New Menu at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe

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Highlights of the new Tobacco Road Sports Cafe menu:

APPETIZERS

  • Warm Pimento Cheese Dip – Served with locally baked pita bread & vegetables.
  • Fried Artichoke Hearts – Tossed with shaved Parmesan. Served with NC ruffle aioli & Lusty Monk dijon mustard.
  • Totally ‘redesigned’ Nachos.

SALADS

  • Strawberry & Avocado Salad – Mixed greens, strawberries and avocados tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette served over whipped goat cheese spread & topped with toasted Marcona Almonds.

SANDWHICHES

  • Turkey Ciabatta Sandwich – Thinly sliced turkey breast, sun dried tomato pesto, whippped goat cheese spread & arugula on toasted ciabatta bread.
  • K-Ville Chicken Club Sandwich – Fried chicken breast, smoked gouda cheese, pecan wood smoked bacon, BBQ Mayo, mixed greens & tomato.

BURGERS

  • Eagle Pride Burger – Freshly ground beef patty with pimento cheese, friend green tomato, mixed greens, pickled okra & pickled red onion.

ENTREES

  • Steak Frites – Grilled petite tenderloin topped with leek thyme demi gravy & served with shoestring fries.
  • BBQ Beef Ribs – Four large pieces of slow roasted beef ribs smothered in house-made BBQ suace served with choice of one side dish.
  • Shrimp Tacos – Three flour tortillas filled with seasoned sauteed shrimp and topped with pineapple pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, avocado & cilantro sour cream. Served with black beeans & rice.
  • Grilled Salmon – On mashed potatoes with sauteed greens, tomato-basil relish & drizzled with lemon tarragon aioli.
  • Chicken Pesto Gemelli Pasta – Gemelli pasta tossed with sauteed chicken breast, pesto, spinach, artichoke hearts & roasted red peppers, then toppped with Parmesan.

VIEW THE ENTIRE MENU HERE.

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7 Reasons to Visit Durham, North Carolina

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Durham, located at the apex of North Carolina’s famed “Research Triangle,” has recently undergone a transformation. What once was a neglected town is now on its way to becoming one of the state’s most attractive urban landscapes. Yes, it is a college town, and yes, sports do dominate here—really, they dominate the entire state—but Durham is adapting to popular culture by welcoming funky hotels, hip lounges serving craft cocktails, and small boutiques that are quickly filling up the once-abandoned streets. But just because the city might be upping its coolness factor, it’s still holding on tight to its Southern charm, hospitality, and history. So next time you’re in town supporting either Duke or UNC, or are oddly enough not there for basketball, take some time to visit these seven must-see spots in Durham.

21C HOTEL

21c

Right in the heart of downtown Durham, occupying the historic Hill Building, the 21c Museum Hotelis one of only five 21c’s in the country. The 125-room boutique hotel doubles as a contemporary art museum and is home to Counting House restaurant, spearheaded by chef Josh Munchel, who offers a global take on regional dishes with a menu that showcases North Carolina’s seafood heritage. The museum portion of the hotel is open to the public; make sure to head all the way down to the lower level and enjoy the old bank vault, which has been converted into a mini lounge.

AMERICAN TOBACCO HISTORIC DISTRICT

Durham Performing Arts Center

This live/work/play district known as the American Tobacco Historic Campus was developed from the historic one million square-foot American Tobacco Manufacturing plant. Creatively repurposed, the tobacco warehouses which were once the backbone of Durham’s economy, are now used to house the Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, a radio station, culinary school, documentary theater, shops, restaurants and bars, and even has a man-made river. The transformation of this area is indicative of the transformation of Durham itself.

DUKE LEMUR CENTER

Best known for being featured on the popular PBS series “Zoboomafoo,” the Duke Lemur Center is an 85-acre sanctuary for rare and endangered prosimian primates. Housing the world’s larges collection of lemurs outside of Madagascar, the center advances science, scholarship, and biological conservation through interdisciplinary research and public outreach, which includes community-based conservation. Plus, it’s hard to resist the cuteness of a lemur, so imagine being surrounded by cuteness in the world’s largest sanctuary for prosimian primates.

View the rest of the list HERE.

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New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat Releases 2016 Schedule

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New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat Releases 2016 Schedule,
Along with Ten Reasons Why This Anniversary Year Can’t be Missed!


Ft. Collins, Colo., March 29, 2016 – This year, New Belgium Brewing celebrates 25 years of brewing up fun, a silver anniversary that means new tricks, musical supersizing, and doubling down on wackiness for the brewery’s annual Tour de Fat. The traveling celebration creates a spectacular sensory experience complete with great beer, bikes, music, comedy, sustainability, and philanthropy. In honor of this monumental year for the brewery, New Belgium has crafted a list of 10 reasons 2016 is a year you and all your friends must attend Tour de Fat:

1. Chances are good it’s coming to a city near you! This year Tour de Fat is traveling to nine locations:

  • May 21 – Washington, DC
  • June 25 – Durham, NC
  • July 9 – Chicago, IL
  • August 13 – Boise, ID
  • September 3 – Ft. Collins, Colo.
  • September 10 – Denver, Colo.
  • September 17 – San Francisco, CA
  • September 24 – San Diego, CA
  • October 1 – Tempe, AZ.

To keep up on the latest info for each city, check out NewBelgium.com/TourdeFat.

2. Tour de Fat 2016 Presents Dr. Dog! This Philly-based Neo-Americana Psych Rock outfit draws inspiration from the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground and soul music and will headline the Tour de Fat stage in Tempe and San Francisco. Their new concept album has been garnering rave reviews and earning them sold-out shows. To that end: Tempe and San Francisco will require a $10 ticket this year, well worth the all-day entertainment and shenanigans!

3. Turning a quarter-of-a-century super charges the creative juices. This year marks the 25th anniversary for New Belgium Brewing, which means more variety, local/regional acts and double the zany antics you come to expect at Tour de Fat.

4. Help push Tour de Fat past the $5 million mark! It could happen this year and we need everyone’s support! Although it’s a day of revelry, bike love, and fun times, the main mission of Tour de Fat is to give back to our non-profit friends, who spread bike love year round.

5. Become a trader! Nine people will trade will their car for a bike through an amazingly transformative experience celebrated through the Tour de Fat car-for-bike ceremony. Want to apply to trade your vehicle for the gift of two wheels? Click here to apply.

6. Did someone say great beer? Tour de Fat offers an opportunity to enjoy New Belgium classics, such as Fat Tire and Citradelic Tangerine IPA, along with more esoteric beers from its Lips of Faith series. It’s also the only place to enjoy Carnie Blood, a beer made in honor of the Tour de Fat Carnies that make this all possible every year! Carnie Blood Vol. 3 is an Imperial Stout brewed with two single-origin cocoas and chicory. Yum!

7. One word – costumes! Tour de Fat is the place to bring out the Halloween costume again, dress as your alter-ego and let your freak flag fly. We like to say if everyone is weird, no one is weird. So start thinking about it now!
 
8. Always wanted to be in a parade? Now you can! Tour de Fat offers costumed bike parades in each city, with rolling closures of city streets. It’s a magical feeling to legally own the road on your bike!

9. The entertainment keeps going and going and going. Once it starts it lasts for about five hours with several venues going at once, filled with variety acts that’ll make you scratch your head, tap your foot and laugh out loud.

10. Do you like to win? We have contests! From a Slow-Ride, to a Fashion Show and even The Bike is Right! Gameshow – Tour de Fat is looking for ways to put you in the show and give away New Belgium cruiser bikes. So start shining up your dance shoes and practice your slow-mo bike riding skills.

“During this off-season we’ve been working on how to make this year stand above the rest. We’ve curated incredible acts for our Sputnik mobile stage, Le Tigre Grande and Grotto stages and then of course our main stage presenting Dr. Dog at some stops makes it an epic year,” said Matt Kowal, Tour de Fat’s Impresario. “The performances are going to be dynamic and super creative, making it the best costumed, free-flowing, bike and beer festival you could attend. We’re stoked to hit the road and see the magic happen.”

This year marks the 17th season for Tour de Fat, which has raised more than $4 million for local non-profits since it all began and close to $650,000 last year alone. The daylong festivities are free in all cities except for Tempe and San Francisco, but all proceeds from beer and merchandise sales, along with parade donations, go to local non-profits.

During each tour stop, New Belgium tries to leave as little of an environmental imprint as possible. The tour hosts green vendors, has compost and recycle stations and festival trucks that operate on biofuel sourced from recycled waste oils.

For the Tour de Fat credo, schedule, videos and to submit an entry to swap your car for a bike, check out NewBelgium.com/TourdeFat. To learn more about New Belgium Brewing, visit NewBelgium.com.
 
About New Belgium Brewing Company 

New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, is recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work and one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses. The 100% employee-owned brewery is a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business as designated by the League of American Bicyclists, and one of World Blu’s most democratic U.S. businesses, and a Certified B Corp. In addition to Fat Tire, New Belgium brews thirteen year-round beers; Citradelic Tangerine IPA, Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA, Shift Pale Lager, Slow Ride Session IPA, Snapshot Wheat, Sunshine Wheat, 1554 Black Ale, Blue Paddle Pilsner, Abbey Belgian Ale and Trippel and a gluten-reduced line, Glutiny Pale Ale and Glutiny Golden Ale. Learn more at www.newbelgium.com. 

Is a Different Type of Silicon Valley Possible?

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DURHAM, N.C.—Downtown, sprawling factories are constant reminders of this city’s past life. A few decades ago these massive buildings were owned by tobacco companies and bustling with blue-collar workers. After the tobacco business contracted in the second half of the 20th century, and factory jobs disappeared or were relocated, the buildings—and much of Durham’s downtown—were abandoned.

Now, the city is in the midst of an ongoing, carefully orchestrated plan to boost the economy. These vast spaces are once again teeming with with jobs and workers, but of a completely different variety: white-collar entrepreneurs hoping to make Durham a major destination for start-up ventures.

This did not happen by chance. After the decline of Durham’s manufacturing, the city found itself in need of a revamped economy. Luckily, it had the tools to build one: massive amounts of open, unused office space thanks to the abandoned tobacco manufacturing plants, low (at the time) property prices, and proximity to illustrious academic institutions. So the local government started courting start-ups. In 2011 the city’s Chamber of Commerce launched programs providing free office space, wi-fi, and start-up advice to new companies. That same year the governor of North Carolina implemented a tax credit for developing businesses in the city, geared toward interactive digital media. The Chamber of Commerce has also offered monetary compensation for opening up businesses in the downtown district, and for creating jobs.

In many ways the city’s push has been successful so far. It’s hard to keep count of the incubators, coworking spaces, networking groups, and facilities meant to cater to entrepreneurs. In turn, the city’s start-up community is producing highly-touted, award-winning companies; Durham-based start-ups won Google’s Demo Day pitch competition in both 2014 and 2015. American Underground (AU), one of the larger start-up incubators in the city and one of nine Google Tech Hubs throughout North America, has seen significant growth. The organization started by hosting 25 startups in 2012, and now has 10 times that number on its current roster. Its businesses have brought in over $29 million in funding and added more than 400 jobs to the local economy, according to the group’s most recent annual report.

Read the entire story HERE.

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5 Tech Startups to Watch in Durham, N.C.

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The old tobacco town is smoking with tech.

The old tobacco town of Durham is ablaze with tech know-how, home to companies large and small. Many are part of ­American ­Underground, a community by the former campus of the ­American ­Tobacco Co. Here are five to watch.

1. CloudFactory
Cloud-based software and 3,000 workers in Kenya and Nepal power this service, aimed at on-demand tasks, such as video captioning for ESPN and image tagging for Microsoft.

2. CrowdTunes
The app, which allows a venue’s patrons to bid on the music they want to hear, has partnered with bars, universities, and even Applebee’s. Instead of $1 jukebox plays, bids go as high as $24—and users can “nuke” unwanted songs by paying five times a song’s current value.

3. ShoeBoxed
This service combines a human team and automated optical-character-recognition technology to digitize business cards and receipts for more than 1 million people. Its QuickBooks- and Evernote-ready output is intended to streamline expense reports, tax returns, and other back-office mundanities.

4. SoloPro
Founded last year, this no-commission real estate service raised $1.6 million from investors (such as home-improvement giant Lowe’s) to unbundle the home-buying process into à la carte options. A 3% rebate on the purchase (for buyers) and flat fees for typically unpaid tasks (for agents) keep everyone happy.

5. First
Billed as “predictive intel for real estate,” this startup crunches 370 data points (your kids’ age, the car you own, your income) to message you, with a 74% success rate, at the moment you are statistically most likely to seek your first home.

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Tree of Bikes – A Tree of Giving

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The Tree of Bikes was the first of its kind in the United States. This inspiring piece of art displayed 120 bicycles on a 24 foot, hand-crafted, aluminum tree frame in the heart of the American Tobacco Campus located in Durham, NC.

Inspired by Durham resident Stevon L. Green, who organized fundraisers to provide bikes for children in his neighborhood, Blake Strayhorn, Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity of Durham was sparked by an idea he saw on the Internet to help increase and bring awareness to the bike collection efforts. 

The Tree of Bikes brought together a community and sparked children’s imaginations at Christmas. In 2015, over 240 bikes and helmets where collected and distributed to children in affordable housing at the Cornwallis Road Housing Project in Durham, NC.

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Adam Klein Weighs In on Bull City’s Burgeoning Business Scene

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When people talk about Durham, our entrepreneurs are often one of the first things they mention. How did we get here?

Right now is one chapter in a long story of entrepreneurship in Durham. It’s something that’s been a rich part of Durham’s history forever. … People started growing tobacco here, and then it turned out that it smoked really well, and that grew into an unbelievable empire. Move forward 100 years and you have the emergence ofBlack Wall Street, another 85 years later you get Research Triangle Park, and then another few decades later you have American Underground.

Everybody’s trying to get attention right now around entrepreneurs in their city, and part of what we love about this city is that none of that is manufactured. If the economy takes a nosedive, or if something else pops up that’s the next big thing, Durham will continue to be an entrepreneurial town. It is our industry.

What is it that’s drawing businesses to choose Durham, and to stay here?

When entrepreneurs come into Durham, they love the energy that’s here. The energy of great food, great culture, a tech scene that’s booming – all those different pieces they can see and experience that they’re not expecting. Because when you’re flying across country into a relatively small Southern city, most people’s expectations aren’t to see all that here. We have a dynamic environment that’s attracting national attention.

What’s behind the tech explosion here? How did that happen?

While the explosion is recent, the foundational pieces of that have been in the offing for a while. Case in point: Bronto Software, which was just acquired for about $200 million, started at the American Tobacco Campus in the mid-2000s. Everybody sees this story of “wow, that’s tons of money” – well, that story has been in the works for 10 years. They were built in Durham, they were grown in Durham with support from Durham entities, and now Bronto has this incredible story.

READ THE STORY IN ITS ENTIRETY HERE. 

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Raleigh-Durham Is One of the Best Places to Live in America

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The Raleigh-Durham area is No. 4 on U.S. News’ 2016 “Best Places to Live.”

Rankings of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, released Wednesday, are based on five factors: job market, value, quality of life, desirability and net migration. Data was derived from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, previous U.S. News rankings on best schools and best hospitals, and a public survey of “thousands” of individuals across the U.S.

Raleigh-Durham’s highest scores are in desirability and net migration.

About two-thirds of the U.S. population resides in one of the metro areas on the list. The top five “best places” are Denver; Austin, Texas; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Raleigh; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

See the entire list here.

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How Durham has become one of America’s most successful cities

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For almost 57 years since the birth of the Research Triangle Park, the cornerstone of the Triangle’s success and affluence, Raleigh has been known to have taken the driver’s seat with Durham and Chapel Hill riding shotgun on the road to economic success. While much of RTP is physically located inside Durham County, it remained Raleigh’s car to drive.

For the most part, much of that sentiment in the 70s, 80s and the 90s could be corroborated with facts and figures surrounding Raleigh metro’s population growth, state government infrastructure and the size of commerce.

But in the last 10 years, the resurgence of Durham has been the story.

Finish reading this latest Economist piece that uses the Durham as the example of American success.

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10 Untapped Beer Cities Poised to Blow up

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With more than 4,100 breweries and brewpubs now operating in the US, our little country that could has finally joined the ranks of esteemed brewing powerhouses like Germany and Belgium. For years, hubs like San Diego and the Portlands have flooded the market with quality product, nobly inspiring their fellow Americans to choose better beer. But even though those meccas are undoubtedly responsible for America’s new baller status, there are new cities rising to meet them.

The brewers in these 10 cities represent the latest in a long line of ambitious, passionate, and community-minded entrepreneurs willing to throw caution and a ton of cash to wind in the name of great beer. Until now, though, they’ve been flying quietly under the radar, just waiting for some beer writer, frustrated with covering the same damn IPA release, to come along and blow up their spot. Well, (cue airhorn!), consider it blown.

Durham, NC

There are three things you need to know about North Carolina’s Research Triangle: college sports is its king, indie music is its queen, and craft beer is the gallant, youthful prince that brings it all together. Home to All About Beer Magazine’s annual World Beer Festival, Bull City has emerged from the Raleigh and Chapel shadow as a North Carolina craft beer hub second only to Asheville’s long-reigning dominance, with five production breweries and brewpubs leading the ever-growing roster.

Holding court as Durham’s oldest craft brewery, Triangle Brewing Company has been dishing out inspired Belgian- and American-style ales since 2007 (check out the Habanero Pale Ale). Fullsteam is the place to be come nightfall, when bands, sports fans, and food trucks take over the giant, hangar-like Rigsbee Ave taproom, which pours brews from the experimental, taproom-only R&D line or ultra-local selections from the Beautiful South series. And after merely two years, Ponysaurus Brewing Co. has boldly entered the fray with a rotating fleet of updated European classics like a tart weissbier, a nutty fig saison, and an herbal Biere de Garde.

Of course, no Durham adventure would be complete without a stop into the little beer store that started it all — Sam’s Quik Shop. Originally opened as an Esso gas station in 1949, it’s transitioned into a destination for rare and great bottles since owner John Boy took over in the ’90s. It looks like a standard convenience store. Except, with 1,500 bottles from around the world, it happens to be one of the beer shops in the country, and just another reason Durham should be a destination.  

Read the entire list HERE.