Arts
Books from the Heart: December Reading List
The best gifts — love, friendship, family, hope — can’t be bought. (But we won’t judge if you add these books to your wish list.)
Restaurant
The Truth About Gingerbread
An investigation into our favorite person-shaped cookie reveals that gingerbread’s history is closely linked to our own.
Restaurant
The Barbecue Sandwich, Deconstructed
A short treatise on love, buns, sauce, and that other mythical (chopped, sliced, pulled) stuff.
Drink Local
Equal Parts Stealthy and Sleek, Peccadillo Delights
An unmarked door leads to Carrboro’s modern version of a speakeasy at Peccadillo.
Eats
The Five-Star Gas Station: Saxapahaw General Store
A little bit old, a little bit new, the Saxapahaw General Store has something for everyone.
Restaurant
Barbecue Returns to Basics at Chapel Hill’s The Pig
Our State’s barbecue correspondent concludes his journey at a joint that cuts through the smoke to get to the essence of pork.
Central
Mac’s Speed Shop
A cross section of the Queen City gets its fix here at Mac’s Speed Shop. And if a motorcycle could run on barbecue, it’d fill up here, too.
Arts
Paperhand Puppet Intervention Inspires Family Fun
In Saxapahaw, volunteers gather to turn cardboard, cornstarch, and other odds and ends into puppets whose giant size matches the scope of their makers’ mission.
Restaurant
Bar-B-Q Center Makes a Name for Itself in Lexington
In the hallowed land of barbecue legend, a former ice cream parlor heats up the battle for bragging rights.