The May 2022 Issue

In this small town, it’s easy to love where you live. Outdoor adventures, tasty dishes, and colorful shops — all aboard to Swain County!

This year, celebrate moms by shopping at mother-daughter-owned businesses, visiting sweet animal moms at the North Carolina Zoo, reading essays on motherhood, and attending a succulent-potting workshop in Wilmington.

Growing up, an Italian American chef learned the importance of cooking with patience, laughter, and love. His trattoria in Durham, built on those same principles, is a tribute to the mothers — and mother figures — who taught him.

Find out what two experts have to say about the art of making beer, the ingredients needed for a perfect batch, and how to become a homebrewing master.

The next time you take a road trip, roll down your windows and turn up the volume on Our State’s curated Spotify playlist featuring 45 songs by North Carolina artists.

Top off this old-time Southern treat with your favorite hot sauce.

Two Southern staples — sweet tea and fried chicken — come together for a twist on classic buttermilk fried chicken.

Chicken thighs are skillet-seared, then baked until caramelized in this Asian-inspired dish.

The key to this juicy, tender dish is a simple brine.

Although their own kids have flown the coop, a Raleigh couple still shares their home with little ones each spring. As every Southerner knows, a front-porch fern is irresistible to certain nesting neighbors.

In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.

In a cheerful kitchen in Craven County, a grandmother created a recipe that delighted her young grandson. That grandson grew up to be a chef, and the cake still holds a special place in their family — and on his menu at Cypress Hall.

Generations of Marines have come through Jacksonville en route to battles near and far, as well as on their way to careers, some lengthy and some tragically brief. In the city’s Lejeune Memorial Garden, memories of their heroism live on.

Most of the neon signs that once illuminated motels, theaters, and restaurants across the state have been replaced, but a few glowing examples of this nostalgic art form are still lovingly preserved as icons of a bygone era.

Making neon signs is part art, part science. Since 1986, Nate Shaeffer has been bending glass to bring its special light to life.

This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.

These grills and griddles have made Greensboro a burger town.

That which we call a burger by any other name would taste as delicious. But the names of these burgers symbolize much more than what’s sandwiched between the buns.

In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.

Over its 70 years, the Players Retreat has played many roles in Raleigh: hangout for NC State actors after performances, shrine to Wolfpack athletics, sports bar with a fine-dining pedigree. Plus, it serves a heck of a burger.

This Davidson County restaurant’s recipe for success: hand-pattied smashburgers, house-made chili, and locally sourced ingredients like pimento cheese.

This Elizabethtown landmark serves hamburgers and hot dogs. That’s it. For 74 years and counting.

This Person County restaurant may not look like much — that is, until a big, juicy thick burger dripping with freshly melted cheese comes through the takeout window.

In Oak Island in 1987, an ocean or two away from Vietnam, an immigrant found a second home for herself and her family by mastering a new, all-American cuisine.

Locals gather at this unlikely Watauga County establishment to shoot pool — and to eat first-class chargrilled burgers known far and wide.

Drive-ins and restaurants around the Crystal Coast turn tiny shellfish into shrimpburgers that are big on flavor. The sandwich is unquestionably one of our most iconic. But is it a burger? One writer investigates.

In 1980s North Carolina, immigrants from Asia and around the world find refuge from war, freedom from persecution, and fresh opportunities. In return, they weave new strands of art and culture into the tapestry of our state.

During World War II, more than 1,000 women — the first to fly U.S. military aircraft — contributed to the war effort in the wild blue yonder.