To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2023. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
Tragedy hit Chapel Hill’s downtown business community multiple times in 2023. In July, a massive fire destroyed Mediterranean Deli and caused major damage to several nearby businesses — then in September, a family-run apparel store on East Franklin Street was devastated by the deaths of the two co-owners, father and son. But in the wake of those disasters, the local community rallied together to support the families and staff — enabling all the affected businesses to soldier on, even in the face of sudden and tremendous adversity.
The call came in to the Chapel Hill Fire Department around 2:30 on the afternoon of Saturday, July 22.
Mediterranean Deli was on fire.
“A roofer was fixing a leak in the roof, (and) it’s a common practice to use a torch,” owner Jamil Kadoura told 97.9 The Hill later. “I started smelling and seeing smoke (after he left), and I’m thinking, what’s going on here? So I ran upstairs, and I looked around and I didn’t see anything…
“(But) when I was going back to the ladder to get off the roof, I saw a very small flame. I tapped on it with my bare hands – and then (a piece of) about four or five inches’ diameter fell down, and the fire came up.”
The news spread around town as quickly as the blaze itself. Owned by Kadoura from the very start, Med Deli had been a beloved Franklin Street staple since its founding in 1992.
Kadoura immediately evacuated the restaurant and called 911, but it was already too late. Firefighters got the fire under control in three hours, and miraculously nobody was seriously injured – but Med Deli itself was gutted.
“I thank God every morning, every hour, every day, (that) nobody got hurt,” Kadoura told 97.9 The Hill. “Every thing is replaceable, but if somebody would’ve been hurt – I don’t know if I could live with it.”
The fire left Med Deli with $3 million in damage. Four other businesses were affected too — most notably the salon Moshi Moshi, which also had to shut down with about $65,000 in damage. (Moshi Moshi remains closed even now. For the last five months, staff and customers have been diverted to the salon’s second location, in Durham’s Golden Belt.)
Moshi Moshi (Photo via David Hunt.)
But in the immediate aftermath of the fire, Kadoura says he saw the community step up to support him and his staff, in ways he could never have imagined.
Within a day, handmade signs were being taped along Med Deli’s façade, with messages of love and encouragement. Town officials and business leaders also sprang into action, holding an emergency meeting the next day to discuss how to facilitate the recovery.
Handmade notes left on the windows of Mediterranean Deli in the days after a fire damaged the restaurant.
And the community came through financially as well, raising more than $200,000 in the space of a few days to support Med Deli’s 71-member staff — many of whom had been with the restaurant for more than a decade.
“I always knew I live in a great community, but I really didn’t know the extent,” Kadoura said. “It definitely gave me energy when people signed those papers on the windows of the deli, “Come back, please, we love you.” Just beautiful, beautiful…
“I love this community. I wish I can find more words to say about this community, but – thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all.”
Not long after the fire, Med Deli was able to reopen its catering business at a temporary location down the road. They also began serving takeout from that location in September.
Jamil Kadoura (right) visited 97.9 The Hill’s studios to speak with Aaron Keck about Mediterranean Deli’s recovery plan just days after a fire damaged his business.
But even as Med Deli was getting on the road to recovery, another downtown business was suddenly hit with an even more devastating tragedy.
For more than two decades, the Classic Carolina store has been an anchor on East Franklin Street, selling UNC apparel to students, longtime residents, and out-of-town fans alike. Owned by Dhruva Chellani and his family since 1993, the store had been planning a grand reopening for September 9, after a months-long closure for a major remodel.
But all of that changed in a heartbeat on September 6, just three days before their long-awaited celebration. Dhruva, his wife Nina, and his son Kris were returning home from a community event in Chatham County when their vehicle was “struck head-on by a high-speed driver who swerved into their lane.” Dhruva and Kris died at the scene, while Nina was left with a broken back.
Dhruva Chellani was 61 years old. Kris — who was just about to take over the business from his father — was only 24.
Kris (left) and Dhruva Chellani stand outside the Classic Carolina storefront prior to its renovation in 2023. (Photo via Classic Carolina.)
As with Med Deli just two months earlier, the sudden tragedy left a much-loved family in shock and a much-loved business in limbo. But as it had in July, the Chapel Hill community rallied again — raising more than $100,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to support Nina and the Chellani family.
And while the Chellanis never got to celebrate that grand reopening, Classic Carolina is soldiering on — now in the hands of Krystal Chellani, Dhruva’s daughter and Kris’ sister, who stepped up to take over the store in the midst of her own grief.
Krystal Chellani reopened Classic Carolina and is running the business, crediting it to her brother Kris and father Dhruva’s memory.
“We’re all still very much in shock,” Krystal told 97.9 The Hill. “(But) my dad spent 30 years building the business and my brother had been working with him … so I just wanted to carry on their legacy. That’s what they would have wanted me to do. And I just hope that they’re proud of me.”
Classic Carolina reopened in October — thanks, Krystal says, to the outpouring of support from the Chapel Hill community.
“It’s just really wonderful to hear people talk about (Dhruva and Kris) and come by the store and say nice things about them,” she told 97.9 The Hill. “They spent so long just building this business and just making it one of the many staples on Franklin Street — so it’s definitely going to stay in the family, and it is something that I want to continue.”
A photo of Dhruva (left) and Kris Chellani sits in Classic Carolina.
Featured photo via Caroline Spencer. Photos of Krystal, Dhruva, and Kris Chellani via Classic Carolina.
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