Around Town: Fowler’s Old Spot Getting New Market

Posted on Jan. 13, 2017

Generations of Tar Heels shopped at Fowler’s Food Store for groceries, produce, seafood and meat. Regarded as Chapel Hill’s first supermarket, the store opened on West Franklin Street in the 1920s and soldiered on through the 1980s, when Fowler family members opened an eponymously named store in Durham’s Brightleaf complex.

So it’s fitting that the three partners behind Blue Dogwood Public Market — combining Tar Heels’ favorite color with the state flower — chose Fowler’s old space for a new food hall.

Two of the partners previously worked together on infill building projects in Chapel Hill. Jeff Boak ’71 teamed with architect Josh Gurlitz to build the first mixed-use high-rise on Rosemary Street (The Fountains, 308 W. Rosemary). When local chef Kelly Taylor approached them with a business proposition in the form of a question — how could they make it easier for regional chefs and artisanal food producers to reach more customers? — they drafted her to help do just that.

Boak, who also earned his MBA from UNC in 1976, asked his daughter, Sarah Boak, to do the marketing. She lives in New York, but these are no absentee landlords — Jeff Boak lives across the street in The Fountains and will be running the beer and wine bar at Blue Dogwood. Taylor, who hosts a weekly food talk radio show on WCHL, will launch an Italian-inspired bakery.

The partners expect Blue Dogwood eventually to have as many as 16 stalls where vendors can sell prepared regional and seasonal foods. Among the first to sign one-year leases are a butcher, a baker, a chocolate maker, a tea producer, wine and beer makers, and a seafood vendor. The market also will have seasonal pop-up displays and a communal kitchen for prep work, chef demonstrations and classes.

James Clark, until recently chef at The Carolina Inn, claimed a stall for his Hook & Larder, selling locally sourced seafood, raw and prepared, with an emphasis on underappreciated and sustainably fished varieties. Clark’s stall should be a good advertisement for the restaurant he plans to open in the old post office in downtown Pittsboro, the Postal Seafood Company.

Blue Dogwood’s opening date and hours are pending. There’s parking for about 70 cars in the three lots between Franklin and Rosemary streets, shared by Noodles & Company and Mellow Mushroom.

Blue Dogwood Public Market, 306 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill

 

Cuban Revolution Reaches Chapel Hill

Following the success of their Cuban Revolution restaurant at Durham’s American Tobacco Campus, Ed and Mary Morabito have opened a second location, in downtown Chapel Hill.

The restaurant’s menu blends a handbill aesthetic with the culinary offerings, proclaiming a “spirited counter-culture environment reminiscent of a 1960s coffee house with the passion of a Latin beat. … When Frank, Dino and Marilyn were smokin, Malcolm X and MLK were teaching, and JFK was a President … not just an airport.”

The Cuban connection? “I’m from Tampa,” explained Mary Morabito. “So, I grew up eating Cuban food.”

Cuban cuisine — blending Spanish, African and Caribbean influences — comes through in the restaurant’s featured Cuban sandwiches. Roast pork, ham, Genoa salami, Swiss cheese, pickles, mayo, mustard, all pressed between Cuban bread, share the menu with wraps, salads and sides such as ropa vieja stew and fried plantains. Diners can eat at Formica-topped tables or order takeout.

Spreading Cuban Revolution to Chapel Hill made sense: Their son, Christopher, is a sophomore at UNC. “We’ve been bringing so many Cuban sandwiches over [from Durham] to him and his friends in Granville Towers,” said Mary Morabito, “at least, this is more convenient.” Delivery to others in the immediate area of the Chapel Hill shop is offered as well.

Hours: Sunday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m.

Cuban Revolution Express, 401 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, 919-240-5276

 

Granddaughter’s Cookies Inspired by Mama Dip’s Pies

The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree, and in the case of Tonya Council, her pecan cookies bake just down the street from the pies that inspired them.

Council has opened Tonya’s Cookies diagonally across West Rosemary Street from Mama Dip’s, a shrine of Southern cooking started by her grandmother, Mildred Council. Tonya Council says she practically grew up in the restaurant and still works there when not baking in her own shop. Mama Dip’s patrons likely already have sampled Tonya’s pecan crisps, inspired by her grandmother’s pecan pies. She’s added several flavors (chocolate, white chocolate, peppermint chocolate), as well as other delicacies, such as a peanut-brittle cookie. At the store and online (tonyascookies.com), she sells them by the package, tin, jar and gift box. They’re also in some Whole Foods stores.

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Tonya’s Cookies, 405 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill, 919-423-3392

 

Coffee Shop Serves Vegan, Gluten-Free Treats

The new Coco Bean Coffee Shop at East 54 serves a variety of fresh vegan and gluten-free baked goods, including muffins, cupcakes, savory pies and fruit pies. Owners Steve and Tamara Lackey also carry several nondairy milks — cashew, soy, almond, coconut and macadamia.

All the coffee comes from Carrboro Coffee Roasters. The Lackeys donate 10 percent of Coco Bean’s proceeds to Beautiful Together, a nonprofit they founded to support orphaned children.

Hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Coco Bean Coffee Shop, 1114 Environ Way, Chapel Hill, 919-883-9003

— Ann Loftin