Triangle Top 10 Best Newcomers that were reviewed in 2009 and Top 25

[burgeoningfoodie]

Any others you think should be added to either list? Any that should be taken away.

Top 25
http://tinyurl.com/y8pd4zh

Top 10
http://tinyurl.com/y8tb2cn

[Remsleep]

For whatever reason, the tinyurls no longer work, at least for me. Here are the links:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/food/gregs-top-10-newcomers

http://www.newsobserver.com/life/stor...

[burgeoningfoodie]

Interesting.. still works for me but I may have a local cache of the site on my box.

[Remsleep]

Even more interesting is that the links work from my desktop but not my laptop.

[cervisiam]

varmintbites notes an interesting statistic in his post
http://varmintbites.com/2010/01/15/gr...

"For a geographic breakdown, of the top 24 restaurants, 10 are in Raleigh, 4 are in Chapel Hill, 6 are in Durham, 2 in Cary, 1 in Pittsboro and 1 in Hillsborough."

i am surprised about this statistic, but am wondering if that's just the N&O bias against durham? :)

[burgeoningfoodie]

I mean in Chapel Hill I can think of more then 4 right now. Only 2 in Cary? I find that hard to believe. Pittsboro is evolving and so is Hillborough but I thought I've heard a load of good things about some of Hillsborough's places.

[anne7134]

I would never put Margaux's in the Top 25. To me, their menu lacks cohesion and is not unified. I don't often want to go to a place that serves pasta dishes alongside sushi. Jack of all trades and master of none and all that.

I'm really surprised to see Il Palio and Fairview on the list. I would have replaced either of those with Rue Cler.

[Guilty Gourmand]

I was just about to remark on the exclusion of Fins--a recent (maybe last year?) restaurant of the year when I ran across the attached article announcing they had closed and were going to reopen with a global street food concept.

I'll miss the old Fins for sure but this sounds exciting and I'm glad that it sounds like they will be opening again for lunch

http://www.newsobserver.com/life/food...

[burgeoningfoodie]

Yeah I've seen some info on bu.ku's proposed idea. I just feel bad for myself as I never got to Fins and a decent Seafood place in downtown is something missing.

[LulusMom]

Blu in Durham is pretty good.

[LulusMom]

Rue Cler has been open for more than a year, though, surely? I like it a lot too. Serious service issues, but the food is great.

[anne7134]

Yes, it has. I meant as Top 25, not one of the newcomers.

It's such a bummer that they have the service issues.

[LulusMom]

It really is. I love the place, but they've been around long enough now that they should have figured out some of these simple things. And they can't seem to stock the place adequately to save their lives - forever running out of key ingredients within an hour or two of opening. Arrrggh. Still, I love going there.