It’s a new era for classic businesses in downtown Chapel Hill! A strong downtown creates opportunities, culture, and innovation, which enhance the fabric of the community. Downtown Chapel Hill has experienced significant growth and the last year was a busy one! New retail shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants have opened their doors, while others are prepping their spaces to open soon. The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for our small business community. The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership helped merchants directly meet some of these challenges. As a result, we believe that we are creating a downtown that locals can be proud of.
In the past year, downtown residents and visitors were treated to new shops and restaurants, including:
- Map Dot, a local, woman-owned gift shop;
- Marshall Goods, a small boutique specializing in men’s clothing and accessories, as well as and home goods;
- BaseCamp, a new bar/restaurant concept from Ramesh Dahal, owner of Momo’s Master;
- Prologue, a used book store from the owners of Epilogue;
- Crumbl Cookies, which opened February 10;
- Capriotti’s, an east coast-style sub shop, which will open on March 9;
- and Ay Por Dios and Raising Cane’s will open in the coming year.
In addition to new spots, a few other existing merchants moved or expanded into new digs:
- Beer Study moved into the old Mint location and will bring in The Boot Room pub for food service.
- The Purple Bowl and Brandwein’s Bagels expanded their operations into neighboring spaces in 2022.
Local events and the arts are also an essential part of downtown. Last year, Chapel Hill Arts & Culture held the Tracks Music Festival was held in the Rosemary/Columbia Lot and Festifall took place at 140 West. In November, we were proud to host sessions of the South Arts Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in downtown spaces, including Current ArtSpace + Studio, the Graduate Hotel, Still Life, and The Story venue.
With the addition of the Innovation Hub at 137 E. Franklin St., now the new home of Launch Chapel Hill, there will be more employees working downtown, thereby creating more customers for local shops and eateries. The warmer weather will bring outdoor dining, live music, and other fun events. We will continue to collaborate with the Town of Chapel Hill, Visit Chapel Hill, Arts & Culture, UNC-Chapel Hill, and other local partners to energize the downtown district and balance tradition with progress in downtown Chapel Hill as a vibrant place to live, work, play, dine, and shop.