Table 16 had them in April. Not sure whether they are on the menu now.

Did you not spend any time in Austin? There are over 15 breweries in that town. Jester King is developing a national reputation for its creativity and Live Oak makes one of the best hefeweizens brewed in the US. 512 and Hops and Grain are both quite good, too.

What about Freetail in San Antonio, Deep Ellum in Dallas, Southern Star and Saint Arnold in Houston?

I have had impressive beers from all of these breweries. Texas got a late start but the beer scene (at least in the metro areas) is much better than you suggest.

Coast does makes HopArt. They also make a great double IPA and a great imperial stout. I can't think of any Asheville brewers whose IPAs, double IPAs and imperial stouts are as good.

With respect to Wicked Weed, they are doing both barrel-aged beers and sours. I'm not aware of any other Asheviile brewery that is that ambitious.

Regarding the beer scene in Charleston vs. Asheville, there is no question that there are a lot more breweries in Asheville, but I would argue that COAST, Westbrook and Holy City can take on Asheville's best and hold their own. Other than Wicked Weed, I find Asheville's breweries good, not great.

You can get sandwiches and other dishes, in addition to gelato, at Gnam Gnam. With a three year old, sticking with one place might be easier.

Another idea would be to pick up picnic items from Fresh Market and eat outside at the Guilford Courthouse battleground park.

Of the other places you mentioned, none get me very excited though I admit that of them I only have been to Village Tavern and Vietnamese Garden within the past year and am not a fan of either restaurant. Village Tavern is too much like an Applebee's and the bowl of pho I had at VG was the most disappointing example of that dish I have ever consumed. When a Vietnamese restaurant doesn't have Asian servers, watch out.

I am very partial to the veggie plate at the New Garden Diner, a restaurant that is utterly lacking in atmosphere. The kind of restaurant I typically wouldn't set foot in, I discovered by accident that most, if not all, of their vegetables are fresh. I never eat anything else there, though my teenage daughter says they make a decent burger.

Over the last month, I have tasted a number of interesting lambic or American Wild style beers from brewers such as Upland, Crooked Stave and Alamanac using ingredients such as persimmon, passion fruit, plum, pear and ginger. I wouldn't call them "hacky" at all.

For those of us not in the know, what is Chef Moss' new venture?

I was just in Asheville a few weeks ago and had an experience with a waitress that I was characterize as passive aggressiveness. I left the restaurant it was so bad and went to another place where I had a great waitstaff experience. I think in Asheville, some servers have an attitude of cool disdain for those they don't perceive to come from the "alternative" social strata as they do. It may not be widespread but I have heard others complain about it as well. BTW, I really enjoy visiting Asheville and most of the time my trips pass without incident.

Nothing unusual there. Just another day in the Asheville dining scene. The town has more than its share of servers with attitude,

I cannot believe that none of you were drinking Blackout Stout!

Yes, Minneapolis. The high end restaurants have good beer lists, too. There are plenty of tremendous local beer bars. The area has some great local breweries (Surly, IMO, is better than any of the NYC area breweries and Harriet and Steel Toe are two new, very promising breweries). And, with Minneapolis Town Hall, it has a better brewpub than anything in the NYC area.

I get to NYC half a dozen times a year. Brooklyn has a great beer scene. Manhattan is getting much, much better but it is still way behind Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Austin and the west coast cities. I would put Manhattan on a par with Boston, Minneapolis and Cleveland, all of which have very good beer scenes as well.

Philadelphia is way ahead of any other city east of the Rockies when it comes to the beer scene. You can go into just about any restaurant or bar and find multiple craft options and that just doesn't happen in Chicago and certainly not in NYC.

In addition to the places mentioned by cwdonald, there is also a new brewpub out in Ardmore called Tired Hands which is going to give Russian River a run for its money.

A very West Coast centric list, I am afraid. I travel a lot and have been to most of the places listed and while they all have their merits, any list that doesn't include Philadelphia in its top 10 is suspect in my book. It is not just about what breweries are located in the area but about the beer scene overall. And, for my two cents, Philadelphia is as beer-centric a place as any in the country save Portland.

Even though I live in North Carolina, I would agree that Asheville does not deserve a top 10 ranking. Lots of breweries there, but little that is knock your socks off impressive. I do have high hopes for a new brewpub there called Wicked Weed, that may lift the scene to a new level.

I think Austin merits consideration, as does Minneapolis. Charleston, SC, is a place to watch.

While I haven't been to African Continental, I would choose Table 16 over the others. I just think they have the best chef in town.

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The coffee business is a tough one - they had a longer run than most independents. That said, places like 3 Cups need to be in downtown Chapel Hill or Carrboro, not in a remote mall location.

I had a fried chicken and kim chee sandwich with miso mayonnaise there today for lunch. Sounded more interesting than it tasted, frankly. My dining colleague had the black bean burger with pimento cheese and fried okra and thought it rather bland.

Based only on those two items, I would say that the menu sounds more interesting and creative than the delivered product, though I would say the sample size was too small to deliver a definitive opinion.

I haven't lived in Charlotte for some time and cannot comment on the new places but I never thought of Old Hickory House as being authentic NC BBQ. Heck, they serve Texas Toast and, IIRC, the sauce is rather thick. I always thought of it as more of a GA style and, while my memory is foggy, I think that is where the owner may be from.

I never felt that there was any great authentic NC BBQ in Charlotte when I lived there, either, to echo an earlier comment. Maybe some of the newer places serve it but I always felt you had to go to Shelby, Salisbury or Lexington to get good Lexington-style BBQ. And if you want good Eastern-style, keep driving east for three or more hours.

Correct you are. My old memory failed me on that one!

Just to clarify, Mama Dip's is on Rosemary Street in downtown Carrboro. It is only close to the Dean Dome in a relative sense - certainly not within easy walking distance.

Never heard of this place before. Can you tell us more about it. If you have been to Ye Old Country Kitchen in Snow Camp, how does it compare?

It sounded like BS to me, too.

I would like to hear/read a more balanced discussion about GM foods, as I am rather skeptical about some of the blanket claims being made against GM practices. Perhaps there are some genetic combinations that might be problematic (and I am thinking here about using animal gene sequences in plants), but I suspect that there is also a lot of beneficial research that comes from the work in the labs, as well.

Cellar temperature, otherwise you will mask the flavor. Also, to get your curiosity out of the way, drink a bottle now. I have had the beer a few times and I don't particularly care for it fresh - way too sweet and boozy. It is with a few years of age that it is best. I had a taste of the 1999 last weekend that, with 13 years of age on it, tasted superbly.

If you in the part of Jersey that is near Philly, you can occasionally find the Russian River beers there. They come and go quickly when they are in stock, however. Good luck on your quest.

Also, if you haven't tried them yet, Kane Brewing's Head High and Overhead are really fine NJ-brewed examples of the IPA and DIPA styles. Only available on draft, however.

You are very unlikely to find anyone that has all of those beers as they are not widely distributed out of their home markets (the bs that that flummoxes you is that those breweries don't produce enough to distribute their beers on a nationwide basis). So a Russian River trader will likely live in CA, a Heady Topper trader will live in Vermont and a Zombie Dust trade will live in the Chicago area.

Anyway, their are active trading forums on beeradvocate.com and ratebeer.com and I would suggest that you post your request there.

That is the definitive resource.

Johnson and Wales has been open in Charlotte since that time and, while the Charlotte restaurant scene has improved, if I were choosing a desitination based solely on the restaurant choices, I would still choose Charleston over Charlotte.

By the way, this has been an interesting discussion, though it has gotten a bit snarky for my tastebuds. The crux of it is should you measure a city by the quality of its finest chefs (Emilybh) or by a broader range of dining options (the others). I can see the merits to both sides but I don't think they are mutually exclusive.

We went to Short Sugars this past Saturday and were terribly disappointed. My wife had the Q and I went for the ribs (a Saturday special). We don't plan to make a return visit.

Looking over the menu, I was excited to try Blue Goat but my dinner there last night was subpar. My wife had the duck confit and pork belly, while I had the pork cheeks. Surprisingly, all three meats tasted quite similar - very gamey, almost as if they had been aged together.

Normally, these three items (confit, pork belly and "anything" cheeks) would be at the top of our list but in this case they were dominated by the off flavors. While one dish was served with pumpkin spaetzle and spinach and the other was served with a white beer cassoulet, even the sides tasted similar.

Perhaps we caught them on a bad night or chose our dishes poorly, so I would be interested in the experiences of others.