With parents coming for graduation and all, my thoughts naturally drift from marine ecology to planning the menu. Initial thoughts/suggestions:

1) Four Square Restaurant
Up the road in Chapel Hill. Excellent dining, beautiful decor, highly recommended by everyone I know who's been. Also, horrendously expensive, thus probably incompatible with parental parsimony.

2) Magnolia Grill
Brilliant steaks, from what I hear, though also too upscale for me to have wandered into with friends on a Friday night. Also, a very traditional choice for post-graduation dinner.

3) Foster's
Great for brunch, magnificent selection of quality sandwiches and desserts.

4) Pao Lin
Best Chinese food on 15-501, IMHO. Ingredients are fresh and chefs aren't too heavy-handed with the MSG.

5) Bakus
Mentioned in some previous entry (Ruth Day brought us there at the end of Fall 2003). A cute little tapas bar on Ninth Street with miniscule (but delicious) portions and superlative Sangria.

6) Honey's
Quintessential Duke student's hangout, open 24 hours a day. I guess the food isn't really anything special, but it's one of those places you get nostalgic for after you leave. Their strawberry shortcake is an incredible dessert though, and probably contains about 3500 calories.

7) Maggiano's
Best. Italian food. Ever.

8) Mad Hatter's Cafe
Exquisite crabcakes with orzo pasta and red pepper sauce (have I mentioned them?) The fattest slices of cake I've ever seen served in a bakery. My favorite place to hang out and study, so we're going there by default.

Obviously, I could go on for a while, but I'll desist for now. Back to urchins.

Currently reading:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami