A night on the town (Chapel Hill NC)

Wall of Liquor at Crunkleton

What a great town, the growing but still adorable place where I went to graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill. Saturday night my brother, his wife and I drove from their house in the country north of Raleigh for an evening in the Hill.
We started and ended at a fantastic bar called The Crunkleton (did not learn the story behind the name), where we tried several wondrous "craft cocktail" concoctions, our favorite of which was the house version of Old Fashioned. When we arrived at 7 PM things were rather quiet. After walking a couple of blocks and having dinner at Elaine's (a highly regarded Chapel Hill dining destination), we returned to Crunkleton and the joint was jumping.
While the fare at Elaine's was good, I imagine the kitchen wasn't at the top of its game, since we found the food to be a little spotty, and the only dish we all thought stellar was the warm chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream (dessert, obviously). So the highlight of the night definitely was the bar.

Craft Cocktails a Highlight at "Eat Local for the Globe"

Molly Wellmann with Woodstone Creek Vodka

We may all have melted at Findlay Market's fundraiser if not for Molly Wellmann's refreshing, from-scratch cocktails. Although the temperature was at or above 90 all evening -- the event ran from 6 - 9 PM -- Molly juiced countless citrus fruits and mixed Norwood's own Woodstone Creek vodka with many other interesting ingredients to cool us all down while we sampled food treats from several of Findlay Market's vendors. In the photo, Molly is holding a bottle of this locally distilled vodka. (Check out the Woodstone Creek website to see the other liquors they make, and find out where you can buy some.)
Her Summer Breeze was based on grapefruit juice and lavender,  Johnny Iced Tea had fresh apple juice among its ingredients, and (my favorite) China Garden combined cucumber juice and lychee nuts with some of that local vodka.
Beyond the cocktails, we liked a bison ribeye salad from Fresh Table best of the several food choices. Dojo Gelato also had an interesting "float" with fermented pineapple (from Fab Ferments) and basil gelato.

Pretzel Bites

Vietnamese Sandwiches

Molly's Table