Medical Alumni Weekend 2007

Is This Durham?
What's New In The Bull City (Updated for Fall '07)

by Jim Rogalski

Returning to Durham after five, 10, or more years you may not recognize the old place. New buildings, art museums, a vivacious food scene, and a completely redesigend and reinvigorated downtown streetscape. The Bull City is suddenly looking more uptown. Here’s a closer look at what’s new at Duke and in Durham—there’s plenty to fill any down time you may have during Medical Alumni Weekend.

Most Recent Additions to the Bull City (since October 2006):

The Durham Farmers' Market has a new home in the Pavilion at Durham Central Park on Foster Street (click here for map and directions). The Market is held every Saturday, rain or shine, from 8 am to noon. 501 Foster Street (on the corner of Foster Street and Hunt Avenue ). It is a producer-only market featuring the produce and wares of more than 50 vendors, all of whom are located within 70 miles of the market. The Durham Farmers' Market offers locally grown fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs, cut flowers, potted plants, artisanal cheeses and breads, home-baked pies, honey, preserves, hand-made soaps, and much more.

The Catch The Wind exhibit at The Museum of Life and Science transforms four acres into seven large-scale exhibits expressing how wind influences our environment. They include the Sailboat Pond where you can c aptain your radio-controlled boat in the 5,000-square-foot elliptical pond, and the Seed Tower, where you can launch giant seed models and watch them fall to explore seed aerodynamics. 433 Murray Avenue . 919-220-5429 www.lifeandscience.org

 Downtown Improvements Project which is anchored by a large bronze bull statue in the heart of downtown Durham , showcases a new and exciting pedestrian-friendly downtown district that includes brick sidewalks, curb ramps, landscaping, lighting, and traffic signals. The traffic is now two-way on Main and Chapel Hill Streets. All of Chapel Hill, Main , Parrish and Corcoran Streets have been re-paved.

New restaurants since last fall:

Rue Cler Restaurant, Bakery and Café. Downtown at 401 E. Chapel Hill St. The owners of Pop's have opened this French restaurant and bakery café to great reviews. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday-Saturday. No reservations, but will accept call ahead. (919) 682-8844. http://ruecler.blogspot.com/

Alivia's Durham Bistro. 900 W. Main St. 682-8978 http://www.aliviasdurhambistro.com/
European style bistro serving all three meals per day. Pastries, coffee and espresso drinks for the breakfast menu; sandwiches and pub fare for lunch and afternoon meals; and casual upscale dining at dinner.

Blu Seafood and Bar. 2002 Hillsborough Road , just off Ninth St. (919)-286-9777. Reservations accepted. An upscale, casual seafood restaurant with innovative regional classics. Lunch daily Monday thru Saturday; dinner served nightly from 5 p.m. Closed Sunday.

New Openings Pre-Oct. 2006:

Nasher Museum of Art
This $24 million, world-class art museum designed by Rafael Viñoly opened last October. The permanent collection includes more than 13,000 works of art, including pieces by Warhol, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso, as well as selections from Duke’s holdings of classical antiquities, European medieval art, European and American paintings, African art, and ancient American (Pre-Columbian) art. Works of art focus on four themes: Nature, Gender, Ritual, and Rome— Lives and Afterlives. www.nasher.duke.edu

Doris Duke Center at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Maybe your fondest Duke memory is stealing that first kiss from your sweetheart while strolling through Duke Gardens between clinical rounds. But now there’s even more reason to go back to the gardens. The Doris Duke Center, a 12,000-square-foot building completed in 2001 includes classrooms, a horticultural library, a reception hall, a gift shop, offices, and extensive landscaping including a Serpentine Garden, Braided Garden, White Garden, “East Meets West” Garden, and Water Garden. www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens



American Tobacco Historic District
Perhaps the most ambitious and impressive renovation project in Durham’s history is the downtown transformation of multiple vacant, run-down tobacco warehouses into an upscale office, retail, and housing complex. A man-made river and pond wind through the large center green underneath the landmark “Lucky Strike” water tower. The remodeled brick buildings include five restaurants with a variety of indoor and outdoor seating: The Mellow Mushroom; Tyler’s Tap Room; Symposium Café; Café Zen Sushi and Asian Bistro; and Starbucks Coffee. Inside the warehouses are historic reproduction photos from the days when the facility churned out tobacco products for the Duke family empire. www.americantobaccohistoricdistrict.com

Durham Bulls Athletic Park
A cornerstone of the American Tobacco Historic District renovation, the ball park won’t echo with the sound of cracking bats and screaming fans during Medical Alumni Weekend, but this $16 million, 10,000 seat stadium is worth a tour for any baseball fan. Designed by the same architects as Baltimore’s Camden Yard, Cleveland’s Jacobs Field, and Colorado’s Coors Field, DBAP reflects many of the characteristics of oldtime parks, including a 32-foot high wall in left field that resembles Fenway’s Green Monster and is affectionately known in Durham as the Blue Monster. Free stadium tours area available by calling in advance to schedule: 919-687-6500. Inside the concourse you’ll even see the original bull mascot used in the movie Bull Durham starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. www.durhambulls.com

Magic Wings Butterfly House/
Explore the Wild at the
Museum of Life and Science
You can encounter thousands of tropical butterflies fluttering through rainforests over tropical flowers and a stream in this 5,000-square-foot glass conservatory. Magic Wings is part of BioQuest, the museum’s 40-acre expansion that brings people, interactive exhibits, nature, and animals together in the outdoors. Explore the Wild is a six-acre woodland habitat and wetland site featuring live animals including endangered red wolves, native black bears, and exotic lemurs on loan from Duke. www.ncmls.org

A Food Destination
Durham boasts more than 300 restaurants— and many have received special recognition in the regional and national press, including Southern Living, The New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Esquire, The Joey Reynolds Show, and Gourmet. The Thai Café located at 2501 University Drive offering authentic Thai cuisine for lunch and dinner. 919-493-9794. www.thaicafenc.com Across the street from the Thai Café is the much heralded Q Shack, offering both North Carolina and Texas-style barbecue. 919-402-4227. If you’re looking for a more formal dining experience, the award-winning and longtime favorite Nana’s Restaurant is in the next building over from The Q Shack. 919-493-8545. www.nanasdurham.com Magnolia Grill, heralded as the cornerstone of Durham dining, enjoys a national reputation. Chef-owners Ben and Karen Barker blend traditional Southern cooking with other wide-ranging influences. Magnolia Grill is open for dinner only at 1002 9th Street. 919-286-3609.

Other new entries that are among 160 new table service restaurants to open in Durham in the past 10 years include: Chamas Churascaria, offering the culture and food of southern Brazil at 905 W. Main St., Brightleaf Square. 919-682-1309. www.chamas.us Next door is Amélia Café, a Brazilian- Italian café offering chocolates, pastries, cheese bread, Brazilian juices and coffee, and more than 100 after-dinner cordials. 919-683-5600. www.ameliacafe.us In one of Downtown Durham’s renovated tobacco warehouses, TOSCA Italiano & Wine Bar serves traditional central and southern Italian cuisine at 604 West Morgan St. 919-680-6333. www.bluecorn-tosca. com/tr_home.asp Named one of Durham’s best restaurants by The Boston Globe, the French bistro Vin Rouge, in the Ninth Street District, offers provincial cooking and an extensive wine selection at 2010 Hillsborough Rd. 919-416-0406. http://www.ghgrestaurants.com/
A great breakfast or lunch spot is Guglhupf Bakery & Patisserie, described by “Food Finds” (Food Network) as “a little bit of Europe in the middle of North Carolina,” featuring handcrafted artisan breads, pastries, and desserts at 2706 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. 919-401-2600. www.guglhupf.com

This is just a taste of Durham’s many offerings— for a more complete listing, visit the Durham Convention and Visitor’s Bureau website at www.exploredurham.info.

No Bull...
Did you know that Durham is home to the world’s most famous trademark?
John Green of the Blackwell Tobacco Company named his product “Bull” Durham Tobacco after Coleman’s Mustard, which used a bull in its logo and which Green mistakenly thought was produced in Durham, England. By the time James B. Duke of the American Tobacco Company purchased the Blackwell Tobacco Company in 1898, Bull Durham was the most famous trademark in the world. It sparked such popular phrases as “bullpen” (from a Bull Durham ad painted behind the Yankees’ dugout) and “shooting the bull” (most likely from spitting chewing tobacco). The famous bull’s image
was painted all over the world, including on the Great Pyramid of Egypt! Duke was the first to put cigarette cards, predecessors of modern baseball cards, into each pack of tobacco. By the 1930s they were immensely popular, and today they are much soughtafter collectors’ items.

Photos and information courtesy of the N.C. Museum of Life and Science and the Durham Convention and Visitors Center