Great food and interesting folks were in plentiful supply last night at the Chamber's monthly Business After Hours event at Blue Corn Cafe.

Had the chance to meet business people from all manner of industries and hear about their fields and interest. Meet a few of them...

Spent a lot of time chatting with Phitsamay "Sam" Ghoddoussi of McClintock And Associates insurance, though we spent WAY more time talking about cool restaurants in Durham than we did about insurance! Sam's a connossieur of many different kinds of cuisine. A former sushi chef, she's particularly well versed in Asian food and knows all the best spots. I'll definitely be checking out Vit Goal in South Durham on her recommendation.

Also got to chat some with Edie Cohn, a long-time Durham artist whose perhaps best known work is the mural on the Durham Food Co-Op building on Chapel Hill Street. She specializes in baby portraits rendered in charcoal but does much more. Looking forward to visiting her Broad Street studio one of these days.

Had a nice chat as well with Adrian Brown, a member services account executive with the Chamber. He had kind words for our little magazine, which are always appreciated. You might remember Adrian from that hilarious spoof of The Office the Chamber did for its awards banquet last month. He's the guy with the siren.

Lastly we heard from Danielle Rios, who co-owns Blue Corn and Tosca Ristorante Italiano with her husband, Antonio. She told the dozens gathered that she and her husband opened Blue Corn on Ninth Street 14 years ago – when she was 21. Four years later, they opened Tosca downtown when a lot of people thought she and Antonio were crazy to do so. "Now, everybody wants to go downtown." She thanked the Chamber and the Durham community at large for their support over the years.

What a nice way to spend a Thursday night (before going home to watch the Tar Heels blow an 18-point lead. Sorry. Still bitter.)

If you haven't check out Blue Corn or Tosca yet, do so. Very unique menus with great surroundings (though the two restaurants couldn't be more different in many ways).

Thanks to all for such a pleasant evening.