August 14th, 2026

Greetings from Carrboro,

It’s a mess. Navigating the absurd litany of labels that assaults each of us in every grocery store aisle is not easy. I can’t be the only one who goes to the store for standard corn chips and then returns home with—mistakenly—organic, no-salt, baked, party-size, 100% natural spelt chips that taste like a cereal box. Was it the word organic that did me in as my eye scanned the vast, festive array of chips? Or was it the paper-esque bag that made me feel smugly more eco-friendly?

And it’s certainly not just the grocery aisles that inundate us with labels. Almost every time I’ve been interviewed to be on one of those Food Network competition shows, it’s been painfully obvious that the interviewers wanted to slap a label on my forehead. It starts with leading questions confirming that I’m from the South. Then it slowly morphs as they try to shoehorn me into some Bubba Chef character who cooks barefoot in overalls and has the Confederate battle flag tattooed on his thigh. Cross my heart, one woman on Zoom enthusiastically asked me to say “yee-haw” as though it would be second nature. Any chance I had of being on Guy’s Grocery Games went out the window with the look I gave her. But I get it; that kind of labeling makes for better TV. Boy, does it lead people astray.

The world of wine can be one of the greatest offenders. Most recently, the word natural has blossomed into the latest go-to adjective for obscuring what’s actually in the bottle. It started with profoundly good intentions—a lot like the organic label with food—and then was shanghaied by a slew of pretenders taking advantage of the growing interest in natural wines and the simple fact that, hey, what wine isn’t “natural,” right?

Even as the label natural wine has been diluted, the practice of following natural wine principles has grown more and more important. So at Atlas on Sunday, August 30th, we’re going to dig into the world of true natural wine—the delicious version—and explore why it matters with Sophie Barrett. Sophie grew up right here and now works and lives locally, but she cut her prodigious teeth managing Chambers Street Wines in Manhattan—ground zero for natural wine in the U.S.—for five years. If anyone can help us navigate these choppy waters, it’s Sophie.

The Atlas Natural Wine Class. We’ll get started at 5 p.m. Sophie will guide us through five landmark natural wines—from bubbly to red—to help demystify this rather murky subject and give everyone the tools to navigate the wine list and wine aisle with a little more confidence. Of course, Acme will do our part and provide some delicious themed snacks because, well, snacks are always a good idea. But no salt-free spelt chips. I promise. Tickets for the tasting are $40, and space is limited. I hope you can join us.

This weekend @ Acme: Beautiful Carolina tuna. Watermelon margaritas. Martha’s chile relleno. Acme summertime smashburgers. Key lime pie. Low country boil. Acme cornbread. Wedge salad. Pecan-crusted fried chicken. Local fig and mascarpone tart. Blackened salmon. Shrimp & tasso tagliatelle. Calabash platter. Acme tomato plate. Roasted scuppernongs. Pork skirt steak. Peach daiquiris. Pan-seared scallops. Cornmeal-dusted red drum. Pimento cheese. Fried okra. Grapefruit sherbet. Cold beer. Fried calamari salad.

Well, that’s all the news from Carrboro. The Staff at Acme look forward to serving you soon.

Cheers,

The Staff at Acme