Flavor of the Week: Mosaic

By Maggie Wong

If you’ve lived near the Carrboro area since before the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have been familiar with the fine dining restaurant Provence of Carrboro. Sadly, the French restaurant, like many others during the pandemic, shut its doors as the cold months of 2020 rolled around.

Initially, Provence was to reopen once outdoor dining became feasible, but the owners of Provence cooked up a new plan. Now, Mosaic Cafe and Bistro sits in the old Provence space.

The concept of mosaics, as the eatery describes it, is to take pieces from diverse sources and put them together to create a new, beautiful whole. As such, Mosaic strives to bring a range of flavors of the world to Carrboro.

“We realized that Carrboro is very worldly but not in a stuffy, French way,” General Manager Brian Cansler said. “So, we thought about what would be best for the community and decided to integrate lots of different ingredients, spices and cooking techniques from around the world.”

One way Mosaic is able to offer such a diverse menu is by being two restaurants in one. During the day, Mosaic is a café that offers coffee, pastries and a variety of baked goods. At night, it transforms into a tapas-style bistro that offers foods for all palettes and budgets. All offerings are made with locally and internationally-sourced ingredients.

Mosaic also likes to keep things fresh by updating the menu every week. New items are constantly introduced, so even regular customers always have something different to try. There are still, however, fan favorites that are mainstays on the Mosaic menu.

These dishes include French onion soup, a popular item from the Provence menu that has been retained for the new concept. Mosaic also offers inky fettuccine, which is a squid ink sepia sauce pasta served with fresh tomatoes, parsley and garlic butter shrimp.

Mosaic has curated a wine menu that sources drinks from many locations. The wine menu includes selections from Spain, Argentina and Italy. Cansler said he chose all of the wines with each of the dishes in mind.

“We tried to keep the price points on these wines fairly low and instead focus on offering a range of good quality wines,” Cansler said. “We also try to change the line with stuff often enough that it stays exciting, but not so often that you lose out on the favorites you just found.”

To taste these menu items and support an immigrant-owned, queer-run restaurant, you can find Mosaic at 203 W. Weaver St. in Carrboro. To learn more about Mosaic visit the website or check it out on Facebook and on Instagram.