Midtown Magazine

By Jennifer Primrose Think you have to leave North Carolina to find wine country? Think again. With more than 200 wineries and vineyards across the state, North Carolina has built a wine industry you can’t overlook. From the mountains to the coast, growers are working with an increasingly diverse range of grapes and winemakers are producing award-winning wines—while many wineries have become destinations in their own right.

Thin Mints have some new company. Girl Scouts just revealed two new additions for the 2027 cookie season—including a first that may have your dog begging for a box. Girl Scout Cookie season is about to look a little different in 2027—and this time, there’s something new for both people and their four-legged friends. Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines has announced two first-of-their-kind additions to next year’s lineup: Patch Pals and Girl Scout Sparkables.

By Dathan Kazsuk Yes, there are steaks. Big ones. There are bottles of wine worth lingering over, cocktails at the bar, and a dining room that still feels like going out to dinner is supposed to feel like something. But spend enough time at Sullivan’s and you start to realize the steak may only be part of the reason people keep coming back. “We’re more neighborhood friendly,” says Assistant General Manager Ian Gans.

By Dathan Kazsuk One thing I’ve learned recently: The Midtown magazine staff really loves bagels. So when I got word that Ryan McEvoy, the local franchisee behind three Jeff’s Bagel Run locations in the Triangle, wanted to team up with Midtown magazine and have us create one sweet and one savory bagel for fall, I was immediately game. What I didn’t know was just how seriously everyone else would take the assignment.

More than 91,000 square feet in new office leases, fully committed retail space, and an October groundbreaking for Life Time are pushing the Midtown Raleigh development into its next chapter. For years, The Exchange Raleigh has been selling an ambitious vision for its 40-acre Midtown campus: offices, restaurants, outdoor space, wellness, residential development and entertainment all woven together into something that feels less like an office park and more like a neighborhood.

By Samantha Carson Some shops invite you to browse. The Newsagent’s invites you to linger. Located in the historic Mahler Building on Fayetteville Street, it’s part coffee shop, part vintage media emporium. It’s the kind of place where you stop for a latte and leave an hour later with a stack of paperbacks, a vinyl record you forgot you loved, and a renewed appreciation for the joy of discovering something offline.

Hooked on Fall at Carolina Beach and Kure Beach Cooler days, smaller crowds and some of the year’s best fishing make Pleasure Island an easy fall escape—whether you’re chasing red drum, booking an offshore charter or simply waiting for someone else to catch dinner. By September, the Carolina coast starts to exhale. The biggest summer crowds begin to thin. Temperatures become a little more forgiving.

Durham’s dining scene will add a serious dose of Michelin-level experience next year when Durham native Alex Catotti returns home to open two new restaurant concepts with his wife and business partner, pastry chef Erin Kobler. Restaurant Cornelia and The Vintner and The Baker are slated to open in spring 2027 at 949 Washington Street in downtown Durham. Catotti returns to the Triangle after building his career in some of the country’s most celebrated kitchens.

The Houses That Looked Like the Future Story by Dathan Kazsuk | Photos by Jessica Bratton I ‘ll admit it: Before I sat down with George Smart at his Durham home, I didn’t know much about modernist houses. I knew the look, at least in the loose way most people do. Flat roofs. Big glass. Sharp lines. The kind of house you drive past and think someone with better taste than the rest of us must live there.

The Houses That Looked Like the Future Story by Dathan Kazsuk | Photos by Jessica Bratton I ‘ll admit it: Before I sat down with George Smart at his Durham home, I didn’t know much about modernist houses. I knew the look, at least in the loose way most people do. Flat roofs. Big glass. Sharp lines. The kind of house you drive past and think someone with better taste than the rest of us must live there.