Varina historic district is packed with options for meals, drinks, sweets

Note: The previous post was largely devoted to the original Fuquay Springs district of Fuquay-Varina, N.C. Today's post focuses on the old Varina Historic District of the community. 

North of the railroad tracks in Fuquay-Varina, just west of Ennis Street, the original merchants' district begins in what was once just Varina. One of the first things you come upon if you access westbound Broad Street from Ennis is the Aviator Brewery complex.

There are three Aviator enterprises right there at the intersection of Broad and Stewart streets. Two of
them are on opposite sides of Stewart Street -- there's a bottle shop (pictured at right), where Aviator sells a variety of bottled and canned crafts beers from North Carolina and elsewhere, and then Aviator Smokehouse, the primary food service enterprise of the Aviator franchise. Here, barbecue dishes are the specialty, although when I stopped in for lunch on July 2, I chose the Reuben sandwich, and it was pretty good.

Across Broad Street from the bottle shop and smokehouse is Aviator's taproom, which is situated in Varina's former train depot.

The photo leading off the post is the Stewart Street side of Aviator Smokehouse; the photo below is the taproom in the former train depot across the street.

There are a couple other places in this small section of commerce where visitors can step in for a bite to each or a beverage. In the middle of the block there is Nil's Mediterranean Cuisine (shown below), across the street from that there is Pints Ice Cream and Beer, at the end of the block there is J and S New York Pizza and Tsuru Sweets and Coffee, and across Fayetteville Street from there is the Brick House Bar and Grill. And ... farther down Broad Street is the Mason Jar Lager Brewery Co. and its taproom as well as Sweet Creations Frozen Yogurt. Basically, there are a lot of options to satisfy the pangs of hunger and thirst.

As always, to view a larger and sharper version of an image, just click on the photo. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog on a mobile device. To view a full gallery of photos from my July 2 shoot, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I used my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens for all the photos in this post. The lens was equipped with a B+W polarizing filter. I bracketed all of my compositions for three exposures -- one normal, and one each in 2/3 stops above and below normal. I used the shutter speed as my primary exposure setting variable, with the f/stop usually at 8.0 and ISO mostly at 100 (I adjusted the ISO when decreased natural lighting required me to do so). I merged the three images into one using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software.

The facade of the old railroad station stands out among structures in the modest Varina Historic District. It is the focal point of the south side of Broad Street. The shop to the left of the main doors is Pints Ice Cream and Beer.

RC Hobby store (above) is a few doors down from Nil's, and this interesting sidewalk bench (below) sits outside the nearby Something You Boutique.

A modest flag plaza (above) at the junction of Durham and Fayetteville streets adds another focal point to the landscape. 

Places to dine, snack or drink include Tsuru Sweets and Coffee (above), J and S New York Pizza (first below), the Brick House Bar and Grill (second below) and Sweet Creations Frozen Yogurt (third below). 

The art work shown above by Dan Nelson won first place in the community's En Plein Air competition in 2013. 

Above: Next to Sweet Creations are the Vision Martial Arts school and the Lights Unlimited Inc. light fixture store.

Next up: A few churches in Fuquay-Varina