News

Greetings from Carrboro, It took a fire extinguisher. A friend’s grandmother turned 90-something and the family made a big to-do. Someone had the festive idea to put 90 candles in the giant cake as a kind-of grand finale. I have no idea how they lit that many, but they did. Or, exactly, how they imagined […]

Greetings from Carrboro, You’d think I was Timothy Chalamet. The emails just gush with praise. Day after day there are numerous entreaties to have lunch or coffee. And each ooze with such a keen awareness of the obvious fact that successful entrepreneurs like me are super, super busy. This barrage of AI affection has definitely reached a […]

Greetings from Carrboro, There weren’t many options. It basically came down to a very short list: cowboy, pirate, astronaut, or caveman. For Halloween my mother did not approve of the cool-kid superhero costumes with their plastic masks and flimsy capes or any get-up that was not strictly G-rated. Year over year, “wholesome” would have been […]

Greetings from Carrboro, You really shouldn’t do the math. Trust me. As someone who inevitably falls for the alluring trap that is DIY, I speak, let’s just say, from experience. Because while it’s true that, yes, you can put your faith in the internet and retile your bathroom, the successful outcome is not  – I repeat, not – […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Yesterday, I saw a woman wearing a scarf. This on what was clearly the hottest day of the past month. My neck itched just looking at her. But on some level, I got it. I mean, the calendar does say fall, dammit. So, come on; cue the leaves and woodsmoke and crisp evening air. […]

Greetings from Carrboro, It always starts like this. Yellow leaves fallen from the Mulberry tree behind the restaurant swirl in through the kitchen door. Other leaves congregate in the patio fountain. The UNC-bound bus stop in front of the restaurant is again awash with backpack laden kids wearing hoodies. Our last delivery of flowers from […]

Greetings from Carrboro, It tries a bit too hard. To say the least. The AI generated emails that populate my inbox are littered with the entire lexicon of cool-kid speak infused with cringeworthy dude-adjacent compliments all too reminiscent of a new 8th grade student trying to fit in at lunch. Telling me that I’m “crushing […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Context matters. Case in point: my mother couldn’t tell a joke to save her life. A few words into her set-up, she’d start to laugh and then momentarily gather herself to adroitly deliver in a rush the one thing she did remember correctly – the punch line. Or, at least, what was always assumed […]

Greetings from Carrboro, There’s an old restaurant saying: anticipation is the sweetest sauce. And for the most part, it’s true. Whether waiting for your name to be called after ordering from a taco truck or counting down the hours before a reservation at a much-ballyhooed restaurant in Manhattan, the feeling is very real. I was […]