Ever wanted to know what I do when I’m not eating out or writing about it?  Here are links to a variety of my published articles.  In almost every case my former custom content company, Calliope, also developed and designed the publication.

Hillsborough’s Best Kept Secret Published in Southern Neighbor, December 2006.

Profile of Don Curtis, founder of Curtis Media.  Published in Live and Local: The Curtis Media Story.  The publication commemorated the corporation’s 40th anniversary in 2008.

Introducing Memorial Hall Published in Perspectives 2005.

Explore A visitor introduction to Chapel Hill and Orange County.  Published in the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitor Guide 2008.

Totally Local Food: Panzanella Shortens the Path from Farm to Table Published in Perspectives 2006.

How to Get Lucky on New Year’s Published in Southern Neighbor, December 2008.

The Dance of the Sunflowers Published in Southern Neighbor.

The Wild Rumpus Comes to Franklin Street Published in Southern Neighbor.

Collection of articles I wrote for Perspectives 2009.  Relocation guide published for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.  Article topics include UNC Hospitals, Game Day in Chapel Hill, Sustainable Communities, Buy Local, neighborhood overviews and more. I deleted all the ads, fly sheets and articles by other people for faster download.

C Magazine Relocation guide published for the Cary Chamber of Commerce 2007-08. I wrote everything that doesn’t have someone else’s byline on it.  Warning: This is the whole magazine so it take awhile to download.

There’s a cool new (FREE) tool called Wine by the Bar that you can use with Twitter to record wines when you’re on the go and then easily find them again when you need them.

Here’s how it works. You’re at a restaurant, wine tasting, or friend’s house and try a wine you love. You do a quick tweet and the name of the wine is saved instantly.

Let’s do an example with J. Lohr Chardonnay:

You tweet: @winebythebar 089121068823 J. Lohr Chardonnay oaky, buttery, leslie’s house

(that number you type in is the bar code — it’s 12 digits)

Within minutes you’ll get a DM back that says: http://bit.ly/WpVkr J. LOHR 2006 CHARD j. lohr chardonnay.

Now when you go to the grocery a few days later all you have to do is scroll your DMs and there’s the name of the wine. But what if somehow you erased all your DMs? Can you remember you tried it at Leslie’s house? If you can, then….

You tweet: d winebythebar search leslie’s house

You get back a DM that says: J. Lohr Chardonnay

Sip. Save. Search.

Sip your wine. Save your note. Search it later.

How easy is that? I’m going to be using it at a charity wine festival next weekend where there will be 70+ wines. I always lose that little sheet they give you or I put the golf pencil down and never find it again. So now I can use Wine by the Bar on Twitter to remember all the wines I like.

So let’s say I try a wine called Oak Grove Merlot

I tweet: @winebythebar 761666000413 Oak Grove Merlot may wine tasting great merlot $12 buy @totalwine

Wine by the Bar DM’s me #1 Oak Grove Merlot

And since I definitely want to share it with my tweeps when I try a yummy wine, Wine by the Bar will retweet my review automatically.

And next time I search for “Oak Grove” or even “may wine tasting” I’ll get a DM tweet with my review(s) back plus a shortened url link to all of my wine’s info on the web.

This is a really new app so there are still a few bugs. But it’s also a fun way to use Twitter. And as all you #tmwc moms know twitter+wine is a great pairing. If you try this out, let me know what you think. The developer is a friend of mine and he’d be really interested in your feedback. Cheers!

This post was originally featured on TwitterMoms, where I am a featured contributor.

]]> http://eveningsfortwo.com/2009/05/09/twitter-can-help-you-remember-your-wine/feed/ http://eveningsfortwo.com/2009/04/26/revolution-rocks/ http://eveningsfortwo.com/2009/04/26/revolution-rocks/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:39:19 +0000 smilingirl http://eveningsfortwo.com/?p=223 Revolution in Durham has a metropolitan vibe and is yet another hit in Durham’s flourishing library of foodie hot spots.

The restaurant is Executive Chef Jim Anile’s baby and it is a broad departure from his last gig at Il Palio at the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill.  The menu is diverse, creative and well priced.  The atmosphere is hip but still welcoming. The appetizers and small plates are generally well under $15 and the big plates are all $20 or less.  (He does have a few more pricey dishes filed under menu heading Second Mortgage but they are well in the minority.)  Finding values on the wine list was a little more challenging but still doable.

Here are some highlights from the menu that I can personally vouch for: The haystack shrimp are delicately flavored with a lemon aioli and surrounded with angel hair wisps of crisp filo dough. I absolutely went crazy for the beer braised mussels. Steeped in a tomato based broth, they completmented the mussels without overpowering them at all.  We had to order more bread to sop up the liquid.

The menu also features a 3 or 5 chef’s selection menu with optional wine pairings which sounds like an excellent idea for a special treat.

The decor is stiking, upscale and club-worthy.  In an interesting twist, half the floor space on the main level is dedicated to the large oblong bar.  Both times we went this area was more than 60 percent full of people eating off the bar menu, the regular menu or just enjoying cocktails.

A friend who went with me on my first visit has already been back three more times. This is definitely a must try for your next date night. 107 W. Main Street in Downtown Duham.  Reservations available through Open Table.

We serendipitously ended up attending a Spanish wine dinner there where most of the guests were friends and family of the restaurant.  Bottom line is that the food and the experience were lovely.

So imagine my excitement to discover that a second location is about to open in downtown Durham.  Bull City Rising got the scoop for us on the opening.  Check it out here.