Community
September 2026
The Reinvention
About this article:
Our City Guide is an insider’s guide for marketing leaders — real recommendations, local perspective, and the places that make this city worth experiencing beyond the conference.
I have a confession: I’m incredibly biased.
I lived in Raleigh for nearly ten years, so when someone asks me what to do there, I have thoughts. Strong ones. Raleigh is where I met my husband, where most of my best friends still live, and where I apparently loved enough to permanently tattoo the state on my body. So yes, I am emotionally invested in your Raleigh itinerary.
Raleigh has great food, great music, an absurd number of talented people, and just enough Southern charm to make you feel welcome without making you sit on a porch and drink sweet tea against your will. While I’m now located in Kansas City, Missouri, where I’m the Director of Marketing, Culture & Creators for the Kansas City Chiefs, I still long for my RDU days.
If you're coming to Raleigh for Digital Summit, do yourself a favor: leave the convention center. I promise your Slack messages will survive.
Here are the places you should go (if you’re cool, and let’s face it, we all want to be a tiny bit cooler).
Photo courtesy of Yelp
Start with a macaron that will make your day 100x better.
Lucettegrace is your first stop, and it’s only a six-minute walk from the convention center.
Get coffee. Get a pastry. Get the macarons.
Actually, get several macarons.
I have eaten macarons in some pretty fancy places, and I will still confidently say that Lucettegrace makes the best ones I’ve ever had. This is not an objective fact. It is a deeply personal belief that I am willing to defend.
This is exactly the kind of place that makes you want to cancel your morning meetings and become someone who casually knows how to make a croissant (or maybe market croissants??).
Photo courtesy of Yelp
Go touch grass.
You are at a digital marketing conference. You have spent hours looking at screens, talking about screens, and probably checking another screen under the table.
Go to William B. Umstead State Park.
Umstead is close enough to Raleigh to make a quick hike totally doable, but once you're there, it feels like you've escaped the city entirely. Take a trail. Breathe some actual air. Let your Apple Watch congratulate you for closing a ring, because who doesn’t love an adult gold star?
Your inbox will still be there. Unfortunately.
Photo courtesy of Yelp
Buy something you actually want to take home.
Skip the generic Raleigh acorn mug.
Go to Deco.
Deco is one of my favorite places to send people who want a little piece of Raleigh without buying something that screams I VISITED RALEIGH in block letters.
It’s filled with gifts, art, jewelry, home goods, and other excellent things made by local creative talent. Basically, it's the place to go when you want to support small businesses and also have everyone back home ask, “Wait, where did you get that?”
That is the best kind of souvenir.
Photo courtesy of Yelp
Have dinner at Death & Taxes.
There are restaurants you go to because you're hungry. Then there are restaurants you build an evening around. Death & Taxes is the second kind.
It’s wood-fired, beautiful, a little moody, and owned by the iconic Ashley Christensen – arguably the most notable chef in the Triangle (once I saw her shopping at Whole Foods and fangirled secretly the entire week). The food is excellent without feeling like it’s trying desperately to prove something to you, which I appreciate in a restaurant and, frankly, in people.
Make a reservation. Wear something cute. Order something cooked over fire.
Photo courtesy by Yelp
Counteract dinner with something healthy.
If you followed my previous advice and went to Death & Taxes, you may now need to convince yourself you're a wellness person.
Enter Raleigh Raw.
Grab a juice and walk around downtown while you pretend that the green liquid erases the wine you drank the night before. Their raw tuna bowls are a true delight.
Does it work? No idea. Do I care? Not really. But you will feel virtuous, and sometimes that's enough.
Photo courtesy of Yelp
Go see a show at The Pour House.
If you happen to be in town when there's a show at The Pour House, go.
Raleigh has a fantastic music scene, and The Pour House is one of the places that makes the city feel like a real music town rather than a city that occasionally has concerts. Plus, the owner used to be my landlord. Hi Adam!
It’s intimate. It’s loud. It’s a little gritty. Basically, it's exactly what you want from a music venue. And if you discover a band you love, you get bonus points for being able to say you saw them before they were huge.
Photo courtesy of Yelp
When in doubt, get a beer on a rooftop.
Not every night needs to be a night. Sometimes you just want a beer, a rooftop, and somewhere to sit with people you like. That's where Raleigh Times comes in.
It's a Raleigh institution for a reason. Grab a beer, head upstairs, and take in downtown.
This is also the perfect place to debrief the conference with your coworkers, which is corporate-speak for “talk about everything except work.”
Go get the macaron. Take the hike. See the band. Buy the thing from the local artist. Have the rooftop beer.
Basically, go experience the city.
I'll be jealous you're there.
