Chronology

Thirty-eight students petition the faculty over food at Steward's Hall

Signers including John Branch complained of too little butter and of beef often unsound and full of vermin. The faculty found the wording defiant and had it rewritten, and suspended John R. Stokes and Elias Foord for refusing to sign the milder version.

Subject: Steward’s Hall

D. Yarbrough opens a grocery store in Hillsborough

Yarbrough advertised in May 1820 a cash-only grocery in Mr. Bacon's former shoe shop, selling coffee, sugar, rum, brandy, wine, tea, china, glass, nails and powder.

George Trice turns Tom Moore's former house into a restaurant and shoe shop

George Trice made the East Franklin Street house where Tom Moore had lived into a restaurant and ice cream parlor with a shoe shop. He gave up the restaurant after his wife died in 1899, and by 1903 a tailor and a shoe shop were in its place.

Gooch's Café opens in Chapel Hill with seven seats

Gooch's Café began feeding university students in Chapel Hill about 1903, with seven seats by its own later account. It stayed a student gathering place for more than fifty years.

Subject: Gooch’s Café

The old Belle Hutchins house becomes a restaurant

The former home of Miss Belle Hutchins, daughter of John R. Hutchins, was turned into a restaurant with living quarters.

George Trice, who ran an oyster restaurant and shoe shop on Franklin Street, is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

George Trice (1838-1915), an African American businessman who kept an oyster restaurant and a shoe repair shop on Franklin Street, was buried in the cemetery's Black section.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Mary Owen Graham is endorsed as supervisor of Orange County's canning clubs

The commissioners approved Graham, of Charlotte, to lead the county's canning clubs, the start of extension work with farm women. In 1916 they renewed $250 a year for tomato club work.

The school board names Lula Cassidy rural supervisor and county canning agent

A week after electing Mary O. Graham supervisor, the board chose Lula Cassidy as rural supervisor and canning agent. In 1916 it put her in charge of a county-wide school commencement in Hillsboro.

J. Cheshire Webb is named Orange County's food administrator

On September 20, 1917, State Food Administrator Henry A. Page appointed J. Cheshire Webb of Hillsborough food administrator for Orange County, with R. A. Eubanks as administrator for Chapel Hill. The record says no mill in the county broke a Food Administration rule.

People: J. Cheshire Webb · Eugene Cunningham Branson

Eugene C. Branson urges county teachers to back the food conservation drive

At a court house meeting of teachers and school committeemen called by J. C. Webb, Branson explained why food conservation mattered, and Mrs. Isaac Manning described her work in the south end of the county. Forty-two teachers attended, and the meeting laid the plan to register every woman at her school house on October 27.

People: J. Cheshire Webb

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Orange County women sign the food pledge at their school houses

On Saturday, October 27, 1917, committees at every school house in the county registered the women of the district and asked each to sign the Food Administration pledge. A house-to-house canvass of every housewife followed from October 29 to November 4.

People: J. Cheshire Webb · Eugene Cunningham Branson

Gus Paviakis opens the Carolina Confectionery, later the Carolina Coffee Shop

Paviakis opened the Carolina Confectionery in the space the University Athletic Shop had used. George Livas and James Gust later bought it and renamed it the Carolina Coffee Shop.

Fire destroys Gooch's Café and a row of frame stores in Chapel Hill

An early-morning fire, thought to have started in Gooch's Café, burned five frame buildings in the business district, among them Pendergraft's grocery, Peace's barber shop and Foister's book store. Summer school students carried out the bookstore's stock, and the loss was put at $35,000.

Subject: Gooch’s Café

A neighborhood grocery is built at 425-427 West King Street

A one-story frame grocery was built around 1921 at 425-427 West King Street; the 1924 Sanborn map shows it as commercial, and by 1943 it had been made into a duplex. A small store facing South Nash Street was added at its rear after 1943.

William B. Neal opens the Hill Bakery in Chapel Hill

Neal started the bakery in 1921 on the lot later taken by Strowd Motor Company. After his death Mrs. Neal ran it until 1945, and it supplied most of the town's bread for over thirty years.

Lueco Lloyd builds the brick store that houses Hearn's grocery

After the December 1924 fire that began in the Pendergraph boarding house, Lueco Lloyd put up a one-story brick building at 102 East Main Street as rental property, with T. C. Thompson as contractor. His only tenant was John Hearn, who had moved his grocery from Chapel Hill after World War I and ran what by 1983 was Carrboro's oldest business.

Brodie S. Carr opens a grocery in a small filling-station building north of Hillsboro

Out of work after losing his timekeeper job at Eno Cotton Mills, Brodie S. Carr opened a grocery in a small frame service-station building on the northern edge of Hillsboro. It grew into Carr's Super Market.

Subject: Carr’s Super Market

Lawyer J. Clyde Ray finishes a two-story office building with a restaurant on Churton Street

J. Clyde Ray built a two-story brick building, about $10,000 with its lot, with his law offices on one side of the ground floor and a restaurant run by Arthur Crabtree on the other. It also held six offices, a lodge room and a rest room for women shopping in town.

George Livas and James Gust go into partnership at the Carolina Confectionary

George Livas formed a partnership with James Gust in 1929 and began operating the Carolina Confectionary as a restaurant as well; it became the Carolina Coffee Shop.

The Friendly Cafeteria opens on East Franklin Street in the old University Cafeteria space

The Webber brothers of High Point, who ran Friendly Cafeterias in several North Carolina cities, bought the fixtures of the failed University Cafeteria at auction and reopened the space as a Friendly Cafeteria able to serve about 200 people.

Mr. Brooks and J. I. Chandler open the NC Cafeteria in the later Porthole building

Mr. Brooks, a former manager of Gooch's cafe and the Carolina Coffee Shop, and J. I. Chandler opened the NC Cafeteria in 1935 in the building later home to the Porthole restaurant. The cafeteria moved to a new location in 1944.

Harry Stern moves his Carolina Grill into a new building on East Franklin Street

Harry Stern moved his Carolina Grill, a restaurant and delicatessen, into a larger new building that T. C. Atwood put up on the lot next to the Model Market. The Weekly counted it among the year's new business buildings.

The Standard Theatre building becomes a funeral home and a grocery store

The West Franklin Street movie house that had served the Black community was given over to a funeral home and a grocery.

Farm women open the Orange County curb market in Carrboro

A curb market run by Orange County farm women opened in the former McCauley store in Carrboro, selling vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, sausage, preserves and canned goods. It was organized with the county home demonstration agent, with thirteen women signed on as sellers before opening.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market · Home demonstration clubs

Edward Danziger opens Danziger's Old World Candy Shop on East Franklin Street

Edward Danziger, a Viennese confectioner who had left Austria, opened a candy shop at 153 East Franklin Street in the Sutton Building, selling homemade confections, pastries, coffee and sodas. It later grew into Danziger's Old World Restaurant and a gift shop.

Wilbur Kutz opens The Varsity, a clothing store with a basement soda fountain

Kutz's clothing store on the north side of East Franklin had a soda fountain downstairs that drew a crowd.

Robert Rhinehart buys the Hill Bakery from Mrs. William Neal

Rhinehart bought the bakery that William Brumfield Neal's widow had run since his death in 1935.

Len Hearn buys the East Main Street building his family grocery rents

After John Hearn died his son Len ran the store as L. D. Hearn, bought the building in 1944 and extended the back three times. It became L. D. Hearn & Son in the 1950s and, under grandson James, Hearn's Grocery.

Home demonstration clubs report the year's work at Achievement Day in Hillsboro

At the county home demonstration clubs' Achievement Day at the courthouse, the home agent reported that women had canned an average of 350 quarts and that 94 percent made their own clothes, and that the women's curb market in Chapel Hill had taken in $30,280.68 over the past year. Clubs from Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Schley and Murphy had made 699 garments and 744 other articles for the Red Cross.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs · Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

George Livas becomes sole owner of the Carolina Coffee Shop

George Livas's partnership with James Gust ended and Livas became sole owner of the Carolina Coffee Shop, which he ran until his death in 1956.

James Freeland opens a barbecue pit behind his Fairview Bowling Alley

James Freeland opened a barbecue pit behind the Fairview Bowling Alley and began serving barbecue every day. As with the alley, he built most of it himself.

Subject: Fairview Bowling Alley

The Terrace View supper club opens on the Greensboro road west of Chapel Hill

The Terrace View, a dining and dancing club about five miles out the Greensboro road, was "christened" on Saturday, May 26, 1945 with a private ATO fraternity party held partly on its roof garden. By December it was open to the public every night, for couples only.

Subject: Terrace View supper club

Fire destroys the barbecue pit at Dud's Tavern near Hillsborough

A Monday afternoon fire destroyed the barbecue pit building and its contents at Dud's Tavern, with damage put at $1,800. The fire had gained too much headway by the time the Hillsborough fire department reached it.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

A community cannery is set up at Aycock School

G. A. Munn and E. F. Cude told the board in July 1947 that the cannery at Aycock School had used $3,500 and needed $1,500 more to finish.

Subject: Aycock School

The Hickory House restaurant opens in downtown Hillsborough

E. W. Godfrey's Hickory House opened to the public at noon on a Saturday after an informal inspection the night before, and became a regular meeting place for town merchants and clubs. In May 1948 it installed air conditioning, which the paper called a first for a Hillsboro business.

Dr. S. A. Nathan opens the Curve Inn, a curb-service stand on Strowd Hill

Dr. S. A. Nathan opened the Curve Inn, a curb-service place on the Durham road halfway down Strowd Hill, with his son Marx as co-manager. It sold beer, sandwiches and fried chicken and was known for the pronto pup, a batter-dipped hot dog.

The Terrace View supper club opens a new building beside its first one

George J. Captain, who ran the Terrace View, held the official opening of a new building with a main floor and a mezzanine, added to the old one, which was kept for private parties. Ads that fall invited students to dine and dance in its "NEW home".

Subject: Terrace View supper club

Charlie McAdams and George Crawford Amick open the A & M Grill in Mebane

Charlie McAdams Sr., who had sold barbecue from a service station kitchen since 1947, opened the A & M Grill with building owner George Crawford Amick. The name joined their two initials.

Ted Danziger opens the Rathskeller in the basement of his father's candy shop

Edward Danziger's son Ted opened the Rathskeller in the basement of the Danziger candy store on Franklin Street. The Hall of Fame credits it with being the first local restaurant to serve draft beer.

Subject: The Rathskeller (Amber Alley)

Fire guts Pete McPherson's cafe and pool hall in West Hillsborough

A fire that started in a defective flue gutted the frame and brick building near the Black school in West Hillsboro where Pete McPherson ran a cafe with a pool and beer hall. Most of the stock was saved, but all the pool tables were lost.

Fowler's Food Store opens its new building on West Franklin Street

Fowler's Food Store, successor to the old Model Market, held a grand opening in a new 80-by-200-foot building on West Franklin Street, with a parking lot reaching through to Rosemary Street. Robert L. Fowler of Chapel Hill and Marvin M. Fowler of Durham owned the store.

Miltos Tassos buys J. Edgar Merritt's West Franklin property and opens the Cafe Mouza

Tassos renovated the building he bought from Merritt, next to 107 West Franklin, and opened it as The Cafe Mouza.

Superintendent Proffit's $1 million school bond pays for a new Efland school for Black children and county lunchrooms

The $1,000,000 school bond passed under Superintendent Glenn T. Proffit paid for grounds and a building for the Efland school for Black children, an addition to Hillsboro High School, and lunchrooms at Aycock, Efland, West Hillsborough and White Cross. It also bought a cannery and gymnasium at Aycock and a remodeling and auditorium at Caldwell.

Subject: Efland schools · Aycock School · Hillsborough High School

Andrews and Riggsbee sell their Carrboro grocery to two other men named Andrews and Riggsbee

The partners Andrews and Riggsbee sold their Carrboro grocery to two men also named Andrews and Riggsbee, who kept the store's name. The sellers kept the tractor business they had bought from Bruce Strowd, which was moving into a new building on Greensboro Street.

B. S. Carr Grocery reopens as Carr's Super Market, Hillsboro's first supermarket

After a full renovation, the B. S. Carr Grocery reopened as a self-service supermarket with an open meat counter, refrigerated produce cases and parking for 50 cars. The paper called Carr the owner of the first supermarket in the Hillsboro area.

Subject: Carr’s Super Market

The Terrace View Supper Club is advertised for foreclosure sale

After Efthimios and Virginia Mariakakis defaulted on a deed of trust, a trustee advertised the 32.5-acre tract "commonly known as the Terrace View Supper Club" for auction on the premises on December 9, 1950. A second trustee advertised a sale for December 30 under another deed of trust.

Subject: Terrace View supper club

The Hong Kong, an American-Chinese restaurant, opens in the former Curve Inn

The Hong Kong, advertised as an American-Chinese restaurant, held its grand opening on the site of the former Curve Inn on the Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard.

Matthew Strum takes over Dud's Tavern

Dud's Tavern advertised that it was under the new ownership and management of Matthew Strum, offering home-cooked food along with gas, oil and auto service.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

Robert Rhinehart sells the Hill Bakery to Thell Jernigan, who renames it Thell's Bakery

Rhinehart, who had bought the East Franklin bakery in 1943 from Mrs. William Brumfield Neal, sold it to Jernigan, and the new owner put his own name on it. Thell's Bakery stayed in business into the mid-1980s.

The Marathon Restaurant leaves its East Franklin Street building

The Marathon, a sandwich shop and restaurant in the building later numbered 115 East Franklin Street since the 1930s, gave up the building in the week before June 4, 1954. The College Cafe's owners had bought it from the J. T. Durham estate.

Subject: College Cafe

Dud's Tavern reopens after a July fire

Mr. and Mrs. Dud Walters thanked the Hillsborough and Mebane fire departments for helping save Dud's Tavern from a July fire and announced that business would resume on Sunday, August 1.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

The College Cafe moves across Franklin Street into the former Marathon building

Max Yarbrough and Jesse West moved their College Cafe from the Robbins building across Franklin Street into the former Marathon Restaurant, which they had bought and rebuilt. It reopened next door to Rose's store with new equipment and seats for 40.

Subject: College Cafe

Harry Macklin comes back to Chapel Hill to reopen Harry's Grill in the old Campus Cafe

Harry Macklin, who had run Harry's Grill until 1944, bought the Campus Cafe two doors from the post office and reopened it as a new Harry's Grill and delicatessen. The town board granted him a beer and wine permit.

Mrs. Marvin Ivey reopens Ivey's Cafe in Carrboro after her husband's death

Ivey's Cafe, run for 29 years by Marvin C. Ivey and his wife, closed for eight months after his death the spring before. Mrs. Ivey reopened it herself in May 1955.

Aldermen rezone part of the Porthole lot so the restaurant can expand

Over the objections of University officials, the Chapel Hill aldermen rezoned 6,400 square feet of the Porthole restaurant's lot from residential to business use so that owner M. M. Timmons could enlarge the restaurant. It had been a nonconforming use on land zoned residential near the campus.

The Tempo Room, a basement beer and sandwich lounge, opens on East Franklin Street

The Tempo Room opened at noon in the basement space next to Town and Campus that had held the Baby Shop, selling beer and sandwiches in a room designed by Hank Gifford for about 75 people. J. D. Wright ran it.

Gooch's Café serves its last meal and becomes Green's Cafe

Gooch's Café, a Chapel Hill fixture for more than half a century and owned since the 1940s by Clarence Simmons, served its last meal under that name. The next morning Charles T. Green of Durham took it over as Green's Cafe.

Subject: Gooch’s Café

Sophie Livas sells the Carolina Coffee Shop to Donald Belton

Sophie Livas, who had run the Carolina Coffee Shop since her husband George's death in 1956, sold it to Donald Belton, who took over on February 1, 1957.

Watts Restaurant holds its grand opening on the Pittsboro highway south of Chapel Hill

The new Watts Restaurant, a concrete-block building a mile south of town on the Pittsboro highway with counter, booths and private dining rooms, advertised its gala opening in mid-August 1957 after first advertising as Chapel Hill's newest restaurant in early July.

Wes and Nancy Thompson hold a grand opening of the South 501 Restaurant under their ownership

Under the new ownership and management of Wes and Nancy Thompson, the South 501 Restaurant on the Durham highway bypass, across from the Valley Drive-In, announced its grand opening, with steaks, curb service and a tap room.

J. K. Ellis reopens his East Franklin Street grill as the Village Cafeteria

After a summer of renovation, J. K. Ellis reopened his Village Grill as the Village Cafeteria, the last step in turning the old four-lane bowling alley he had bought in the mid-1940s into a full restaurant.

La Pizza holds its grand opening on Carrboro's West Main Street

La Pizza opened on Friday, November 8, 1957, selling only pizza, in eight kinds and two sizes, under candlelight with checkered tablecloths. Chuck Gerke ran it as operator.

Ted Danziger opens the Zoom-Zoom, a carryout restaurant on West Franklin Street

Ted Danziger opened Zigger's Zoom-Zoom, a carryout and home delivery restaurant managed by Hal Sieber, a block from his Rathskeller. Its menu ran from rotisserie chicken to lasagna in casseroles.

Lincoln High students picket Colonial Drug and sit in at the Bus Station Cafe

The day after the sit-in, nearly 100 Black high school students picketed Colonial Drug after manager John Carswell roped off its booths, while others filled the counter at the Bus Station Cafe until proprietor Leo Eliadis closed it and were served standing at the Long Meadow Dairy Bar.

Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

People: Harold Foster · Hilliard Caldwell

Subject: Orange County Training School / Lincoln High School

The Gormleys take over Dud's Tavern as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant

Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Gormley, who had run the Castle Steak House in Durham, took over Dud's Tavern on Highway 70 and advertised it as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

James Freeland's General Sherman Restaurant opens at US 70 and Interstate 85

The General Sherman Restaurant, built by James Freeland across the highway from his General Johnston Motel, opened around the clock and was billed as Orange County's newest. It became a common place for Democratic Party dinners and club luncheons in the early 1960s.

People: James John Freeland

Subject: General Johnston Motel and General Sherman Restaurant

Leo Eliadis closes his bus station grill and opens Leo's Restaurant on West Franklin Street

After a Duke student sat in the Black section of the Chapel Hill bus station grill in June 1961 and was arrested at Leo Eliadis's request, Eliadis shut the grill. By early September he had opened Leo's Restaurant on West Franklin Street.

Dud Walters reopens his old tavern as Dud's Fish House

J. Dud Walters and his wife reopened the former Dud's Tavern and Truck Stop after renovations as Dud's Fish House and Restaurant, serving fish and seafood with curb service and take-home orders.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

James Riley opens the Hillsboro Fish Market in the old Godfrey's store on Highway 70

James Riley opened the Hillsboro Fish Market on Highway 70 West, in front of Kenan Oil Company in the former Godfrey's Home Supply store, selling fresh fish cleaned free. By August 1962 it had moved to his old market next to Eno Methodist Church.

Neal's Restaurant opens beside the Dixie Motor Inn south of Hillsborough

Neal Humphries, a Durham restaurant man for 15 years, opened Neal's Restaurant next to the new Dixie Motor Inn at I-85 and NC 86. It seated 75, stayed open around the clock and served steaks, seafood and fried chicken.

Student pickets begin marching outside the segregated College Cafe

The Student Peace Union and the NAACP put pickets in front of the segregated College Cafe on East Franklin Street, saying they would keep on until it integrated. The picketing led to the forming of the Committee for Open Business that May.

Subject: College Cafe

Gerard Tempest opens Villa Tempesta, an arts center and café, on East Franklin Street

More than 2,000 people toured artist Gerard Tempest's Villa Tempesta, an Italian-style villa built from pieces of the old Duke and Watts mansions in Durham, at its open house; its studios and espresso café opened for regular business the following Thursday.

Karen Parker is arrested at a sit-in at Leo's restaurant

Parker, UNC's first Black woman undergraduate and a CORE member, went with other demonstrators to Leo's, a segregated restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill, where they were arrested and taken to jail. She described it in her diary entry of December 18.

Part of The Chapel Hill civil-rights demonstrations, 1963–1964 · 16 events

Thirty-nine demonstrators are arrested sitting on the steps of Brady's Restaurant

On a Sunday night, 39 demonstrators, seven of them white, were arrested after sitting three deep on the front steps of the segregated Brady's Restaurant and blocking the door. The night before, 53 had been arrested in sit-downs in front of Brady's and the Rock Pile.

Part of Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1964 · 35 events

Subject: The Rock Pile

A Burger Chef hamburger stand opens at 337 West Rosemary Street

A Burger Chef franchise opened at 337 West Rosemary Street at 11 a.m. on May 6, 1964, selling 15-cent broiled hamburgers, shakes and fries. A week later it was advertising for more help.

Austin Watts and his staff attack civil rights testers at Watts Restaurant

The night after the Civil Rights Act was signed, a mixed group of testers seeking service at Watts Restaurant was turned away and, the testers said, attacked with fists and clubs, and owner Austin Watts was charged with striking Pete Leak. Watts was convicted of assault in Chapel Hill Recorder's Court on July 21 and fined the costs of court.

The Ku Klux Klan calls a rally in a field across from the General Sherman Restaurant

Robed Klansmen handed out bills in Hillsborough for a night rally at Interstate 85 and US 70, where scores of hooded members were expected in a field across from the General Sherman Restaurant.

James J. Freeland opens the Daniel Boone Inn and restaurant at South Churton Street and I-85

A 1966 plat of the "Daniel Boone Inn and Restaurant Tract", eleven acres lying behind the Shell station on the northeast side of the interchange, shows a pond, a general store, a restaurant later known as the D. B. Cafeteria and a long two-story motel. It was the start of Daniel Boone Village.

People: James John Freeland

Subject: Daniel Boone Village

Pete Galifianakis opens Hector's Restaurant on East Franklin Street

Hector's opened in 1969 under the slogan 'Famous Since 1969'. After a fire left only its outer walls, it was rebuilt and reopened in the mid-1990s.

An early-morning fire guts the Tempo Room on East Franklin Street

A fire found at 4:15 a.m. destroyed Pete Galifianakis's Tempo Room in the basement under Town and Campus, which took smoke damage; three fire trucks had it out within an hour. Within days a "new" Tempo Room was serving beer in a basement at another spot.

UNC hands campus dining to the SAGA Food Service contract

Two months after settling the spring strike the University signed a contract with SAGA Food Services on May 19, 1969, ending its own management of campus dining. SAGA laid off many temporary and part-time workers within weeks, which set up the second strike that autumn.

Part of UNC food workers’ and housekeepers’ struggles, 1969 to 1996 · 13 events

Subject: Lenoir Hall

Restaurateur Edward "Papa D" Danziger is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Edward "Papa D" Danziger (1893-1972), whose Chapel Hill restaurants fed generations of students, was buried in the cemetery.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Spanky's Restaurant takes the place of Sloan's Drugstore on East Franklin Street

Sloan's, open since 1948, gave way to Spanky's, one of eight restaurants that opened on East Franklin in these years.

The produce stand Rachel Crook started at Merritt Mill Road gives way to a used-car lot

After about 35 years, the stand at the corner of West Franklin and Merritt Mill Road closed, and Brooks & Tobin put a used-car lot there. Crook's Corner later opened on the same corner.

Subject: Crook’s Corner

Mickey Ewell opens Harrison's, a basement bar with a dress code, on Franklin Street

Harrison's, a downstairs bar in downtown Chapel Hill named for its owner Harrison "Mickey" Ewell, opened with a doorkeeper and a dress code aimed at an uptown crowd, and turned away men in tank shirts on its opening night.

A Western Sizzlin' steakhouse opens at 324 West Rosemary Street and draws neighborhood pickets

The Western Sizzlin' Steakhouse opened on a Friday at 324 West Rosemary Street. Two days later about ten residents of the nearby Amity Court area picketed it in the rain over century-old trees felled for it and the traffic it brought.

David Bacon opens the Pyewacket, a vegetarian restaurant on West Franklin Street

The Pyewacket opened in 1977 as a vegetarian café on West Franklin Street, run by David Bacon. By 1980 it had moved across the street into the Courtyard at 431 West Franklin, the former Farmers Dairy building, and added seafood, a bar and live jazz.

Martini's, a Northern Italian restaurant, opens at 206 West Main Street in Carrboro

Martini's served Northern Italian food, with a bar and an outdoor patio, in the West Main Street building that had housed La Pizza. In 1989 it said it had been serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro for 12 years.

Planning begins for Carrboro’s farmers’ market

UNC organizing and town funding efforts supported a formal market.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Bill Dow and Laura Heise found the North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project

Physician and farmer Bill Dow and Laura Heise founded the North Carolina Agricultural Marketing Project, modelled on the farmers' markets Dow had helped start in Tennessee. The project led directly to the Carrboro Farmers' Market.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Four Corners Restaurant, named for Dean Smith's stalling offense, replaces the Rendezvous

The new East Franklin restaurant took its name from the four-corners keep-away offense of UNC basketball coach Dean Smith.

Biscuit Towne, USA opens in the former Roy Rogers at 106 Mallette Street

After the Roy Rogers roast beef restaurant at 106 Mallette Street closed in the summer of 1981, Biscuit Towne, USA opened in its building in August. It specialized in biscuits and stayed open 24 hours.

The Upper Deck tavern opens above the Porthole restaurant

Barry Huff opened the Upper Deck, a tavern in the Porthole restaurant's old second-floor storage space, in November 1981. John Hartley left the Carolina Theatre to manage it.

Francis Chan opens the Jade Palace Chinese and Seafood Restaurant on East Main Street in Carrboro

Francis Chan, a biomedical engineer who ran the restaurant on the side, opened Jade Palace at 103 East Main Street in November 1982; he and his wife Jenny marked its 25th year in 2007. In 1985 it was the only Chinese restaurant in the area that delivered.

Herbert Chu opens the Four Five Six Chinese restaurant at 118 East Franklin Street

Herbert Chu, who had opened the House of Chu in 1970 and was a partner in the Hunam restaurant, opened Four Five Six, a cafeteria-style Chinese restaurant, in the space Blimpie's had left.

The Upper Deck closes after the Porthole building owner ends its lease

The Upper Deck tavern above the Porthole closed on July 31, 1984, after building owner Willard Marley declined to renew its month-to-month lease. Owner Barry Huff said Marley thought the bar was hurting the Porthole's business.

Six writers read at the Hardback Cafe to raise money against the Shearon Harris nuclear plant

Joe Ashby Porter, Jill McCorkle, Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith, Garrett Epps and Elizabeth Spencer read from their work at a $50-a-plate benefit dinner at the Hardback Cafe, raising over $2,000 for the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris. Organizers turned away 30 ticket requests because of the room's fire-code limit.

People: Lee Smith · Clyde Edgerton · Jill McCorkle

Fowler's Food Store closes and gives way to the 306 Shopping Center

The West Franklin grocery shut, and its site became a strip of shops set sideways to the street that opened with seven stores.

Walter Faribault Jr. opens Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough

Dr. Walter Faribault Jr., a Chapel Hill physician, had opened Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough using a recipe that had been in his family for more than a hundred years. The family had cooked pork barbecue on Faribault Lane for generations, and by 1993 the business was running as a catering service.

Lizzie Mae Collins opens Lizzie Mae's Southern Kitchen

Lizzie Mae Collins opened a restaurant serving Southern cooking and gave jobs to people she knew who were trying to leave crime and drug use behind. By late 1993 she told the Daily Tar Heel the business was struggling and she was running the kitchen alone.

Maggie's Muffins moves to West Main Street and becomes Maggie's Cafe and Espresso

Jane Hamborsky's bakery, open on Weaver Street since 1989, moved to "the corner of Main and Main" in Carrboro in September 1992 and renamed itself Maggie's Cafe and Espresso. The larger space let it add lunch.

Grant supports new farmers’ market shelters

Funding enabled preparation of the Town Commons location.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Owens 501 Diner is honored for turning a former gas station into a diner

The Chapel Hill Appearance Commission recognized Owens 501 Diner at a Town Council meeting for the creative reuse of a commercial building, a rehabilitated gas station made into a diner. The diner was advertising for staff in all positions in November 1992.

Farmers’ Market moves to Town Commons

The market opened at its new town-center site.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Sara Foster opens a Chapel Hill branch of Foster's Market

Sara Foster opened a second Foster's Market at 750 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill as an expansion of her Durham restaurant.

Kevin Callaghan opens Acme Food and Beverage Company at 110 East Main Street in Carrboro

Acme opened in the old Lloyd-Ray Hardware building about March 1998; that November its owner, Kevin Callaghan, joined the yearly RSVVP restaurant fundraiser for the first time. By 2005 it was known for cooking with local and organic ingredients.

Mama Dip's Kitchen moves across West Rosemary Street into a new building at number 408

Mildred "Mama Dip" Council's restaurant, serving Southern country cooking since 1976, moved from across the street into a new building at 408 West Rosemary Street in February 1999.

People: Mildred Council

Subject: Mama Dip’s Kitchen

Fire guts the Jade Palace restaurant on East Main Street in Carrboro

A midday fire ripped through the building at 103 East Main Street that housed Jenny and Francis Chan's Jade Palace, leaving the restaurant's future in doubt. The Chans reopened, and the restaurant was still at that address in 2007.

Chef Aaron Vandemark opens Panciuto on South Churton Street

Aaron Vandemark opened Panciuto, a restaurant cooking Italian-style food from ingredients grown on nearby farms. Within ten years he had six James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Southeast.

The A & M Grill in Mebane closes after 63 years

The A & M Grill, run by three generations of the McAdams family, served its last meals at 401 East Center Street. Co-founder George Crawford Amick died three weeks later.

Foster's Market in Chapel Hill passes to Sera Cuni and Susan White

Sera Cuni, who had managed Foster's Market in Chapel Hill since 2008, bought the market with her partner Susan White and later renamed it The Root Cellar.

Radius Pizzeria opens in the old savings and loan building on North Churton Street

Mick and Kate Carroll opened Radius Pizzeria, later Radius Pizzeria & Pub, at 112 North Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough.

Cannie Bacon Lloyd and Bob Lloyd open Bacon's Meat Market on North Churton Street

Bacon's Meat Market, a family-run meat market, deli and sandwich shop, opened at the corner of North Churton and Corbin streets. Cannie Bacon Lloyd said her father had told her Hillsborough needed one.

Cup-A-Joe moves down West King Street to a larger shop at number 112

Owners Brooke Erceg and Ryan Creery moved their coffee shop from 600 square feet at 120 West King Street to 1,600 square feet at 112 West King, former real estate offices, with room to bake on site.

Bona Fide Sandwich Co. opens at 104 North Churton Street

The owners of the Wooden Nickel Pub, LaPlace and Hillsborough BBQ Company opened a sandwich shop at 104 North Churton Street.

Mildred Council receives EmPOWERment's first POWER award

At a gala at the Friday Center, basketball coach Roy Williams presented Mildred "Mama Dip" Council with the inaugural POWER award from EmPOWERment Inc., a group promoting affordable housing and economic development in Chapel Hill's neediest neighborhoods. The honor came in the month of her restaurant's 40th anniversary.

People: Roy Williams

Bona Fide Sandwich Co. closes on North Churton Street

The owners announced on October 3, 2017 that that week's lunches would be the shop's last, about a year and a half after it opened. They began serving lunch at the Wooden Nickel Pub instead.

Bacon's Meat Market passes to new owners and becomes Steve's Garden Market

Justin and Meagan Long of Steve's Garden Market in Graham took over Bacon's Meat Market, planning to take in the laundromat next door and add produce, seafood, beer and wine while keeping the sandwich counter. The store was to reopen under the new name on May 7.

The Wooden Nickel pub reopens two doors up in the former bank at 113 North Churton Street

After closing its 975-square-foot home at 105 North Churton Street on July 1, the Wooden Nickel opened in the former Bank of America space at 113 North Churton, more than twice the size.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools launches Food for Students meal distribution

CHCCS, the Town of Chapel Hill, PORCH and volunteers began handing out free meals to students as schools closed, starting from about 20 sites. By December 21, 2020 the program had distributed more than 900,000 meals from 37 sites.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 households

PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.

Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library

IFC Commons opens in Carrboro

The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service opened IFC Commons at 110 West Main Street in Carrboro, a $6 million building that put its community kitchen, food market and other non-shelter programs under one roof. Its virtual grand opening was held January 21, 2021.

Subject: Inter-Faith Council for Social Service

Panciuto reopens after its pandemic closure, now sharing space with the Hillsborough Bakeshop

Panciuto reopened with a pared-down service model and no tipping, paying staff at least $15.40 an hour. The Hillsborough Bakeshop, begun as a stopgap during the shutdown, now runs in the same space.

Orange County Public Library adds Spanish-language classes and bilingual storytimes

Beginning in the 2021–22 fiscal year the library offered Spanish-language computer basics classes with the Family Success Alliance and UNC's Community Workshop Series. By 2023–24 it held storytimes in English and Spanish at Carrboro's Century Center, added Spanish interpretation to free computer classes and ran a health series for Spanish speakers with El Centro Hispano, and in 2024–25 it added bilingual storytimes at the Carrboro Farmers' Market and monthly conversational Spanish programs.

Subject: Orange County Public Library · Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Radius Pizzeria & Pub closes after more than eleven years

Owners Kate and Mick Carroll closed Radius Pizzeria & Pub at 112 North Churton Street on December 29, 2024, saying they wanted more time with their family.

Food pantries open at the Main Library and the Southern Branch

During the 2025–26 fiscal year the library built a permanent food pantry in the Main Library lobby in Hillsborough and worked with a local Girl Scout troop to establish one at the Southern Branch in Carrboro. The Main Library also collected 424 pounds of food for the Orange Congregations in Mission pantry.

Subject: Orange County Public Library