Praise for Durham's Bull City Burger and Brewery

Authentic. That word carries a lot of weight in Durham, and those that exemplify it get a lot of community support. Seth Gross, and his first restaurant, Bull City Burger and Brewery are featured in an article in the national magazine Quick Service Review that celebrates places like BCBB that focus on quality, and not quantity, and it is through quality that Gross and his team demonstrate authenticity.

Not only does Gross source nearly everything within a tight radius, but the restaurant makes just about everything in house from scratch. Gross, a trained chef and experienced brewer, also makes all the beer they sell in house, too.

The article highlights some of the nation's most revered independent eateries that fall into the quick service concept. These are not fine dining establishments, and BCBB does not offer table service - patrons order at a counter or at the bar - but it is fine eating and drinking.

Read the article here, and about all of Durham's restaurants that have earned high praise like this here.  As always, planning a trip to Durham is easy online.

Pompieri Pizza Contest Will Give Away Free Pizza for a Year

As the Tastiest Town in the South, Durham's ever-expanding food scene has welcomed newcomer Pompieri Pizza to town with open mouths and hungry stomachs. It joins the ranks of other artisan pizza restaurants in Durham, and in a style typical of owner Seth Gross, there's a great twist filled with intellect and heart...

...and creativity, too.  

Pompieri Pizza, the newest venture from Gross who is chef/sommelier/restaurateur/brewmaster of Bull City Burger and Brewery, one of Durham's Celebrated Cuisine restaurants, a distinction earned by restaurants that have been covered in major media.

In April, Pompieri will host a Pizza Box Contest that invites customers to decorate a pizza box to be judged by a panel who will award several lucky winners in two age brackets a pizza and a nonalcoholic drink every week for a year. Learn more about the Pizza Box Contest and how to participate. Ever the creative marketer, Gross runs a program at his brewery where annually he hides five golden bulls and posts clues on how to find them. Like the pizza box contest, those who find the bulls win a weekly food prize, as well.

Pompieri Pizza focuses on Neapolitan-style pizza fired in wood fired ovens in open view of the dining room. The restaurant is located inside Durham's historic fire station #1 originally built in the 1890s. The restaurant espouses a "back-to-scratch" and "farm-to-fork" philosophy focused on making everything in-house including hand stretching the mozzarella cheese.

Very family friendly with lots for your diners to see, the restaurant has several unique features such as the fire engine red fire fighter’s bar filled with memorabilia of Durham Fire Department’s history as well as an indoor aquaponic basil garden where fish tank water feeds plants and plants clean the water for the fish.


Durham's food scene is renowned for its chef-driven culture and its farm-to-fork offerings. Pompieri joins the ranks of many other Durham restaurants that have made the place an internationally celebrated dining destination.

A Different Kind of Biker Bar

Durham is The Tastiest Town in the South, and now visitors and residents alike and see it and experience it in a whole new (maybe slightly tipsy?) way.

The Biker Bar NC is a fourteen seat human powered bicycle with riders facing one another around a center bar area while a bike captain steers, brakes and provides a guided tour along your route.  We like to say it’s about the journey, not the destination when you are on the green limousine. Durham’s first pub bike will launch late August with historic rides, foodie tours, brewery tours, pub crawls, bachelor/ette parties, team building rides, family reunions, non-profit fundraisers and much more.  The pub bike is quickly becoming a city mascot in other parts of the country and the BikerBarNC is providing the first of its kind to Durham, NC. The BikerBarNC is brought to you by Martha Philpott King and Seth Gross, both long time residents of Durham and excited to be a part of Downtown’s rebirth. The duo also happen to be the driving force behind popular Durham brewery/restaurant Bull City Burger and Brewery.  Check out the website.

The pub bike concept is originally from Holland and is now taking “pedal-hold” in the States.  The bike is custom built out of Bend, Oregon and has many unique features just for Durham.  Durham’s historic records indicate the very first automobile driven on Durham’s city roads may have been the Stanley Steamer circa 1901.  The BikerBarNC will have a nod to the original Stanley Steamer vehicle with a similar paint scheme, brass name plates, the Stanley logos, an antique horn and several other subtle touches reminiscent of the steam car era. The Stanley Steamer was nicknamed the “flying teapot” and is the source of expressions we use today such as, “full steam ahead!” or “I am running out of steam.”

The website features photos, information, and suggested tour routes. The bike travels at about three to five miles per hour and is for folks sixteen and older and all skill levels.  It’s very casual and built around being social, entertaining and enjoying the outdoors.  Alcohol is allowed on-board with some restrictions listed on the website.  Similar to booking a limousine with a driver, the pub bike has a driver and the riders are merely the “engine” for the bike. There is a bench seat on the back for freeloaders or folks wanting to take a break to let their friends take a turn. Tours last about two hours on average and can be custom created if needed.

The inaugural ride is Saturday, August 24th at 11:15 AM with celebrity guest riders Mayor Bill Bell and Frank Stasio.  The remaining twelve seats are being auctioned off with 100% of the proceeds going to the John Avery Boys and Girls Club of Durham.  Bidding begins now online  with 100% of the auction money going to charity.

Stay up to speed on all the fun with the Durham Event Calendar.

Bull City Burger and Brewery Announces Golden Bull Scavenger Hunt and Exotic Meat Month

Free burgers for a year sounds too good to be true, right? Getting to choose between Caribou, Python, and Beaver burgers sounds too cool to be true, right? Not so in Durham, a place with an incredible commitment to food.

Bull City Burger and Brewery begins its third annual Golden Bull scavenger hunt on Friday March 1st. along with its second annual Exotic Meat Month.

Clues to the Golden Bull scavenger hunt will be given on the website, Facebook and Twitter for the location of five hidden Golden Bulls.  When a bull is found it must be claimed for the prize - free burgers, fries and drinks, one a week, for a year. The contest is modeled after the movie Willy Wonka and the golden tickets.  The contest is open to anyone 18 or older.  Full details and rules are on the website and can be found by clicking on the golden bull on the BCBB home page.

The purpose of the contest is not only to promote the restaurant and brewery, but also to promote Downtown Durham and like-minded businesses, public places, landmarks and historic markers.  No business knows they are hiding a golden bull until it is found.  The bull hiders are very tricky people and the clues are challenging.  For those who stay in the hunt the rewards are delicious for a year.  Last year, the contest created a legion of followers even creating its own hash tag on Twitter.  This year, the hash tag is #bcbbgoldenbull.  Last year word spread that office workers became distracted, graduate work labs slowed down and people from all walks of life enjoyed the fun.  This year promises the same and more.

This year's Exotic Meat Month will feature exotic meat burgers all month long.  Going by the motto, “I never met a meat I wouldn't eat,” BCBB is specially sourcing exotic meats for limited burgers each week.  The meats range from Caribou, Python, Elk, Ostrich, Beaver,  Alligator and more.  Throughout the month different types of burger meat will be featured, rotating daily or weekly depending on the scarcity of that meat. Each time a new type of meat burger is available it will be posted on the website and on the Bull City Burger Facebook page.

Cece Lopez, head of all things culinary at BCBB, along with owner Seth Gross, have been working for two months to source exotic meats for this month long celebration.  Some of the meats are so difficult to get, there may be as few as twelve burgers available.  The idea is to show that a burger is not made from only beef, to learn about other cultures and foods consumed, plus have a little fun.  Several meats are for only the most adventurous and daring of eaters. T-shirts commemorating the event will be available for sale and if any customer eats any six exotic burgers in March, they earn a free t-shirt. The t-shirts have the motto, “I never met a meat I wouldn’t eat.”  It’s all in the spirit of fun and adventure.

Bull City Burger is a restaurant and brewery that embodies the farm-to-fork philosophy.  “If it’s on the menu at Bull City Burger and Brewery, we most likely have made it from scratch or bought it locally,” said Seth Gross, owner of Bull City Burger and Brewery.  “We grind NC pasture raised beef daily, make the buns, make the mustard, the mayo, make the bacon, pickle the pickles and stuff our all-beef hotdogs.  No corn syrup, no added hormones, no antibiotics, no hydrogenated fats and, we focus on making the best burgers and hotdogs we can produce.”  Bull City Burger and Brewery works with local farmers to source as much of the produce as possible for the restaurant.

For more information about great restaurants in Durham, click here.

Bull City Burger and Brewery Opening Delayed...by Willy Wonka?

Durham is soon to welcome it's third brewery, and another farm to table restaurant - just not yet. 

Originally scheduled to open on Monday, March 21st, Bull City Burger and Brewery has had to delay the opening due to "Wangdoodles, Hornswogglers, Snozzwangers and rotten Vermicious Knids," according to a statement on the restaurant's social media. The new date is set for Friday, March 25th.  Owner Seth Gross has weaved language from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory through out the businesses materials, obviously again going to that well for this release again.  Gross is something of a kid at heart.

Really, the delay is a permitting matter regarding some lighting issues according to owner Gross.  "On the positive side, this gives a little more time for preparation when we do open," he said in an interview on Thursday.

The brewery will begin brewing beer upon its opening and therefore will not have its own product available on tap when the doors open.  "We'll open with NC beers to support our brothers and sisters while we brew our own," Gross added.

To generate buzz about the restaurant, Gross launched a contest to get the word out about the opening by hiding five brass bulls around Durham and then releasing clues as to their locations on the company's social media.  "That seemed to be very successful - we started that process with about 100 fans on Facebook and now we have lots more," Gross added.  A check of their Facebook page at this writing showed 905 fans.  The contest also generated its own hashtag on twitter, #goldenbull, which will likely get continued use as the contest will be revisited in the future with additional opportunities to win.  Gross was cagey about providing more details on that.  However, given the clever way information about this venture has been distributed so far, the contest will likely get plenty of attention when it is restarted.

Upon BCBB's opening, Durham will have three breweries.  Fullsteam opened last August and Triangle Brewing Company has been brewing in Durham since July 4, 2007.