by Liza Roberts photographs by Lissa Gotwals At their hot new restaurant in downtown Raleigh, brother-sister duo Vansana and Vanvisa Nolintha are doing something revolutionary. With one of the few true Laotian restaurants in the United States, these two twenty-somethings are introducing Raleighites…
by Charles Upchurch photographs by Nick Pironio If you conjured up an image of Raleigh’s oldest social club – where for 100 years the seasons have carried with them a ritual flow of barbecues, oyster roasts, family celebrations, debutante…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Mark Petko For Monica and Dalip Awasthi, art is the glue. It helped cement their relationship early on, and it links the two of them – and their three young children – to the Indian…
by J. Michael Welton photographs by Travis Dove In the 1950s, Raleigh’s visionary design community redefined the way we saw our city architecturally. Today, local designers are at it again, turning their attention not just to buildings, but to consumer…
by Tony Avent illustration by Ippy Patterson Spigelia marilandica is another of those great plants native to the Southeast that few people have grown or even heard about. In the wild, I usually see Spigelia growing on deeply wooded slopes,…
When Raleigh-born American Idol star Clay Aiken, 34, takes the stage this month to star in North Carolina Theatre’s The Drowsy Chaperone, he will be coming home in more ways than one. “My first audition ever was at North Carolina…
by Mary E. Miller photographs by Geoff Wood It takes a considerable stride to go from a career implem- enting World Bank-funded health and education projects in Peru to launching an artisanal leather repair business in Raleigh. But in Robert…
by Samantha Thompson Hatem It all started in 2001 when Raleigh entrepreneur Danny Rosin and four enterprising young friends – Phil Gruber, Shellie Gruber, Tom Lyon, and Skip Mangum – were feeling helpless in the aftermath of 9/11 and wanted…
by Victoria Reynolds I got so used to letting you go that now I prefer the moment the empty bar dips to the lowest point in its arc then begins its flight upward to where I stand on my platform,…
by P. Gaye Tapp As someone who has loved books since I was a child checking out biographies from the school library, I’ve come to realize there is no cure for such an addiction. I was born this way. In…
photograph by Simon Griffiths When Raleigh commercial photographer Simon Griffiths and his family ordered seven chickens from mypetchicken.com last summer, all but one died en route. His daughter Gillian, 13, named the sole survivor Nemo after the animated fish, and…
When Raleigh commercial photographer Simon Griffiths and his family ordered seven chickens from mypetchicken.com last summer, all but one died en route. His daughter Gillian, 13, named the sole survivor Nemo after the animated fish, and Griffiths started photographing her…
by Marjorie Hodges As the Raleigh arts community continues to thrive, many local artists, museum directors, curators, dealers, collectors and patrons are on the move, becoming part of the national and international arts scene. Over the last few months, I…
When Raleigh resident Munther Qubain got rid of his Ferarri and replaced it with a new sports car in 2009, the Department of Motor Vehicles didn’t know how to process it. Nobody in North Carolina had registered…