Media Mission Spotlights Durham businesses

By Dathan Kazsuk & Jennifer Primrose 
Twitter: TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: trianglearoundtown

From burgers, pizzas and pies to music, art and brand new concepts. Those were just a few of the things that highlighted the Durham Media Mission on Jan. 9 inside the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

The evening was filled with local media outlets and bloggers alike, taking part in a meet-and-greet of 22 local Durham business, in an opportunity to talk about their business and share information with what's in store for 2018. Some have a heavy footprint in the city already, while others are new to the playing field. But for us, it was a chance to highlight the city's gems within our blog – which is a New Year's resolution for us.

Learning the history behind Durham's The Cookery, and how it spawned other notable businesses in the area, and how the owners are also responsible for the brewery Ponysaurus and the Ramen restaurant Dashi, started off our evening.

At the next table we chatted with Amy from Bolt PR and Dan from Pour Taproom, which resides on the first floor of the Unscripted Hotel. Dan talked about everything new in the taproom, which includes more local beers and an upgraded menu. With a free tulip glass and a $5 gift card to the taproom, we will probably be heading over there soon.

Related Story: INSIDE LOOK: Durham's Unscripted Hotel

After some beer samples we made it to East Durham Pie Company, who aren't quite open yet, but had samples on hand of a blood orange custard pie that really hit the spot after that beer. After our pie we chatted with employees at Burger City Burger & Brewery and had a few more beer samples. We also learned that Bull City also owns Pompieri Pizza in Durham (hey, we live in Raleigh and don't make it to Durham often ... it was news to us).

We had a cider discussion with Mattie Beason of Mattie B's and the Black Twig Cider House – hopefully a longer discussion on cider will wind up a blog on our site soon. We also found out about an amazing concept from Steve Frasher of County Fare – and just like the cider blog, hopefully we'll have more to come later. But something like this is going to make us Durham bound more often.

Jennie and Rachel with Durham Performing Arts Center are always great to talk to, and we talked about the upcoming performance of TRU TV's Impractical Jokers, which is coming to Durham in July. We were also able to grab a few performance posters that will eventually go up in our bonus room.

And if you are a caffeine-head, you definitely want to check out Kaffeinate, which had some free samples, and Cocoa Cinnamon, who had some fresh made churros and cold-pressed coffee samples. And ending the night – well, having a nice slice of Pie Pushers pizza would be the way to go.

We made a lot of new contacts, and we're hoping to spread the word of Durham and a lot of these great small businesses in the months ahead in 2018. Until then, we think Durham's slogan as "Where Great Things Happen" is very fitting.