I’m sure you have heard the sad news: Mama Dip’s in Chapel Hill is officially closing its doors.
Mildred Council was tall as a child and she had the job of using her long arms to dip into the rain barrel for water, earning her nickname, “Dip.” She started cooking when she was ten, “cooking the corn when the corn came in” and frying chicken “as a form of love.” She never stopped. In 1976, she opened Dip’s Country Kitchen with only $64 in hand. She reveled in cooking for her customers. She said, “it was joy; you could feel it.”
Mildred Council on the porch of the Mama Dip’s restaurant. (Photo via Mama Dip’s)
Mama Dip was legendary for more than just the meals she served. She was a true matriarch of southern cooking in her bustling restaurant kitchen and also on the printed page. Her storytelling and recipes reached far beyond Chapel Hill through two beloved cookbooks.
Mildred Council’s restaurant and cookbooks epitomized comfort food at its finest and a link to a genuine past. Her success as an author and restaurateur were due in large part to the appeal of her story of struggle. In 1999 in her first cookbook, she shared her personal story of growing up in Chatham County and how it led to the success of her restaurant in the memoir/cookbook “Mama Dip’s Kitchen,” a best-seller for UNC Press. She wrote, “I was born a colored baby girl in Chatham County, North Carolina to Ed Cotton and Effie Edwards Cotton; grew up a Negro in my youth; lived my adult life black; and am now a 70-year-old American.”
She continued, “I grew up and lived in poverty most of my life without knowing it. My children, too, grew up in poverty never knowing that they were poor. Our house just leaked. No screen doors. An outdoor bathroom and little money. Our family was happy to sit around the table at dinner time, eating, poking jokes, and having fun.”
Mildred Council died in 2018, but her children and grandchildren kept the doors of Mama Dip’s open and the spirit of her kitchen alive. The restaurant’s website emphasizes the importance of family throughout the span of the business: “Mama Dip taught her family all aspects of her southern restaurant business while sharing her wisdom about life and the importance of hard work and commitment.” It wasn’t just a business—it was a legacy, passed down with care, one plate at a time.
In announcing their closing, Dip’s posted on social media: “Since 1976, we’ve had the joy of feeding Chapel Hill with love, soul, and Mama Dip’s dump cooking goodness.”
The joy of feeding Chapel Hill—the same joy Mama Dip once said “you could feel”—will live on, even as Dip’s closes its doors for good. Earlier this year, her granddaughter Tonya Council opened Tonya’s Café, a new venture just down the road, but deeply rooted in the same tradition. On the menu, you’ll find favorites that once filled plates at Mama Dip’s alongside fresh takes on those beloved standbys. It’s a place where the spirit of Mildred Council still lingers—in the recipes, the hospitality, and the love that goes into every bite.
For weeks, my family has been trying to get to Tonya’s Cafe. In the meantime, my two grandsons have gobbled up most everything they can sample from behind the glass at Tonya’s Bakery next to the cafe, and Tonya makes them feel like her favorite customers every time. We devour her pecan crisps by the dozens, which are reminiscent of Mama Dip’s pecan pie. Ask Tonya to share her recipe, and she’ll smile and shake her head, but she’s happy to share the story of how those cookies came to be when she experimented to fill the dessert case at Mama Dip’s.
In a 2017 interview, Mildred Council said, “it’s hard to find a cook, to find that somebody who does what they do at Mama Dip’s.”
While the end of Dip’s is the closing of a chapter, the Council family’s story continues with “that somebody” in Tonya at Tonya’s Cafe.
D.G. Martin, a lawyer, retired as UNC system vice president for public affairs in 1997. He hosted PBC-NC’s “North Carolina Bookwatch,” for more than 20 years.
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