Secret Carrboro Ninja Patrol: The Kingsbury Manx at Milltown

Carrboro
May 3, 2009

This is the first of a series of blog entries dedicated to local restaurants who feature live original music not as a purpose for being, but from a love of culture, community, and surroundings.

Among the tossing pbr waves of the Carrboro Sea, Milltown is an island with a pouring fountain of micro-brewed culture. The taps of this fountain display an uncountably eclectic array of brews from around the world, over half of which I have never heard of and half again of those I cannot pronounce. Reading the beer menu is nearly as fun as the first sip of a beer foreign to both your taste buds as well as the ground you are standing on. With bottles of Johnnie Walker black and red labels, Glenfiddich, and a 12 year The Glenlivet behind the bar, it shows that who ever painstakingly scribed descriptions for each of the micro brews on the menu is also just as discriminatingly enthusiastic with their scotch.

The attention to detail doesn't stop with the refreshments in any way either because the gourmet inspired food fare is a welcomed adventure into creativity. Milltown's menu reads like a travel magazine crossed with a book of metaphors written by Bob Dillon. I'll think about what I'm going to order the whole way there and then spend an inordinate amount of time reading the menu just because the descriptions are so entertaining.

Since it's grand opening May 10, 2006 (oooh, three-year birthday party this Sunday?) Milltown has been my destination for pre-partying Cat's Cradle shows. Positioned just across the street, their patio provides a perfect vantage point for sipping brew while watching a two-block long snake of vintage clothes and pocketed hands coil and crawl its way into the mouse hole entrance of a sold out cradle show.

This past Sunday however Mother Nature allowed a surprise stay of execution and held a heavy sky at bay just long enough to give the Milltown patio its own draw, a magical afternoon set of uplifting folk-pop music from the acoustic-guitar-in-triplicate The Kingsbury Manx. Like the influential acoustic roots rock of the 1970's super bands al la Crosby Stills & Nash, The Kingsbury Manx romances delicately harmonized acoustic ballads and three-way vocal combinations to create addictively powerful songs like "Harness and Wheel" which hooks with both melody and lyrical quality. The soothing properties of persistent favorites "Well Whatever" and "Walk on Water" along with a cold micro brew was my coupon for redeeming a small portion of a long weekend that was mostly lost to work.

Sunday was also Carrboro day which was described by my friend as "people walking around Carrboro" which begs the question, what day isn't Carrboro day? Well this particular Carrboro day crowd walked their way around town a couple of times and then straight to Milltown to sip from the well and absorb the patio. My hat is off to Milltown for embracing the local culture and promoting the same live original music that defines Carrboro and my napkin is on with respect to their fantastically inspired menu and beer list. Keep a close eye on Milltown concerts on the patio, being there is being part of everything that is great about Carrboro.