Golden Belt finally has a permanent spot to grab a light bite to eat. Blend, a coffee/frozen yogurt shop, opened this weekend during Third Friday. From Blend’s facebook page, they will offer “Counter Culture Coffee, light breakfast and lunch fare sourced locally or prepared in house from local ingredients and frozen yogurt.”

We stopped in Friday night during their opening to sample a coffee and try a yogurt. The space is open and airy, filled with furniture made from salvaged wood from …

Bull Street Gourmet and Market, a gourmet food market and cafe, recently opened in the now always bustling Hope Valley Square. With Only Burger, Tutti Frutti, Rick’s Diner, Pop’s Backdoor and now Bull Street, I’m starting to envy folks who live on this side of town.

Welcoming and warm, Bull Street Gourmet and Market (an off-shoot of a popular market of the same name in Charleston) has a well-curated small selection of wine, …

A new bakery opened in downtown Durham at the end of November. Loaf is the storefront from Ron Graff and his wife Jamie, who have set up the stand with the same name at the Durham Farmer’s Market every Saturday for the past few years. We, like most, have regularly stopped by their stand to pick up a bite of one of the five or six loaves they have diced up for sampling and brought home a loaf. We are excited their freshly …

Somewhat surprisingly, it has been pretty hard to find a decent doughnut in Durham other than occasionally at the Berenbaum’s bake stand at the farmer’s market. But that changed last month when Monuts Donuts, the doughnut bike, hit the streets. The donut bike is the brainchild of Lindsay Moriarty, who is bringing her passion for doughnuts to Durham.

Monuts offers a variety of classic glazed, cake and frosted yeast doughnuts in a variety of flavors, which seem to change almost as often as the bike makes an …

Café Prost, a German pretzel truck based out of Wake Forest, made its first (I think) Durham appearance this past weekend.

The menu was really simple – salted, un-salted or cheese pretzels. Salted and un-salted are $2.50 or 2 for $4, cheddar $3.00 or 2 for $5. We ordered two salted.

Truth be told, I’m a sucker for German-style pretzels – I can’t resist stopping at Guglhupf, I will go out of my way to go to Milltown in Carrboro for their pretzels (also from Guglhupf) …

Not much needs to be said about the new Daisy Cakes storefront other than, not surprisingly – it is awesome. We’ve already sung the praises of the Daisy Cakes airstream back in August of 2008 and are excited to have a more regular spot to get our sugar fix. The new space with its white-washed walls and high ceiling is bright, warm and welcoming.

What is surprising about Durham’s …

There’s a new cupcake joint in town – Honey of a Handcake – and it’s driving around town in a bright pink van. Specializing in cupcakes, Honey of a Handcake also sells bundt cakes, whoopie pies and cookies. The really friendly owner/baker said she has mostly done catering/corporate events in the past but recently decided to make the leap onto four wheels.

We spotted Honey of a Handcake out at Golden Belt during Third Friday festivities and, per the owner’s advice, tried …

With contributions from MEZ

Stepping into Dulce Cafe, the newest restaurant in Sutton Station on Fayetteville Road, makes you feel like you’re sitting in your Nana’s living room. The intimate space has large comfy chairs, a lavish chandelier and other regal ornamentation, green tea lights on the tables and the bar, fresh lilies and orchids, mahogany wood, brushed metal, large windows with classically braided curtain ties, green walls with goldenrod accents, coffee table books, and a running water fountain–all seemingly put in place to create ‘la dulce vida‘ …

There are cookies. And then there are COOKIES. And then there are COOKIES with a conscience. Kukia’s Cookies, owned by Durhamite Kifu Faruq, are a different kind of cookie—different in all the right ways. Infused with lavender essence, Kukia’s Chocolate Chip Lavender Cookies (with or without pecans) have a concentrated, wholesome flavor and almost seem to melt stress away with each bite. A testament to the culinary lavender that laces each batch, once you go Kukia’s, you’ll never eat another chocolate chip cookie again.

More than a cookie …

with contributions from TIF

Wandering into the Cookery’s open house last week, I stumbled across a tasty display of baked goods.

Berenbaum’s, the sign said, and I soon found out from this little bakery stand’s owner, is usually set up somewhere near the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, though he may be taking up space on the same stretch of asphalt at the Cookery once in a while, too.