Raleigh Reveries

I have a special place in my hard heart for a few cherished places in old Raleigh. Some still stand but I haven't visited them in ages; others are gone with the cruel winds of change.

The Hard Wok Buffet is the first to come to mind. Out of business for a couple of years now, it operated in Pleasant Valley Promenade, a charming late-'80s suburban shopping center. Tucked away in the second level where you'd never know it was there (possibly leading to its demise), the Hard Wok offered a budget-priced, gut-busting, all-you-can-cram-in-your-cakehole array of greasy Asian cuisine, such as sesame chicken and egg rolls, mixed with even greasier American heart-cloggers, like pizza rolls and french fries. I would always start with 4 or 5 crabs Rangoon. A little-used salad bar sat at the back (like I'm gonna pay $6 and fill up on fucking iceberg lettuce and dressing), and a plentiful dessert area boasted sugary pastries and soft-serve ice cream, which I'd always visit at least twice after 3 or 4 plates of General Tso's, guaranteeing a copious bowel movement later in the day.

Brothers Pizza on Hillsborough Street was a Raleigh icon. Everyone was shocked and saddened when they closed their doors. Practically everyone my age had at least one birthday party there as a child. I would often dine there for lunch when I was a student at NCSU, taking advantage of their $5 salad & slice combo.

Fat Daddy's, near the aforementioned Pleasant Valley Promenade, still stands, I just miss it because I haven't been there in many, many years. My family used to go there once or twice a month in the '80s. I still remember smelling the waffle cones at the ice cream bar every time I entered. Someday I'll go again.

Don Murray's Barbecue bit the dust a few years back. They had a simple but satisfying all-you-can-eat Eastern N.C. BBQ buffet, complete with unlimited banana pudding. They will be sorely missed.

Moving away from eateries: my favorite spot on the NCSU campus was the Foreign Language Lab in the old laundry building. It was a room full of computers, each in its own little carroll and equipped with decent headphones intended for studying foreign language programs. The room was cool and comfortable, and few people knew of this lab's existence, making it a very quiet, uncrowded place to go for extended surfing sessions. a stark contrast to another lab in the same building where the suckers went. That one was always crowded, noisy, stuffy, and had uncomfortable chairs. I spent many hours in the language lab one semester when I skipped nearly every class in a certain course where the professor never took attendance, never gave tests, and lectured for an hour. I only showed up to hand in papers and deliver oral reports.

My second-favorite spot would have been the big lounge in Caldwell Hall. I would often hang out there when I had an hour between classes and either do homework for the next class or just read.

Pleasant Valley Promenade had a seven-screen movie theater in its golden age. I can only distinctly remember seeing two movies there: Dennis the Menace and The General's Daughter. I'm sure there were others. The same shopping center also used to have a Best Buy, where I said farewell to the pricier independent music stores and bought CDs for $4 or $5 less. There, I remember witnessing the gradual transition from VHS to DVD: around 1999 there was one row of shelves for DVDs and the rest was VHS; by 2002, it was practically all DVDs. The Dollar Tree was always a fun stop when I was out there. Also at Pleasant Valley was a Michael's Art Supply, which sadly moved out to Capital Fucking Boulevard. After Best Buy moved down to Crabtree, replacing Pier One Imports, and Hard Wok joined Chairman Mao at that Chinese buffet in the sky, I had no more reason to go to that hallowed center of commerce.

North American Video was, and continues to be, your classic independent video rental store. Surprisingly, it's still in business, even through the shitty economy and up against Redbox and Netflix. My old school chum and I would go there practically once a week. I still have my card from the '90s; wonder if it still works?

Third Place continues to thrive. It's the quintessential indie coffee shop, complete with hippie baristas and freaky emos taking up space on the couch. Back when my folks used to work in the area, we'd often meet there for coffee. I think the clientele of weirdos and the recurring fly problem eventually made us all lose interest, moving on to Hereghty's, a much classier coffee & pastry shop where well-bred gentle-folk refresh themselves at marble-topped tables.