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Around Town: Khushi’s Salads Get Their Spice From Indian Flavors

At Khushi, a restaurant recently opened by Raj and Pramila Khanal, the concept is Indian goes green, combining fresh ingredients with Indian spices and sauces.

Diners create their own salads or rice bowls, choosing from a variety of low-fat proteins like chicken tikka and plenty of raw vegetable toppings. Along with traditional dressings, Khushi serves homemade Indian dressings such as tamarind, tomato chutney, masala and vindaloo. Nothing is more expensive than $7.99.

Raj Khanal said the couple moved to Chapel Hill from Omaha, Neb., to be nearer their daughter, a student at the University of Virginia. Why didn’t the Khanals move to Charlottesville? “Well, she wanted us to give her some space,” he said, laughing softly.

Khushi is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday; closed Sunday.

Khushi, 169 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, 919-914-6269

 

WhyDidtheMuseumShop CrosstheRoad?

Probably to get to a less expensive spot on Franklin Street, but the Ackland Museum Store remains one of Chapel Hill’s best places to find beautiful things.

Ackland curator Peter Nisbet expects some aesthetic spillover from the store’s new next-door neighbors, FRANK, an artists’ collective run by and for regional artists, and Creative Metalsmith. The building itself, whose slender decorative columns are hard to place aesthetically (Greco-Roman?), looks like it once might have housed a great civic enterprise. In fact, it’s a clever facade, a handsome architectural gift to downtown from the building’s owners, philanthropists Michael and Laura Brader-Araje ’00.

Another advantage of the store’s new space: walls. The shop’s previous spot, at the corner of East Franklin and South Columbia streets below Top of the Hill restaurant, had glass on three sides. Now the shop can hang prints and sculptural pieces related to current museum exhibitions, flanked by display cases of ceramics made by North Carolina potters, glassware, toys, metalwork, jewelry, textiles and stationery. Charming rubber stamps in the shapes of animals — the ram is especially delightful — can be customized with name and address.

A recent visit found assistant manager Melinda Rittenhouse holding down the fort while manager Alice Southwick attended NY NOW, the twice-a-year gift show where vendors from around the world bring items. Expect more art books and home decor, Rittenhouse said. Museum members enjoy a 10 percent discount.

Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

Ackland Museum Store, 109 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, 919-962-0216

 

HendersonStreetEateries UppingSophisticationFactor

Henderson Street might be only a couple of blocks long, but it’s happening, with three places between the beaten paths of Franklin and Rosemary streets for snacking.

New Orleans native Mandey Brown started the trend five years ago when she left home, post-Katrina, and opened Zog’s art bar and pool hall. It’s worth climbing the stairs just to see the ceiling tiles hand-painted by the customers, vintage pool tables, year-round Christmas lights, Mardi Gras artifacts and bathing sarcophagus.

Two years later, a wine bar and sandwich place called TRU opened. And any day now TRU will be adding a cozy cocktail lounge in a small room off the roof garden, made leafy with potted trees, to serve handcrafted cocktails. “We’re going to create our own recipes and make our own bitters, using what we find at the farmers market,” said manager Caity Kelly.

Meanwhile, Brown has reclaimed for grownups the ground-floor space under Zog’s, which had been a rowdy undergraduate bar called the Rec Room. Her new restaurant, Imbibe, is casual but sophisticated, painted in earth tones, with comfy leather banquettes along one wall and an alcove table nestled in the back to seat eight or more. Brown says she’s hoping to attract an older UNC crowd as well as other professionals who might drop in to take home some craft beers or a bottle of wine from her retail selection. Imbibe serves 13 draft beers, one wine on tap, vermouth cocktails and cold-brew coffee on nitro-tap. There’s a weekly jazz night (Mondays, 7-9 p.m., no cover charge), and Brown plans to hold free weekly beer tastings.

The menu shows some Louisiana influences, like the Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo (chicken and sausage gumbo topped with goat cheese and scallions), Dirty Fries (curly fries covered in herbs, crisp salami and banana peppers) and Filthy Fries (covered in gumbo). Chef Jedd Tyler makes everything from scratch. Among his Insane Specialties are curried chicken tacos with yogurt, cucumber, lemon and cilantro, with a suggestion to pair them with the Naked Apple Blackberry Gold cider on tap.

Brown says that pool-playing patrons of Zog’s can order food to be sent upstairs from the kitchen at Imbibe.

Imbibe is open for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m.-11 p.m., with retail craft beers and wines available for purchase.

Imbibe, 108 Henderson St., Chapel Hill, 919-636-6469

TRU is open 10:30 a.m.-midnight Sunday-Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday.

TRU, 111 Henderson St., Chapel Hill, 919-240-7755

 

Havea(Meat)BallinCarrboro

Chapel Hill native Hans Huang ’94 (’98 JD) says he “caught the restaurant bug” after his Raleigh law firm represented several entrepreneurs. Huang and two partners bought Raleigh’s Moonlight Pizza Co. in 2004, then opened the Oak City Meatball Shoppe, also in Raleigh, inspired by New York’s “ ’ball shop.”

Now Tar Heels get their own ’balls: The Shoppe Bar and Meatball Kitchen, in the southeastern corner of the new Hampton Inn & Suites building in Carrboro. Diners can sub out the traditional spaghetti in favor of three other sides: risotto, “smashed potato” or polenta.

The Shoppe Bar carries more than 40 craft beers and 60 bourbons. The ample patio, with white lights strung from the trees, makes a perfect perch to watch passersby where East Main Street branches into Franklin and Rosemary streets.

Huang no longer practices law, but he expects his legal training­ to come in handy, since “restaurants are a fun ride, but definitely a rollercoaster.”

Hours: 4 p.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Thursday and Sunday; 4 p.m.-midnight Saturday.

The Shoppe Bar and Meatball Kitchen, 370 E. Main St., Carrboro, 919-240-5851

 

LastCallatFitzgerald’s

Fitzgerald’s Irish Pub, 206 W. Franklin St., closed in January.

— Ann Loftin

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