$20 Dinners

The modern pan-Asian restaurant is almost as trendy these days as the tapas lounge. From corporate success stories like P.F. Chang's to the new, locally funded, Asian inspired noodle bars and dim sum restaurants opening all across the Triangle, there is a new appreciation for Asian food that is both serious in terms of cuisine and fun in terms of style.

Chef Andy Magowan and his sous-chef Brian Avery walk an interesting line. They cure their own meats and make their own sausages; their pasta is handmade; they shop for local and organic produce at the Durham Farmer's Market ... and yet their place of employment, Federal on Main Street in downtown Durham, looks like, smells like, and for all intents and purposes is, a bar.

This is Bill Smith's 13th asparagus season at Crook's Corner, and he's just lived through his 24th graduation weekend working in restaurants in Chapel Hill. All restaurant work is seasonally based to an extent, with lulls and busy periods, and Chapel Hill is about to ease into its slow summer, when the students are gone and the produce is at its best.

Frazier's on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh is evolving. For six and a half years the restaurant has been growing, both changing with the neighborhood and leading the way for neighborhood change.