LaGrone::Joel Ibarra wants you to know that he's opening a Mexican restaurant. He also wants you to know that it's not a quesadilla-burrito-combo No. 7 kind of restaurant.

LaGrone::Celebrate shrimp, seaweed and other sushi staples soon at North Hills. Mura, a Japanese sushi, teppan and hibachi restaurant, will be slicing the fish very thin starting in August.

LaGrone::So you like ice cream, early rock 'n' roll and hosiery? Then we've got just the North Raleigh event.

LaGrone::The story of a North Raleigh furniture liquidation center has turned the page to Chapter 11. Furniture Liquidation Warehouse with three locations North of the Beltline, is holding an every thing-must-go sale until its inventory is gone.

LaGrone::Frankie's Fun Park, a chain of go-kart tracks, arcades and batting cages will hold a soft opening of its latest location in North Raleigh in about a month.

LaGrone::A well-heeled and well known Cary eatery has dipped its toe in North Raleigh waters.

LaGrone::Ordinarily, fireworks and pets don't mix. But Suzanne Vickers and her buddies at A Cat's Tale are selling sparklers and snap-n-pops to raise funds to spay and neuter residents of her no-kill animal shelter.

LaGrone::Lipsticked looks are on the way. Ulta, an Illinois-based cosmetics firm, has leased a 9,160-square-foot space in Triangle Town Commons, set to open in late fall.

LaGrone::Can Key West fishing experts hook North Raleigh anglers for gear? Ken and Tracie Merwitzer hope so. The couple opened Carolina Outdoor Sportsman, a store that specializes in hunting and fishing supplies. The 2,500-square-foot location in Harvest Oak

LaGrone::Hey yo, you like pesto al fresco beneath condos? Then just wait until October for the Tuscan destination, Vivace, opening on the ground floor of The Alexan, new condos across from North Hills. The Italian restaurant (pronounced vi-vah-che, it means

LaGrone::The City of Raleigh apparently is not big on advertising.

LaGrone::Our innovative and athletic friends at The Factory will be throwing up more venues for the active at the beginning of the summer.

LaGrone::Chris Bender, the restaurant impresario who brought Raleigh Five Star, the Hargett Street Chinese restaurant with a hip-hop flavor, signed a lease this week for a new restaurant venture in North Hills.

LaGrone::Springtime '05 is the season for flowers, kissy-face lovey-dovey stuff -- and a no-holds-barred, farmers' market steel-cage grudge match.

LaGrone::After a peppering of soft openings, an eclectic tenant mix and lots and lots of mentions in this column, The Factory -- come on, say it with me, the former Athey street sweeper plant off of U.S. 1 in Wake Forest -- is holding its grand opening at the

LaGrone::The instructors are virtual, but the sweat is real. Butterfly Life, a total lifestyle-fitness destination for ladies, opened April 11 in Brier Creek Commons at the intersection of U.S. 70 and Brier Creek Parkway.

LaGrone::A 50-year-old book store is taking a two-block jaunt south on Old Wake Forest Road.

LaGrone::Brier Creek Commons is well on its way to cornering the Triangle market on varieties of pan-Asian restaurants. Not one, but three eateries are lo-mien locations at the shopping center on the corner of U.S. 70 and Brier Creek Parkway, just north of th

LaGrone::Another inside-the-Beltline rags peddler may be digging new trenches in the never-ending Raleigh apparel war.

LaGrone::And now shout-outs to my gourmands north of the Beltline -- y'all may be getting some more fodder.