Places in or near Raleigh, NC?

Hey there, the wife and I are heading to Raleigh this coming weekend and I'm seeing if any of you fine folks have any suggestions for cool places to go; breweries/brewpubs or any other beer related places. We're considering moving there so we're going to check it out. Thanks in advance!

For brewpubs, I recommend Natty Greene's or Boylan Bridge in downtown Raleigh. For breweries I suggest going to Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs and then go down the road to Aviator in Fuqua-Varina. Then drive to the north side of Raleigh and check out Lonerider Brewery and Roth Brewery, over by the airport and finish it at Big Boss Brewing Company in north-east Raleigh off the Beltline and Capital Blvd/US-401.

For downtown Durham breweries, you can go to Fullsteam Brewery and Triangle Brewing or go get a fantastic burger at Bull City Burger and Brewery.

Chapel Hill has some good brewpubs with Carolina Brewery and Top of the Hill.

A buddy brought Carolina Brewing IPA over last night. Tasted more like a upper end APA to me, but wow was it drinkable and delicious!

chalkboardbrewer said:

For brewpubs, I recommend Natty Greene's or Boylan Bridge in downtown Raleigh. For breweries I suggest going to Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs and then go down the road to Aviator in Fuqua-Varina. Then drive to the north side of Raleigh and check out Lonerider Brewery and Roth Brewery, over by the airport and finish it at Big Boss Brewing Company in north-east Raleigh off the Beltline and Capital Blvd/US-401.

For downtown Durham breweries, you can go to Fullsteam Brewery and Triangle Brewing or go get a fantastic burger at Bull City Burger and Brewery.

Chapel Hill has some good brewpubs with Carolina Brewery and Top of the Hill.

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Thanks for the suggestions! Now if you had to narrow it down to like the 1 or 2 best which would you pick?

This is a very hard choice, I would definitely pick Aviator. You can either go to the brewery or the brewpub in downtown Fuquay-Varina, called the Smokehouse. I also recommend Carolina Brewing Company for a tour. Nothing special or unique about the tour- just great beer and a lot of it. It is in an industrial park so you will have to hunt for it. Both are close to each other.

cool thanks!

I have another query. What is the best bbq restaurant in the area?

Check out Big Boss!

DUNDASJ said:

Check out Big Boss!

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checked out their website, definitely looks interesting. good tour? do they have good food? not much about food on the website

I happen to be friends with the brewmaster at NC Brewing - hit me up with a PM if you want to check them out and I'll see if I can get you in touch.

Sorry it's Carolina Brewery & Grill.

In Raleigh, check out Big Boss Brewing (Great Beer!) or Natty Greens (okay beer, good food!). Lot's of little bars that are also excellent as well. Flying Saucer has a ridiculous variety of beer - pretty much anything you can think of, and servers in short skirts never hurt. For BBQ, The Pit is pretty renowned and is definitely excellent. All these places are literally 5 - 10 minutes away from each other. Enjoy the city, it's a great town.

I would avoid Boylan Bridge. It has the best ambiance and view of the downtown of any restaurant or bar in the Raleigh, but their beer is awful IMO. Each beer tastes exactly the same regardless of style. It's disappointing, because in their location they could really be something special.

To be perfectly honest, I live right near Aviator and have only been there twice, the second time was because someone else wanted to go there. The beer there is ok, not great. There are tons of great breweries here and I think all have been mentioned already. I agree with Darwin above for the most part. Natty's has a nice atmosphere for a brewpub, but if the weather's nice, the porch at Boylan's cannot be beat. I also really like FullSteam in Durham. They have a great atmosphere as well and the beer is quite good. I'm not sure if the Summer Basil is out yet, but if it is, its fantastic. Lonerider has fantastic beer as well, but the actual brewery atmosphere is lacking. Is your wife a beer nut also? If not, she would still enjoy most of what I mentioned above except Lonerider.

As for "other related beer places", while your in downtown Raleigh, check out at least one or two of the following:

Restaurants:
The Pit (You asked for good bbg. This place is famous and delicious and in downtown.)
Raleigh Times (excellent rare and exotic beer selection, good food)
Busy Bee (also excellent rare and exotic beer selection)
Flying Saucer (Nice skirts, huge beer selection but only a few "interesting" ones.)
Tylers Taproom (Haven't been to the one downtown yet, but it's always first class in food, atmosphere, and beer selection. The chicken fried chicken is amazing.)

Bottle Shops:
Tasty Beverage
Peace Street Market
Sam's Quik Shop (if you go to Durham)

If you haven't already, check out beermapping. It lists just about everything Raleigh has to offer in the way of beer.

http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=triangle


What part of Raleigh are you thinking about?

not really sure yet. going to check it all out. always open to more advice as we are NC noobs so to speak

thanks for all the suggestions

My only issue with the Raleigh Times is that it's turned into a hipster gathering place. Frankly, I can't really stand those people, so I don't really go by there any more. The Busy Bee is a pretty cool place though and has an excellent outdoor patio. A friend of mine had a wedding reception/party there last summer and it was great.

Big Boss is a great place to go too. They don't serve food but I think they have food trucks that come by on the weekends. I was just there on Saturday and had a great time.

ajwillys said:

Sam's Quik Shop (if you go to Durham)

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Oh man, nostalgia blast. I was in there at least once a week in college. I still have my t shirt somewhere...

For the Que you have a couple choices. The first is Allen & Son Barbeque, Chapel Hill. They are very good and old school but no Beer. But then again you can grab a bag of rinds on your way out!

The next was already mentioned, The Pit, in downtown Raleigh. They do some excellent whole hog and a great selection of craft beers. Their owner/founder has been on Throwdown with Bobby Flay and all that Food Network jazz.

If you're in the Six Forks Rd area there is a World of Beer (a Florida based chain). They don't serve food but they are a killer beer bar.

Darwin18 said:

My only issue with the Raleigh Times is that it's turned into a hipster gathering place.

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True, they do go through alot of pbr and there are some mega hipsters there, but their beer list is insane. I'm not talking about holy ****, there's 400 beers insane (taco mac, flying saucer). I'm talking about holy **** there's 10 sours! This is their current beer list:

http://www.raleightimesbar.com/images/BeerMenu_Sm.pdf

bwomp313 said:

not really sure yet. going to check it all out. always open to more advice as we are NC noobs so to speak

thanks for all the suggestions

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If you have any specific questions, pm me. I've lived here 28 years (I'm 30).

As far as big Boss goes awesome place tours are free I think every third Saturday of the month and 3 beers for 3 bux. If your hungry call ahead and ask if they are going to have any food trucks there that day. IMO Raleigh food trucks have some pretty good food.

leaving this morning. can't wait for some delicious beer and bbq

are there any other cool activities in the area that I should be aware of? This trip was really a last minute thing and I've only passed through that area and the wife's never been so pardon my ignorance

Check out:

http://goliveworkplay.com/raleigh/downtown

The NC Beer and Band Festival is this weekend. Never been to it. Lately, there's so many beer festivals you can't possibly hit them all.

ajwillys said:

Check out:

http://goliveworkplay.com/raleigh/downtown

The NC Beer and Band Festival is this weekend. Never been to it. Lately, there's so many beer festivals you can't possibly hit them all.

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Awesome thanks!

The World Beer Festival was last month...I always have a great time at that. It's not beer related, but they just finished updating the museum in down town. I haven't checked it out since renovations started, but I've heard some good things. In case it's raining and your wife doesn't want to do beer stuff.

Oh dang, I forgot about Draft. I've been trying to promote the crap out of that place. They have amazing burgers made with all local ingredients. On Saturday's, they have bottomless mugs for $20. Oh, its mostly craft beer too. They have 44 taps and at least 2/3 are craft and probably 20+ are local. You can't beat drinking craft beer all night for $20.

http://draftraleigh.com/beer/

Darwin18 said:

In Raleigh, check out Big Boss Brewing (Great Beer!) or Natty Greens (okay beer, good food!). Lot's of little bars that are also excellent as well. Flying Saucer has a ridiculous variety of beer - pretty much anything you can think of, and servers in short skirts never hurt. For BBQ, The Pit is pretty renowned and is definitely excellent. All these places are literally 5 - 10 minutes away from each other. Enjoy the city, it's a great town.

I would avoid Boylan Bridge. It has the best ambiance and view of the downtown of any restaurant or bar in the Raleigh, but their beer is awful IMO. Each beer tastes exactly the same regardless of style. It's disappointing, because in their location they could really be something special.

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Agreed, definitely skip Boylan. All of their beers have an "off" flavor to me, I'm not sure what it is. But they all taste very similar and regardless of style they're all ~5% ABV. It's like they're purposely trying to brew the most boring, mediocre beers possible. I've been there 3-4 times so I feel like I've given them a fair shake, I'll never go back.

And definitely eat at The Pit, excellent BBQ. My favorite local breweries are Aviator and Roth. If you like Belgian style beers you have to have Aviator's Devils Tramping Ground Tripel. Their Hot Rod Red is also excellent.

thanks for all the suggestions guys, we had a great time...ended up going to the flying saucer which was a really cool place. also ate at the pit which was fantastic. we were going to hit up a brewery but it never ended up happening. it's a really nice city, we were really surprised how quiet and clean it is. we're used to the constant smell of urine in the city (new york). everything's so cheap too

Yep it's a great place to live and work. It's supposed to blow up in the next few years but it's a great location. Only a few hours drive to the mountains or the beach.