Triangle’s best restaurants of 2025, snow day dud, new coffee shop
Good morning and welcome to First Bite, I’m food and dining reporter Drew Jackson
Big Bites
- It’s time to talk about 2025’s Best New Restaurant
- Another Wake County brewery closes a taproom
- New restaurants abound
The TV shows and cartoons I watched as a kid led me to believe that pot roast would play a larger role in my life. Everyone seemed to be eating pot roast all the time and not really enjoying it, so I worried that adulthood was a long slog of encountering foods you didn’t necessarily like.
It turns out that pot roast rules, and it’s my own fault for not making it more often. This week’s deep freeze and snow-less snow days put me in a mood for braising, reaching this time for Ina Garten’s Company Pot Roast, a winey, tomatoey, richly flavored roast. My toes are cold but my soul is warm.
Pot roast is great, but I still think beef stew is better.
Snow Day kit
This snow day was a major dud, but it’s a good reminder to be ready for the real thing. We’ve already ordered a new sled, have hot cocoa in the pantry and a stack of wood for a fire.
Also make sure you’re ready to make snow cream and that you have one or two of my favorite snow day beers.
Best new restaurants
It’s the time of year for reflection and all that happened in 2025. And by happened, I mean all the tacos, pizzas and cheese plates we devoured this year.
For our last foodie poll of 2025, tell us which of this year’s openings was the very best. Personally, Dino’s in Durham, with its creamy vodka rigatoni and excellent pizzas, found a permanent place in my heart. I also have to shout out TaTaco and Peregrine as newcomers that feel like they’ve been here for years.
Vote as often as you’d like. Round one ends at 3 p.m.
Next new restaurants
It’s been a busy month for restaurant announcements. Chyna Blackmon has a round-up of several newcomers, including a new burger joint, the latest location of a buzzy salad brand and a new coffee shop.
I had never heard of Dutch Bros Coffee, but the excitement from managing editor Thad Ogburn let me know it should be a fun addition.
Other exciting additions include the newly opened second Benchwarmers Bagels shop in Raleigh, and the fourth Jubala, perhaps Raleigh’s nerdiest and most elegant coffee shop. The new Jubala location adds a twist: cocktails.
Another brewery closes
In a surprising move, Vicious Fishes has closed a second taproom in less than a month. The popular Wake County brewery closed its Fuquay-Varina taproom and restaurant in November, a worrying trend in craft beer. Now the owners say development pressures have closed its taproom in Apex.
Weekly question
What is the longest running holiday food tradition in your family? I’d love to hear about it at jdjackson@newsobserver.com.
Last bite
If your house is anything like mine, holiday movies are playing nonstop.
Here are my top five most memorable food moments in holiday movies:
1. “Home Alone”: Buzz eats the one slice of cheese pizza. They only got Kevin one slice of pizza? No wonder he wanted his family to disappear. Also what is with all that milk they’re drinking with pizza??
2. “Elf”: Buddy eats spaghetti. I can’t show my toddler “Elf” yet because then he’d demand maple syrup on everything.
3. “Little Women”: The Christmas morning breakfast. The March sisters have the most incredible breakfast feast in movie history, and they give it to a family who needs it.
4. “The Santa Clause”: Tim Allen orders lunch. I, too, want crème brûlée and a hot fudge sundae for lunch.
5. “Feast of the Seven Fishes”: The whole movie. This little-seen movie is built around the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes and is the most food-centric of all the holiday movies, weaving through a cramped and cozy kitchen busy cooking for a crowd, homemade wine and fried fish.
That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for reading and being here.
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Happy eating!
This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Triangle’s best restaurants of 2025, snow day dud, new coffee shop."
