- Next on "North Carolina Weekend."

Join us from the Durham Food Hall as we highlight foodie favorites around our state.

We'll sample Fiction Kitchen in Raleigh, Beaufort Grocery on the coast, and Louise's Kitchen in Black Mountain.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC.

Dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend" everyone.

Hi, I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week we're checking out foodie favorites across our state.

Now, I'm a foodie every day.

I love trying new foods, following food trends, learning about food culture.

So, today I'm exploring the Durham Food Hall, a culinary destination with eight restaurants, a craft cocktail bar, and local artisan retail.

Here, in this huge, modern space, you can enjoy a true foodie experience, sampling everything from charcuterie to wood-fired pizzas to made-from-scratch artisanal gelato.

We'll bop around Durham Food Hall throughout the show.

But first, let's head down the road to Raleigh to a place that'll make you rethink vegetarian and vegan fare.

Let's check out the Fiction Kitchen.

- I love Fiction Kitchen.

It's my favorite place to eat in Raleigh.

I've never had anything bad.

Everything's been fantastic.

Oh my gosh.

So this is like comfort food central.

They have vegan and vegetarian options.

Meat eaters come here.

This is a restaurant for everybody.

- You could probably do a poll in here right now.

And I would guess that 30 or 40% of the people in here now are omnivores but just have fallen in love with Caroline's way of presenting food and cooking food.

And coming up with these dishes that a lot of people are attracted to and enjoy.

- So I kind of made my own plate with the mock fried chicken and then a side of the sauteed greens and the mashed potatoes and gravy.

I was looking for a comfort plate and that's what I got.

- As I became a vegetarian, I tried to start going out to eat 20 years ago or so.

At that time, the only thing I could get when I went out to eat was a salad or steamed vegetables, or maybe a portabella mushroom.

And I just started playing with cooking because I was determined that that wasn't gonna be all that I was gonna eat.

- We do a lot of Southern comfort, traditional meat dishes that are re-invented in a vegan way.

And so, some people can't believe that it's not pork or can't believe it's not chicken.

So it's like a fictional experience to them.

- We are also gonna plate the ever popular chicken and waffles.

That comes on a waffle that we make every day.

And then we take our fried chicken product, we marinate it, and then we dredge it with a combination of secret spices.

And then we drop it in the fryer and it's nice and crisp on the outside.

We steep a little agave with some mint and that gets drizzled on top, just to bring that freshness out.

We're gonna show you the fried oyster mushrooms.

We wanted to mimic a coastal feel with this.

So it comes with a couple of lemon wedges.

It's really fresh, it's light.

The cornmeal is from a local company and the mushrooms are actually local oyster mushrooms.

- Reflecting our local food revolution concept, that does carry over to our bar program.

We have six draft beers, always devoted to local North Carolina beers.

North Carolina is not really known for its wineries so we do outsource wines.

But we do try to stick with small wineries that are organic, sustainable, biodynamic.

In addition to that, North Carolina's also experienced a real boom in the distilling industry so we've got local vodkas, rum, gin, and even locally made bitters.

- [Caroline] We really wanted to have a spot that reflects our personality.

We're both kind of edgy, funky, artsy, sort of people.

I've done a lot of the artwork in here myself, picked out the color scheme, and that kind of thing.

I'm a collage artist as well as a painter so I also had some fun decorating the top of the bar.

- [Woman] It's gotta be very challenging to come up with these non-traditional plates that are works of art in and of themselves, and that also appeal to restaurant goers of all types.

- We've been mostly vegan for ten years.

We've eaten at vegan restaurants up and down the east coast and out west and this is as good as there is that we've found.

- There are quite a few dishes here that I think mimic very much a [indistinct] and one is in their barbecue.

- This is the eastern-style North Carolina pork that has become extremely popular.

We actually use a product called Delight Soy that's from a company out of Morrisville.

We smoke the nuggets with a blend of wood chips.

It gets kind of like a crust on it, changes color, has a nice little sheen.

We take it and pull it apart, shred it.

And then we put our eastern-style North Carolina barbecue sauce on that, which is a base of apple cider vinegar, garlic, crushed red pepper, some black pepper, a little bit of brown sugar to bring that up.

- The barbecue is so good here that you had this big old, good ol' boy coming up and asking Caroline where they sourced the pig.

That's how good the barbecue is here.

- Everything is always just fresh and delicious and sourced locally.

And you can taste that.

And there's a lot of care and talent that goes into every dish and you can taste that as well.

- And Caroline and Siobhann are fantastic people.

They're just really warm and welcoming.

- If you just want a really good meal that's sourced from local produce, this is the place that you should come first.

Once you come and you give it a try, I'm pretty sure you'll be back.

- [Deborah] The Fiction Kitchen is at 428 South Dawson Street in Raleigh.

And they're open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday.

For more information, give them a call at 919-831-4177 or visit them online at thefictionkitchen.com.

The seafood here at Locals Oyster Bar looks so fresh and amazing.

And you know, across our state on the Crystal Coast, in the historic town of Beaufort, there's a casual, yet elegant restaurant that's been popular among foodies for generations.

Let's visit the Beaufort Grocery Company.

- Opa!

- Every meal here is just an amazing experience.

And if you're just stopping in for a quick bite for lunch, or if you're celebrating a special occasion, the staff is always excellent and the food is just excellent every time.

- Number one, check Beaufort out because it's an iconic town.

Number two, check out Beaufort Grocery because it's an iconic restaurant.

- We've brought a lot of our Yankee friends down here and what we tell them never even measures up to what it ends up being and it's just a wonderful town.

The Parks are wonderful people and the food here is just amazing.

- The food is a language in itself.

The whole thing just brings people together.

I've always been intrigued by cuisine from around the world.

It is local ingredients with international preparations.

- I had the flounder, which was scored and fried and it was very good.

- [Charles] We had some fish come in here.

The fishmonger couldn't butcher it up.

So I said, Hey, let's fry a whole fish.

Let's score it so it gets cooked in the center and I'll take some apricot jam and mix it with a little bit of vinegar and make a little gastrique.

And we'll stick that on when it comes out.

It's a home run.

- I had the seared tuna, which is absolutely awesome.

- Ahi Tuna Napoleon.

That's a brain child of mine that came out of Asian cuisine.

So yellowfin tuna is always fresh here, always get sushi grade.

We'll put some wasabi into the coleslaw, we'll layer it.

And then we'll make like an Asian garlic sauce to drizzle over the top.

And then we top it with pickled ginger and some cilantro, put toothpicks in the top and they can use that as a utensil.

- It's a great venue because they're really focusing on fresh local seafood.

- Shrimp and scallops sauteed in white wine, and then finished with cream and red pepper.

The key is just cook it properly, make sure the scallops go in and brown properly and make sure the shrimp aren't overcooked.

Another winner.

The lamb chops are an entire rack.

We sell a half rack or you can get a whole rack.

We start them on the grill and then we'll finish them in the oven, let them rest.

And we serve that with a Vidalia onion relish and goat cheese.

- Always save room for Wendy's desserts.

- [Charles] The pecan pie a la mode.

That is a recipe that my wife has come up with.

And the secret is, is we put a little bit of maple syrup in it and we finish it with a little bit of bourbon cream.

And then the a la mode is, if you want it that way.

My wife, Wendy and I have been partners ever since the beginning.

Beaufort is a small fishing village.

A place where people can escape.

It's surrounded by nature.

My wife and I looked around town and there was a lot of opportunities.

We picked up on this place right here, and it was already a grocery.

And in the back, there was a safe that said Beaufort Grocery on it.

We said, bingo.

That's what we're gonna call the restaurant.

I would call it fish town casual.

There was a lot of boat woodworkers that helped me put this whole thing together.

And then I had one of the boat builders build me a nice teak bar back there.

- The ambiance is so upbeat.

When you come here, you often know so many people.

- For any occasion, formal, fancy, to as casual as you'd like it to be.

You can get married here and you can just come have Sunday supper.

- Celebrating with my family, my birthday.

- [Charles] And which birthday?

- 91st.

- What makes me happiest is feeding people and having them like it.

It's a huge accomplishment for me.

It gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Most restaurants don't last, maybe 10 years.

I hope one day it'll outlive me.

- [Deborah] Beaufort Grocery is at 117 Queen Street in Beaufort.

And they're open for lunch and dinner daily, except Tuesdays.

Give them a call at 252-728-3899, or visit them online at beaufortgrocery.com.

I'm seated at a bar that's centrally located here at the Durham Food Hall.

It's called The Auctioneer.

And I really love that you can order locally sourced beer, wine, and spirits here.

Now, if you are in Durham and you're craving cocktails and Cuban tapas, head over to Copa on Main Street where the plates there are as authentic as Havana itself.

- Copa serves old-time, forgotten Cuban recipes.

And what I love about Copa is it's real Cuban food.

- I definitely thought of sandwiches when I thought of Cuba food and Copas totally opened my eyes to what Cuban food can be.

- What I love about Copa is Roberto and Elizabeth and the history that they've brought to this place.

And I know a lot of the recipes are from Roberto's grandmother's recipe book.

- One of my favorite foods, food memories, from growing up in Cuba is my mother and my grandmothers cooking arroz con pollo, which is rice and chicken.

We are a farm to table project, and we have a sister farm.

It's name is Terra Sacra.

And that's why we believe that mise en place, the prep work for the kitchen, really starts in the soil.

"El Nuevo Manual del Cocinero Cubano" is a very old Cuban cookbook.

It showcases a diversity of ingredients that we are not seeing nowadays in current Cuban cuisine.

For example, one of our main recipes for our dinner menu is Butifaras a lo cubana, which is a Cuban style sausage that brings in spices from Spain, but also from Middle Eastern countries, like cloves and star anise and cinnamon.

Albondigas cubanas.

They are meatballs made with lamb and almond flour, braised in a light sauce with tomatoes, onions, and white wine.

Fricase de pato is a duck braised dish with potatoes and tomatoes, served in its own broth.

Ropa vieja la americana is a long forgotten version of Cuba's signature dish, served with North Carolina grass-fed beef, slow cooked with wine, mint and tomato.

Tarte de almendras.

It's a classic Spanish almond cake that has been served to pilgrims and immigrants alike for centuries.

- I am from Cuba.

For many years, I tried to find a place where I could have some kind of food that relate to my country.

It's not Miami food.

It's not [indistinct].

It's just something that goes back to who we are in Cuba.

- The artwork in Copa is almost as good as the food.

The food is excellent, but the artwork is exceptional.

- We have a personal connection to all of the artwork that's on the walls.

Some of the photographs are by my father, who's a photographer.

We have a mural wall with original ink drawings from a Cuban artist named Richard.

The building is almost a hundred years old.

It was first built as the Baldwin Department Store.

We tried to bring in to the interior some elements that would be recognizable from both colonial era Cuba and 19th century Cuba.

Our bar program focuses on craft cocktails that come from Prohibition and pre-Prohibition era Cuba.

That was a time that was really the golden age of cocktails in Cuba.

And out of that have come some pretty delicious results.

- The wine selection is very diverse.

Everything that I've had is delicious.

- I always send people to Copa because in addition to making great food, they are making great community.

- They opened a restaurant and started a farm and we are all the beneficiaries of that.

- If the food isn't good, what is?

But it is so much richer when you have people who are putting things on your plate with that passion behind it.

- [Deborah] Copa is at 107 West Main Street in Durham, and they're open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday.

Give them a call at 919-973-0111 or visit them online at copadurham.com.

Visitors to the mountains have lots of great foodie options.

But one of our favorites has an easygoing vibe coupled with an innovative menu.

It's in Black Mountain and it's called Louise's Kitchen.

- I love everything about Louise's, just the ambiance of the restaurant.

You know, coming in, especially in the warm weather, sitting on the front porch.

All the folks that work here, I've known them for years now.

They're all friendly.

They're all courteous.

They're just, they're great people.

- Everyone here treats you really nicely and it's a very casual place to come and eat and not feel like you're at a restaurant.

Just to feel like you're sitting on your own porch.

- You should definitely stop by Louise's for breakfast or lunch if you're coming in to Black Mountain to visit.

The breakfast food is fantastic.

Their lunch food, sandwiches and soups, are awesome.

No matter what you get here, it's gonna be good food.

And the atmosphere here is fantastic.

- We're a breakfast and lunch restaurant.

We have awesome food, the kind of food that people crave.

It's an amazing setting, whether you're sitting inside in one of these beautiful rooms or outside on our porch with your dog.

Our food is comfort food that people are familiar with, but with a little twist.

Our grit cakes, a lot of people have never had grit cakes before.

- The grit cakes.

They're one of our best sellers.

What we do is we take cold grits that we've cooked over leftovers, really.

We add our black bean corn salad to that.

We dust them with cornmeal and deep fry them.

And then we serve them with a Sriracha sour cream lime sauce, fresh local greens, and a fresh pico de gallo on top.

It's great with an egg.

It takes about eight different egg farmers to produce the eggs that we need on a consistent basis.

We try to source from small, local farms.

So all of our milk, eggs, sausage, bread comes from within 90 miles and is grown or raised by a local farmer, small farm.

Of course, we've got our classic two egg breakfast.

So it's two eggs with a choice of bacon or sausage.

And you can substitute fresh fruit if you are a vegetarian.

We have toast options with that as well as potatoes or grits.

The big boy burrito.

It's got eggs, sausage, bacon, pico de gallo, potatoes and cheese.

We kind of just take everything that you would want on a breakfast and stuff it into a roasted red pepper wrap and serve it with sour cream.

- This is my favorite thing to do in the day.

As soon as the sun starts to come up a little, I grab Sunny here and we come down and we get our breakfast.

And it's a ritual, every single day, the two of us.

But I've come here since the day they opened.

It was another place before that.

And it has maintained such an even score all the time.

They just, consistent with what they do.

This building, I understand, is the oldest house in Black Mountain, which is cool.

Right now, you know, we have the cherry trees that are blooming all around the perimeter.

So there's always flowers.

There's always something smells good, looks good.

It's fun, it's friends, it's a meeting place.

- Mm, get that belly.

- Black Mountain has been awesome to us.

I mean, we've lived all over the world and this is the best place we've ever lived.

It's the people.

I mean, it's the small town feeling.

It's the lack of traffic.

It's the fact that you can walk everywhere.

We started with nothing and the reason that we're here is because of all the support from the community.

It's pretty awesome.

- We started with two hot plates and a flat top from Walmart and we just kept growing it.

The community kept supporting us and then it really becomes like a family gathering of locals and tourists as well.

- This is my first time being in the Black Mountain area.

And this is my first time eating here.

And the food was awesome.

Had some unique items on the menu and just got some stuff that you can't get other places.

- Curry chicken salad was actually something my grandmother used to make when I was a kid growing up.

It's not a spicy curry.

We use a yellow curry so it has a lot of flavor in it without too much kick.

We add toasted pecans and fresh red grapes into it as well.

We use really choice meat for our corned beef Reuben.

We pile it high with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and our homemade Russian dressing.

The veggie quesadilla.

We took that roasted red pepper wrap and our house-made pimento cheese.

We add pico de gallo, black bean corn salad, fresh local greens, and toast it so the cheese is just melted.

And again, that goes great with a fried egg inside.

- The food's phenomenal.

Everything about coming here is just amazing.

- I love Louise's because it feels like home.

It's just a really relaxing place to be.

- I love it when people say that every time they come to visit Black Mountain, we're their first stop.

I heard that today.

- A lot of people come into my shop, you know, asking, where do you get breakfast around here?

All I have to do is point them down the street.

Louise's.

It's the white house.

Go to it.

You'll love it.

- [Deborah] Louise's Kitchen is at 115 Black Mountain Avenue in Black Mountain, and they're open for breakfast and lunch daily.

For more information, you can call them at 828-357-5446 or visit them online at louisesblackmtn.com.

Here at Liturgy Beverage, coffee is a craft.

They specialize in single origin teas, coffees, and yummy chocolate beverages.

Now, when you think Farmville, you don't think French bakery.

But Cafe Madeleine Bakery and Wine is changing that.

- When you think Farmville, you think more country food, and you don't think French bakery.

But I enjoy bringing a little something different to the area.

Cafe Madeleine is an artisanal bakery with an emphasis on French style pastries.

- [Reporter] And it gets its name from one of those pastries in particular, the madeleine tea cake.

- Madeleines are normally lemon flavored.

We put a lemon glaze on ours.

I call our bakery escapism because we've got sugar, butter, and alcohol.

And sometimes when you just need a little lift or a little change of pace, come in and have some good food at a safe, social distance.

It's just a little bit of a touch of something different that you don't usually find.

- This part of Eastern North Carolina.

It's very unique.

I have to go to Raleigh to get baked goods like this.

- We have what are called Viennoiseries, which are laminated pastries.

Croissants and danishes and Kouign-amann and morning bun and all kinds of filled croissants.

We do custom cakes of all kinds, a profiterole, or an eclair.

- [Reporter] Or a cookie that you'll definitely recognize and potentially mispronounce.

- Macarons are made with almond flour and a macaroon has coconut in it.

So we do macarons and they're a very finicky little cookie.

They have almond flour, egg white, and sugar.

And then the filling is usually some sort of a buttercream, filled with some flavor, for example, our salted caramel.

We don't have a set menu for our flavors.

We just like discovering new ones.

We do a few things that aren't French, like scones and brownies and shortbread, but those seem to be universally appreciated.

Most bakeries close in less than two years.

So we knew that we had to offer something else.

- [Reporter] That something else often comes in the form of sandwiches, and lots of them.

- We have a lunch for each day of the week.

Right now it's a sandwich based lunch with a side salad and a dessert.

And we have assorted beverages to go with that.

- [Reporter] But there are many options for lunch beyond sandwiches at Cafe Madeleine.

Judy Long of Tarboro went with something surprisingly savory.

- I had a danish, which is normally sweet, but this has prosciutto, Gruyere and asparagus, and I believe a little bit of ricotta.

It was delicious.

The crust was buttery and crisp.

It was perfect.

- [Reporter] Cafe Madeleine does have socially distanced seating available inside, but many customers take advantage of its robust takeout options, which can be viewed on social media and ordered by phone.

- We post every day, our featured pastries.

We might try a new flavor and post that.

We post our lunch for the day.

We post our cake slices, our macaron flavors, and a lot of pretty pictures.

- [Reporter] But to make those pretty pictures happen, Coleen Starling deals with a most unattractive wake-up time.

- For me, the day starts at one AM when I get up and then I'm at work by two.

All the food has to be in the case by probably 7:30, quarter to eight.

My whole life I've baked.

I got really challenged after working in bakeries to bring my baking up to a higher level.

So I can say that the dream evolved over time to have my own place.

- [Reporter] And now that Coleen Starling has accomplished her first goal, she set another one.

Doing all she can to help her adopted hometown rise.

- Part of the purpose of Cafe Madeleine is not just that having a bakery business was on my bucket list.

But we want to be a part of drawing people to see what Farmville has to offer downtown.

We get great satisfaction out of a job well done and out of beautiful food.

And out of seeing our customers enjoy the food and the comments they make.

And that's where it's all at.

- [Deborah] Cafe Madeleine Bakery and Wine is at 3699 East Wilson Street in Farmville.

And they're open from 8 AM to 3 PM, Wednesday through Saturday.

For more information, give them a call at 919-594-7553 or check out their website at cafemadeleinefarmville.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We'd like to thank the folks at the Durham Food Hall for hosting us.

It's a really fantastic foodie destination.

And if you've missed anything in today's show, just remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina weekend everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches.

You're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.