, stands right across the street flanked by attractive red brick office buildings along the outfield walls. The glassy Durham Performing Arts Center opened nearby in 2008. An adjoining Aloft hotel came along last year.
And inside American Tobacco, you can get a glimpse of what’s coming next in the Research Triangle.
American Underground, one of the top entrepreneurial hubs in the country, is here. It’s where young companies take flight. There’s Mati, founded by Tatiana Birgisson, who began brewing her carbonated energy drinks as a Duke University student. Now, she’s selling them in Whole Foods. And there’s Nugget, a maker of foldable couches hatched by a couple of students at UNC-Chapel Hill. And Smashing Boxes, a digital product agency.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina — with Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill at its vertices — has long turned good ideas into business enterprises. World class universities attract an enviable supply of talent. and a range of companies — from startups to Cisco, BASF and GlaxoSmithKline — keep that talent anchored. The Triangle has one of the highest levels of educational attainment in the nation.
I don’t understand most of what Albert Einstein said, but this particular quote seems pretty clear: “Mankind will not survive the honey bees’ disappearance for more than five years.”
Yikes. That’s quite the literal and metaphorical buzz kill.
It wasn’t so long ago that it seemed you’d see a small cluster of honey bees – specifically, European honey bees, or if you’re the scientific type, Apis Mellifera – frantically examining every flower you came across. But if you want to get an idea of what’s happened to honey bees in recent years, just go out and try to take a picture of one. They’re not so easy to find any more.
“We need the bees,” says Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, founder of Durham-based Bee Downtown. “They’re dying around the world at alarming rates. Every third bite of food you eat is the result of honey bees’ work. Without them, the world would be in a really bad place.”
NO BEES? NO BURGERS
A really bad place, indeed. And not just because we wouldn’t have honey to make all those breakfast cereals or sweet candies. Bees are one of our planet’s primary pollinators, transferring pollen and seeds from flower to flower, fertilizing plants so they can produce fruits and vegetables. In the US alone, honey bees pollinate about $15 billion worth of crops each year, including all kinds of fruits, vegetables, melons and nuts. Every spring, California’s almond growers truck in half of America’s honey bee population to fertilize more than 80% of the world’s almond supply.
Honey bees even have an impact on meats and dairy products, pollinating crops like alfalfa that feed our nation’s cattle.
Concerns about the future of our food system spurred Bonner to start Bee Downtown, a company that creates and sells rooftop and clear storefront observatory hives in urban locations. Despite what you might assume, bees thrive in cities, with downtown hives serving as feeder populations to rural areas, as newborn queens fly off to start colonies elsewhere.
DURHAM, N.C. — The Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) will open its stands, seats and empty baseball field exclusively for Pokémon Go players Tuesday.
From 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., gamers can purchase a $5 ticket to enter the ballpark’s stands and field to search for, and capture, their favorite Pokémon characters. All of the proceeds earned from the event will benefit Second Chance Pet Adoptions.
Currently the number one app in the iTunes App Store, players can use Pokémon Go on their smartphones and other devices to capture virtual Pokémon.
The app uses players’ cameras and locations to show their surroundings, encouraging them to walk around to find characters and capture them by throwing pokéballs at just the right angle.
“Over our last homestand we found that the DBAP proved to be a hotspot for Pokémon, with characters popping up in all areas of the stadium,” said Bulls General Manager Mike Birling. “The problem was, many of the Pokémon were on the field, and our fans weren’t able to catch them.”
The game is sweeping the nation, and, now that the Bulls are on the road for two weeks, its the perfect time for the stadium to host such an event for area residents.
“The great thing about the app is that people can play it anywhere,” said Birling. “Our situation is slightly different, though, as fans [normally] don’t have acces to our Pokémon-filled field. [Now], we can make sure no Pokémon at the DBAP goes uncaptured.”
Durham, North Carolina, has one of the most exciting and varied dining scenes of any Southern town, with everything from regional favorites like biscuits and barbecue to tastebud challengers such as beef tendon crackers and black garlic ice cream. Here’s how to keep your belly happy all day — and night — in Bull City.
BREAKFAST
Start your day at Scratch, which — as the name implies — makes all its baked goods in-house. Bypass those tempting pies and fuel up with a real breakfast, like shirred eggs with a wedge of thick buttery toast ($5), or, the antidote for any hangover: a fried duck egg sandwich with cheddar cheese, pickled onions, bacon jam and roasted garlic mayo tucked inside a soft bun ($9).
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Hanging out on the back patio of Parker & Otis is a Durham ritual — and one of the most peaceful times to visit this gourmet eatery/gift shop is on a weekday morning. Breakfast is basic but tasty — two eggs with bacon and a house-made cheddar cheese biscuit will run you $6.99. The java is freshly brewed from noted local roaster Counter Culture Coffee.
LUNCH
You don’t want to miss the perfectly charred wood-fired pie at Pizzeria Toro, but the evening wait can be a long one. Drop by for lunch instead, when you can easily secure a spot at one of the blond wood tables. Go old-school — red sauce, anchovies, garlic and basil ($14) — or try a seasonal specialty, like white pizza with fiddlehead ferns, nettles and grated artisan grana ($17). Even tired kale salad gets a kick here with a dash of spicy chilies, tossed with toasted pine nuts and shaved parm ($10).
The grill masters at 250-seat barbecue shrine The Pit don’t mess around — smoking whole hogs on a hot summer day isn’t for the faint of heart. Slathered in East Carolina-style hot sauce and vinegar, the pork is served chopped, pulled or sliced; complementing your meat-fest are staple Southern sides like collard greens, fried okra and black-eyed peas. The Pit also offers a massive selection of bourbons, with many hard-to-find local ones like Slow & Low, crafted from rock candy.
You don’t have to buy a ticket to the Rafael Viñoly-designed Nasher Museum of Art to enjoy the organic fare at the Nasher Cafe — and contemporary art lovers should peruse its outstanding collection. The cafe (which also does a weekend brunch) has gorgeous salads with produce and meats sourced from local farms; if it’s a nice day, the patio, with its bucolic wooded setting, is the perfect place to enjoy your meal.
DINNER
Chef Matt Kelly is busy building an empire in Durham. He started his career at the French-inspired spot Vin Rouge, opened the Spanish-themed Mateo Bar de Tapas in 2012 and will reveal two more downtown spots this summer (Lucky’s Deli and Mother & Sons). Mateo, which earned Kelly a James Beard nomination, is Spanish but with Southern influences, too — like North Carolina-sourced hams and cheeses among the traditional jambon and queso offerings. It also boasts one of the largest sherry selections in the country.
Set on the ground floor of the year-old 21c Museum Hotel, Counting House has one of the city’s most dramatic interiors — a towering 23-foot ceiling, double-height windows and sleek white walls dotted with artful animal sculptures. But the menu soars, too, with local seafood and regional specialties — Carolina rice salad, shrimp and grits — expertly prepared in the open kitchen. Cap it off with an after-dinner cocktail inside the historic downstairs bank vault.
Two stories of Asian bliss, Dashi offers hearty bowls of ramen noodles on the first level, while upstairs — look for the patterned manga wallpaper — is the izakaya, where you’ll find some of the most interesting cooking going on in Durham. From the grill is a smorgasbord of meaty goodies, from spicy miso chicken to wasabi beef tongue to yuzu kosho (spicy chili) marinated pork heart ($4-$7). The takoyaki hushpuppies ($8), based on the ball-shaped Japanese snack, is made with octopus and served with a citrusy yuzu mayo. Careful: the black sesame nori popcorn ($4) is quite addictive.
STAY
Set a 1937 former bank in downtown Durham, the 125-room 21c Museum Hotel (from $200) — the fourth in the 21c chain — features Deborah Berke-designed interiors that pay homage to the building’s Art Deco past while incorporating modern furnishings and amenities. The rotating collection in the multi-level galleries — which are free and open to the public 24/7 — feature new and notable contemporary artists; many works are chosen to engage with the local community. To that end, restroom signage, designed by artist Peregrine Honig and titled “We Don’t Care,” was recently installed — in response to North Carolina’s controversial transgender Bathroom Law.
Across the street is the new 53-room mid-century modern Durham Hotel (from $279) which features an indoor/outdoor rooftop lounge and a restaurant from James Beard Award-winner Andrea Reusing.
Bees the size of small dogs crawl over a brick wall on the fringe of downtown’s American Tobacco Campus.
Most of them cannot fly – they haven’t had their wings painted on yet.
The bees are the product of muralist Matt Willey’s paintbrush and have been commissioned by Burt’s Bees, whose corporate hive exists just behind the brick.
Willey, 46, a New York City transplant who sleeps in Asheville, has embarked on a bee-themed mural marathon. Willey’s goal is to paint a total of 50,000 honeybees in a series of murals in public spaces across the U.S. and the world.
Why 50,000? According to his website, www.thegoodofthehive.com, the number represents the population of honeybees in a healthy hive.
Bees bigger than bricks command attention, which is Willey’s intention, ever since he first read about declining populations of pollinating bees in the United States.
“I can make them big enough so people can see them more clearly,” he said.
The mural is a nature-scape superimposed over the Lego-like masonry of the American Tobacco architecture. The artwork puts bees and people eye to eye.
On a recent weekday morning downtown, a group of four kids and two moms out on an app-driven geocaching expedition took notice of the mural.
“I like the way that the bees are gathered together,” said Piper Barnes, fifth-grader-to-be. Piper was impressed by how the mural bees reflected the group behavior visible in the bustling “live-hive” of real bees that Burt’s Bees maintains right around the corner from the painting.
Durham recently was certified as a member of Bee City USA, an organization born in Asheville that promotes pollinator-friendly cities.
Paula Alexander, director of sustainable business and innovation at Burt’s Bees, contacted Willey about a mural after his crowdfunding video drew her attention.
“I’ve helped him get through hoops,”Alexander said.
“Every job has a ‘champion,’
” Willey said. “I need someone on the ground to deal with logistics.”
When work on the mural began in late April, Alexander asked Willey whether the 400 employees at Burt’s Bees could help him paint.
“I wasn’t open to the idea,” Willey said, “until I said yes to it.”
Willey and Alexander settled on having each employee, from the general manager on down, paint an individual petal of the flowers that will line the bottom of the mural.
“Once we compartmentalized (the participation), I loved it,” Willey said.
Welcome William Paul Thomas, the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Power Plant Gallery.
While in residence, Thomas will paint portraits and document video of local residents for his experimental project,Mood Swings.
“My goal,” Thomas says, “is to compose a series of enigmatic and endearing living portraits that stitch together the lives of a diverse group of people using their own words.”
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the project, or participating is invited to visit during the gallery’s summer hours (below), or contact the artist directly by email at wpaulthomas@gmail.com. Participation is free and voluntary. Participants will likely be asked to smile in front of a camera for an undetermined amount of time.
SAVE THE DATE: Artist’s Talk and Discussion with William Paul Thomas Reception: Friday, June 17, 2016, 5p.m.–8p.m. Artist’s Talk begins at 6:30p.m.
SUMMER HOURS: The Power Plant Gallery is open to the public Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11a.m.–6p.m. Come engage with Thomas or simply observe the artist’s process. More information at powerplantgallery.org, or call us at 919-660-3622.
This month the Power Plant Gallery inaugurates a residency program for individual artists and artist groups. Three separate one-month public studio residencies will be held in June, July, and August at the 1,500-square-foot gallery, located at the historic American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham.
Ansible, a Durham open software automation firm acquired by Red Hat in 2015, made a move this week to broaden its market share through more Bull City innovation.
The company announced the release of what it’s calling “Ansible 2.1,” the latest version of its open source IT automation framework. It’s the third major release since Ansible was acquired by open source giant Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) last October, and another release – this time for its Tower Software – is expected in the coming weeks, says Todd Barr, senior vice president of sales and marketing.
While Ansible’s pace hasn’t picked up when it comes to product launches – (“We’ve never slowed down”) Barr says Red Hat’s resources have been able to broaden each of those releases.
“We’re doing more in the same time cycles, really because we have more people,” he says. While, citing the obligatory pre-earnings quiet period, he says he can’t provide a specific headcount, he says Ansible has increased healthily since it disclosed in March that it had 85 dedicated employees.
And it’s that investment that, so far, has had the most impact on Ansible post-buy. “We now have the ability to hire quality engineers,” Barr says. “When you’re a startup, you’re trying to get to market as fast as possible.”
When you’re Red Hat, a company that just posted $1.72 billion in annual revenue last February, you have the resources to refine further and fully test out your product. And a lot of that is through the people you’re able to higher – both with the Red Hat Wallet and with the Red Hat prestige. “We get a bigger pool of candidates,” he says. “And we’re still adding people in Durham, which is cool.”
Ansible is on track to meet the job projections it had when the deal was first announced, he says.
Last October, company executives said the then-50 person local headcount would likely add up to 50 employees in the 2016 calendar year.
Part of Fullsteam Brewery owner Sean Lilly Wilson’s brewing ethos? “Not letting beer be the total be-all, end-all.”
Since opening in 2010, Fullsteam has built a strong reputation based on quirky beer names (Coffee Is for Closers), a family-friendly attitude (check out the wall of board games) and quintessentially North Carolina beers. “Beer has a role within community, with food, and a role in life in general,” he says. He’s more into incorporating it into life in general, which is why Durham is the perfect fit for his beer.That might sound strange coming from a self-declared beer lover, let alone one who owns one of Durham, North Carolina’s most beloved breweries. But it’s exactly that mind-set that’s catapulting Bull City into the limelight as America’s latest, greatest craft beer destination.
The exterior of Fullsteam’s brewery and tavern | Photo: Courtesy of Fullsteam Brewery
A variety of factors contributes to Durham’s growing beer scene—the first of which is ironically thanks to Prohibition. The Pop the Cap movement began in 2003 to lift the state’s mandated 6 percent alcohol content limit, a law that had been around since 1935. “It was a stupid law that needed to go,” Wilson says. The law was the Berlin Wall between Durham and the craft it would become known for, and once the law changed in 2005, it threw the doors open to more innovative and exciting brewing—leading us to where we are in 2016.
Bullish on Bull City
Durham originally gained traction from the tobacco industry, which means there’s simply the space to support new breweries, thanks to an abundance of large, empty warehouses. “Before Fullsteam started, there was nothing in this area,” Matt Pennisi, owner of newcomer Durty Bull Brewing Company, recalls. Now there’s a nonprofit urban garden, a giant coffee roastery and a handful of breweries nearby. “We start making people want to come to the area, and then restaurants pop up.”
And then there’s the midsize-city mentality: “Everyone wants to be local, and buy local, and eat local, drink local,” Pennisi says. “Farm-to-table restaurants,beer dinners that are with farm-to-table.” He likens Durham to Portland and Denver, in that they’re all “a little bit gritty” but full of farmers’ markets and local love. And it doesn’t hurt that the beers happen to be unique and overwhelmingly excellent: Think bold sour beers from Durty Bull, a variety made from local foraged persimmons at Fullsteam and distinctly German options from Bull Durham Beer Co.
Chris Davis, Durty Bull’s head brewer | Photo: Alex Maness
Play Ball
We have German-born Sebastian Wolfrum to thank for those German styles: He’s the treasurer of the NC Craft Brewers Guild and the executive brewmaster of Bull Durham. It was the first craft brewery to open in a minor league baseball stadium, and it’s all just quirky enough and created with respect to the stadium that it works. It uses a fast bottom draft filler, which minimizes foam waste, and fans can tour the brewing area during the game. Brewing happens around the clock during the season, but when the last strike is called in September, the brewers start their own game, using the off-season to play around and make new brews.
Brewing beer at Bull Durham Beer Co. | Photo: Ben Roaman
The Spirit of Co-opetition
Just as Bull Durham reflects its niche habitat, Durham’s breweries reflect the city’s growing landscape. In the case of Durty Bull, literally: The bar is made of reclaimed wood from demolished houses down the road, as Durham clears the way for more housing developments. The state is a hotbed of recent political spotlight, and more than 30 breweries banded together to create a “Golden Rule Saison” as a response to the controversy. The teamwork involved with the one-off beer isn’t uncharacteristic, which Wolfrum refers to as “co-opetition.” Despite the high amount in a concentrated region, and nearly 140 total in the state—compared to 28 at the turn of the century—they’re sticking to safety in numbers.
When Durty Bull had to store a giant cooler during the chaos of construction, nearby Ponysaurus gladly spared the space, and when it needed a forklift to unload material, Fullsteam stepped in. “We only stand to gain if we have a big-tent mentality,” Wilson says as he looks down at picnic table. He points out a faded Bull City Burger logo, showing that these were sent over after thedowntown brewery didn’t need the tables anymore.
“We did something for them,” he says. “I forget what it was. You don’t tally it up.”
$58.8 billion was invested in the US through venture capital in 2015, making it the biggest benefactor of this investment type in the world. That money was invested in everything from financial services to biomedical research. A substantial portion of the money was also invested in America’s world leading technology sector.
While Silicon Valley still dominates the technology landscape when it comes to American investment statistics, emerging cities all over the country are also getting in on the action and creating opportunities for millions of Americans. The Homes.com New Tech City Index ranks these emerging cities based on a number of metrics including industry wages, employment levels, and average house price (see below for full calculation).
So, where is the best American city to live for tech professionals?
Not surprisingly, the Raleigh-Durham area ranked well. But not as well as it did last year when it took the top spot in the nation.
In fact, the Triangle ranked No. 8 in the nation this year, behind four cities near the West Coast, and behind some perennial chart toppers such as Boston; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C.
But a closer look at the numbers and the methodology shows a market in Raleigh-Durham that is very stable with a gradual rise in number of job openings, median home value and the diversity of job classification.
According to Glassdoor, the Triangle has about 34,660 job openings with a median salary of $62,000. The three hottest jobs in the area right now are registered nurse, research associate and software engineer.
Last year, the Triangle got the top rating with 24,000-plus job openings and a median salary of $50,000 – both substantially lower than this year’s number.
