Last week I drove out to Lexington for a visit with Chef Dion Sprenkle with just two questions on my mind: How did Sprenkle, a relative unknown — at least to me and literally everyone I asked about him — manage to win Best Chef in our Best of the...

I have lived in Greensboro for 13 years, and have researched and written hundreds of stories in and around downtown Greensboro. In the early years of the last decade, I worked out of an office building that stood on what is now Center City Park. Back then, walking to my car after dark was a lonely experience.

Fire in the Triad began this week in Greensboro, pitting Undercurrent against Southern Roots. As I’m writing this, I’m preparing to judge the first round Tuesday night. Jordan Green will be there Thiusday. Read all about it next week and find out more at competitiondining.

If you cup your hands against the panoramic picture windows on the ground floor of the RJ Reynolds Building in downtown Winston-Salem, you can still see the lobby: three kinds of marble; flourishes of Benedict metal, an alloy no longer manufactured;...

We also made some changes to the Voices section. We will no longer be running Chuck Norris’ weekly column. Frankly, he’s neither an exceptional thinker nor a practiced logician, and I’m coming to believe that syndicated content like this has no place in a local newspaper.

With the approach of the 100 th anniversary of the unification of Winston and Salem into one big, hyphenated metropolis, I thought it would be fitting to take a walk into the city’s past by having lunch the way downtown denizens have been doing it for decades.

More big news: Fire in the Triad starts next week at the Empire Room in downtown Greensboro. The first cook-off pits Undercurrent’s Chef Michael Harkenreader against Chef Wes Patterson from Southern Roots in Jamestown. Listen to me: You need to get your tickets for these events now, because they al will sell out.

First off, you’ve got to give the kid some credit. He’s 10 years old, and up to this point, because of a domineering big brother and slightly overcompetitive father, he very rarely gets to win at anything — chess, Monopoly, Yu-Gi-Oh, water fights, bedroom wrestling matches, footraces, staring contests… you name it.

Let’s face it: The Triad culinary scene is a little bit behind the curve. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of wonderful chefs doing amazing things around here — there are — but the trends are a bit slow in coming to this area.

Chik-fil-A has new salads on the menu, while TGI Fridays has new small plates. Table 16 in downtown Greensboro has a new menu for the month of May — no details as of yet, but check their website at table16restaurant.com. And Gnam Gnam Bistro will be opening in that district later this month at the Renaissance Plaza Building.