Restaurants in Clayton

• For $10, you get $20 worth of dining. • For $19, you get $40 worth of dining for a table of four or more. • For $15, you get a family take-out dinner with ribs for three (a $27.99 value).

Café Tiramisu continues the culinary legacy of the DeMartino family, who ran the revered eatery Piccolo Mondo for nearly 20 years. As his sons handle Café Tiramisu’s business end, patriarch Paul DeMartino focuses on the grill, preparing a menu of antipasto, homemade pastas, and sumptuous entrees inspired by the cookery of Northern Italy. Steaming dishes make their way into the dining room, where wall-mounted lamps cast a soft light upon white-clothed tables and the bar's impressive selection of red and white wines, served by the bottle, glass, or the cupped hands of an overeager dinner companion.

According to a 2009 Newsobserver.com profile, Backyard Bistro knows a thing or two about ribs. To create this St. Louis–style specialty, the Bistro encrusts the pork in a dry spice rub and leaves it to bask in heat and hickory smoke for three hours. They then wrap each rack in aluminum foil with a splash of apple juice, returning them to the smoker for another four hours before charring them on the grill under a glaze of tangy or sweet barbecue sauce. The Bistro also stokes up the smoker to tenderize the dry-rubbed pork shoulder––another specialty––for 12 whole hours, while slices of juicy beef brisket await to be smothered between hefty slabs of white bread and saddled next to sides such as crisp coleslaw, Mama T's potato salad, and baked beans. Both the regular menu of barbecue and American comfort food and the straightforward Sunday brunch represent the efforts of several local businesses. Brioche rolls for burgers and english muffins for benedicts are sourced from La Farm Bakery, then crowned with poached eggs and canadian bacon. The bar's 16 taps pour Bud Light and Belgian-style Backyard Brew, the locally brewed house draft, to cool meals taken out on the patio or into a neighbor's hot tub, while inside it's all about sports. Five big-screen TVs broadcast every play in high definition, and speakers at each table give diners the option of turning down the volume if they'd rather tune out.

North Ridge Pub's casual kitchen whips up varied dinner and brunch menus of upscale pub grub. Meat minders take the Cameron steak's 9-ounce lean cut of beef ($13.95) for a dip in a soy-and-pineapple pool before laying it out on the grill to roast, and coat tender slices of meatloaf ($8.95 half/$11.95 full) in a secret sauce whose taste can only be deciphered with the help of a decoder ring. Savory sandwiches such as the Carolina shrimp burger ($7.95) and crab-cake sandwich ($7.95) warm hands as well as stomachs.

Nothing says victory like a sticky high-five full of ketchup and chili fries, and Buck’s Sports and Spirits provides plenty of quality napkins to go with its plates of gooey deliciousness. The upscale Brookhaven sports bar offers southern-style pub fare in a welcoming environment. Start with a tower of slow-cooked pork ribs ($9.95) in a sweet barbecue glaze, or opt for an order of the crab dip and pita chips ($9.95). A hearty selection of sandwiches, such as Buck's big beefy barn burger ($8.95) or the hand-full-o'-hen ($7.95), a char-broiled chicken sandwich, will satisfy hand-held carnivorous cravings. Uncle Bucky's almost-famous meatloaf with broccoli casserole ($12.95) or the wild snapper in a bag baked in parchment paper with crab meat, clams, and napa cabbage ($15.95) each satisfy homesick taste buds while serving as a distracting subject of small talk when the debate over the hunkiest state senators takes an awkward turn. If your vitamin-D deficiency has you down in the dumps, cheer up with a decadent dessert, such as the banana-pudding cheesecake ($4.95) or deep-fried favorites like golden, melty fried Reese's cups ($4.95) or Oreos ($4.95).

Papaya-hued curtains cast a sunny glow across the expansive and airy dining quarters of Flights. Smart lunchers can fuel up on midday fare including Angus burgers cooked to order ($14), free-range pulled chicken salad wraps ($14), or black-truffle pasta bathing in a roasted-garlic madeira cream ($18). The menu melts the buttery hearts of the most discerning foodies with such dinner selections as grilled rocket shrimp with tropical salsa ($25), short ribs sided with shoe-string potatoes ($25), and blue-crab ravioli in a saffron beurre blanc ($20).