What's Kookin': More Than Meets the Eye

I've been a big-city (or at least a good-sized suburb) girl my whole life so I'm not totally sold on small-town USA but there is definitely something charming about places like Kernersville, NC, where my dear friends Jayne and Jason Grubbs call home.

During my years at Wake, I knew it only as the name of an area that spanned an exit or two on the way to the Greensboro-PTI Airport off of I-40... but should you get off one of those exits, you'll find there's a whole lot more.

Jayne and I were long over-due for a weekend of catching-up and what better time then the weekend of the annual Kernersville Spring Folly. So Saturday morning, after enjoying our coffee over a breakfast of delicious fruit salad and tasty little muffins, we headed out to see what the Folly had to offer.

Even under a light drizzle, people were out in full force enjoying all of the street vendors, various exhibits, carnival rides and all the traditional fair "fare" you can imagine... frozen cheesecake, dipped in chocolate sauce on a stick, roasted corn-on-the-cob, whole turkey legs, cotton candy, shaved ice, funnel cakes, any number of varieties of ice cream. We were able to show some restraint... that is, until we walked by the new coffee and wine bar, appropriately named Caleb Story.Housed in what used to be an interior design business, it didn't take much for this beautiful home to capture our attention... though, admittedly, the "Wine Tasting" sign hung prominently certainly didn't hurt. Jayne and I jumped right in for the wine tasting and Jason was content sipping his Foothills brew.

The bar will be opening late this summer; local Foothills Brewery beer on tap and wine will be featured in the evenings, but it will also be open early mornings serving gourmet coffees and pastries.

After Jason made a mental note of the operating hours of the new restaurant, we headed right across the street to the new home of his law firm, Coltrane, Grubbs, & James, PLLC.

Thankfully, I haven't needed to visit many law firms, but I doubt they all are as nice as CGJ. The offices are in a neat building rich with much history which has been carefully preserved as they redid the inside, making an absolutely beautiful and functional space. The offices weren't 100% done but promise to be just perfect at the firm's June 1st Open House... sadly, my pictures don't even begin to do the space justice.

After the official tour, we headed home to prepare for combined Derby-watching and Cinco de Mayo festivities. Katie and Scott live just down the road in Greensboro so they headed over while we prepared a big bowl of guac - complete with TJ's Spicy Flaxseed chips (I brought a little bit of DC down with me) and soy crisps, a delicious black bean salsa and cream cheese dip, always popular chips and salsa, and chili-lime chicken fajitas. Jason got to work mixing up some margs, and Katie and Scott completed the spread with a fresh corn, onion, black bean, and multi-colored pepper salad. After we were all sufficiently stuffed, we embarked on a game of Scattergories; I will only say that I now remember vividly why I haven't pulled this game out of my parents' closet in years - I was horrible! Regardless, the evening was still a blast... as a Mexican-food lover, it had been somewhat of an embarrassment that I'd never celebrated Cinco de Mayo so I was happy to take part in the festivities this first time with such delicious food and great friends.

As usual the weekend went by far too fast and before I knew it, I was on my way back up to DC by way of sitting in traffic on 95... maybe there is something about those little towns after all!