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Greetings from Carrboro, The food world is littered with absolutes and secrets, often arcane familial shibboleths that we swallow hook, line, and sinker. And ever since the advent of the internet there have been thousands of pages written attempting to debunk those myths with only slightly fewer written defending them. It seems that we’re all […]

Greetings from Carrboro, I’m pretty sure that there were only black & white TVs. With rabbit ears. The reception was often poor and the teachers would have to drag the A/V cart close to the window for the best picture. But nobody cared. Watching the ACC tournament at school, the classroom lights off and blinds […]

Greetings from Carrboro, I hope you’re hungry. Or thirsty. Or better yet, both. Mardi Gras is coming to town. Starting tonight and through Fat Tuesday, March 4th, Main St is turning into Bourbon St for Acme’s 15th annual deep dive into the glories of New Orleans. The music, the food, the drink, the beads. It’s going […]

Greetings from Carrboro, We try. But North Carolina doesn’t really get super “festive.” It’s just not part of our social DNA. Most of our festivals are awash in the requisite homespun pottery, strawberry jam, and wood carvings of cute farm animals. Raleigh’s annual December 31st shindig to watch a large, well-lit acorn ceremoniously descend to trumpet […]

Greetings from Carrboro, I have a certain professional empathy for Joey Chestnut. Setting the world record for hot dog eating obviously has its rewards; the guy’s plenty famous. But still. While eating 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes might get you on ESPN, it also means that you, well, just ate 83 hot dogs. And that has […]

Greetings from Carrboro, By now, most of our earnest resolutions for the new year have entered their annual death spiral. They haven’t actually crashed and burned yet; we’re too smart for that. Instead, we turn to a whole slew of self-help books/mantras that act as consoling parachutes after we hit the eject button, easing us […]

Greetings from Carrboro, It’s birthday season. Well, at least around here. During the next six weeks Acme will celebrate 27 years in Carrboro, my eldest daughter will toast a similar number of trips around the sun, and then someone, um, else might have to – let’s just say for my sanity – put, oh, a few more […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Sometimes I think that restaurants are held together by hope, coffee, and delivery drivers. Take away any of those three and the whole charade falls apart. Especially at Christmas. I often stumble upon stashed ziploc bags of coffee beans that Raul and I have sequestered in case we arrive one morning and the restaurant […]

My kids had it dialed in. They were earnest and sweet and unquestionably manipulative. And for my part, I always fell right into their trap. It was certainly nothing new: poor, helpless children can’t go Christmas shopping for family and friends without a kind-hearted adult who takes them to the mall. Please, please, please they […]