N.C., is where historic neighborhoods, world-class museums, Southern diners, outdoor green spaces, performing arts venues, local shops, breweries and underground cocktail spots all work together to create one incredible cultural hotspot.

Here's how to eat, drink, dance and explore downtown Raleigh!

Brewery Bhavana: Paul & Celeste's favorite restaurant. A Brewery and dim sum restaurant in the heart of downtown Raleigh. The Scallion Pancake with Bone Marrow is a must! Make your reservations now or enjoy a drink at the bar, it's worth the wait!

Poole's Diner: Perhaps the most well-known restaurant among the City of Oaks' booming food scene, chef Ashley Christensen's Poole's Diner has retro-chic charm to go along with one of America's most famous mac and cheese dishes.

*** They do not take large parties or reservations.

Jimmy V's: This is a unique and modern restaurant created with Jim Valvano's passion and commitment to excellence, with 2.5% of the restaurant's revenue being donated to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Since opening in 2013 Jimmy V’s has donated over $225,000 to help find a cure for cancer.

Morgan Street Food Hall

Morgan Street Food Hall, the highly-anticipated, multi-vendor food hall located in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District, opened in summer 2018 to great fanfare and was voted one of the top 10 best new food halls in the country in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards in Jan. 2019. The repurposed warehouse, measuring 22,000 square feet, provides residents, workers and visitors a unique dining experience from a wide variety of local chefs, restaurateurs and purveyors.

Other Options:

The Pit - Authentic NC BBQ

Raleigh Times

Woody's Sports Bar (best wings in Raleigh)

Whiskey Kitchen

Bittersweet (for Dessert)

Drinks in Raleigh, N.C.

In Raleigh, N.C., the craft beverage business is booming. Breweries, wineries, distilleries, coffee roasters and more—if you can drink it, you can bet there’s a smart entrepreneur in the Raleigh area who has figured out how to make a delicious, local version of it to put in bottles, cans and kegs to share with others. There’s a reason this type of craft easily thrives in N.C.’s capital city—a culture of innovation and collaboration is built into the fabric of the community. Meaning, for example, local breweries aren’t competitors, but partners, and local restaurants and bottle shops (not to mention residents and visitors) are eager to support.

That’s why the world’s largest beer garden is in Raleigh, why the state’s first fully woman-owned brewery and first urban winery are thriving here and why the number of craft beverage makers has tripled in the last decade with no signs of slowing down.

And if you want to know some of the couple's favorites:

DogWood <-- Where Celeste and Paul Met ❤️

Raleigh Times

Haymaker (Christmas Themed Bar)

Raleigh Beer Garden

Watts & Ward