By Sarah Mausert
Check out the grand opening of the new restaurant, 41Hundred, inside the Renaissance Hotel at North Hills in Raleigh, on Tuesday, July 25 from 5 to 8 PM. There will be complimentary bites from the restaurant menu as well as free samples from TOPO distillery, Bombshell Beer Company, and Aviator Brewing.
I recently got a peek at the new restaurant and meeting area, as well as some bites from the shareable plates on the dinner menu. For the directionally challenged, like myself, when you enter the lobby, go right, in between the lobby desk and the staircase, you’ll find the bar and behind is the restaurant. There is USB access at almost every seat in the bar. Need to charge your phone? Need to recharge from shopping? Head to the bar! The fully stocked bar includes a list of about 5 local beers on tap that will rotate seasonally and three TVs for entertainment.
Chef Dean Thompson has put together a delicious menu that includes salads, sandwiches and burgers for lunch as well as shareable plates and a few larger entrees for dinner. The tuna poke was tasty. Personally, I would probably eat this by itself as a nice light dinner, perfect in the summer time. It was dressed with avocado, sesame, soy, and wasabi aioli with plantain chips on the side. It’s only available on the dinner menu, but there is an ahi tuna banh mi on the lunch menu if you’re at the restaurant earlier in the day.
There are some great vegetarian options including a roasted cauliflower and artichoke plate served with baba ganoush, olives and harissa as well as a halloumi plate with figs, almonds, and heirloom tomatoes. I am admittedly not a fan of artichokes, olives, or tomatoes, but I found myself enjoying everything on both plates and would happily order them again.
My favorite plate of the day was the Korean BBQ wings served with sriracha aioli and a colorful selection of carrots. The wings were sticky and sweet and delicious. A fun and surprising menu item is the oxtail poutine. Oxtail in a rich gravy, served over house made fries, with cheese curd and green onion. Local Canadians, go check it out and let me know what you think. Again, it’s only available on the dinner menu, but during lunch, there’s an oxtail grilled cheese that sounds like it would hit the spot. Lastly, the steak tacos with Asian sprouts, radish, garlic and soy would be a great option for lunch or dinner. They’re served in soft flour tortillas, had great flavor, and were nice and juicy.
There are a few dessert options available. There’s locally sourced ice cream in five flavors, I tried the banana pudding and butter almond. The banana pudding is definitely true to flavor and sweet. The butter almond was my favorite, it’s less sweet and more interesting in flavor. The queen of the dessert menu, however, is Chef’s Hot Cheesecake. The recipe was handed down to him from another chef and he is forbidden to share it. It sounds quite labor/time intensive but the result is a lovely light bite of cheesecake with all the heavenly flavor. It’s available for indulgence at lunch or dinner.
If you go up the aforementioned stairs to the right of the restaurant there is an open meeting space with two large TVs and a projection screen. It would be a great place to host an event. There is also one of the coolest ping pong tables that I’ve ever seen which doubles as a meeting table.
Go check out the grand opening on July 25 from 5 to 8 PM.
Author: Sarah was born a yankee, but has been a Durhamite for ten years now. She enjoys red wine, bourbon, her dogs, Captain and Morgan, and her cats, Johnny and Walker.
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