1. Lantern
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 969-8846
Address: 423 W. Franklin St.
Description: Chef Andrea Reusing has gained national fame for her dedication to using local ingredients and her expert renderings of Asian cuisine. While most of the Triangle’s farm-to-table restaurants concentrate on Southern-inspired dishes, Lantern offers Chinese dumplings made with local pasture-raised pork, tea-and-spice smoked local chicken, and fried whole North Carolina fish with local carrot salad. The menu changes with the seasons and the inspirations of the chef. The dining room is a study in warm elegance, and if you haven’t made a reservation, the more casual bar is a fun place to grab a bite. Wash down dinner with a saketini—potato vodka, sake, and fresh cucumber.
2. Allen & Son Barbeque
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 942-7576
Address: 6203 Millhouse Rd.
Description: Allen & Son has set the standard for barbecue in the Triangle for almost four decades. Keith Allen smokes the pork the old-fashioned way, getting up at 3 a.m. to start the wood fires, smoking the hogs for eight or nine hours, and chopping the roasted meat himself. The pork is succulent and tangy, swimming in vinegar-based sauce. The restaurant itself is unassuming, with cinder block walls and plastic tablecloths, but the barbecue is legendary, as are the crispy coleslaw, crunchy hush puppies, and homemade desserts like peanut butter pie and peach cobbler. Allen & Son is between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough just off N.C. 86. It’s worth seeking out even if you’re not going in that direction.
3. Mama Dip’S
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 942-5837
Address: 408 W. Rosemary St.
Description: Mama Dip, aka Mildred Edna Cotton Council, has built a life on cooking traditional Southern comfort food and serving it with a side of hospitality. She opened her first restaurant in Chapel Hill in 1976. Today she is the author of three cookbooks and a nationally renowned culinary treasure. Mama Dip’s serves three meals a day, and is an excellent place to get a taste of fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, Brunswick stew, chicken and dumplings, or maybe even chitlins, which come plain or pan fried. Whatever you do, get the biscuits.
4. Sugarland
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 929-2100
Address: 140 E. Franklin St.
Description: Sugarland satisfies every craving, from scones for breakfast to lemon-drop martinis and cupcakes to cap off the night. The bakery makes everything from scratch using local organic eggs and dairy products and no high-fructose corn syrup. The lunch menu includes sandwiches on house-made croissants and soups. It’s on Franklin Street, close to UNC campus.
5. Bonne Soiree
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 928-8388
Address: 431 W. Franklin St., Suite 10
Description: A small place with amazing French food, Bonne Soiree is a reward for diners patient enough to score a reservation. The 10-table room is intimate, making it ideal for a romantic evening. The French-country dishes are crafted with a deft touch and include near-perfect renditions of pâté and Caesar salad as well as more complex creations like truffled pasta with fried egg served with a vegetable tart in puff pastry. Vegetarians will find their needs catered to with prescribed menu selections or the chef’s modified versions of other dishes on the menu. The service is gracious without being fawning, and the sommelier makes choosing wine a joy rather than a dreaded encounter.
6. Mediterranean Deli
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 967-2666
Address: 410 W. Franklin St.
Description: If you can’t find something to eat at Mediterranean Deli, you must not be hungry. The fresh-baked pita, made on-site from local, organic, kosher flour forms the basis for all the familiar Middle Eastern sandwich combinations and lots of surprises. Falafel eggplant pita and chicken shawarma are always winners. Those looking to fill their bellies should try the fatayers, boat-shaped breads filled with fresh feta and mozzarella and a variety of other fillings including ground sirloin, lamb, and spinach. The deli is on Franklin Street, with big picture windows, if you’re lucky enough to score a table. It’s a busy lunch spot, but take-out is always an option.
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Address: 610 W. Franklin St.
8. Elaine’S On Franklin
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 960-2770
Address: 454 W. Franklin St.
Description: Elaine’s is a white tablecloth dining experience with a casual, comfortable vibe. The cuisine is imaginatively designed by Chef Brett Jennings, a Virginia native who melds his earliest food loves with his experience cooking throughout the world and the South. The menu changes daily and includes locally sourced produce and meats. North Carolina seafood gets wonderful treatment in the jumbo lump blue crab salad served on a crispy cumin popadum, and the North Carolina pan-seared flounder pairs wonderfully with a mélange of Maine lobster, potatoes, leeks, spinach, and chanterelles. The chef’s specials are always surprising and delicious. The restaurant is intimate and cozy, and the service is attentive without being overbearing.
9. Pepper’S
City: Chapel Hill, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (919) 967-7766
Address: 127 E. Franklin St.
Description: A longtime Franklin Street institution, Pepper’s boasts wonderful pies on house-made crusts delivered by colorful characters in a uniquely Chapel Hill environment. White pizza, pesto-based pies, and creatively named combinations like the all-veggie Euell Gibbons and the Regular Guy—mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, pepperoni, fresh Italian sausage, fresh ground chuck, and diced ham—are always delicious. Strombolis, calzones, gazpacho, and salads are great, too. A word of caution: Your server might be dressed eccentrically. It’s all part of the college-town vibe.