Chapelboro: Pictorial views, scenes, places in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the UNC Campus — 1975-2023
Views of Chapel Hill and Carrboro
Rosemary Street—East Main Street Carrboro
The Marathon Runner Mural
This mural is striking to me because I believe it was deliberately chosen as the name of a restaurant I believe was located there in the 70sand 80s. My memory are of spectacular meatball and Greek beef sandwiches I can’t seem to forget. Google has a site labeled Marathon but attaches it to a picture of a Marathon gas station on Weaver Street ???
This building is located at where West Rosemary and Franklin become West Main in Carrboro.
Morning at Cafe Driade
On the day after my retirement in May 2017 from UNC, I started the next morning having coffee and a pastry at this lovely place Cafe Driade. I wish I could get there more often.Open Eye. If you sit on the patio you can see Glasshalful, Neal’s Deli, Steel String Brewery and Cliff’s Market. And sometime soon the new Carrboro Publi Library will open. Nice place to spend time.
Sutton’s Drugstore
Only three institutions in Chapel Hill will celebrate in the next couple of years— Sutton’s, Carolina Coffee Shop and the Carolina Inn. Of course our mascot Rameses and progeny hit the Century mark too.
Market and Moss. An exquisite place to dine. The chef, service and above all the food is are very exceptional.
Pantana Bob’s at the intersection of Church and Rosemary.Rosemary
A photo May 18,2018. Rosemary Street had undergone the significant amount of construction and the two or three years prior to the date I took this picture. Pantana Bob’s https://localwiki.org/ch/Pantana_Bob%27 has held on for quite a while but the building is one of the downtown with a fascinating history of previous tenants.La Residence is one of Chapel Hill’s most renown restaurants and has been since 1976.
401 Main
One of the best places in town to go to get good food on on the best weather days take your pets
Carr Mill Mall
This space in Carr Mill has a storied history regarding restaurants. The emptied space had been the excellent Panzenella which had been preceded by the amazing Italian classic Aurora. The space was being prepared ultimately for Tandem which constructed a place that rivals the grace and elegance of Aurora. The Mill’s building managers are wonderful in redesigning their spaces.This building is now the now Grey Squirrel Coffee. At one point it was home to an excellent Italian restaurant called Bella’s that was a very popular lunch stop. The food was excellent. This another place whose dishes I need to share remembered dishes from. I went there with friends. It also housed a possible ripoff of Durham’s Q Shack which had a food stall in the in Lenoir Hall.
Bella’s
In my 40+ years in Chapel Hill I’ve walked past Carrburito’s hundreds of times. Please dont ask me to explain why‘cause I can’t!!!
A steady presence on Main Street Carrboro located at the conjunction of Weaver Dairy and Main across from Weaver Street Market.
Vecino
Yesteryear all a Carrboro Brewery shared this spot with the Grey Squirrel while the own place was being not far away. They changed their name and created a trendy place with excellent food and beers Vecino that treats the whole family and you bring the pets on fair weather days. https://hawrivercarrboro.com/
Franklin Street, University Place/Mall and all points North, East and South.
This AC Hotel is a nice place for a staycation. It’s seem close to ever kind thing you want to do.
Midtown Market MLK Boulevard
Midtown is the home of Bombolo, Hunan, and FlyleafBookstore.This plant is called Hen and Chicks and is on the patio of Bombolo
Glen Lennox and Glen Lennox Environ Road are the shopping and living centers in this area.
Elements is one of the best Asian fusion restaurants in the area.
Glen Lennox and Environ Way restaurants
This sign and its lovely flower bed are the entrance to Glen Lennox on Raleigh Road/ Highway 54This Bottle Rev was located between Hawthorn and Wood and Brenz Pizza until it relocated and moved to the west end of Environ and became NoDaThe 54 has been several places at Environ Way over the years. The sports bar Tobacco Road, a deli called Streets that closed in 2016, NoDa.Raaga was one of the original restaurants in Environ Way. It served Indian food.
It’s now closed
Possibly the best Asian Fusion restaurants in the Triangle.Hawthorn and Wood is one of the best restaurants in the Triangle. It’s won awards for its highly regarded service, food and its hefty who also owns the the French Bluebird in Meadowmont.
A day at YoPo
YoPo or The Yogurt Pump has been a durable favorite in Chapel Hill since 1982. What more do need to know about how delightful their frozen yogurts are??This building is now the now Grey Squirrel Coffee. At one point it was home to a a fine Italian restaurant that also served wonderful breakfasts and lunches. The sign reads Caribou Coffee, but this building has a lot of history behind it, for years it was an ESSO gas station. You see the sign for Caribou Coffee which was succeeded by a Moe’s Southwest Grill. The current occupant is Blues on FranklinStreet Smokehouse and Bar owned byCarolina alums.
Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution was a Durham restaurant that opened a branch on Franklin Street. The place was once the home of a quaint little French restaurant a lot of liked in the 80s. Had a short life there and was replaced by one of the best coffee shops in town Perennial.
The Franklin Hotel
When first open the Franklin had a smart bar with excellent food, great drinks and a smooth vibe. The second floor had a larger dining space for breakfasts and brunch with windows over Franklin Street.
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The Franklin was built on the spot where the Chapel Hill bus station was located for years. I road a Trailways us from Greenville NC to Carolina for my first year in 1967. I can’t remember if the entrances of the station.were still segregated as this informative historical link indicates https://openorangenc.org/buildings/311-w-franklin-st-trailways-bus-station
The Murals and Outdoor sculptures of Chapel Hill & Carrboro
Mellow Marshmallow Pizza’s patio and impressive and colorful mural. Nearly place one dines at in Chapel Hill was a place older Carolina remember well. In the 1970s this building was a popular lunch spot it at this moment I can’t remember its name. The food was delivered within minutes of our ordering and the waiters the fastest in town.
The only placed in this photo was take that is no longer in business is Elaine’s Restaurant.
Chapel Hill has fine coffee houses all over town and there are eight Starbucks in town. Coffee wasn’t on my radar while I was out and about in the 70s and 80s. After 1990 that definitely changed. changed. Perennial pictured is one of my favorites.
411 West was one the first wave of restaurants in Chapel Hill that redefined eating out in Chapel Hill. It introduced new variations of Mediterranean and Italian flavors to us when it opened in 1990 and it’s still there . https://www.411west.com/story-overview
This has been a favorite of Carolina students for years. It has specialized in Asian and Chinese food, fast and inexpensive. The latest is Curry Point and Indian restaurant closed its doors in June 2024.
Construction work on East Main Street in Carrboro at the shopping center where Cats Cradle is located.
AC Hotel on Rosemary Street. One of the places it replaced was the popular Mexican restaurant Los Portrillo.
This building housed Laundry a laundromat serving beer — a full time bar called the Library—and for sometime now has housed thepictured Chipotle.
If you were living and working in Chapel Hill in the 1970s to early 90s there was some kind of consistency to where you went out to eat. Restaurants and bars didn’t close down as frequently. Chances are that the place you ate at during your college tour visit was the same one your parents took you on football weekends and maybe even graduation and most places were locally owned.
Everyone of the places in the pictures tha follow has its own history as a place that’s been different for each Tar Heel generation sine the 1920s. I note that when I can in captions.
Take a look at the storefronts below. How many are still on East Franklin? Have you visited those places that are new to you?
This Krispy Kreme had very short life on Franklin Street. Unlike most of their shops, the donuts were not made on site but delivered from another store. There was no conveyor belt of freshly baked goodies.
Points South , East and West in Chapel Hill
Los Potrillos was a spacious, welcoming Mexican restaurant that served amazing dishes. The produced dry satisfying drinks. The building of the of the HC Hotel.
it.
Elaine’s was the most elegant restaurant in town for years. Food was always excellent as was the service. I don’t recall if its closure was related to the pandemic but it has been a great culinary loss.
A Culinary Odyssey 
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