Daniel B.
Yelp
I recommend Acme Food & Beverage Co in downtown Carrboro. Simply put, the food, drinks, and service were great. For my wife and me, this was one of our favorite and most memorable dine-out experiences in the Triangle yet.
I found this place on Yelp. Just before posting this review, it had 525 reviews which is a lot for a business in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area. Acme has stood the test of time for a restaurant, in business since 1998.
The entrance and storefront face E Main St. Free parking is available in gravel and paved lots behind the restaurant, accessible via Roberson St. You may not find parking immediately behind the restaurant, but that's okay because there's a bigger, fenced-in, municipal lot catty-corner from the tiny Bank of America teller building and ATM.
I booked our reservation online through Acme's website which links to the reservation service Tock. This was my first time using Tock. I use OpenTable the most, followed by Resy. Unlike OpenTable, Tock and Resy don't offer rewards. It's simply a platform to self-book reservations.
Acme is open for dinner only, Wednesday-Sunday, 5-9pm. On a Thursday evening at 6:30pm, the restaurant's patio was full, but the inside dining room had plenty of open tables.
Acme is known for its local Southern seasonal food and cocktails. However, the kitchen and bar serve much more including seafood, desserts, bourbon, and whiskey. For example, one of the specials the night we went was halibut. This is a New American farm-to-table restaurant that supports local and sustainable farms and purveyors.
During our visit, most appetizers ranged in price from $8-13 each, entrees were $18-29 each, sides $6 each, and desserts $8 each. North Carolina draft beers were $7 each and cocktails, bourbon, whiskey, etc. $9-15 each. The bar offers a variety of wine too. In addition to the wine on the food and drink menu, we were given a separate wine list too.
Here's what we went with:
Firsts
* Shooting Point Oysters (12 for $24) - Eastern Shore, VA; champagne mignonette
* Southern Tomato Pie ($13) - heirloom tomato, Duke's, Ashe County cheddar, Chapel Hill Creamery Hickory Grove cheese, basil
* Smoked NC Tuna ($13) - local melon and cucumber, lemon, Georgia olive oil, crunchy salt
Mains
* Cast-Iron NY Strip ($29) - Leon's chimichurri, smashed fingerling potatoes, crunchy salt
* Firsthand Foods NC Pork Chop ($27) - gnocchi alla Romana, stewed eggplant & tomato, sweet pepper agrodolce
Dessert
* Summer Peach Cobbler ($8) - blackberry ice cream
* Pecan Pie ($8) - brown butter ice cream, bourbon hard sauce
Cocktails
* Brown Sugar ($11) - bourbon, brown sugar, lemon, spicy ginger ale
* Rosemary Street ($11) - Durham Distillery Conniption American Dry Gin, lemon, rosemary syrup, tonic
Everything was delicious. There wasn't anything we were disappointed with nor thought was just average. The only things keeping Acme from five stars in my book were some minor details could be improved and I think they could've perhaps branched out a little more with the menu. Then again, I realize this is Carrboro and not a big city, so maybe I'm asking for too much there.
I love raw oysters and enjoyed the Shooting Point Oysters. They tasted fresh and had a good brininess to them. With the oysters, the champagne mignonette was fine. There was no hot sauce, crackers, nor small forks, all of which would've been ideal. We ate the oysters, some of which were kind of small, with our big dinner forks. Also, there were lots of annoying broken shell bits in the oysters which I'm not sure was the product of the oyster type, the shucking, or both (or something else). Anyway, these definitely weren't run-of-the-mill Gulf oysters, so that was nice.
The Southern Tomato Pie was the best tomato pie I've had anywhere. It was incredibly flavorful and satisfying, packed full of umami. The Smoked NC Tuna was unique in that I'm not sure I've had tuna served in this way, sliced raw, but not like sushi. I thought this appetizer had a terrific and interesting combination of flavors and textures.
The entrees and desserts were outstanding. I loved them all and highly recommend each. If I had to nitpick, I think the NY Strip, which came sliced, was lacking a bit in meat portions. The steak, together with the chimichurri, tasted excellent. All around, the Pork Chop dish was fantastic. Every component was very good. Do save room for dessert because wow, the Peach Cobbler and Pecan Pie, both with large scoops of ice cream, were absolutely magnificent.
We liked both the Brown Sugar and Rosemary Street cocktails. They were both tasty and refreshing with the Brown Sugar being the stronger of the two. Despite appearances, neither drink tasted watered-down. I do think the presentation of the cocktails could have been better. The cocktails were served in standard pint glasses.
Service was phenomenal. Our server was Ellen Y. She was really sweet and did an amazing job. Everyone who came to our table was friendly.