Bella Sanford!

Living in Apex gives you great access to Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. I have often thought, while they are further away, the 25 minutes it takes to drive to North Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill is no different than the 25 minutes it takes to go from one part of Manhattan, NY on the train to another part. So you must view the Triangle as your island. It is one city.

And while I had viewed the Triangle as mostly North, I had not thought about going South.

I was rummaging through some old cookbooks and ran into a card for Chad Blackwelder from the Wild Turtle restaurant in Chapel Hill (1996). The Turtle was long since closed, and we had enjoyed Chad's food (Mussels in Black Bean Ginger Sauce) and followed him to restaurants in Raleigh (Wicked Smile) and in Durham (Brightleaf 905), even as sous chef at the famed Magnolia Grill in Durham, but we had not made it to Siler City when he was at the Celebrity Dairy. (They make cheese from goats named after celebrities). http://www.celebritydairy.com/

A quick Google search showed that Chad had opened a restaurant in Sanford. The good news is that there is an autobahn from Apex to Sanford on US-1 South. No stop lights, no traffic, just as fast as you want to go over the posted speed of 65 MPH. Hello Sanford. Twenty-five minutes from Apex.

You cannot get lost in Sanford. It is impossible. Chad's restaurant feels like a red sauce Italian Pasta restaurant. (It was). But it is really down home. A place where everyone knows everyone and they get dressed up to go out on Saturday night. They visit from table to table and they stare at people not from Sanford. Oh yes, they know you are not their kind. Or kin. But don't let that stop you. The food is very good and very reasonable. Check out the menu on Chad's website. It doesn't change much. Also the Fess Parker Chardonnay was very yummy. The bottle was not big enough.

Steele Street is happening in Sanford. There is a tapas bar across the street and a drinking bar next door. If you go and they ask you who you are, just tell them you are a friend of Chad's from when he was at the Wild Turtle in Chapel Hill. It will confuse them to no end.

http://www.bellabistrodowntown.com/