Weaver Street Market-The Food

The Cafe at Weaver Street is one of the better bargains, and if you add wine or beer to your meal, it will be the best value of any restaurant/cafe in Carrboro.

The choices are almost endless. Sometimes we'll purchase a loaf of bread, cheese, a dip, and some cold cuts. Other times, maybe put together a plate from the salad bar, hot table and/or grab some suishi. One of our favorite dishes is to take a container of queso, put it in the microwave in a ceramic bowl, heat it for 2-3 minutes until it's melted and then we have a delicious dip to dunk our bread or crackers in. If you're going to use the microwave, be aware that you can't use the plastic containers that most of the food is sold in. We made that mistake with the vegetable lasagna once and ended up with a melted glob of plastic and lasagna sitting on the bottom of the microwave.

The hot bar food generally is ok... it looks great, but is not gourmet. It's basically cafeteria food(and style) with spices added and my guess is that there is no chef in the back, just employees following recipes and not making the little adjustments to the dishes that someone would make if they tasted them. I think there may be a problem with quality control and sometimes it feels like the stock market... an up or down day with the potatoes. I can pretty much tell when the potatoes are going to be good just by looking at them.(Sometimes they are very dry because they've been overcooked).

It can also be a good idea to leave the last bit of any given dish on the hot table(because it's probably been sitting there for awhile) and waiting for a fresh batch to come out.

If The Cafe were only an indoor cafe, I'm not sure how much I would eat there, but when you add the outdoor eating area with a lawn and picnic tables and a bottle(or two or more) of wine at retail price, you suddenly realize that you're getting value. A couple of people can eat and drink a bottle of wine for $20-30. Try doing that in a restaurant!

If you want gourmet cafeteria-style food I would recommend Wholefoods, but the disadvantage is that you want to enjoy outside dining you'll have to sit on a sidewalk bordering a huge parking lot. In most cases the gasoline exhaust fumes impact negatively on the taste of the gourmet food.

Since Weaver Street is the closest thing you're going to find to a European Style plaza where you can socialize and drink without going broke(or knowing that the management wants you out so they can put someone else at your table), this is the place to go.

 

 

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