First Friday Downtown Raleigh (Hillsborough: garage, food, parking)

[whitb05]

We are going to check out First Friday tonight for the first time! Does anyone have any suggestions on where to park and what to check out? The website confuses me and seems like it is all of DT so I'm sure of the best place to park. Also any ideas on a good (not crazy expensive) place for dinner and what to make sure I check out?

[cat_link]

I usually park at the garage across from Marbles Museum. The R-Line is handy if you don't want to walk all over the place:
Get Around :: R-LINE :: Downtown Raleigh

Art Space gets very crowded but it is a good way to see a lot in just one stop. CAM is usually interesting. I particularly like Flanders Gallery a lot.

For food Raleigh Times has great sandwiches, Remedy Diner has delicious vegetarian options and Buku's small plate options can be reasonable if you have restraint! Sometimes I meet friends for an impromptu picnic at one of the parks before we hit the galleries. A stop by Neomondes before arriving downtown provides a nice array of finger food.

First Friday | Downtown Raleigh | Map

[Francois]

The parking deck next to the Municipal Building (enter on McDowall) is free after hours and close to "the action". Probably other parking decks are, too.

[Bmateo]

Sorry I'm late, but I went down for the first time too. Just drove around until I found a space. I was the second to last space on Hillsborough St, about 50 feet from the Capital bldg. Not bad.

I went with my daughter, and we ate at Sitti. Great time. So many places there (there is another thread about that), but I like to just go and start walking until something suits my taste. Sitti is hard to go wrong though, and we just ordered apps and it was enough.

Hope you had as much fun as we did. The fire twirlers were a real good time for us. :-)