Durham is getting national attention for it’s new, healthier oral fixation: food.

Last week there were two articles about us in the New York Times. The first was a profile on Coon Rock Farm’s latest project, the Eno Restaurant. What makes it so newsworthy? Everything served will be grown, raised and prepped by Coon Rock farmers. Even the waitstaff will tend the fields.

Why? To remind us that hamburgers aren’t made by the King or Ronald McDonald and that vegetables don’t spring from the earth pre-cut, in vacuum-sealed bags.

Durham wants you to be connected to the food you eat. But in times past, Durham wanted to connect you to something very different: tobacco.

The city’s shift from tobacco titan to gourmet upstart is the subject of the second NYT article. Chefs and owners of the city’s best restaurants recall the transition, as tobacco warehouses found other commercial uses (like McKinney’s home) and the soil switched, as a reader Tweeted, from “smoke the view to eat the view.”

Forkfuls of restaurants are mentioned by name, and the writer sounds like he actually visited us before he wrote the article, so it’s definitely worth a read.

Just want the juicy bits?  Well here’s where to get them:

Piedmont
Six Plates Wine Bar
Watts Grocery
Vin Rouge
Rue Cler
Neal’s Deli
Nana’s
Magnolia Grill
Zely&Ritz