Menu Specials

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House Riesling

Our bar manager, Ian Willis, looks at the house Riesling in our latest video.

Green

Here at 518 we feel a responsibility to run the business in a way that minimizes our impact on the environment.

We buy fresh and local when we can and choose organic when it makes sense. We use polenta ground locally in Guilford County and goat Cheese (chevre) from Nash County. Local companies such as Cornocopia in Hillsborough and Capri Flavors in Morrisville provide us with many of our specialty products while U.S. Foods located in Zebulon provides us with many of our groceries. We also go to the farmers market to shop for North Carolina seasonal produce. At every point we source our products as close to nature and with the least amount of refinement possible, because that’s the way we like to eat.

When we began building 518 back in the mid ‘90’s there weren’t many “green measures” to guide us. But we recycled the brick in the building, both to maintain the historic integrity and to lower the impact at the landfill. All of the ironwork was custom cast by a local company in Pittsboro. The building’s original heart pine beams were sent away to be milled into our airlock and to provide the flooring for the upstairs portion of the restaurant.

Our to-go containers are made from either a compostable corn based material or from a sugar cane by-product. We use unbleached brown bags for bread. These all have a smaller impact on the environment than petroleum based plastic, which takes ages to break down in landfills. It also eliminates the bleach used to whiten paper sacks that ultimately leaches into the rivers near the paper mills.

And we have always recycled our cardboard, even before it was mandated by the city. Today we recycle all of our glass as well. We pay extra for this service, but it feels like the right thing to do. What we learned at 518 helped our sister restaurant in RTP, Mez Contemporary Mexican, to recently become the first LEED certified restaurant in North Carolina!

All these efforts come together to make 518 a more eco-friendly restaurant for you.

Blaine

Summer means local produce

Pick a summer afternoon and you're likely to see Blaine over at the North Carolina Farmer's Market searching for ingredients to make his next weekly special. He gives us the tour in our latest video.

New weekly menu specials

There's plenty of fresh local choices on this week's specials menu.

The Crab...a season inside

This year we were looking for an activity outside of the restaurant to initiate more team building and encourage everyone towards a sense of fellowship. We discussed joining an organized sport through the city of Raleigh with trepidation since six years ago we made an attempt at athletic team building with dodgeball, an activity we determined to be too demanding and strenuous (our 0-10 record spoke volumes). In came the grand idea of softball, a nice, leisurely sport, and interest was high amongst the staff. Soon 518’s official softball team, The Crab, was born.

We looked forward to a great season with the city of Raleigh's softball program. We began on a high note, winning our first game 8-5. Unfortunately The Crab did not experience much more success until two months and ten games later when we finally won again...via forfeit (they did not have enough players).

Many of our games were close, some were not, but through it all, we played our best and worked hard for each other. A tough season yes, but one that brought us all closer together as friends and generated a camaraderie I will not soon forget.


Check out more images of The Crab in action.

skirt! after work

Tomorrow it's our monthly skirt! after work party from 5:30-7:30 at 518. This month's theme is "I'm a feminist because..."

Enjoy $5 skirtinis and toast some of the featured feminists from this month's magazine. Look forward to seeing you here.