Not much needs to be said about Straw Valley Cafe, the pictures will speak for themselves. It is – to put it simply – a coffee shop/wine bar, but really Straw Valley Cafe is an artistic, mid-century paradise in the center of the hellish part of town known as New Hope Commons. Hidden beside a self-storage facility on the road that runs parallel to 15-501, Straw Valley Cafe was shamefully empty on a Saturday afternoon.

We ordered a mexican mocha – a rich spicy chocolate drink …

Yamazushi is a Japanese restaurant that’s been in the Woodcroft Shopping Center since 1986, owned by the same husband and wife pair, George and Mayumi Yamazawa. I’ve been once before, at least four years ago, and it struck me then as your standard sushi and teriyaki restaurant with prices that were somewhat steeper than the others nearby. I discovered on my recent visit that Yamazushi has undergone a transformation—they now offer a unique Japanese dining experience for this area, focused on kaiseki, a multicourse meal of small but thoughtfully planned …

Two things you need to know about Bike Coffee up front – patience is a must and their beverages are worth the wait.

Bike Coffee is a mobile coffee shop that regularly parks outside and inside of Motorco and other spots around town. It was started by husband-wife team Leon Grodski de Barrera and Areli Barrera de Grodski as a part of their Cocoa Cinnamon business. The Bike Coffee trike serves up artisanal (I know, I know – an overused and abused word) coffee beverages, but these drinks are really works of art. After …

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) …

Shop Independent Durham Week starts this Saturday, November 26. This now annual event is put on by Durham’s Sustain A Bull organization. Not just a clever tagline for bumper stickers and t-shirts, Sustain A Bull is Durham’s non-profit Independent Business Alliance – it’s local businesses teaming up to support the local economy.

According to Sustain a Bull’s site:
For every $100 you spend at a national chain, $13 stays in our community. Spend the same amount with an independent local business and you will be keeping $45 local–more …