Restaurants, Shopping, Galleries and Parks in Durham, NC
Unlike many towns which have a center, Durham seems to have a number of centers with space in between them which when eventually filled in will make Durham a bit more cohesive than it is now. But you could say the same thing about Los Angeles and Durham is a lot easier to get around in. You should not really complain that you have to drive for five minutes to get to 9th Street from the American Tobacco Historic District or Brightleaf Square. Durham's historic downtown looks like the cities of the fifties when it was home to the most prosperous African American community in the United States. There are some classic old buildings and a few medium sized sky-scrapers, government buildings and some shops and restaurants but this is the area that suffered the most from urban renewal and is the key to Durham's revival. But buildings are just buildings and it is what goes on in and around them that matters. Downtown Durham was North Carolina’s first commercial district on the National Register of Historic Places and is now a regional center for arts, entertainment, and dining.
The Durham Arts Council
on Morris
Street is the center for numerous arts
organizations and contains performance and
exhibition spaces and is home to the Durham
Symphony Orchestra. The building itself which was
constructed in 1906 now contains 3 galleries, 2
theatres with support spaces, meeting rooms,
offices, rehearsal spaces and studios for digital
arts, dance, photography, clay, fiber arts, visual
arts and children’s art. The Durham Arts Council
building is part of the City of Durham Historic
District and the Historic Preservation Society of
Durham. The Durham Arts Council also
presents
CenterFest
when tens of
thousands of art lovers from across the region to
celebrate two-days of visual and performing arts
on the streets of historic downtown Durham,
usually the first or second weekend of October.
For more information e-mail
centerfest@durhamarts.org.
Further down
Morris street
The Durham
Farmers' Market
is open every
Saturday morning 8 a.m. to noon from April through
November with over
40 vendors
selling fresh,
locally grown produce (including organic), potted
plants and herbs, cut flowers, fresh eggs, locally
produced cheeses, honey, preserves, fresh baked
goods, hand-made soaps, and much more. On
Parrish
Street
the old
headquarters of
North
Carolina Mutual Life
and the
Mechanics
Farmers Bank
has been
declared a National Historic Site. Just across the
street is the old
Woolworth
Building
, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s first
participation at a sit-in. (The counter is at
North Carolina Central University) The present
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. building
towering over Chapel Hill Street offers tours of
the Heritage Room, which is filled with the
memorabilia that highlight the company's historic
role in Durham.
The beautiful
Carolina
Theatre
at 309 E Morgan
street is right around the corner and is the
former Durham Auditorium, built in 1925 and fully
restored for $7.8 million on Dec. 31, 1993. When
it was built it was one of the largest, most
beautiful and most up-to-date theaters in North
Carolina. Fletcher Hall has 1,016 seats and the
Carolina Theatre remains one of the best places to
see live performances of dance, drama, comedy,
music and independent film festivals. Though
slated for demolition it was saved through
community efforts and is now one of the anchors of
central Durham. A typical season at the Carolina
Theatre might include Laurie Anderson, the
Manhattans, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The
Spanish Harlem Orchestra , Ladysmith Black
Mambazo, Durham native and Grammy winner Nnenna
Freelon , and jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and jazz
great Joe Sample. In fact this is a list of who is
playing there this season. Their film festivals
include the Nevermore Horror, Gothic & Fantasy
Film Festival, North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film
Festival , and the new Escapism Action Adventure
Animation Film Series that guarantees plenty of
exciting wireworks, fireworks, stunts, and the
kinds of movies where 1000 extras wage hell on the
big screen. The Fletcher Hall Box Office is open
11am - 6pm Monday through Friday and one hour
before live performances. The Cinema Box Office
(up the stairs and inside the building) opens
thirty minutes prior to the first screening of the
day. Box office: 919-560-3030
St. Joseph’s Performance Hall at the Hayti Heritage
Center
is Durham's premier
African-American cultural arts center and occupies the
former St Joseph's AME Church, which was constructed
in 1891 and was one of the most well known and
prosperous African-American congregations in the
United States. With White Rock Baptist Church, St
Joseph's was the cornerstone of the community that
built the black Wall Street. In the 1970’s when the
congregation moved to a new church home, the building
became the catalyst for the formation of the St.
Joseph’s Historic Foundation (SJHF) which has slowly
but surely turned the old church into a cultural
center where you can see great musical performances by
Motown
artists
, Gospel concerts, the
Black Diaspora Film
Festival, and other events. Each year the Foundation
commemorates the Martin Luther King holiday with
storytelling and musical entertainment and the
Raise-A-Reader
Bookfair and Youth Gospel
Showcase
promoting literacy with a book fair and gospel
show. The
center also presents the annual
Bull Durham
Blues Festival
at the historic
Durham Athletic Park which includes some of the finest
contemporary blues artist today including Bo Diddley,
Taj Mahal, Etta James, Ruth Brown, Aaron Neville and
Charles Neville, Bobby Blue Bland, Denise LaSalle,
Tyrone Davis, KoKo Taylor, Shemekia Copeland, Buddy
Guy, Dr. John, Otis Rush, Hank Crawford, Johnny Clyde
Copeland, and Alberta Adams. The St Joseph's
Performance Hall is at 804 Old Fayetteville St. For
more info e-mail
info@hayti.org
Further down Fayetteville Street is North Carolina Central University , chartered in 1909 as a "colored race" religious training school. North Carolina Central University Art Museum , which features the works of various African-American artists from both the 19th and 20th centuries (including the work of sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett and the painter and Durham native Ernie Barnes) as well as a selection of objects from the African continent. NCCU Art Museum has been called "the most important publicly assembled collection of African-American art in North Carolina".
American Tobacco Historic District/Lucky Strike
Cigarette Factory
is a one
million square foot retail/office and
entertainment district which has been called the
most ambitious historic preservation project in
the history of North Carolina. Located downtown
near the Durham Bulls Athletic Park the district
features restaurants like Tyler's Tap Room which
boasts 60 micro-brew and import beers on tap and a
large menu and pool hall. Also Mellow Mushroom
Pizza, Starbucks, and the upscale but casual
Symposium Restaurant. With a man-made river
flowing through the district, an amphitheatre for
musical and theatrical events and numerous shops
and businesses moving in, the American Tobacco
Historic District has almost unlimited space and
potential. It is located at 400 Blackwell Street
by the Durham Athletic Park.
Durham
Bulls Athletic Park
for those who
saw the film
Bull
Durham
is not the same
one that is in the movie. That is the old Durham
Athletic Park which was home to the Bulls on and
off since 1926 when it was called El Toro Park.
The Bulls now play at the new Durham Bulls
Athletic Park, which looks a little like Camden
Yards with the Green Monster of Fenway Park in
left field. For those who have not experienced the
excitement of the Durham Bullas and minor league
Baseball let me try to explain it to you. Imagine
teams of guys, most of whom are good enough to be
in the majors but for a number of reasons are not
there. Maybe they are on the way up or maybe on
the way down and hoping to get back. Maybe they
are on rehab from an injury. maybe they are
pitchers working on a pitch or delivery flaw or
maybe they are potentially great players but there
is nowhere for them on the major league team so
they are in triple-A where they can play every
day. These guys for the most part have one thing
in common: the desire to be in the majors and they
play like it.
Now think back to your last major-league game when
you were up in the nose-bleed section during some
hopeless slaughter of your home-town team and as
the locals began leaving you made your way down to
the front seats until you were almost right on the
field. That is the way the Durham Bulls Athletic
Park is. There is no nosebleed section. You are
right there on the field surrounded by people who
love the Bulls in a way that few minor league
teams are loved. Having been to countless major
league games and even after a dozen Olympic
baseball games including the semifinals and the
finals in Athens 2004 I still think that a day at
the DAP is just as much fun. If you are a baseball
fan I probably don't need to remind you that while
the Bulls are the minor league team of the Devil
Rays your favorite team probably has their minor
league team in the International league too. The DAP is at 409 Blackwell Street right
next to the American Tobacco Historic
District/Lucky Strike Cigarette Factory.
Brightleaf Square
was one of the
first projects in Durham to convert old tobacco
warehouses, to small shops, office space for small
businesses, and restaurants. The two long brick
buildings with high ceilings and sold wood floors
are separated by a courtyard garden and are home
to several popular restaurants including
Taverna
Nikos
which is one of the better Greek restaurants
in the triangle. The area around Brightleaf Square
has also attracted businesses and restaurants and
is especially popular at night.
Fishmonger's
Restaurant and Oyster Bar
is a hardcore
seafood place which feels more like the NC coast
than Durham.
Anotherthyme
is a natural
foods restaurant that has been here for decades
and is owned by Mary Bacon who one of the pioneers
of vegetarian dining in North Carolina. Pop's is
a trattoria located in one of the neighborhood
warehouses and
Fowler's
Food and Wine
store at 112
South Duke Street is second only to Chapel Hill's
a Southern Season when it comes to gourmet foods,
wine and coffee.
9th Street
which is the
closest commercial district to Duke University is
sort of the East Village of Durham with tattoo
parlors, bakeries, international fast-food and sit
down restaurants, and a few bars. Vin Rouge
Cafe and Wine Bar
across
Hillsborough Street which was named one of
Durham's best restaurants by the Boston Globe
(during their annual review of Durham restaurants I suppose). Owned by
Giorgos Bakatsias from the town of Karpenissi,
Greece he also owns
Parizade
at nearby Irwin
Square and several other restaurants around the Triangle.
Blu Seafood and Bar describes itself as "as upscale, casual seafood with innovative regional classics. In other words, our place is comfortable with great food, some local, some global, but always fresh." It has been described by my Durham friends who eat there as 'amazing'. It is at 2002 Hillsborough Road right by the intersection with 9th Street.
The excellent
Regulator
Books
at 720 9th
Street is not only the best independent bookshop
in the area they also host readings by well known
authors and poets. Their cafe is one of the best
places in Durham to hang out, drink coffee and
read endlessly. There are two other bookshops
nearby,
Books on
Ninth
which is right
next door and
Books Do
Furnish A Room
which is at
1809 Markham. Both sell used books.
Nice Price
Books
at 811 Broad
Street buys and sells used books, CDs, records,
videos and DVDs.
The Music
Loft
on Hillsborough
is one of the largest and best musical instrument
shops in the triangle and an essential stop for
any musician who wants to walk in, grab a guitar,
crank up an amp and play the intro to
Smoke on the
Water
until they get
kicked out. Also nearby is the
Whole
Foods
supermarket,
Elmo's
Diner
,
Cosmic
Cantina
and if you go
about as far as you can go on 9th
street
Magnolia Grill
which at one
time or another has been known as the best
restaurant in Durham.
Nearby was the Irwin Cotton Mill which has been
pretty much demolished to make space for Irwin
Square, the modern skyscraper shopping area,
though one building has been saved and converted
to condominiums. If you want to live in Durham and
be at the center of things and can't afford a big
old house near Duke's East Campus this would be
the place to live. The 9th Street neighborhood is
probably the most interesting and imaginative area
to go to day or night, similar to what Chapel Hill
was before it was flooded with money and the rents
went up or Hillsborough Street in Raleigh before
that went downhill. The complaint about Duke in
the past was that the students spent too much time
partying on campus and the businesses in Durham
suffered for it. With all that is going on
off-campus it seems silly to be spending all your
nights at frat parties.
There are a couple malls worth mentioning, not
that malls really need mentioning.
Northgate
Mall
was recently
expanded and contains over 165 stores including a
couple department stores. The
Streets at
Southpoint
off I-40 may be
a mall that will be attractive even to people who
don't like malls. The indoor section is a fairly
typical double-decker clothing, shoes and
specialty shop mall that most mall-goers will find
familiar. There are several big department stores
like North Carolina's first Nordstrom, a JC Penny,
Belk and a couple decent places for coffee and
lots of fast food. They usually have some new cars
on display and of course there are central booths
that sell Dell computers, mobile phones, cable and
gifts. But what I like about Southpoint (and I am
one of those people who does not like malls) is
the outdoor section which is a pedestrian walking
street between such stores as Barnes and Noble,
The Mac Store, The Bose Store and a number of
pretty decent restaurants, though of the national
chain variety and probably owned by large
Republican donors. Still you can't argue with good
food no matter who gets the money and the Streets
at Southpoint is like a night in the city (for
someone who has never been to a real city). There
is also a multiplex theater and almost all the
restaurants have bars and active happy hours as
workers from RTP flood in looking for the closest
place to get a drink.
New Hope
Commons
which has a
Walmarts as their anchor was a slap in the face to
Chapel Hill who rejected it. No problem. They just
built it on the border and now Chapel Hillians
shop there anyway and Durham gets the tax
revenue.
)
On the site of South Square Mall they have built a giant Target and the whole area has the look of a giant city made up only of shopping centers and discount department stores. But tucked away on the service road that borders 15/501 Business, a couple doors down from Spartacus Restaurant is the Blue Note Grill, your friendly neighborhood ribs and burgers bar and grill that has brought in some really terrific blues bands. It is an intimate setting for hearing some very professional bands and people even get up and dance. Lots of micro beer choices, many of them local, and I can vouch for the baby-back ribs and the pulled pork as well as the shrimp-stuffed jalapeno poppers. They have open blues jams on Tuesday, and live blues and traditional rock bands Weds through Saturday. I saw JW Jones here and they were the best blues band I have seen since the Nighthawks, twenty years ago. The grill is owned by Andrea & Bill Whittington who both cook there and is located at Boulevard Plaza Shopping Center aka 4125 Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard. This is the kind of place you really have to go out and support.
For those who love nature and the outdoors you
will be happy to know that like many North
Carolina towns and cities the urban center of
Durham is an island in a very rural state with
forests, parks, lakes, rivers, streams, bike
trails and walking
trails.
Lake Michie
offers some of
the finest largemouth bass fishing in the Piedmont
with boats available for rental and Primitive
camping is available by permit. Individual
campsites are complete with grills and picnic
tables.
Little River
Lake
offers boat and
bank fishing too. The Durham
Dogapalooza
Parks
are
multifunctional facilities designed to offer a
safe and controlled environment for dogs and their
owners. Located at Pineywood Park at the
intersection of Woodcroft Parkway and Woodlake
Drive.
The Little
River Regional Park and Natural
area is 391
acres of trails for walking, biking,
horseback-riding, rock climbing and
bird-watching.
The West
Point on the Eno City Park
(photo) has a
reconstructed mill from 1778, picnicking, hiking
and rafting on the Eno river and is the site of
the Festival for the Eno every July which features
music, art, food and lots of people.
Duke
Gardens
is 55 acres of
flowers, plants, streams, ponds, bridges and Duke
students who have found a quiet place to study.
These are just a few of more than 60 parks in
Durham, with more planned for future development.
While we are on the subject of nature don't forget
to visit the
Museum of Life and Sciences.
The Durham Craft Market runs from the first Saturday of April through the last Saturday before Thanksgiving on Saturday morning from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in the growing Durham Central Park area of historic downtown Durham, across from the Durham Farmers Market's new pavilion on Foster Street. Parking available on Foster or on Morris. The Durham Craft Market was founded to connect the abundant talent of local artisans with the people of the Durham community by promoting the sale and purchase of fine quality handmade local goods. Their mission is to celebrate the uniqueness of craft while providing a local alternative to mass-produced items. Their purpose also includes fostering great community relations by welcoming youth and embracing diversity.
Golf courses include the Hillandale Golf Course which has one of the 100 best Golf Shops in America (I guess that's good). The Crossings is ranked as one of the top 10 best new golf courses in North Carolina and Treyburn Country Club is rated by Golf Digest as one of the top 10 courses in NC. Every May the Duke Children's Classic is held at Duke to benefit children's health-care programs at Duke Medical Center and attracts North Carolina and national celebrities to the well-known Duke University Golf Club, ranked as the 15th best in North Carolina. The other 6 golf courses in Durham have probably been rated in the top ten for something by somebody, if nothing else one of the top ten golf courses in Durham. Obviously though it you need to play golf while in Durham you should not have too much trouble finding a place to play. For more information see Golf in North Carolina .
If you follow the
Old Oxford Highway past the Treyburn Industrial Park,
which is shaping up to be another Research Triangle
Park in the woods of Northern Durham, you will come to
The Stagville Center on the former Bennehan
Estate, was a tobacco plantation that by the time of
the Civil War stretched over 30,000 acres. A
slave-built barn, artifacts and four original slave
dwellings of the Horton Grove slave quarters which
housed perhaps 100 slaves in four-room, two-story
cabins are on view. The center also periodically
offers programs on African-American history and
material culture of the enslaved. It is open from
Tuesday to Saturday from 10-4. (I went Sunday and it
was closed.) When these slaves were freed many went to
Durham to find work and these were the ancestors to
those that helped Durham to achieve the economic and
cultural success it enjoyed for much of the twentieth
century. A little closer to town the Duke Homestead and
Tobacco Museum (photo) is worth a visit to see where it all
began. This State Historic Site is at 2828 Duke Homestead Rd
and is open Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and closed Sunday and Monday.
Admission is free.
See also Restaurants in Durham, Durham Hotels, Duke University, Annual Events in Durham, Durham Photo Album and History of Durham.