The January 2021 Issue

Cook, hike, shop, and celebrate what North Carolina has to offer this month.

You might know this Piedmont city for its world-renowned barbecue — and rightfully so. But take a walk uptown,
and you’ll discover so much more.

Whether you prefer a mug in the morning or pinkies up with scones in the afternoon, it’s always the right time for tea.

The owners of this Mount Gilead restaurant are carrying on a legacy nearly a century in the making. And like those who came before them, they’ve added their own special touch.

Assemble this dish tonight to indulge in a gourmet breakfast tomorrow.

A different kind of winter warmer: Our baked spaghetti combines pasta, cheese, and tomato sauce into one melty medley.

Cold-weather comfort can be found in layers of creamy, cheesy potatoes and sausage.

Shrimp, crabmeat, and scallops swim together in this hearty seafood casserole.

Once, our longleaf pines produced the materials that helped ships travel around the globe — but the profits came at a price. Now, the forests that rang out with the sounds of industry stand quiet, and the last witnesses to that era are a rare find indeed.

Possibilities and new beginnings await us in 2023 — and, ready or not, it all starts on January 1.

In the west, where the landscape rises to meet the sky, winter arrives early and puts on a show, softening our
rugged peaks with a blanket of snow.

These places are the stewards of some very special items: Doc Watson’s first recording, the desk Virginia Woolf used to redefine the novel, and Elisha Mitchell’s pocket watch are just some of the cherished pieces that teach us about our state’s history and the people who preserve it.

When a writer’s oldest daughter heads to college, a flood of memories from their travels around North Carolina causes him to reflect — and to write a letter so they’ll never forget.

Shaw University in Raleigh set the template for historically Black colleges and universities across the South — and helped establish the nation’s largest HBCU, North Carolina A&T State University.

You know the vegetable plates we get at our favorite meat-and-three diners? A growing number of vegetarian and vegan restaurants across the state are taking that old idea to new levels, offering creative vegetable combinations and alternatives to meat that put a contemporary twist on Southern classics.

From burgers to comfort food to elegant entrées, the range of plant-based dining in North Carolina is growing.

A coffee shop in Raleigh is a world away from the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. But a writer discovers that they have something in common: love.

Across the globe from Vietnam, effects of the war reverberate through the state, where social and political perspectives are shifting quickly and dramatically.

No, really.