It's rare that Louisburg, a small town on the extreme fringes of the Triangle, registers a blip on the local foodie radar screen. But Country Moments (204 E. Nash St.; 340-0004; www.countrymoments.net), a delightfully quirky addition to the town's restaurant lineup, offers surprising rewards to culinary adventurers willing to make the excursion.
The first surprise: When you arrive, you may think you've got the wrong address. Country Moments is part gift shop and part restaurant, and when you first walk in you're greeted by the shop's displays of primitive folk art, scented candles and Raggedy Ann dolls. Make your way to the cozy restaurant in the back of the store, where owner Deanna Reyes and chef Jo Ann Fisher team up to offer a multicultural menu that, in keeping with the shop's wares, might be described as 21st-century Americana.
Dinner, which is served on Friday and Saturday nights by reservation only, features the Puerto Rican cuisine that is Reyes' specialty: arroz con pollo, pernil asado, camarones criollos and a handful of other dishes, with starters and sides ranging from empanadas, yuca con mojo and fried plantains.
For weekday lunch, Fisher supplements Reyes' offering with her own daily changing -- and sometimes whimsical -- take on traditional American fare.
A self-taught cook, Fisher proudly notes that she makes everything from scratch, from her popular mushroom soup to the hand-rolled pastry crust on her "chicken crunch" pie. Other recent options have included pecan-encrusted salmon, pierogi casserole and a clever bacon-wrapped "filet meatloaf."
Country Moments is one of only a handful of restaurants in the area to serve Saturday brunch (from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.). And it's the only one, to my knowledge, where the options range from fricase de pollo and bistec encebollado to French toast and pork sausage casserole.
Tidbits
Good news for North Raleigh, in three flavors: The gap created by the closing of K & S Cafeteria in Six Forks Station has been filled by C&H Cafeteria (9420 Forum Drive; 848-0500; www.chcafeterias.com) which opened late last month in the same location. Popular seafood restaurant Captain Stanley's Calabashhas opened a second location in Sutton Square (6305 Falls of Neuse Road; 876-8662). Dos Taquitos (5629 Creedmoor Road; 835-3593; www.dostaquitosnc.com) is now open for lunch Monday-Friday.
On a sad note, Durham landmark Anotherthyme has closed its doors permanently after almost 30 years.
