Could a Chapel Hill breakfast and lunch favorite be gone for good?
Breadman’s in the Elliott Square shopping center was at least closed for Wednesday, August 6, as any hopeful customers found the doors padlocked by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. A notice posted on the door and dated for Wednesday said the unit is under a writ of possession and the space is not to be entered by anyone without express permission from the landlord.
According to court filings, the restaurant and its owners were behind on rent payments to the Elliott Square management, leading to a default on the lease. SCG-Elliott Square, LLC filed a summary ejection case at the end of June and served the Castro-Juarez family that owns Breadman’s in July. An Orange County magistrate sided with the landlords on July 14 during a hearing in which the defendants did not show, leading to the writ of possession being issued on July 28.
SCG-Elliott Square, a corporate entity acting for the shopping center owners SouthCoast Commercial, said the lease with the restaurant owners was defaulted as rent went unpaid. The initial filings said Breadman’s was behind on roughly $60,000 of rent, which rose to more than $72,000 by the time the writ of possession was issued.
As of Wednesday, the restaurant had no updates on its website or social media pages warning patrons of the change.
The closure could spell the end for a staple in the Chapel Hill community for more than five decades. Breadmen’s first opened in 1974 and spent most of its time on West Rosemary Street while owned by Roy Piscitello. The breakfast and lunch joint was known for attracting Chapel Hill residents and UNC students alike with its wide-ranging menu and homely atmosphere. In the 2010s, a developer bought the surrounding land around the restaurant and approached Breadmen’s on selling the land. The restaurant chose to keep operating and the project was ultimately tabled as it hit design snags with the town government — but, eventually, the prior ownership group decided to close and sell. The restaurant last served customers on West Rosemary Street just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person dining for months.
When that happened former employee Omar Castro-Juarez stepped in to try and keep the restaurant going. After a rebranding that required flipping the ‘e’ to an ‘a’, Breadman’s moved in July 2020 to the South Elliott Road location left empty by the closure of Haw River Grill. Many of customers’ favorites could still be found on the menu as Castro-Juarez and his family looked to maintain the same feel of the initial restaurant.
According to the court filings, SCG-Elliott Square’s writ of possession is separate from its claim for the monetary damages owed by Breadman’s.
Featured photo by Henry Taylor/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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