Ok, time to live up to my resolution to promote other people’s local small businesses. I want people to promote mine, right? Time to pay it forward.
Tonight we visited Ciao! Osteria in Apex. I’ll skip the full blown restaurant review here, except to say that they meet my main criteria in determining whether I would like to try a restaurant – there is only one of them. 
Ciao is a bistro-style place, with good food and nice people in a cool historic building. And it was not nearly crowded enough for a Saturday night (don’t get me wrong, there were a number of patrons, but I would be more comfortable with a full dining room on a Saturday night. I know the parking lot of Carrabas was inexplicably full as we drove home, with people milling around waiting for tables). Folks, if you want artisan businesses in your neighborhood, you have to do more than drive by with a nod and a smile on your way to some big, homogenized, soul-less chain place with giant portions for a buck three-eighty – you have to let them earn your business. Go give Ciao! a shot.
