Two of Chapel Hill’s newer restaurants on West Franklin Street permanently closed their locations last month.

The Central American restaurant The Latin Effect held its last day of service on Wednesday, May 27, while sports bar Rams Corner closed to customers earlier in May.

The Latin Effect, which opened Sept. 2025 at 504 West Franklin Street, was owned and operated by Alberto Chedrani and represented an expansion of his food truck venture of the same name. Chedrani sought to create a brick-and-mortar space to better serve the traditional, regional recipes he learned from his Honduran mother and expand his catering capabilities. He partnered with the Rathore family — local restauranteurs in Durham and Raleigh, who bought the West Franklin Street space previously home to Beer Study — for the evolution.

In its social media post, the restaurant shared thanks to the Franklin Street community “we’ve come to know and love” and told customers that the closure would not impact its food truck business, encouraging people to seek out The Latin Effect truck to get a taste of their baleadas and papusas.

Meanwhile, the Rams Corner closure had less fanfare and transparency. The restaurant opened last October at 431 West Franklin Street and was marketed as a sports bar that also opened for brunch hours on the weekends, Rams Corner shared no message on its website, social media or its doors about closure — but is now listed on Google Maps as permanently closed. A May 23 review left on Yelp claimed the restaurant took its reservation online, but was closed upon the patrons’ arrival. The business, which was owned by Carlos Sanchez and managed by Jorge Aplicano, did not respond to a request for comment by Chapelboro.

Rams Corner’s closure marks the latest attempt to get a business started in the 431 West Franklin Street space. It was the successor to the ill-fated Ay Por Dios!, which spent several months overhauling the space but struggled to gain traction with customers and closed in Dec. 2024. The Mexican restaurant took over the space after Kipos Greek Taverna relocated to the Eastgate Crossing shopping center in late 2020.

 

Featured photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.

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