North Carolina Meet-Ups and Catch-All

I slept through it.

Same.

Ever since I moved to the west coast, I get annoying mildly-panicked messages from east coast family member every time there's a minor earthquake within a thousand miles of me.

This week, I got to turn the table on them.

I'm glad I didn't sleep through it. I thought it was kind of a fun and interesting experience.

i also snoozed right through. that makes two for me now

Yeah I didn't feel it either

Moving this here:

Hello! I’m moving to North Carolina soon! My wife and I recently bought a house in Lincolton, she is already there working for a local hospital and I will be there once I get my job situation in order.

Tell me about my new home! I’ve visited a few times, we have a friend who lives in Denver, but have mostly only seen the Lake Norman area. I’ve also been to Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain and the Biltmore so I’ve covered some tourist destinations. What else is there? What do you love/hate about the state.

This is all new territory for me, outside the last two years that I have spent in Michigan(hate this place), I am a life long west coast/southwest kid who never dreamed he be in the dirty south.

You like mountains? We've got mountains.

You like the beach? We got bunches of those. A couple even face south instead of east. And some people even drive to Myrtle. (The OBX is technically NC tho it's usually overrun by Yankees and Virginians; not sure which is worse, tbh.)

Big cities? Check. Small towns? Check. Rivers? Lakes? Trails? Check, check and check.

Oh, yeah, and humidity. It's on full blast this week.

This list gives you a pretty good idea of some of the big tourist-y things around the state.

Other folks can probably fill you in on Charlotte. I'm only ~90 minutes up the road, but I haven't been to Charlotte in years. I do know that South End is where all the good restaurants are and that it's hell to drive around Charlotte. Oh, it's Uptown, not downtown. That's Charlotte being Charlotte.

There's barbeque. East and West. You'll have to choose eventually.

And red cole slaw, with vinegar base instead of mayo. And when you order a pulled pork sandwich they put the cole slaw right on the damn sandwich. Be prepared.

Stele wrote:

And when you order a pulled pork sandwich they put the cole slaw right on the damn sandwich. Be prepared.

IMAGE(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/9f/3b/ee9f3b3ea305833a9bdf067aca9ef022.jpg)

North Carolinians put slaw on hotdogs too, as nature intended.

Enix wrote:

This list gives you a pretty good idea of some of the big tourist-y things around the state.

Hey I've done like 12 of those 30 in 6 years. A few multiple times (Zoo and Fort Fisher aquarium). Not bad.

Stele wrote:

There's barbeque. East and West. You'll have to choose eventually.

Yep. Important to note that NC barbecue is pork. (Sorry, Texas, your beef food is delicious, but it's not barbecue. Also, "barbecue" is always a noun, never a verb.)

Eastern style is everything but the squeal. Western style is just the shoulder. Sauces are basically the same except Western (aka Lexington for the town a ways up I-85 from where you are) uses a little bit of catsup.

Some heathens make a sandwich out of BBQ. North Carolinians eat the meat straight up.

Looks like the barbecue place up your way serves it Lexington style. As God intended in your part of the state.

One more thing: "tea" is always cold and sweet. There's unsweet tea (which is iced tea everywhere else in the world), and I guess there's hot tea, but that would be a dead giveaway that yer not from arand hyer so maybe order a Co'Cola or a Pepsi instead.

I'm sure you have already done your research and know that Lincolnton is a pretty conservative area, with a, what in my experience might be best described as overall anti-Charlotte outlook from many of the natives.

Morganton, Hickory and Marion have some charm and appeal. Gastonia, Shelby less so.

South Mountain state park is not too far and is a really wild feel for hiking and camping. Lake James state park is only an hour away from you as well, and is probably a more accessible option for actually using a lake than Norman.

Especially since they are all about the same distance from Lincolnton, I would actually recommend the Charleston beaches over Wilmington or Myrtle, though Charleston and surrounds are more expensive.

Carrowinds is an amusement park. Not top tier, but at least it's available.

If you like to ski, you have either the Boone/Banner Elk area which has nicer/pricer ski slopes; reachable in a little under two hours; or the Asheville ski areas which are simpler and cheaper and both a little over two hours from your neck of the woods.

Enix wrote:

One more thing: "tea" is always cold and sweet. There's unsweet tea (which is iced tea everywhere else in the world), and I guess there's hot tea, but that would be a dead giveaway that yer not from arand hyer so maybe order a Co'Cola or a Pepsi instead.

You forgot Cheerwine.

I'm always down for barbecue and have tried some of the styles in North Carolina. I'm pretty much down for all of them. One of my sisters lives in Atlanta so I am familiar with the diabetes in a cup southerns call tea. Not going to lie either, I do enjoy a pulled pork sandwich with slaw on it.

Honestly as far as food goes I am only persnickety about Mexican food and that is simply a by product of living near the border for 20 odd years. Since we are one the subject of food I will say in general everything I've had there blows away anything I've had in Michigan in the past two years. They seem to try and remove all flavor from stuff here.

Beaches, I forget about that as all the time I've spent has been in the Lake Norman area. There's pirate history there too, if I recall correctly. That's exciting, I'd like to explore that.

2 important regional food chains...

Cookout. 40 flavors of milkshake. Seasonal ones like watermelon (Jul-Aug), which I just had over the weekend are especially nice.

Bojangles. Chicken, biscuits (OMG), Cajun french fries, and the aforementioned sweet tea. Probably the best fast food version of said tea, according to my wife.

Cookout I've been to, love their hush puppies. Like the shakes too and they seem to be all over the place so you don't have to go far to get to one.

Not a fan of Cheerwine. It's like Faygo here, I respect that it is a regional tradition, but I don't get it.

Nice to know there is another lake option because, yeah, Norman is bustling to use a word.

Badferret wrote:
Enix wrote:

One more thing: "tea" is always cold and sweet. There's unsweet tea (which is iced tea everywhere else in the world), and I guess there's hot tea, but that would be a dead giveaway that yer not from arand hyer so maybe order a Co'Cola or a Pepsi instead.

You forgot Cheerwine.

Not a fan. I'm not a native, either, so maybe that's my excuse.

Badferret wrote:

I'm sure you have already done your research and know that Lincolnton is a pretty conservative area, with a, what in my experience might be best described as overall anti-Charlotte outlook from many of the natives.

Most of NC has an anti-Charlotte bia, tbh. Charlotte is an outlier in a way that Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill isn't (or doesn't seem to be) despite a similar size and recent influx of outsiders.

I have no personal beef w Charlotte. They've really built up that I-85 truck stop of a town into something special!

@Agent 86, another idea for getting a feel for NC is checking out Our State magazine, whether via library, online archive, or subscribing.

In the meantime, maybe take a day trip to Lake Lure and Chimney Rock when the heat breaks. Very pretty and La Strada has a great thin-crust pizza.

The Lake Lure boat tour wasn't exactly air conditioned when I took it. Otherwise it was great.

My wife and I are planning an overnight getaway to downtown Winston-Salem next week.

The weather forecast looks like it might be drippy so we're investigating rainy day activities as a backup plan.

Any recommendations, rainy or otherwise? (e.g., breweries, cool museums, animals, bookstores, good views, architecture, other points of interest in the general area, etc.)

Thanks!

I think these places are still open...I spent a lot of time at most of them for 4 years, but not the last 18 months

Trophy Room is my favorite bar in the city. Bourbon focused. Specials on Thurs night I think. Small Batch has rotating craft beer and is also great if you want drinks and food. Solid burgers and wings. Wise Man Brewing is great just for the variety of beer. They only have food trucks. Lastly Vintage Sofa Bar has an awesome vibe. A little expensive but the specials are reasonable. Quiet Pint is another good food and drink combo, on the far edge of downtown. More of a sports bar vibe but good food menu.

Can't go wrong with lots of food downtown. We enjoy Camel City BBQ. Have still done pickup from there recently so I think it's open. Yamas Mediterranean is one of my wife's favorites. Bibs BBQ is also good. There was Crafted, a taco joint, but I think it closed during pandemic. Burke St pizza is on the edge of downtown, pretty solid NY style. There's also a brick oven pizza in innovation quarter the was good. I haven't been there since pre pandemic though and forgot the name. Oh and The Porch is a trendy Mexican joint just north of downtown. A bit pricy but some unique drinks. Wife likes it more than I do. We have a cheap hole in the wall Mexican place near us that's better to me.

Old Salem is worth checking out for a good walking tour. I've only been down there on weekends but I think it's open all the time.

Not sure when you're going but the minor league baseball team is pretty fun too. WS Dash. If there's a game (and no rain) might be worth checking out.

Thank you, Stele; this all looks great.

The IQ pizza place might be Cugino Forgo.

Sadly, the baseball team will be on the road when we're in town.

If the forecast is agreeable, our plan is to visit the NC Zoo and then come into town, which means we'll probably be a bit tired and thus we'd stick to the downtown area.

If things look rainy then we're up for going anywhere in the Triad.

Here are some other potential places on my radar; I either saw them on a map or in Our State. My heart's not set on any of them (well, except the chocolate), so no worries if they're not so great.

-- activities --

- take a look at The Graylyn Estate (maybe stay there for an anniversary some day)
- the lookout at Quarry Park
- Artivity on the Green, as we wander around
- Greensboro Science Center (although it seems like a lot of it is outdoors, so maybe not a good backup plan for a rainy day)

-- food --

- Campus Gas
- Krankies
- Black Mountain Chocolate
- Mission pizza

-- beer --

- round up as many breweries as we can within walking distance (Foothills, Incendiary, Fiddlin' Fish, Wise Man, Radar, Hoots)

Graylyn is nice. Have visited, wife has been there for training or conferences.

Campus Gas is ok. If you go there I might have to walk over and buy you a beer. It's that close. But the downtown bars are better. It's inevitably overrun with Wake Forest students when school is in session, which just started a couple weeks ago.

- Krankies
- Black Mountain Chocolate
- Mission pizza

Krankies is great. Chocolate is great too, can hit it as you walk from bar to bar.

I've never had mission pizza. The one time I had a gift card there I tried to go for lunch. But it is only open from like 5-9 on weekdays, kind of odd. Never did go back and try again after that card expired.

I think Foothills is way too big. Only been a couple times, dragged there by others who love it, and wasn't impressed. I prefer any of the other 5 bars I mentioned. And yeah Fiddling Fish is good too. There really is a lot of beer around here.

Forgot to mention Trophy Room is actually just half a bar. The other side of the shared space is called Dogwood Hops. So you can get plenty of beer there. They even have a fridge section where you can buy a wide variety of other beers to try. If bourbon isn't your thing.

Thanks again Stele, especially for mentioning the Dogwood side of Trophy Room; we're not much for bourbon.

Regarding Campus Gas, I'll be sure to get in touch if we end up heading that way but we probably won't make it. The weather forecast is looking a lot better, meaning that we'll probably end up spending a lot of time at the zoo and then be too tired to stray very far from downtown once we arrive.

But again, I appreciate all your thoughts. We're really looking forward to our visit.

Ted wrote:

- Greensboro Science Center (although it seems like a lot of it is outdoors, so maybe not a good backup plan for a rainy day)

Gate City checking in.

The science center has a great aquarium. That might be worth the drive if you like fish, etc. There's some other stuff inside, but all the cool stuff (except for the aquarium) is outside as you noted.

Note that the GSC is really geared for kids. Also note that it's probably a ~45 minute drive from downtown WS.

Other indoor options in Gso:
* International Civil Rights Center & Museum (downtown; it occupies the Woolworth where the sit-in movement began)
* Weatherspoon Art Museum
* Green Hill Center for NC Art
* Elsewhere

I won't list the bars and restaurants. Gso and WS have pretty much the same stuff. If you end up in downtown Gso, pretty much everything ranges from fine to good.

Also: Greensboro's minor-league baseball team, the Grasshoppers, will be in town Tues-Sun.

Thanks for all the GSO insight, Enix.

The weather forecast continues to improve so I doubt we'll make it over that way... this time.

The zoo is pretty great though. Enjoy it

If the weather ends up being clear Hanging Rock mountain is only 30 mins away!