All good points! Thanks for sharing all of them. I’ll stay optimistic about some more possibilities coming in the future then.
I’ve followed Element for awhile on Instagram, so I’m happy to hear they’re good. I prefer actual meat, but I’m also interested to give it a chance. Curious how they’ll fare, given that 2 pizza and beer restaurants failed there, and now there’s far fewer office workers. Maybe it’ll be a draw like Fiction Kitchen because of the menu.
Don’t you like fake meat in your tacos 
?
Fortunately for me, I grew up in California and our next door neighbor was Mexican. The food that I subsequently tasted was far from plain ground beef. 
I also prefer real meat, but the things we had were tasty. Fully reccomend the nachos. Don’t know if it was just because its opening weekend, but they were packed.
Just when I thought I should investigate creating a cidery, someone goes and does it: Raleigh’s first cidery NOT COMING to downtown Raleigh but the East End Market.
https://www.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article251219134.html
Maybe I’ll go ahead and see if I can make a good European style cider. I literally pressed apples and started a cider this past Saturday. lol
Be the first in DTR!
Love it! I grew up in Austria and had lots of self-made apple cider on my grandmothers farm
According to the nOg Run Club, Standard Beer + Food’s kitchen is opening on May 18th. (I haven’t found or seen any additional information to confirm this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.)
You went and did it.
Think it’s supposed to be taqueria inspired opening tomorrow…?
NC is open!
Obviously happy for myself if I don’t have to wear a mask as much (c’mon, my office!). But this seems like it’s going to be messy for awhile, with individual businesses trying to enforce something that already people were ignoring, and loads of unvaccinated people hanging out everywhere without masks. It’ll be interesting to see how this all unfolds. I’ll go make some popcorn… 
It doesn’t feel like it changes anything unless businesses drop the mask mandate. When I was in FL last month, we had to wear masks in the common area of the hotel, restroom by the pool, into restaurants until we got to the table, Starbucks, etc. Same as here for the most part. I mean it’s about time, but until you can actually walk into businesses without a mask, it doesn’t seem different to me. We’ll see.
I think a lot of businesses (some whose management agreed with the masks, others who didn’t but had to follow the rules) were using complying with the executive order and CDC guidance as their rationale for the policies. With both of those gone, I’m betting many small businesses will choose to go back to normal. Many places have made a point to get all their employees vaccinated as well. It may also be like the tide coming in, rather than a big wave. 
IMO I just hope the vaccines keep us vaccinated folks safe against any new variants. I’ll still wear mine anywhere indoors and dine outside whenever possible because it’s nice. But this does feel like a great day and step toward normal.
If you drive 2 hours east or south from Raleigh you can be in a different country when it comes to masks and social distancing. I spent a weekend in surf city 3 weeks ago and we walked into several restaurants where the hostess wasn’t wearing one and certainly didn’t care if we had one on or not. I stood in a bar wall to wall with people not wearing masks. If you look at the NCDHHS dashboard, the cases are slightly higher in Pender co. Vs Wake (159/100k vs. 214/100k) but that is hardly a difference to be concerned about.
At some point soon society is going to have to accept that the pandemic is coming to a close, the threat/disruption to human life is minimal, and we can move about our lives. The drama of the whole thing has been intoxicating, but let’s face it - 0.0088% of NCs population is hospitalized with COVID right now. Let’s gently begin to let it go…
Would you say that to the face of one of the 500,000+ who have lost family members or have been directly affected? Not trying to start anything or get off topic but that was incredibly insensitive. Plus that .0088% is the lowest it’s been during the life of the pandemic. And it’s right now, over the course of the whole pandemic we’ve had around 100,000 total hospitalizations. I do agree we have to try to ease toward normal but let’s show a little respect for the millions of lives that have been disrupted and the mental / physical trauma this has caused.
I’m just glad I’ll finally get to witness the real Raleigh though since I’ve really only seen it in pandemic times!
This is true. There’s no effective way to make sure that the unvaccinated are masked, because a lot of same people who won’t get vaccinated are the same people who resent/resist wearing a mask. We might see an early Summer spike across much of the country, but we may not. It’s all going to depend on how easy it is for the virus to find an unbroken chain of hosts. We are definitely in a better position today than we were in January, but it would be foolish to think that it’s totally over.
The carrot has now been offered for getting vaccinated (not wearing a mask), but it needs to continue to be paired with the stick (not being able to internationally travel for example), regardless of whether the US implements a so called vaccine passport or not.
I apologize for striking a sensitive subject - of course the individual drama of loss of life is extremely real and should not be diminished in any way. I think it’s important to separate the emotional personal impact that one may experience as a result of the pandemic in loss, suffering, illness, etc. from the data-driven societal response that reasonable people can agree on.
For my own qualifications, I’ve had COVID. Caught it from my Dad, who gave it to me, my mom, and my grandmother over the holidays. I gave it to my wife. I called the emergency department one night at 1 am because I was feeling extremely faint (turns out it was a negative reaction to Nyquil). My grandmother tested positive at 84 years old, and we all were terrified it was the end for her. She luckily received antibody infusions at Wake Med Cary and had a swift recovery after 1 bad night. My parents struggled for 3-4 weeks with lasting fever/chill spells. I know this virus pretty well.
The drama I’m alluding to is the drama that is being played out on social media, the constant 24/7 TV coverage of cases, deaths, vaccines, masks, shaming people for attending weddings and funerals, Fauci being a star on every major YouTube channel, big tech promoting big pharma, etc. That drama has been intoxicating and IMO feeds on the animalistic part of our fallible brains. It creates group-think, blame-shame-game, and all the ugliness of people on both sides of the issue that have taken the response to the pandemic to the extreme opposites. All that ugliness and existential separateness is completely detached from the actual virus! All the arguing over procedures, rules, proper mask wearing, vaccine shaming, etc… it will continue to drive a wedge between people and fuel blame/shame/hatred as long as we continue to feed on it. Meanwhile, the actual virus will continue to dissipate into a non-epidemic, like the flu or common cold, and we’ll still be here ripping each other apart. That’s what I long to shed light on. I digress.
We have been at this level of hospitalizations in the past in NC… It hovered (+/-) 1,000 for a big chunk of 2020 - my family had it when it spiked during the height of flu season and hospitalizations were around 4k statewide if I remember correctly. That was with much stricter protocols in place, but it was also back when most everyone was susceptible to contagion. Now we have roughly half of the US with specific resistance to COVID-19, so words like superspreader should start to fade completely.
Anyways, to loop this back around… I am stoked to announce that my band’s show at the Pour House next Saturday has just changed from 2 separate ticketed events to 1 general admission show. This is great for all parties as it will make the show more affordable, more fun, and more lucrative.
Well, at least you’ll be able to see Raleigh post-pandemic. With businesses lost, and retail expansion likely hesitant for the near future, it might be some time before we all see the real Raleigh again. Nonetheless, it will assuredly be an improved Raleigh compared to the last year+.