Getting Familiar with Durham

The food mecca

Southern Living Magazine called Durham the South’s tastiest town, and that’s no surprise with the amount of restaurants that have popped up over the past couple of years. One of Durham’s most recent hot spots is the Parlour—originally a food truck, the recently open store can be found at 117 Market St. and offers eclectic flavors such as avocado and purple sweet potato. Another recent Durham treat is Monut Donuts. Located on East Parrish St., try out a wide array of flavors from chocolate to salted bourbon. But in case you don’t have a strong sweet tooth, try checking out Pizza Toro on E Chapel Hill St and taste its oven-fired, homemade pizzas. You can also swing by Bull City Burger, which sits across the street from Monut Donuts, for some duck frites and a juicy bite.

Take a break from Duke

Sick of studying in Perkins? Need a change of pace? There’s a lot to do in Durham! Take a visit to the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Made famous by the 1988 movie Bull Durham, the team draws in record crowds all season long, often filling its 10,000-seat downtown stadium designed by the architects of Camden Yards. Not a sports fan? Check out the Museum of Life and Sciences at 433 West Murray Avenue, and be sure to stop by their Magic Wings Butterfly House.

Explore outside of Durham

Looking for a fun day trip? There are a lot of places you can visit that lay just thirty to forty minutes outside of Durham. Try hiking along the scenic Eno River. Two local favorites are the hiking trails at Few Ford Access and Durham’s city park, West Point on the Eno. Not an outdoor person? Drive into Chapel Hill to try out some new restaurants and shopping.

Duke favorites

There are some places most Duke students will at least check out once. If you ever need to pick-up a birthday gift or tune in for some retail therapy, head over to Southpoint Mall at 6910 Fayetville St. The mall portion of Southpoint is open until 9 p.m., but you can also head over to the movie theater afterwards as well. Also, keep an eye out for the North Carolina State Fair in October. Running every weekend in October, the state fair offers tons of rides, games and food. Just be sure not to eat the fried oreos before the Pharoh’s Fury.

Shop local

Just off of East Campus, Ninth Street has a ton of quaint stores that speak to Durham’s artistic community. Stop by Vaguely Reminiscent for some quirky gifts or eclectic earrings or Zola Craft Gallery for some fine art. You can also take a short drive to Brightleaf Square for some more shopping. Visit Offbeat Music for some vinyl records or cross the street and enter Morgan Imports and find anything you may need for your dorm room.

Workout

Don’t enjoy exercising in the gym? There are a lot of workout spots worth trying both on Duke’s campus and off. Duke’s East Campus loop is 1.64 miles long and offers a great way to see the surrounding Durham area and all of East Campus. You can also try the Al Buehler Cross Country Trail, a hilly, three-mile loop that circles around the perimeter of the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Course. There are also access points throughout Duke Forest that can offer more secluded running and hiking trails. Try the Shepherd Nature Trail located off of NC 751 at Gate C that is .8 miles long.

An afternoon delight

For both students and locals, there’s no better place to have an afternoon picnic or study session than the Sarah P. Duke Botanical Gardens. You can sunbathe on a blanket or throw a football on the spacious South Lawn or grab a seat with a book along the terrace. Watch the garden’s resident ducks and geese from one of the bridges over the pond in the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum.