Last weekend, Bites of Bull City hosted our very first Durham food tour and took a group of 15 curious foodies on a walking excursion to a handful of our favorite stops along 9th Street!
This area of Durham has always been popular among Duke students – it’s kind of their own little “downtown” just a block away from parts of campus. It’s grown exponentially over the past few years and has so much to offer if you’re looking to branch out just five minutes away from Durham’s city center. In fact, all the local and family-owned restaurants/cafes we visited on our tour were not even around two years ago!
We had a blast showing this group, many of whom had never dined at the restaurants we visited, what this part of Durham has to offer.
Meeting up at Happy + Hale was the perfect start on a hot August afternoon. Everyone got acquainted over a fresh cold smoothie as owner, Tyler, told us a little bit about the evolution of this location, which has only been open since April, 2016. His story starts with selling salads and smoothies off of a bike and golf cart to opening a brick & mortar in Raleigh to expanding to Durham (and soon Greenville, South Carolina!).We then headed just down the road to Juju, one of our favorite tapas restaurants. Juju presented us with several small bites that were packed with big flavor. The kimchee at Juju is phenomenal – we not only had it as a starter, but also enjoyed it inside a pork and shrimp dumpling. The warm Poulet Rouge chicken dumpling on asian slaw was a perfect blend of flavor and the fresh spring roll with peanut sauce was a great summer app.
It’s a good thing we saved room, because we were about to head right next door to New Zealand inspired gastropub, Burger Bach, and gorge ourselves on burgers, fries, guacamole, oysters and even a cold beer from one of their 30 taps.
This family-owned and operated restaurant originated in Richmond, Virginia and Durham is its first North Carolina location (lucky us!). Burger Bach uses all fresh ingredients and that’s something you can really taste in their food.
We got the royal treatment here and had the best time sampling beef, chicken and lamb burgers, fresh cut fries with over a dozen delicious dipping sauces, fresh guacamole, and even oysters from the Southern seashore.
With full bellies and new friends, we headed across the street to George’s Java where most of us opted for an iced coffee, tea or lemonade and took a muffin or danish for the road. We sat around and chatted in this cute 9th Street cafe before calling it a day and feeling ready for a nap. (*Editor’s note: George’s closed in July, 2017.)
We couldn’t think a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon and we look forward to doing more events like this in the future!
To learn about upcoming tours and other fun foodie events around Durham, be sure to sign up for Bites of Bull City’s email list and follow us on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.
Photos: Tommie Watson Photography
Letticia Ruderman says
We had a BLAST at the food tour! Thank you for a great afternoon! We look forward to following you guys and joining in on more tours!!!