1. Cup of coffee and the newspaper
2. An old friend over lunch
3. Dinner with the family
4. An afternoon smoothie out on the lawn (this was the second thing I had there, my first time at the Chapel Hill location)
5. A hot summer day with an iced latte under the covered patio.
6. Parking it at a table with lots of books and a laptop – or just a legal pad and a pen.
Sara Foster has done an amazing job creating two cafes that are as distinct as the cities they are in. Foster’s Durham is more of a home-town feel. Locals are from Durham, moms come in after dropping their kids off at school, young twenty-somethings hang here for lunch or for a coffee break from studying. At Foster’s Chapel Hill the cafe is always filled with students, professors, athletes, moms, the elderly.
This place is local in every sense of the word – even the employees being able to offer help with directions (always helpful).
The best things on the menu (from either personal experience or from other’s personal experience):
1. The breakfast burrito – the first thing I had, and probably the best thing I’ve had there.
2. the Spinach avocado BLT. Crunch bacon – basil pesto aoli – good eats.
3. Any of their scones or the chocolate whopper cookies
4. Snickerdoodle coffee – that you can buy by the lbs in whole bean.
You can find a plethora of spreads, jams, mixes to buy there – many of stonewall kitchen products. You can pick up dinner on your way home as they have many of their popular dishes available for take out by the pound. They have a whole slew of candy to pick from – a kid’s dream! They have luna pops – simply great for a hot summer day.
The other things I like about Foster’s:
1. You can find Sara at either of the cafes and she’ll talk with you and she is glad you are at her restaurant
2. Local ingredients and wines
3. Not expensive (I don’t think there is anything over 10$ on the menu)
4. Daily specials
5. Her cookbooks, and one forthcoming
6. Her good, stable, innovative food with fresh ingredients.
What is your favorite local place? (Even if its not in the Triangle…)
