A deep white bowl, mounded with elbow noodles wrapped in a blanket of Jarlsberg, Grana Padano, and sharp white cheddar, graces every third table. The blackboard menu on the wall above red vinyl booths lists macaroni au gratin as a side dish. That’s ungenerous. At Poole’s, Ashley Christensen’s bistro-meets-diner in downtown Raleigh, that macaroni is appetizer, entree, side, dessert—and talisman. Gone craggy and brown beneath the broiler, it’s a marker of the goodness this restaurant puts on tables and reflects back to its community.
Before December 2007, when Poole’s opened, the outside world often saw Raleigh
