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Food, Drink & Local Culture

Sorghum syrup, Brunswick stew, barbecue, and Orange County’s restaurants and food traditions.

In briefSorghum syrup, Brunswick stew, barbecue, and Orange County’s restaurants and food traditions. The records here are cookbooks, restaurant histories and local lore.

365 works about Food, Drink & Local Culture are indexed here. 14 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Cooking sorghum syrup.

Events and storylines

Storylines in this theme, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineSteward's Hall and the University commons, 1797–18191797–1819 · 5 events · On December 9, 1797 Pleasant Henderson, who had moved from Mt. Pleasant to Chapel Hill that year, was chosen steward of the University of North Carolina, following John Taylor in the post; a UNC Libraries exhibit records that he enslaved nineteen people. Complaints about the food at Steward's Hall under Taylor and Henderson helped fuel the student uprising of 1799, and in 1801 Henderson's house was stoned. He did not reapply, gave up the stewardship in 1802, declined the trusteeship he was elected to, and went into business as Henderson and Searcy; he kept his Chapel Hill residence while clerk of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1830. In 1808 thirty-eight students, John Branch among them, petitioned the faculty over too little butter and 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. Board at the hall rose from $30 a year in 1795 to $95 in 1818. In 1819 the trustees ended the old commons and rented Steward's Hall to Mrs. Burton, who had to feed students for no more than $9 a month the first year and allow the commencement ball in the dining room free, and students could board where they chose. StorylineThe Hill Bakery, 1921–19541921–1954 · 5 events · The Hill Bakery supplied most of Chapel Hill's bread for over thirty years, under a line of owners. William B. Neal started it in 1921 and in 1925 sold it to his assistants, Charles B. Guthrie and W. V. Stuart, leaving for Florida; he came back in 1927 and was managing it again by April. Mrs. W. B. Neal ran the bakery after her husband died in 1935, and she sold it to Robert A. Reinhardt of Waynesboro, Virginia, who came to run it in 1945; Bryant's Franklin Street survey spells his name Rhinehart and places the sale in 1943. In 1954 he sold it to Thell Jernigan, and Thell's Bakery stayed in business into the mid-1980s. StorylineThe old Methodist church at Henderson Street and Rosemary Lane, 1926–19381926–1938 · 3 events · The long-closed 1853 Methodist church at Rosemary and Henderson streets in Chapel Hill found a series of new uses after 1926. That July it became an automobile repair station, the Club Service Motor Co., with a platform built from the rear door to Henderson Street for cars. In December 1934 the American Legion post announced a bargain with Lueco Lloyd to buy the building, once the church of the Rev. Adolphus W. Mangum, and make it a memorial hut, but by March 1935 the post gave up the plan as more than it could pay for. In January 1938 the Orange County Women's Market, a farm women's market, reopened there on Saturdays. StorylineBeer, repeal and the 1933 liquor vote1933 · 5 events · In 1933 Chapel Hill and Orange County split over alcohol. Restaurants in Chapel Hill, where a law had barred alcohol within four miles of the University since the early 1800s, began selling legal beer on May 1, and the county issued 18 retail beer licenses, 10 of them in Chapel Hill. That fall advocates of repealing the 18th Amendment nominated Collier Cobb Jr. for Orange's one seat in the state convention, and the dry forces named J. J. Ward. On November 7 Orange voted 1,169 to 807 against a convention. Chapel Hill was the only precinct for repeal, while Carrboro voted heavily against. The state went dry by a wide margin, so the convention was never held. StorylineCurb markets and community canneries, 1937–19611937–1961 · 17 events · Orange County farm women opened a curb market in Carrboro in September 1937 with the county home demonstration agent and moved it to Chapel Hill the next January. Government-sponsored community canneries, where families came to can meats and vegetables, opened at White Cross in 1943 and at the Hillsborough school in 1944. The women's market's sellers took in $30,280 in its seventh year and $40,004 in its eighth, and in May 1945 Black farm families opened the Orange County Negro Curb Market on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Another cannery was being finished at Aycock School in 1947. The Chapel Hill women's market, in the old church building on North Columbia Street by 1954, marked its twentieth anniversary in October 1957. In August 1961 the market's 16 sellers from the county home demonstration clubs moved into a new block building beside Brady McLennan's Durham Road restaurant. StorylineRationing and price control in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, 1942–19451942–1945 · 9 events · From 1942 to 1945 local boards and volunteers ran wartime rationing and price control in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Early in 1942 the Chapel Hill board could allot only a handful of tires, and a run on sugar led grocers to limit each customer. The board's Community Service Committee, chaired by Guion Griffis Johnson, ran a program the Office of Price Administration called a model for the Southeast, and in October 1943 some 1,225 volunteers issued 9,947 copies of War Ration Book No. 4. The OPA penalized a market for selling above ceiling prices, thieves robbed the Hillsboro ration board office of coupons in 1945, and the Hillsborough board closed its office after November 30, 1945.
Show all 12 storylines
StorylineCampus dining, Chase Cafeteria, Lenoir Hall and the meal plan, 1969–19861969–1986 · 22 events · UNC handed campus dining to contractors from 1969: SAGA, then Servomation and, from 1980, ARA Services. In 1982 Chase Cafeteria closed, leaving South Campus residents to walk to North Campus to eat just as hot plates were banned in dorm rooms. A plan paid for by a student fee and a required meal ticket renovated Lenoir Hall's dining rooms and turned Chase's second floor into the South Union, which opened in 1984. In 1985 students formed a committee against the $100 mandatory meal plan, marched on South Building and voted against it in a referendum, but the trustees kept it. After student groups called for ending ARA's contract, Marriott won the campus food service contract in 1986. StorylineChapel Hill’s food co-ops, 1971–19751971–1975 · 4 events · Between 1971 and 1975 groups in Chapel Hill formed food cooperatives that sold produce and other food to their members below store prices: the Chapel Hill Food Co-op, begun at the Baptist Student Union, a co-op at the Newman Center, the Student Consumer Action Union's co-op at the Multi-Purpose Center and the Community Food Co-op on West Rosemary Street. In two of them, members worked set hours. StorylineCarrboro’s farmers’ market and the Town Commons, 1977–19961977–1996 · 9 events · Planning for a Carrboro farmers' market began in 1977, and the market opened in August 1978 in a Carr Mill parking lot, and a permanent open-air shelter was built with a state grant. In 1988 and 1989 Carrboro's aldermen paid to keep the market's leased site and planned a town commons beside Town Hall as its permanent home. A 1993 grant paid for new shelters, Carrboro broke ground beside Town Hall in 1994, and the market moved to the Town Commons in 1996. StorylineOpposing the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, 19861986 · 8 events · In 1986 opposition to the Shearon Harris nuclear plant reached Orange County's elections and town boards. Two challengers who had spoken against the plant unseated county commissioners in the June runoff, and Chapel Hill and Orange County passed resolutions asking that it be converted to another fuel. Restaurants and writers held benefits, students formed a campus chapter of the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris, and opponents held a vigil when the plant was granted a low-power license in October. StorylineOn the Hill and the clubs that followed, 1989–19921989–1992 · 6 events · On the Hill, a dance club above Four Corners on East Franklin Street, began enforcing a dress code in September 1989 that a former bouncer said was meant to keep out gay men. Protests followed, and Student Congress called for a boycott. Club Zen opened in the space in 1990 with no dress code. In 1991 the owner of The Club said his lease was ended over his gay and Black patrons, which the building owner denied. StorylineFranklin Street’s changing storefronts, 1990–19941990–1994 · 42 events · Between 1990 and 1992 Franklin Street lost the Carolina Blue and White movie house, Baskin-Robbins, Top of the Hill and University Printery, while The Parlor, Aunt Louise's Bookshop for Children and Mediterranean Deli opened and the old Fowler's grocery became a shopping center. A February 1991 fire gutted the Scott Building at Franklin and Henderson streets and left Hector's in a lawsuit with its landlord. In 1992 the council approved a new building for the Top of the Hill corner. In 1993 and 1994 The Intimate Bookshop reopened in a rebuilt store after a 1992 arson fire, the Hector's building was restored for a cafe and an arcade, west-end merchants organized against crime, and a new Top of the Hill building filled the corner of Franklin and Columbia streets.

Indexed works

Works about Food, Drink & Local Culture from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Photographs & portraits 74Histories 37Letters & correspondence 36Periodicals 17Biography 5other types 29

Period

Colonial era (to 1775) 217th century 218th century 7Revolution (1775–1783) 419th century 18Civil War (1861–1865) 1420th century 23World War II era 2

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 224Chapel Hill 199Hillsborough 107Orange County 93City of Durham (neighboring) 12Carrboro 11

Widely held

Papa D

Danziger, Edward G. · 1967

Edward G. Danziger's memoir of love and cooking, published by J. F. Blair in 1967. Danziger (1893 to 1972) ran Danziger's Old World Restaurant in Chapel Hill, and the book tells his life as a restaurateur in the town.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Restaurants -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO DANZIGER DAN UNC Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

The recipe : have a seat at our table

Council, Annette Marie · 2005 · NP Press

Annette Marie Council's book about her family and Mama Dip's Country Kitchen, the Chapel Hill restaurant, published by NP Press in 2005. Subjects include African Americans in Chapel Hill, the restaurant's history and family biography. Fourteen introductory pages and 223 pages of text with illustrations, part local history and part family account.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Restaurants.

UNC CH Historical Society

Authentic southern recipes

1972 · Colonial Inn

A cookbook put out in 1972 by the Colonial Inn of Hillsborough, ninety six pages with illustrations and a portrait. The recipes feature Southern dishes served at the inn, alongside material on its history. The title page verso records a fourth printing in 1979.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cooking.

UNC Durham

Selected Hillsboro recipes

1952

Cookbook compiled by the Hillsboro Presbyterian Women and published in Hillsborough in 1952, with 124 illustrated pages of local recipes.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cooking.

UNC DPLA

Ridge Garden United Methodist charge cookbook

Clover Garden United Methodist Church & Chestnut Ridge United Methodist Church · 2025 · Clover Garden United Methodist Church

Community cookbook from the Ridge Garden charge, the pairing of Clover Garden United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill and Chestnut Ridge United Methodist Church in Efland, published by Clover Garden in 2025. Topics include both congregations' histories as well as cooking in Chapel Hill and Efland. Seven preliminary pages and 130 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cooking.

UNC

A taste of history

Chapel Hill Historical Society · 2009 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

Cookbook from the Chapel Hill Historical Society, published in 2009 and including recipes alongside local history. Topics include cooking and food in Chapel Hill and the history of both, so the collection doubles as a record of what town households put on the table. Of interest to readers of community cookbooks and to anyone tracing local foodways.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Food.

UNC
Show 2 more

Circle of blessings

2007 · Efland UMC

A community cookbook from Efland United Methodist Church in Efland, in western Orange County, published by the church in 2007, that also carries a history of the congregation alongside its recipes. 116 numbered pages with six unnumbered pages at either end, an illustration and a color portrait.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cooking.

UNC

A taste of heaven : a collection of recipes

Cross Roads Baptist Church (Hillsborough, N.C.) · 2005 · Morris Press Cookbooks

Community cookbook from Cross Roads Baptist Church in Hillsborough, printed by Morris Press Cookbooks in 2005 in a three-ring binder. Recipes are credited to their contributors. The book includes Southern cooking, church history and material on the Family House of Chapel Hill. 124 pages of recipes plus front and back matter, with color illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cooking.

UNC

Recently indexed: The Chapel Hill Service League's Chapel Hill favorites (1982) · Children tested recipies (1966) · Circular (1840) · A commitment to excellence in management (1979) · Ephesus' around the world cookbook : celebrating Ephesus Elementary School's multicultural community! (1993) · The Franklin Street gourmet (1986)

Search all 365 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

Show 6 more
  • Wider context · NC 285.175 MAC Colorful Heritage: An Informal History of Barbecue Presbyterian Church and Bluff Presbyterian Church MacKenzie, James Donald · 1969

    James Donald MacKenzie's history of two Presbyterian congregations: Barbecue Church in Harnett County and Bluff Church in Cumberland County. Barbecue, in a community named for Barbecue Creek, served Gaelic-speaking Scottish settlers, and Flora MacDonald worshipped there in colonial times. Privately printed at Olivia in 1969; xi and 149 pages with portraits. Victor E. Clark's 389-page Colorful Heritage of 1989, for the Harnett County Library, is built on this book and reproduces it.

  • Wider context · NC 641.5 OBRIEN North Carolina's Historic Restaurants and Their Recipes O'Brien, Dawn · 1983

    Restaurants in historic North Carolina buildings, each with a sketch of its history and recipes from its kitchen, gathered by Dawn O'Brien with drawings by Janice Murphy. John F. Blair published the 184 pages, with a map and an index, in 1983.

  • Start here · NC 975.656 BOYD Collective History: Stories of the Colonial Inn Boyd, Amanda · 2021

    Amanda Boyd's stories of the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough, gathered as anecdotes of the inn and of the town's social life. The inn on West King Street is one of Hillsborough's landmarks. Published in Durham in 2021, 120 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, maps and portraits, many in color.

  • Foundational · NC 344.054 NORTH North Carolina Tavern (ordinary) Bonds 2009

    Ordinary bonds, which county courts required of tavern and inn keepers, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway from originals in the State Archives and covering 1755 to 1874. The bonds come from Bute, Carteret, Chatham, Guilford, Hyde, Mecklenburg, Onslow, Orange, Randolph, Rowan and Surry counties, and an introduction explains how English law licensed the sale of drink and regulated the inn side of an ordinary. Issued in 2009; 267 pages with facsimiles and an index.

  • Wider context · 338.766 MYERS North Carolina Craft Beer & Breweries Myers, Erik Lars · 2012

    A guide to North Carolina's craft breweries by Erik Lars Myers, with addresses and telephone numbers, written while he was starting Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough, which appears among the breweries listed. John F. Blair of Winston-Salem published the 285 pages in 2012 with illustrations and an index.

  • Wider context · NC 975.6 MAR Carolina Classics Marsh, Carole · 1985

    Carole Marsh pairs recipes with miscellany and anecdotes from both North and South Carolina in this undated collection from Gallopade of Bath, North Carolina, thought to date from about 1985; 173 pages.

In the chronology

A selection of 12 events from the 374 chronology entries for this theme, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 374 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: John Branch, John R. Stokes, Elias FoordSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 215
  2. J. P. Foister opens a fish market in Chapel Hill's old fire house J. P. Foister fitted up a sanitary fish department, selling fresh fish, oysters, fruit and light groceries, in the old fire house next to the curb market in Chapel Hill. Place: Old fire house, next to the curb market, Chapel Hill · Also named: J. P. FoisterSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 9, 1922, p. 8
  3. Edward Danziger opens a candy kitchen on Franklin Street Edward G. Danziger, a candy maker whose family name was well known in Vienna, opened a candy kitchen with a tea-and-coffee room in the Munch building on Franklin Street, where Gooch's restaurant had been. He sold candy and ice cream with fresh fruit and planned to add Viennese and Turkish coffee, tea and pastries. The family business later included Danziger's Old World Gift Shop. People: Edward G. Danziger Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Gooch's restaurant, Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1939, p. 6 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 28, 1939, p. 1; Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan; NC State Historic Preservation Office: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, National Register nomin; Open Orange: Danziger's Old World Candy Shop / Danziger's Old World Restaurant / Danziger's Old World Gift Shop
  4. 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. Place: Dud's Tavern, 633 Cornelius Street (US 70), Fairview, HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 25, 1946, p. 1
  5. 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. Place: Carl Smith Building, North Columbia Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Clarence Simmons, Charles T. GreenSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill News Leader, December 20, 1956, p. 1 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 29, 1949, p. 3
  6. The walkout spreads to Chase and the Monogram Club, and strikers serve meals in Manning Hall Thirty Chase Cafeteria workers and 12 at the Monogram Club stopped work after meeting BSM members, bringing the number out to more than 140 and closing every University dining hall but Lenoir. Former Lenoir workers cooked fried chicken dinners in Manning Hall for about 200 people, taking donations instead of payment because the Umstead Act barred campus competition with private business. Place: Manning Hall, University, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, February 26, 1969, p. 1
  7. UNC's Faculty Council asks the University to keep a food service on campus At the same meeting the Faculty Council adopted without amendment a resolution presented by faculty chairman Daniel A. Okun that the University should provide or arrange a continuing food service on campus. University officials had said they would not run the cafeterias themselves after Saga left and might replace them with snack bars. People: Daniel A. Okun Place: UNC, Chapel HillThe Daily Tar Heel, March 7, 1970, p. 1
  8. Carrboro aldermen fine The Station restaurant $25 a day over its permit After a third extension on October 25 with a November 9 deadline, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted to fine The Station Restaurant and Saloon, in the town's old train depot, $25 a day from the following Monday until it met the rest of its conditional-use permit, including paving more of its parking lot and screening its trash container. Place: The Station, Main Street, CarrboroSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 11, 1977, p. 1
  9. 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. Place: 103-105 East Main Street, Carrboro · Also named: Francis Chan, Jenny ChanSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 11, 1983, p. 4 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1985, p. 3; The Daily Tar Heel, February 19, 2007, p. 1
  10. Weaver Street Market shows its cooperative grocery to the public in Carr Mill Mall Annex Before its planned May opening, the community-owned Weaver Street Market held a public preview with an ice cream scooping by a Ben and Jerry's co-founder at its 7,000-square-foot store in the Carr Mill Mall Annex. It had 157 shareholders, sold refundable shares at $75 per adult, and was the first business to receive a loan from the Carrboro Downtown Development Commission. Place: Carr Mill Mall Annex, Weaver Street, Carrboro · Also mentions: Weaver Street MarketSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 21, 1988, p. 7
  11. Jamaica Willie's Jerk Shack opens off East Franklin Street Two UNC graduates opened the Jamaican jerk-chicken restaurant next to the Rathskeller, with local bands on weekends. Place: Off East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: RathskellerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 17, 1993, p. 3
  12. 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. Place: Hillsborough; CarrboroOrange County FY 2026-27 Manager Recommended Budget (Library Services, FY 2025-26 highlights, pp. 207-208 of PDF)

See all 374 dated events in the chronology →

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 45 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

Show 43 more

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background 10

  • NCpedia: Food The state encyclopedia’s survey of North Carolina foodways, from barbecue to church cookbooks
  • NCpedia: Beer and breweries Brewing in North Carolina from the colonial period to the craft era, the background to the county’s brewery records
  • Southern Foodways Alliance Oral histories and documentary work on the food cultures of the South
  • Mama Dip's Kitchen: Mama Dip Tribute to Mildred Council, who opened the restaurant, covering her cooking and her support for affordable housing in Chapel Hill.
Show all 10

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time

Collections and databases 6

Show all 6

Local help

Related themes

Business, Shops & Commerce →UNC & Campus Life →Schools & Education →Churches & Faith →Wars & Military Service →Black Life & Civil Rights →

Picture: Farm Security Administration photographs, 1939–1940, Library of Congress; public domain. Image credits →

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