Category: Durham Restaurants

I wish this place was in Raleigh so it was much closer to my house, but my fat ass is thanking them for not actually being nearby.  The first introduction I had to Rise was at a meeting where someone offered me one of their donuts.  I was like…eh…no thanks.  Then I was told they are special donuts and was shown the box.  I opted for the crème brulee donut with low expectations of it tasting anything like that.  This rarely happens, but it did this time….I was WRONG!  It was so good and actually tasted just like crème brulee and even had the brulee coating on the top of the donut.  I first cut myself 1/4 of the donut….due to the fat ass I am hauling around, but of course ended up eating the entire damn thing!

So, here I am last Friday with the day off with the kids and decided to take them out there to Rise.  The very sad outcome was that by the time we got there (it was after lunch time), they had sold out of the crème brulee donut as well as a number of others I was hoping to try.  We ended up getting a dozen of various ones they had left (glazed, glazed topped with chocolate, apple fritter and the maple bacon).

As you will see, the maple bacon literally has an entire slab of bacon on it and is coated with a maple flavored topping.  I would say it is an acquired taste, but as far as I am concerned….this Jew says you can put bacon on anything!  I enjoyed the plain glazed and surprisingly the chocolate one too (it is almost like a ganache on top).  However, the real shock was the apple fritter, which I have to give Dylan credit for as that was his choice.  Holy hell that was fucking amazing!!!  I wish I had bought more than one as we all fought over eating it and it was gone in less than two minutes.  🙁  It just had a subtle taste of apple, the texture was fantastic, not messy to eat and was just absolutely tasty.  Here is a picture of their donut menu that day (again they were already sold out of a lot of them).  They organize them by old school, new school and our school (clever of them).  If I could, I would have of course had the crème brulee, but the other standouts that I have to try are the cinnamon twist, salted caramel (they had me at salt) and the pineapple basil for shits and giggles even though it does not sound overly appealing.  Check out their menu daily though as it changes and they have some other combinations that sound mind blowing.

Sadly, I did not have a chance try any of their biscuits as we had already eaten lunch, but will absolutely being going back for that as they smelled amazing and looked great.  Below is that menu and clearly I need to try one with both jalapenos and the pimiento cheese (giddy inside thinking about that).  I am impressed to see that they actually have their own handmade sausage patties, the fried eggplant bacon is a curious one too.  Lots of neat options, so a definite must do and I will be going back for sure!!!

I will note that they have a pre-order option, which I would highly consider doing.  The only thing that this place is missing for me on the menu is a rocking bloody mary!!!

So, there is this new place I kept hearing about called Zinburger Burger and Wine Bar at Southpoint mall that has a cool concept  – great burgers, great beer, great mixed drinks, great wine selection, a variety of fries and a lovely list of milkshakes!!!

I went today for lunch with co-workers and also went once before with the hubbbie and Ella, so I will talk about both experiences.

1. Burger – first time I got a regular burger (cooked med rare…..love it when I can pick the temperature) and it was quite good.  Bread is nice, pickles are delicious and options for toppings are decent as well.  Ella got the turkey burger, so I opted for that at lunch today and it was quite good (came with cheese, sprouts, lettuce, pickles and avocado).  Unfortunately, since I am new at this I did not think to take a picture of my lunch today until the end of the meal, so you will see below what little was left of my turkey burger.   However, it is a good snapshot as it really shows how thick the turkey burger was!  How they did that without it falling apart or being dry is something I will have to uncover.  Oh, and I would like to share that I wore a white dress to lunch and spilled ketchup and avocado all down my left breast and was forced to explain myself for the remainder of the day.

Now to the French fries….oh….why do I have to love them so much!?  Is it because they speak French?  Is it because I have not been to France?  Or is it perhaps because they are fried and salty…..yep….that is the likely culprit.  I would like to consider myself a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to fries.  They have multiple options on the menu, including sweet potatoes, hand-cut, and triple truffle parmesan.  Of course – I had to try them all.  🙂  I wish I could say they were all amazing…..trust me….I wanted them to be.  But they were just….okay. Not bad, not great.  In fact, the truffle fries at the Yardhouse are far better than these.  Last time, hubbie and I tried their spicy green chili fries and I have to admit I was giddy waiting for them to arrive at the table.  The description said it would come with their green chili cheese sauce, roasted jalapeño, chipotle sauce and Cotija cheese.  These were oh so disappointing, so thank goodness I had my wine to cry into!  Where do I start with these?  So, the cheese sauce is thick and I am not sure where the green chilis were located within the cheese as they were few and far between and the same goes for the roasted jalapeños and chipotle sauce!  Normally I have some great ideas on how to improve or fix a dish, but this ones needs quite a bit of revisiting from the consistency of the cheese sauce, to increasing the # of green chilies and flavor associated with it and a wider usage of the other accompaniments or having them on the side if you are scared to dump them on (I can get that).   One other thought I had that could also make them a bit more epic…..top them with fresh cilantro!!!  Boom!!  Below is a pic of the basket of fries (shockingly they were not finished by anyone at the table as we were all crying in our waters and iced teas wishing they were satisfying our craving for amazing salty goodness.

Please do go see for yourself.  I will say, they have some great outside seating that is worth a visit alone to sit outside with a nice drink and people watch (mall people are freaking weird)!  I will go again and will promise to try a shake of theirs and come back with a review on that, but I will have to skip the fries.  I am not sure all of you understand the sadness of that statement actually.  My hubbie knows that I have several food weakness….okay….too many to name, but he also knows I never turn down good fries or nachos and that I will purposely seek out and visit restaurants that have these when my cravings insist on being satisfied.  That leads to be a thought on a future subject for this blog…..where do you go to get the best fries and nachos?  More to come on that….might be a mission where I can collect pictures and proper “fresh” reviews on all of my options.  And eating all of these nacho varieties isn’t for me…..it is for you all….that is just how generous I am.