• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Local ingredients are sourced to craft dishes at Toast (left) and Saxaphaw (right).    (Photo: Left to right, Ross Grady; Courtesy of Saxaphaw)

Elevate lunch at Toast, a paninoteca that serves its Italian-style sandwiches as tramezzini (cold), panini (hot), bruschetta (grilled), and crostini (bite-size). Nearby farms deliver ingredients twice a week.

Arrive by 1 p.m. to beat the lunchtime lines at Saxaphaw General Store, a convenience store turned gourmet café in June 2008 by owners Jeff Barney (a butcher) and Cameron Ratliff (a biscuit baker). The pizzas and sandwiches are made from in-state ingredients, like Cane Creek pork chops and Scratch Baking bread.

Sample farm-to-table tapas sourced from owner Richard Holcomb’s nearby Coon Rock Farm at Zely & Ritz. (Look for sister restaurant Eno to open in Durham this fall.)

Gorge on North Carolina specialties like Dolly Mama's cayenne chocolates (made with local cream), Bonlee Grown Farm's pepper jelly, and Only Burger’s fried-green-tomato-and-pimento cheeseburgers at the Durham Farmers Market, where over 50 vendors set up stands around the picnic-friendly Durham Central Park (Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon).

Published on Jul 15, 2010 as a web exclusive.