By my count, there are at least half a dozen global cuisines represented in I-40 Exit Strategy, our new eating guide to North Carolina’s primary highway. Even restaurants ostensibly working within the same culinary idiom exemplify a huge range of cooking traditions and service styles. I defy any map user to mistake a mountain hot dog for one from the coast.
But what’s completely and utterly absent from the listings is any acknowledgement of the state’s vibrant spirits scene (even though North Carolina is home to The Food Section’s top-shelf cocktail columnist, Susannah Skiver Barton. Sorry, Susannah!)
It’s probably for the best that we’re not suggesting drivers down a quick old fashioned before getting back on the highway. Maybe we’ll one day come up with an end-of-the-road guide that details where to get those drinks. In the meantime, though, we’re acknowledging the state’s great bars by holding our map launch party next Wednesday at Rosebud Cocktail Lounge in Raleigh.
On its Instagram page, Rosebud describes itself as “serving from the basement of an old Piggly Wiggly,” which is both charming and true. But North Carolinians will better know the space as the former Fox Liquor Bar, which closed in 2024.
Rosebud, which takes its cinematic name from Citizen Kane, opened earlier this year with a menu of Japanese-influenced cocktails. Its founders—the team behind Peregrine and Capulet—told Raleigh Magazine that the bar’s mid-century modern décor and vinyl collection were chosen to lure people back downtown.
Of course, we’d like to lure people there too. Admission to the party is free, as is the pimento cheese, provided by St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar (located close enough to Rosebud that it’s an ideal afterparty destination.) We’ll have maps for sale at the event, or you can pre-order copies now for pickup.
Come see us! Not sure how to get to Rosebud from your house, but I’m planning to take I-40.
No Comments