Chapelboro is publishing a series called “Mind Your Business,” summarizing some of the latest stories, announcements, and updates from businesses in the community every three months. From local openings to closings to everything in-between, we are sharing a snapshot of what’s happened in the most recent quarter of the calendar year.
The report will roughly go in chronological order of the developments, and will conclude with a section of any general updates on ongoing projects that are undated. The previous edition, covering April through June 2025, can be found here.
Do you see something that is missing or want an update about your own business? Get in touch with us by emailing news@wchl.com with your announcements!
JULY
• The top story of July, and one of the biggest of all 2025, is the historical rainfall and flooding caused by Tropical Depression Chantal in central North Carolina. Many spots in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and beyond saw intense flash floods wreck properties on July 6 — with many businesses among them. Eastgate Crossing shopping center, Mariakakis Plaza and University Place mall in Chapel Hill were the hardest hit because of their proximity to creeks. Initial property damage estimates for the three business hubs reached $17 million, with the economic damage piling onto that total.
• Because of the destructive flooding of Booker Creek, few businesses went unscathed and able to remain open at Eastgate Crossing. The handful to escape major flood damage were Chipotle, Chopt and T-Mobile in the central part of the shopping center, with School of Rock Chapel Hill at 1500 Fordham Boulevard also able to stay open. As of October, businesses still closed from flood damage include: Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, Bruegger’s Bagels, Starbucks, Clean Juice, Jersey Mike’s, Twisted Noodles, Rose Nails, Petco, Dollar Tree, Kipos, Aldi, Restore Hyper Wellness, MedFirst, Club Pilates, Massage Envy, The Loop, Blo Blow Dry Bar, Corepower Yoga, Snooze A.M. Eatery, Birkenstock, Great Outdoor Provision Co., Talbot’s, Shake Shack and Ulta Beauty.
Chairs, umbrellas and a larger garbage container were among the debris washed up at the Shake Shack in the Eastgate Shopping Center after it was flooded during tropical storm Chantal, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.)
• Several businesses at University Place fared better, despite floodwaters entering the central mall building on the property. Bartaco, CycleBar, Flying Biscuit Café, the Frame & Print Shop, Hawkers Asian Street Fare and Verizon all reopened shortly after the storm. On the other side of the building, Alfredo’s Pizza, AT&T, Aveda Institute & Salon and JewelRecycle also suffered little to no damage. Businesses on the north side of the property — Harris Teeter, Chapel Hill Tire, Chick-fil-A — stayed open while Circle K, Planet Fitness, First Horizon Bank, Jeni’s Ice Cream and the WakeMed 365 clinic quickly reopened despite seeing some flooding. Still, some of University Place’s anchor businesses were closed indefinitely in the aftermath for repairs — but reopened later in the summer. One interior business, Style Brows Threading Studio, relocated to a temporary location inside Sola Salon Studios at Rams Plaza, while another (Gerrie & Co.) permanently closed.
Flooding outside of Stony River Steakhouse at University Place in Chapel Hill on July 6, 2025. (Photo via Michael Powell.)
• In Carrboro, Chef Drew Moore continued his business ventures in Carr Mill Mall by opening Autostrada on July 11. Based on the auto grill stops found along highways in Italy, the restaurant serves pizza, paninis and salads out of the former Pizza Company space while having a coffee and gelato shop across the hall where a candy shop used to operate. A grand opening event in September helped boost Autostrada’s profile and welcome customers.
• Chapel Hill gained a new pizza and sports bar the same weekend, as One40 Social held its official grand opening. The bar, restaurant and event space filled a spot that stayed vacant after the closure of Old Chicago in 2017 and boasts features like dozens of televisions, a wide variety of draft beer, and an internal milkshake bar.
• After closing its doors off Carrboro’s Merritt Mill Road in 2021, Shaka Shave Ice returned to the community this summer with a new location. Now open in The Courtyard at 431 West Franklin Street, the shaved ice shop kept its branding and menu of authentic Hawaiian flavors.
• Franklin Motors Beer Garden in Chapel Hill shared a post on July 14 saying it was going through a staff reorganization, including transitioning to a new bar manager and moving on from Roquette food truck. The bar reopened on July 22 with its own food truck operations, with management citing the change as necessary to keep Franklin Motors’ doors open. Roquette Chef John Smith told Chapelboro the split was “somewhat” disappointing to him, but the bar completed the separation agreement initially negotiated between the two entities. Smith also confirmed there are no plan to move Roquette to a different location, with him spending more time with family and his wife, Sarah, continuing to lead staff at the Oakleaf in Carrboro.
• Most of the time, the Chatham Chamber’s role in ribbon-cutting ceremonies is to support local businesses. But on July 16, it was able to hold its own — as the chamber of commerce celebrated the formal opening of its new office at 79°West Coworking Space & Innovation Hub in Pittsboro. The move puts the chamber headquarters in the MOSAIC development of Chatham Park and in a key corridor of the growing community.
• Solidcore, a Pilates workout studio, started its soft opening on July 22 at one of the new tenant spaces at Chapel Hill’s University Place. The nationwide fitness chain offers a variety of workout classes through monthly, six-month and annual membership tiers.
• After challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic — and a false-start announcement of its closure being re-communicated as winding down in-person dining operations — Mama Dip’s Kitchen officially closed on July 22. The Chapel Hill institution lasted for nearly five decades under the leadership of the Council family, starting with its namesake and matriarch, Mildred Council, and was known for its traditional southern menu. The Council family put the West Rosemary Street property on the market in 2023, but the future of the building is unclear — as is whether a new form of Mama Dip’s cooking will resurface, since the family said the brand “will stay alive and we are working to see what is next for us.”
• An extension to Al’s Burger Shack on West Franklin Street opened on July 29. Puddin’s Beer Shack is a new bar space owned and operated by the popular burger joint, having moved into the space after the magikcraft store Quantum Soul closed last December. The name is an homage to the nickname of the cook at owner Charlie Farris’ Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, with the bar offering extended tap space, seating and television screens for Al’s Burger Shack customers.
Puddin’s Beer Shack will help frame Al’s Burger Shack’s outdoor seating, while offering plenty of indoor seating itself to patrons. (Photo via Anna Barzin/Farris Foods, Inc.)
AUGUST
• Stoney River Steakhouse & Grill at University Place mall became one of the first severely flood-damaged businesses at the mall to reopen. The restaurant resumed its normal operating hours following an event on Aug. 11.
• A pair of Eastgate businesses impacted by Chantal’s floodwaters reopened within hours of each other on Aug. 18 and 19. Trader Joe’s welcomed back customers at 4 p.m., with a small crowd gathering outside, and Guglhupf Bake Shop opened the following morning. Both locations have returned to normal hours.
• The Carolina Square development in Chapel Hill saw another new business open on Aug. 20. The fast-casual chain Brunches and Brews opened its sixth North Carolina location with the Chapel Hill spot in Suite 120 of the 133 West Franklin Street building. Serving breakfast, lunch and a variety of signature cocktails — the restaurant’s website literally is “Mimosas made me do it” — Brunches is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Over in Mebane, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein visited to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 21 at the Thermo Fisher Scientific manufacturing plant off West Ten Road. The latest addition to Orange County’s Buckhorn Economic Development District produces roughly 40 million pipette tips for laboratory use each week, with company leaders estimating the facility will add 150-200 jobs in total to the community.
Political leaders and Thermo Fisher representatives cut the ribbon at the company’s new manufacturing site in Mebane on Aug. 21, 2025. (Photo by Ben Crosbie/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
• In Chatham County’s The Shops at Fearrington, the community’s retail stretch added Thistle & Oak on Aug. 22. A sister store to the women’s boutique Dovecote Style, the bespoke menswear shop held a grand opening party alongside a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Chatham Chamber of Commerce. Thistle & Oak’s hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Franklin Street Realty transitioned to a fully-remote business in late August, clearing out its office space at 1525 East Franklin Street where it had been headquartered for years. Broker in Charge Sammy Martin told Chapelboro most of his staff had already been working remotely with no changes to its ability to serve prospective home-buyers and sellers in the community.
• A pair of businesses went viral in August for using a herd of goats to help clean up kudzu around their properties. Endswell and Joe Van Gogh teamed up to hire Goats On The Go to munch on the invasive plants near their buildings in Hillsborough, with a social media post from Joe Van Gogh catching the internet’s attention.
• A new restaurant highlighting traditional Burmese recipes and flavors opened on Aug. 26 in downtown Chapel Hill. Road To Myanmar Asian Cuisine is the product of three immigrant residents who teamed up to share dishes from the Southeast Asia region, which include noodle salads, fermented meats and curries. The project came together quickly, according to the News & Observer’s profile of the business, and slides into a space vacated by VooDoo Wing Company in July — which operated in Chapel Hill for roughly 11 months. Road To Myanmar becomes the fourth business to occupy 147 East Franklin Street in the last decade, following [B]SKI’s, Dame’s Chicken & Waffles and VooDoo Wing Company.
• After working through the summer to prepare the space, a new cocktail bar Little Gem formally opened in Chapel Hill’s Cedar Falls Courtyard development off Weaver Dairy Road on Aug. 27. A business with close ties to the neighboring Beau Catering, the lounge serves up small plates of food alongside an extensive original and “remixed” cocktail menu. Open five nights a week, Little Gem’s head bartender Paul Finn also uses the space to offer monthly mixology classes for those looking to boost their home cocktail-making skills.
Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
• A highly-anticipated downtown Hillsborough business first welcomed customers on the final day of August. Serratore’s Pasta & Pizza held its soft opening and began service over the Labor Day weekend at 112 North Churton Street. The Italian cuisine concept — which is run by the team behind Mothers and Sons Trattoria in Durham — slid into the space after Radius Pizzeria shuttered in Dec. 2024.
SEPTEMBER
• On Sep. 2, Even Dough Bakery officially launched its daily café at 203 West Weaver Street in Carrboro. While the bakery had operated in the space for roughly a year-and-a-half — filling the prior home of Mosaic Tapas Bistro & Wine Bar — the launch welcomed customers in to grab fresh pastries and drinks instead of Even Dough’s previous appointment-only business model for its baked goods. Even with the daily bustle of a coffee shop, Even Dough is continuing its custom cake and large-batch catering orders.
• The Pittsboro Feed store finished expansion and opened its new retail space on Sep. 2, moving the main storefront for customers from its site on East Street. Now just 700 feet away and at 1245 Thompson Street, the local animal and pet supply company has more than doubled its space for inventory and positioned it to better welcome more patrons.
• Adjacent to Eastgate Crossing — and similarly a flood victim in July — Chapel Hill’s Mariakakis Fine Food & Wine reopened to customers on Sep. 3. The family business, run by Johnny Mariakakis, is the anchor tenant of the line of retail stores facing Fordham Boulevard and saw two different GoFundMe campaigns raise more than $30,000 to help with short-term costs. In addition to the international food and catering business, two other tenants have reopened since the floods: The Catering Company of Chapel Hill and The Shoe Repair.
• Local foodies looking for authentic Central American dishes have a new spot in Chapel Hill to check out. The Latin Effect expanded its operations from a successful food truck to brick-and-mortar, opening at 504 West Franklin Street on Sep. 5 in a space unoccupied since The Beer Study left in 2024. Co-owner Alberto Chedrani aims to expand his menu to feature foods from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Mexico and other countries to celebrate Latin recipes and culture.
• Friday, Sep. 5 was also when Silverspot Cinema welcomed back movie-goers after seven weeks of remediation from Chantal’s flooding. The Chapel Hill theater saw significant water enter its lobby, concessions area and hallway the night of July 6 — and while repair those areas, the business took the chance to upgrade its lighting, seating and projectors in all theaters. The chain’s marketing team teased additional events and specials to entice patrons back to the theater through the fall and also teased the addition of Dolby Atmos premium surround sound technology later this year.
• More than two years after an electrical fire destroyed its interior, fans of Mediterranean Deli learned the news they’d been waiting to hear: the Chapel Hill main location was officially reopening. Owner Jamil Kadoura exclusively shared with Chapelboro the deli, bakery and market space’s plans to gradually return to dinner-only operations. Having fully rebuilt, redecorated, and upgraded its kitchen, Med Deli celebrated the achievement with a private ceremony for firefighters who helped rescue the building in 2023 before welcoming back devoted customers on Sep. 9.
• Three more Eastgate Crossing businesses in the line of stores parallel to East Franklin Street reopened in mid-September. winestore reopened its door on Sep. 10 after repairs and remediation, adding upgraded tasting machines and a new inventory as the month went on. Two doors to the left, McPherson Cleaners restored its full operations at the shopping center on Sep. 15 after operating temporarily out of the Triangle Youth Ballet in Village Plaza, as did Waxing The City.
• The News of Orange reported the corporate owners of Hillsborough’s historic Colonial Inn filed for bankruptcy reorganization in mid-September to help with its flagging finances after significant restoration efforts. With the move, the general manager is stepping down — and framed the decision to the newspaper as the best path forward for the boutique hotel and its staff. The filing lists nearly $4.7 million in debts and assets of just more than $3.7 million for the West King Street business.
• Chapel Hill’s first location of the gas station and convenience store Sheetz opened on Tuesday, Sep. 30 at 1200 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. The Pennsylvania-based chain celebrated in several ways, including holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony, giving away free Sheetz for a year to a lucky customer, and donated to both the state chapter of the Special Olympics and North Carolina-based Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
Sheetz staff at the new Chapel Hill location prepare to cut the ribbon on Sep. 30, 2025. (Photo via Jon Gregory/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
UPCOMING
• One of the Eastgate Crossing tenants to set up a temporary location away from the shopping center was Olmaz Jewelers, which quickly made the move to University Place after the flooding. But after doing initial repairs and restoration of its 1800 East Franklin Street home, the jewelry shop is preparing to reopen in early October and has moved out of its temporary space along Willow Drive.
• Despite all of the closures and reopening within Eastgate, it appears the shopping center is set to add its first new business since Tropical Depression Chantal. Signs for a J. Crew Factory store have gone up at Suite 18, where Lynn’s Hallmark store and the Pink Pearl boutique once were. According to the signage, the J. Crew aims to open in winter 2025.
Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
• Signs outside of 122 East Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill further indicate a Sweetgreen is preparing to move in after the News & Observer reported the news in May. The space has been empty since Benny Capella’s closed in Dec. 2021 and is one of the business spaces owned by UNC’s real estate arm. Sweetgreen, which is a popular salad and protein-bowl restaurant, just opened its first North Carolina location in Raleigh last October and its Chapel Hill store’s signage indicate it plans to open before the end of 2025.
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