Valentine's Day Eve

Durham is pretty freaking awesome. Technically speaking, I am probably the most Durhamite-est of the Durhamites. When I was younger my mother worked downtown and during the summers I would go to her office with her quite a bit. When I wasn't cutting up the National Geographic and making collages of the pictures, I was walking down to Brightleaf Square, buying myself a frozen coffee from the vendor on the side of the street (I still remember the taste and have never had a frozen coffee beverage as good as those), and roaming around the bookstores, music shops, art galleries, and soap shops that were there during that time. AND I can get myself from one area of town to another but cannot give strangers adequate directions because I don't know street names (I do believe that is an unofficial requirement).

Anyway, there are new restaurants popping up all over the place! I have been chasing dreams of eating brunch at Watt's Grocery for weeks. We tried to visit last week but there was a 90 minute wait for the BAR. This week we got there at opening and the Hostess said the wait was 30 minutes. Just enough time to visit Joe Van Gogh for the best Latte of my life.


I've never had heart-shaped froth! Or anything-shaped froth! It was delicious/pretty and I will treat myself to that heart-frothed $4 latte again. I mean it was even the perfect temperature at the first sip. The really do know "the art of the bean".

It looked like this inside..


And there were lots of people wearing those outfits that look like they picked various articles that under no circumstances match one or any of the other items in the mix. Example: Black leggings + brown hiking boots + purple lace tiered skirt + green down vest + red flannel shirt. True story.

I went all out at Watts Grocery. I got Benedict with crawfish tail hollandaise and andouille sausage.


I abandonned the grits because they were plain and next time I will get the hashbrowns. I could only eat half of the benedict entree pile of cream. It was delicious and the kind of rich that makes you feel full after 3 bites.

What I appreciated most about this restaurant was the fact that they could totally get away with charging more for their food but don't. There were whole blueberries in the jelly and everything was wonderfully fresh. I want to go back for lunch and dinner and brunch again!


Happy Valentine's Day from me and the cute turquoise charm I made to wear today!