Whether entering from East Franklin Street or walking into the downstairs bar, Linda’s Bar & Grill has been packed for three days in a row. The space, lit by overhead strings of lights and neon signs of beer brands, was standing room only – unless a lucky few caught people slipping out from a table or surrendering a bar stool. Others braved the cold, staking claims at the picnic tables lining Franklin Street where customers sat and ate their takeout while Linda’s was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since owner Christopher Carini announced he is shutting down the restaurant for good, hundreds of people have squeezed into the wooden booths and leaned up against the bar, perusing the menu for a final order. How do you say goodbye to a restaurant with some people’s favorite meals in Chapel Hill? How do you say goodbye to a place where some customers have even left part of themselves behind – like carved initials in a booth, photographs left in the ceiling, or sweat behind the bar from busy shifts?
UNC senior Skylor Moseley has been among the crowd with her friends each night since Tuesday. She said she couldn’t believe the news when her friend told her that Linda’s was closing.
“I started crying,” Moseley said with a wry laugh. “I thought she was lying, I thought it was like that TikTok trend where people tell their parents that someone died and it’s a joke. But my reaction was that we have to come every day until they close. So, here we are, coming every day until they close.”
Abigail Allred, who is also a UNC senior, searched for a seat for a last round of Wednesday trivia in Linda’s Downbar – something she said she’s done since the first week of her junior year. Allred said the business’ announcement was “a big shock,” but that she would be thankful for the space and atmosphere it provided her friend group.
“I am going to be thinking of sitting in the booth,” Allred said of remember the bar, “watching all of my friends trickle down the stairs and they all sit down with a big huff and [say], ‘We’re here again, we made it through another week.’ It feels like Linda’s is me and my friends’ coffee shop from the show ‘Friends.’”
Visitors to Linda’s spill outside of the bar and grill on Wednesday, January 3.
That sense of welcoming and the camaraderie among its patrons, staff and owner is a common thread of how Linda’s earned its regular crowd in the last decade. Carini bought the restaurant and bar in 2011 with the goal of preserving its character but saving the business. While he sought his own successor over the last few years, keeping Linda’s afloat during and after the pandemic has taken a toll – one Carini says he can not overcome if the bar continues operations.
Star Wingate-Bey – a graduate of UNC’s Class of 2016 – lives in Brooklyn but returned to her native Durham for the holidays. She said her reaction to Linda’s fate was “devastation,” since she remembers both coming to the bar with her family and grabbing a late drink after work shifts at Tru Deli while a student.
“It’s really bittersweet because it’s such an institution,” said Wingate-Bey. “When I think of my time at Carolina, I think of Linda’s. So, we’re really sad to see it go.”
Her partner, Chapin Nutter, said the pair have found a local bar in New York that has a similar energy to Linda’s. But it’s not quite the same – and Nutter said he finds himself making a pilgrimage back to East Franklin Street whenever visiting Chapel Hill.
“It’s sobering to think that a couple years of being ‘post’ COVID, it’s still affecting restaurants – especially ones that we care about a lot,” he said.
The gathering of Linda’s cast of characters this week, though, reflects the community Carini helped build. Allison Fanney credits the bar owner for helping her get married to a UNC graduate, who would reminisce about his days with Daily Tar Heel colleagues at the bar while living down in Arkansas. Early in their relationship, Fanney called the bar to see if any t-shirts or merchandise was available as a Christmas gift. She said Carini answered the phone and told her while there was no Linda’s merch available, he would send her future husband’s favorite dish instead.
“Chris overnighted three servings of mac and cheese, frozen, plus the little crunchies that go on top,” Fanney said. “For Christmas, my boyfriend at the time opened it up [and] could not believe it. He was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
“Fast forward four years later,” she continued, “my husband – as we’re getting married – actually says in his vows, ‘You got me mac and cheese from my favorite bar.’ That is how important Linda’s has been to us.”
For the former employees who returned to their bar, each night feels like a family reunion. People drink, laugh, catch up, and jostle infants in their arms while Carini alternates between popping into a booth to share stories and helping his current staff behind the bar.
Adam Candelori worked at Linda’s for eight years and made a final trip with his family from Garner, where he lives now. He credited Carini for creating the sense of community within the staff, who helped convey that to their patrons.
“I met all of the closest friends that I have in my life here at Linda’s,” said Candelori. “I met my wife here at Linda’s, and a bunch of people came here to find their family away from home. It’s great to see it alive again, one last time.”
Patrons pack the upstairs bar and booths at Linda’s Bar & Grill on Tuesday, January 2, hours after the business announced its final days of operations.
JD Rust remembers moving to Carrboro in 2018 and interviewing for a service job at a different bar. After running into Carini while grabbing a drink, the Linda’s owner extended him a job offer too. Rust said his first visit to his future workplace was during a renowned pot roast lunch, and he described the business from there as “life changing.” He eventually proposed to his wife Grace on the steps of the Downbar and when he arrived at Linda’s on Wednesday, Carini suggested he take home the barstool with their initials carved in it.
With the bar filled to the brim for the week, as people showed support and reminisced on why they loved coming here, would it be possible for Linda’s to be saved?
Rust said he would have mixed feelings if it were bought by someone else, simply because of how Carini’s ownership and the bar’s management defined the 47-year-old business’ latest chapters.
“This place exists in a certain period in my life and it’s pretty tattooed on there,” said Rust. “So, if someone else were to take it over, I think [the idea of it] feels really nice, that the legacy is handed down to the new person or people that would own it. But I don’t know that it needs that in my heart, for me.
“And,” he added, “it’s special to me because of Chris.”
As for Carini, he said he wanted to ensure Linda’s went out on top – as the bar was in people’s favorite moments, and nothing less than those memories made.
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