Triangle Today | Wednesday by Triangle Today

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018

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BEST BARBECUE JOINTS HOW DOES OUR LIST COMPARE WITH YOURS? Drew Jackson for Triangle Today If you think you’ve been hearing fiddles and banjos lately as you’re walking around downtown Raleigh, relax. It’s not in your head. It’s all those musicians tuning up for Wide Open Bluegrass Festival, with performances this week at various downtown venues.

of Chapel Hill since 1970. Note that the restaurant has scaled back hours, serving only lunch Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The phone number also no longer works.

As we all know, nothing goes better with bluegrass than barbecue. Whether it’s Texas brisket you’re craving, or Memphis ribs, or the hometown favorite North Carolina pulled pork, these Triangle area barbecue joints and food trucks have got your back, baby.

ALLEN & SON

6203 Millhouse Road, Chapel Hill nando.com/32r Torn between Eastern and Western NC barbecue? Check out Allen & Son, where the ‘cue is a hybrid of the two styles, and the pork is cooked the old-fashioned way, over seasoned hickory and oak. It’s a winning formula that has kept fans coming back to the little shack tucked in off a country highway a few miles north

Pro tip: Don’t fill up on hushpuppies, or you won’t have room for homemade cobbler.

THE HUMBLE PIG

919-616-1852, thehumblepig.com So you’re not a diehard purist? Your ecumenical taste embraces all kinds of smoky fare, even newfangled twists on the classics? This food truck’s freewheeling ride across the barbecue landscape is just what the doctor ordered with a menu that runs the gamut from smoked wings to pulled pork sandwich to brisket taco — all featuring locally raised meats cooked low and slow over hardwood. That’s a mix of mostly fruitwoods, to be precise, which imparts a gentler smoky note than the hickory that’s common in these parts.

Pro tip: The Pow Chow taco is a best-seller, and rightly so: coarsely chopped pork tossed in Alabama white sauce, topped with freshly made cucumber-onion relish and a garnishing squiggle of Sriracha, served on a rustically thick soft corn tortilla.

BBQ PROPER

919-612-3128, bbqproper.com Don’t let food truck owner Rob Henson’s South Georgia accent fool you. The man can flat-out cook some North Carolina-style pork. He calls it “Raleigh style,” an apt reference to the city’s location on the boundary between traditional Eastern and Western styles. On the plate (or on the bun), that translates to Boston butts smoked over hickory, then fine-chopped and tossed with a twangy vinegar-based sauce with a touch of ketchup — a hybrid of the two styles that only a pigheaded purist would turn up his nose at. Pro tip: For dessert, treat yourself to a dish of banana pudding. It’s made using Henson’s mom’s recipe.

Pulp Fiction, a chopped brisket sandwich with house made smoky pimento cheese, is a special at The Humble Pig food truck. Juli Leonard For our entire list and the video, visit triangletoday.com.

As the days cool down, the fun heats up at Kids Town! TRIANGLE TODAY’S

Find fun family-friendly events, crafts, recipes, offers and contests at kidstownnc.com.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Fresh off the film festival circuit, these Oscar-caliber movies are coming to NC Glenn McDonald for Triangle Today For film lovers of a certain intensity, autumn is the best time of year. It’s called awards season in the industry, and it refers to the annual period, between late October and February, when important film awards take place — ending with the Oscars. This is the time to catch the year’s most interesting films. Triangle film buffs can get a jump on awards season this year with the inaugural unspooling of Film Fest 919. The new film festival will run Oct. 3-7 at Silverspot Cinemas, the film-and-food complex at University Place in Chapel Hill. Over the course of five days, Film Fest 919 will screen 36 feature-length films, with an eye toward the ambitious and artistic films that tend to make the rounds during awards season. The festival also will feature special guests, discussions, and post-screening Q-and-A sessions with several filmmakers in attendance. Claudia Puig, veteran film critic and director of programming for the new festival, said the Film Fest 919 program will feature many of the best films of the year. “We’re concentrating on independent film, foreign films,” she said. “These are films that are potentially vying for awards and have played the prestigious festivals like Cannes, Toronto and Telluride.” Many of the films screened at 919 are likely to come to multiplexes later in the year as distribution deals are struck and the awards season kicks into gear. But because the Triangle is a relatively small market, the 919 festival may be your only chance to catch some of the smaller independent and foreign films. “The idea is to present high-quality, thought-provoking cinema from all over the world,” said Puig, who also serves as president of the L.A. Film Critics Association. “It’s a chance to see these films you might not get a chance to see on the big screen.”

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Randi Emerman, co-founder of Film Fest 919, said this year’s inaugural festival is the result of several years of planning. “It’s been a while coming,” she said with a laugh. Emerman and co-founder Carol Marshall had previously worked together at the Palm Beach International Film Festival in Florida. When they decided to launch a new regional film festival, they chose Chapel Hill — and the Triangle in general — after considering several other towns, small cities and mid-size markets. “I even ended up moving here to Chapel Hill because I thought it was so awesome,” said Emerman, who is also VP of Programming for Silverspot Cinemas chain. “We want to show the world how awesome North Carolina is. We want to show the world our town and our state.”

FILM DISCOVERIES

But the real treasures of Film Fest 919 will be up on Silverspot’s big screens. Dedicated film nerds can tell you that finding a great movie at a festival is one of the great joys of life itself. “It’s just a different experience to watch a film with a room full of people who are all on the same page, who are film lovers and cineastes,” Puig said. “You’re in a more rarefied environment. It’s different than just going to the movies and seeing whatever came out that Friday.” From a curatorial point of view, Film Fest 919 is designed to be exciting and eclectic, Puig said. The liineup includes comedies, dramas, thrillers and an assortment of perspectives from outside the U.S. “I would really encourage people to step outside their comfort zone or their wheelhouse in terms of genre,” Puig said. “That’s what film festivals are all about.”

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919 FILM FEST HIGHLIGHTS Film Fest 919 will screen 36 films Wednesday, Oct. 3, through Sunday, Oct. 7, focusing on prestigious independent and foreign films. Here’s a guided tour of some festival highlights from director of programming Claudia Puig, veteran film writer and former critic for USA Today. This is just a sampling, said Puig, who personally curated this year’s lineup of films. Check the festival website for information on times and dates.

“Roma”: The festival’s opening night film on Oct. 3 from Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”), is a semi-autobiographical drama about the filmmaker’s upbringing in 1970s Mexico City. The film won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and is Mexico’s official Academy Award submission for Best Foreign Language Film. The film’s stars Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira will attend the opening night festivities. “It’s absolutely a masterpiece of a film,” Puig said. “It will definitely be up for an Academy Award. That man can do anything.” “Destroyer”: Nicole Kidman stars in this highly anticipated crime thriller from director Karyn Kusama, slated to open nationwide in December. Director Karyn Kusama and writer Phil Hay are attending the festival “Nicole Kidman is completely unrecognizable,” Puig said. “It’s a noirstyle police thriller, very hardboiled.”

“Dogman”: Italy’s official submis-

sion for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards chronicles a strange act of vengeance. “It’s a classic neo-realist Italian film,” Puig said. “Amazing.” It has taken home awards at Cannes International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Non-Fiction”: From director Olivier Assayas, this French comedy premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August and stars film festival royalty Juliette Binoche. “This is for anyone interested in where we are today, with our use of tablets and screens, what it all means,” Puig said. “Very intellectual and enjoyable.”

“Green Book” stars Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. Patti Perret “The Favourite”: This period piece starring Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz features 18th-century royal intrigue in the court of Queen Anne. “It’s a costume drama with very powerful female characters — really clever and well-written,” Puig said. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival while actress Olivia Colman won the Volpi Cup for best actress.

“Green Book”: The closing night film, a comedy-drama from director Peter Farrelly, stars Viggo Mortensen and recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Writer Nick Vallelongo is attending.

“Great film,” Puig said. “Screenwriter Nick Vallelonga will be there for a Q-and-A after the screening. To me, that’s one of the best things about film festivals. I like to hear from the people that made the film, what they were thinking, how the production went. You can walk up afterward and ask them questions.” When: Oct. 3-7 Where: Silverspot Cinemas, University Place, 201 Estes Drive, Chapel Hill Tickets: $15 per film Info: 919-357-9887 or filmfest919.com

TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER

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Herons restaurant at Umstead Hotel and Spa serves exquisite meal Greg Cox for Triangle Today

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018

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Herons serves a contemporary cuisine in an elegant atmosphere. Juli Leonard Shortly after we’re seated at a table draped in crisp, freshly pressed white linen at Herons, a jacketed waiter wheels a cart up to our table. A glassand-metal contraption is perched atop a Bunsen burner; it looks like it was taken straight from a chemistry lab. Our server explains that this is a German vacuum tea brewer, and she proceeds to brew an herb tea that, as it rises from the bottom chamber to the top, turns an intense violet color. This is just the beginning of an exquisite night at the posh Umstead Hotel, where we’re feasting on an eightcourse tasting menu called “The Art Tour.”

Executive chef Steven Devereaux Greene, a two-time James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef in the Southeast, introduced the special menu last month as a tribute to the Umstead’s motto, “where nature and art collide.” Over multiple courses, we’re treated to an epicurean flight of fancy, where each course is inspired by a work of art in the hotel and draws heavily on produce harvested from the Umstead’s own dedicated farm.

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Naturally, a meal this lavish doesn’t come cheap. “The Art Tour” will set you back $150 a head, but as all great journeys are, this one is worth it.

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