The Triangle’s ‘Restaurant Week’ presents a taste of a changing region

There wasn’t always a Triangle Restaurant Week – this year it goes from Monday through June 11. No, not that long ago, if you wanted fancy in Raleigh you went to the Angus Barn. and if you wanted dependable fare at a reasonable price, you went to Ballentine’s Cafeteria or the Players Retreat.

But about 90 restaurants – 90 – across the Triangle will be participating in the Dream Week for foodies, with restaurants showcasing themselves with fixed three-course menus for lunch and dinner at set prices. It’s a chance for diners to sample virtually every kind of cuisine there is and feel like adventurous Parisians.

Older Chapel Hillians. Bull City residents and Raleighites might be stunned by the number, but millennials and young professionals who are just out of millennialhood love their sushi and Thai and fusions of different cultures and countries. And while many restaurants will come and go, others will stick around, no pot-sticker pun intended. Food has become part of the culture hereabouts, and that’s all to the good.

So let’s hope we can all embrace as many adventures in dining as we can work in during Restaurant Week, and be as brave as we were the first time our moms insisted we try liver.

OK, we still don’t like liver, but that’s not the point. C’est la vie.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "The Triangle’s ‘Restaurant Week’ presents a taste of a changing region."