Invasion of the Food Trucks!

Food Truck King on Thursday, October 20th from 5 until 9:30pm in City Plaza in the heart of downtown Raleigh.

Courtesy of Raleigh Downtowner Magazine: This is a free event featuring live music, fire dancers, circus performers, giveaways, and a food truck contest with 12 food trucks (see list below) competing for the rights to be Food Truck King, complete with huge 6-foot custom metal crown created by local artist Matt McConnell. There will also be several local breweries with their savory craft beers for sale. Tickets can be purchased for sampling all the food trucks, two beers and giveaways for $25.  Who wants to cook when there's choices and entertainment for the whole family! If its good weather, this could be a fun early evening out! Nerd alert: If you are a foursquare fan, could be a chance for a new food truck badge too!

Participating Food Trucks So Far (more coming!)
Big Al's BBQ
Bukogi Taco Truck
Chirba Chirba
Farmhand Foods
Klausie's Pizza
Kona Ice
Localmotive
Old North State BBQ
Only Burger
Par Lez Vous Crepe
Slippin Sliders
Valentino's
Will & Pops

National Coffee Day!

I'm doing my part to support National Coffee Day...are you?? In case you missed it, Starbucks just opened a new shop on the corner of Six Forks and Strickland Roads. The true joy is the fact that its the first DRIVE THRU Starbucks in the general North Raleigh area, so needless to say we are thrilled and so should all you moms with kids who don't want to stop and unload everyone just to grab your cup o' joe. Located conveniently close to the dance studio and the YMCA. Happy Coffee Day everyone. Do your part. LOL.

What's the number one American city to live in? Well, Raleigh of course!!

According to Bloomberg Businessweek.com!!

checking out the city from Boylan Bridge Brewpub

Here's yet another recent accolade for Raleigh...Businessweek.com voting Raleigh as the number one city in America!  Alot of what determined that title is based on the number of restaurants, bars, museums, colleges, libraries per capita. We are not a large city but one with a rich cultural life, good college sports in the area and lots of great places to eat and see bands!! (Remember Hopscotch two weeks ago??)  Other factors included reasonable cost of living, temperate climate (for the most part but not this Summer!),  not to mention the proximity to mountains and beautiful beaches. I recently read as well that Raleigh is shaping up to be one of the greenest cities in the country as well. In a short amount of time, Raleigh has really transformed itself. Way to go Raleigh!

Read the businessweek.com article here.

Take the family out!

Just in case you haven't heard already, the NC Museum of Art has a new exhibit starting at the end of October. The exhibit,  Rembrandt in America is the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings ever presented in an American exhibition. This will probably sell out pretty fast and will be quite popular so may want to book tickets to see it soon. The dates are: October 30, 2011–January 22, 2012. Great day out with the family. If you can, stop by the cafe for a drink or light lunch. Very cool space.

A little Sunday afternoon Southern Culture...

 Sunday afternoon, beautiful 70ish degree day (finally!) and we find ourselves making our way down to Chapel Hill for a little outdoor concert featuring Southern Culture on the Skids, one of our favorite local bands. They were helping to raise money for a local preschool and after the kiddy music was over, they came on "stage" and rocked the little outdoor venue of Fox's theatre on the UNC campus. Kids running everywhere, it was hilarious to sit about three feet away and watch them crank out some of the old favorites. Being so used to seeing them at little dark smoky bars, this was quite the change of pace. They were fun, funky and always friendly to chat with us after the show. Rock on SCOTS! See you again soon in OCTOBER for the Halloween Hullaballoo show at Motorco!

Raleigh is Better then Ezra!

We joined friends Saturday night to check out the popular nineties band, Better then Ezra down at the Raleigh Amphitheatre last night. What started off as a cold, rainy night turned into a ton of laughs and great hits by these New Orleans rockers. They were funny, clever and sounded amazing. You can tell they still love what they do. They really connected with the Raleigh crowd, making them a big hit with the audience. The rain stopped just before they went on stage, making for one great evening out in Raleigh!