Last weekend my boyfriend and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary! We spent the entire day in Durham and tried so many new places that were all so cool! I grew up in Cary, NC, which is a suburb in between Raleigh and Durham, so I knew a little bit about Durham but never spent much time there.
Durham always got a bad rap because there are some areas that have higher crime rates. However, I’ve come to realize that most of the city is actually pretty cool! We spent most of our day in the heart of downtown and I feel like we didn’t even see all of it. We didn’t venture to the Tobacco District near the DPAC and Durham Bull’s Park, but if you are ever in town during baseball season, I highly suggest heading out to a Bull’s game! Fun fact: I applied to be the Bull’s mascot, Wool E. Bull, when I was 16, but obviously didn’t get it.
Our main objectives for this adventure were eat food, drink beer, and have fun; I am pretty sure we covered all of our bases.
Breakfast: We headed into Beyu Caffe, which is a New Orlean’s themed restaurant. They have a great selection of breakfast dishes and sandwiches. They also have a huge coffee menu with things like a Turtle Mocha and Culver’s Peanut Butter Mocha. I got the turtle one and Clark got the peanut butter one, which tasted like a Reece’s in a cup. It was so good!! Oh, and my omelet was pretty good too!
Lunch: For lunch we went a little outside of downtown to a German restaurant called Guglhupf. It was so cute!! They have an amazing outdoor patio, and two levels of seating inside. They are a cafe/bakery with multiple bakery locations around the Triangle.
I got the Arnold Benedict, which was a spin on a classic eggs benedict and was super yummy! There were probably 20 things on the menu that I wanted to try, but I had a whole day of beer in front of me, so I chose to stick with the high protein option. Clark got a reuben sandwich, and he also enjoyed his meal.
Snack: In the middle of downtown there was a little convenience store called the Bulldega, get it?? They had a bunch of snack options and products from local businesses! We grabbed a snack midday here.
P.S. They sell pints of ice cream from the Parlour, which we didn’t get to go to, but is on our list for a future trip to Durham.
Dinner: We had dinner at The Restaurant at the Durham Hotel. Clark and I split a few small plates (including a cheese board and oysters, my two favorite things) and Paella. They also have a great drink menu and a very cool ambiance. I would highly suggest checking out this restaurant the next time you’re in Durham!
Bars: We spent majority of our day at bars, so here is a run down of where we went:
Wine Flight at The Wine Feed
- The Wine Feed- This is my favorite bar in Durham! They have a great selection of wines that you can’t easily find elsewhere. If you go, make sure you look up to check out their cool light fixtures.
- The Quarter Horse- This is an arcade bar. It wasn’t the best arcade bar, but a cool way to kill some time especially if you like pinball!
- The Atomic Fern- This was a super eclectic bar kind of hidden off of a site street. Everyone in there except us was playing some sort of board game. It had a very chill atmosphere.
- Bull McCabes – This was one of my favorite bars we checked out and of course I didn’t snap a single picture of it. They have a huge outdoor area and the weather we had was awesome, so it was perfect!
- Pour Taproom- Not a Durham original, but always a fun experience.
- The Rooftop at the Durham Hotel- After dinner we headed up to the rooftop of the Durham Hotel and it was so cool. It was a nice night, so it was pretty busy, but didn’t feel too crowded. I can’t wait to go back when the weather is warmer!
- 21C Museum and Hotel- Durham has a lot of cool hotels, but this one may be the coolest. This hotel has an awesome bar and it is also an art museum with quite a few exhibits. My two favorite parts of the hotel/museum are the giant vaults in the basement (the building was previously a bank) and the restrooms. You might be like, “Clare, what do you mean you like the restrooms?” The doors are clear when you first go into the stall, but once you lock them they frost over and become opaque. It is so cool! However, I did see multiple people who may have had too much to drink at the bar and neglected to lock their doors resulting in everyone being able to see them while they were doing their business.
I had the best time on this adventure, and will definitely be spending more time in Durham!
