We know you love our wine and beer dinners, and our friends Lana and Rowland have such a passion for them that they have combed the Internet and built a comprehensive listing of local wine dinners, tastings and events so you won’t miss a thing.  It’s online at www.WineDiningFun.com.  You can sign up for a free weekly email summarizing upcoming area wine events, and a Community section where you can post pictures to share with your Facebook friends.  Join the Fun!

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2012/10/durham-north-carolina.html#ixzz28dfy1mc9

From News&Observer.com:

When I called Marco Shaw, executive chef at Piedmont, to tell him that I was reviewing the restaurant, he had just gotten back from the Durham Farmers’ Market. The excitement in his voice was unmistakable, and it was clear that it was not so much over the pending review as it was the local produce he had scored: “I got red and gold beets, for the first time in a long time. Some beautiful asparagus, a ton of spring onions …”

The peak of the summer harvest was still weeks away, but Shaw’s fervor wasn’t surprising. Fife, his restaurant in Portland, Ore., was named one of America’s best farm-to-table restaurants by Gourmet magazine in 2008.

The next year, the chef was lured to Durham to join Eno Hospitality Group in opening a farm-to-fork showcase called Eno Restaurant & Market. When that project fell through, the partners – who include the owners of Coon Rock Farm, a sustainable farm in Orange County, and Zely & Ritz restaurant in Raleigh – bought Piedmont.

They left the dining room, an urban-chic space with high ceilings and a balcony, largely untouched. The dramatic change is in the kitchen, which Shaw took over in August. He has been dialing up the locavore focus of an evolving menu ever since.

It doesn’t hurt that the chef has at his disposal the pork, produce and other provender raised at Coon Rock Farm. Or that the Durham Farmers’ Market is down the street from the restaurant. The chef is working to build relationships with other sustainable and organic farmers, with the goal of offering a menu whose ingredients are as close as possible to being entirely local. Or, as he puts it, “everything but spices and chocolate.”

Some hits, some misses

That goal is a special challenge in winter, but the chef rose to meet it with an herb puree that played bright counterpoint to the unctuous hash of lamb leg crépinette I savored in January. Likewise rewarding were the turnip-collard-white cheddar gratin and caramelized onion sauce that were plate companions to the grass-fed flat iron steak that followed. Ditto the petal-thin slices of radish and celery, lightly pickled in cider vinegar, that added sparkle to my dining companion’s pan-seared North Carolina flounder.

Her shrimp-cornmeal fritters, which contained no hint of shrimp that either of us could detect, were disappointing. So was an undistinguished dessert presentation of apple crumble. But a miniature trifle of spice cake, orange cream and orange preserves served in a wine goblet, was stellar. Not a flawless meal, certainly, but one that showed considerable promise.

A return visit four months later makes it clear that that promise is getting closer to being realized. The chef’s loose interpretation of a charcuterie board – silky chicken liver mousse, herb-spangled smoked fish spread, ribbons of lardo and pickled chard stems – is inspired. A salad of smoked tuna belly, arugula, shaved carrots and herbed sour cream garnished with house-made potato chips could be faulted only for the paucity of the featured fish. (My expectations on this count were raised by the fact that tuna belly is the first listed ingredient in the menu description.)

January’s radishes make a return visit in May, when they join garlic chives to add a much-needed peppery note to an otherwise neutral-tasting presentation of house-made tagliatelle and smoked guanciale. The grass-fed beef is spice-rubbed sirloin this time around, and again it’s as chewy as you’d expect it to be. Its rich rewards are in its deeply beefy flavor, which holds up beautifully to the accompaniments: roasted potatoes, foraged ramps (grilled to a sweet, lightly caramelized turn) and a crowning dollop of bacon aioli.

Strawberry shortcake, a towering stack of split biscuit, whipped crème fraîche and ripe berries, does justice to the local fruit of the season. Coconut bread pudding strays from the locavore goal but is nonetheless delicious.

Shaw estimates that he gets about 80 percent of his ingredients from local sources. But in terms of composition and consistency of the food on the plate, he says, “I’m only 50 percent of the way to where I want to be.”

If he’s right, then Piedmont – as good as it is already – has some serious upside potential.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/20/1207667/a-focus-on-local-ingredients-reaps.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1bGNXsNfZ

From News&Observer.com:

Every Monday evening, Durham’s Piedmont restaurant offers a four-course meal for $35.

You can add wine pairings for an additional $10.

Piedmont has recently changed ownership. It is now owned by Eno Hospitality Group, which is a partnership between Coon Rock Farm founders Jamie DeMent and Richard Holcomb, Zely & Ritz owners Sarig Agasi and chef Marco Shaw.

This is a good opportunity to check out Shaw’s food. Shaw came to the Triangle from Portland where he owned Fife restaurant.

To see Shaw’s seasonal menus, go to www.piedmontrestaurant.com. For reservations, call 683-1213.

Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/food/four-course-dinners-at-piedmont-on-mondays#storylink=misearch#ixzz1bGOIQPPH

Durham’s Piedmont restaurant has been bought by the Eno Hospitality Group, the folks behind Coon Rock Farm and Raleigh’s Zely & Ritz restaurant.

Folks have been waiting for Richard Holcomb, his wife, Jamie DeMent, and their other partners to open Eno Restaurant and Market in downtown Durham. Chef Marco Shaw moved to Durham from Portland to help open that restaurant. But that restaurant opening has been repeatedly delayed.

DeMent says they were approached by Andy Magowan, the only remaining original owner of Piedmont about buying the restaurant. The other original owners, Drew Brown and Abby Pearce, have moved onto other endeavors.

“It was the perfect opportunity for us,” DeMent says.

UPDATE: DeMent says they put the Eno efforts on hold while they finished the deal regarding Piedmont. She says they are now focused on trying to finish finding investors for the Eno project. Shaw starts cooking TONIGHT at Piedmont.

SECOND UPDATE: Andy Magowan sent me a statement via e-mail about his future plans: “I’m leaving Piedmont in order to start a beer-garden/restaurant in Durham, a smaller place with a large outdoor seating area. I will serve simple but high-quality, seasonal, all-American food, and will maintain my interest in and support for local foods & farmers.”

DeMent says Magowan and Shaw will work together for one week during the transition.

Today we get this press release:

Eno Hospitality Group purchases Piedmont Restaurant, in Durham NC

[August 12, 2010, Durham, NC –] Marco Shaw, one of the country’s most respected farm-to-table chefs and a partner in Eno Hospitality Group, will take over day-to-day operations at Piedmont Restaurant in Durham, NC (401 Foster Street, Durham, NC 919-683-1213). Piedmont has been open since 2006 and serves classic Northern Italian Cuisine made with locally raised North Carolina ingredients. The menu focuses on fresh pasta and house cured charcuterie. The new ownership will allow Piedmont to source directly from the Eno Hospitality partner farm, Coon Rock Farm.

Jamie DeMent, Eno Hospitality partner, announced the news today, saying, “Piedmont fits perfectly within our farm-to-table model. We have Zely & Ritz in Raleigh. We are working to open Eno Restaurant & Market with a regionally focused menu and Piedmont allows us to branch into traditonal Italian cuisine.” Chef Marco Shaw said “I have always been attracted to the simplicity, seasonality and sensibility of Italian cooking. I cannot wait to prepare Coon Rock’s finest in rustic Italian dishes.”

Previously, Marco Shaw was the chef-owner of Fife Restaurant in Portland, Oregon where he was praised for his casual, ingredient-driven menu which he changed daily based on ingredients available within 100 miles. Gourmet Magazine named Fife one of “America’s Best Farm-to-Table Restaurants” in 2008, and offered, “Chef-owner Marco Shaw’s farm-to-table credentials are outstanding, even for Portland… for eleven months of the year all of the produce, meat, and fish on the menu comes from sustainable or organic regional farms.” Every year since opening in December 2002, The Oregonianfeatured Fife Restaurant as one of Portland’s “best restaurants.”

Throughout Shaw’s culinary career he has been active in his community and in the nation’s farm-to-table movement. Shaw was a Board Member of Portland’s ‘Plate & Pitchfork’ dinner series – a non-profit supporting sustainable agriculture, and appeared in “The Farm to Table Cookbook: The Art of Eating Locally,” among others.

Prior to opening Fife Restaurant, Shaw was the Executive Chef of one of Portland’s most beloved rustic Italian restaurants, Tuscany Grill. Shaw moved to Portland after working in celebrated restaurants around the country in New York City, Santa Fe and New Orleans.

Shaw, who is from Washington, DC, lives in Durham, NC with his wife and two young daughters.

Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/food/piedmont-sold-to-coon-rock-farmzely-ritz-folks#storylink=misearch#ixzz1bGLs3cQo