Around Town: Market Gives New Life to Old Treasures

Posted on April 30, 2015

Amy Caylor, owner of Yellow Chair Market, lights up the world — or half of it, at least — with a classroom spinning globe cut in half and converted into a shade for a hanging lamp, the result of her scavenging for neglected antiques and discarded treasures with the aim to infuse them with new life. Caylor gathered her recycled finds and opened a shop last year in Carr Mill Mall, a mill that 38 years ago became a shopping center.

Caylor scours Craigslist and welcomes yard-sale junkies who bring her finds. Her shop purveys refurbished wood tables in all sizes and shapes, workbenches, a row of linked auditorium chairs, metal chairs, gooseneck lamps and an array of glass jars retrofitted for modern life. She turns cast-offs into art, such as metal gears of various sizes fused into wall art, or workmen’s paintbrushes joined at the handle and fanned into a snowflake that hangs from the ceiling. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Yellow Chair Market, 200 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro, 919-903-8258

Roots’ Menu Melds Central American, Southern Flavors

Turtle Harrison ’07 and his business partners, Rolando Ordonez Ramos and Juan Jose Ordonez, took up the challenge to “Top This!” after the East Franklin Street burger joint by that name closed last year. In March, the three longtime Chapel Hillians opened Roots Bakery, Bistro and Bar, a full-service restaurant and bar. The partners have a combined 60 years’ experience in local upscale eateries.

Roots Bistro melds Central American flavors with Southern cuisine. The vegetables and meat come from local farms, and the seafood is driven in daily from the coast. The partners merged their recipes to form the menu, which changes seasonally depending on the harvest and has many vegetarian options.

Roots serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, opening at 7 a.m. and closing only after the last customer leaves. Soups and sandwiches are available from morning until night. Some of the dishes are built around corn-based tamales and slow-cooked meat, such as the barbecue pork tamale prepared Guatemalan-style wrapped in banana leaves. Entrees range from grilled chicken with grape chutney to potato and black bean cakes to cod with sage and pecan sauce. Sandwiches cost $8 to $10; dinner dishes start at about $12.

Roots Bakery, Bistro and Bar, 161 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, 919-240-7160

H2Only Cleaners Opens  Third Shop

An environmentally friendly dry-cleaning business, H2Only Cleaners, chose the green building of Greenbridge for its third Chapel Hill location, which opened in March. H2Only owners Bill and Karen Tomko operate what they say is the only 100 percent “wet cleaners” in the Triangle.

As its solvent, H2Only uses water instead of perchlorethylene, the traditional dry-cleaning solvent that can irritate eyes and skin and has been linked to liver cancer in animals. H2Only uses citrus-based soaps and conditioners and returns garments in a biodegradable bag. The process does not expose workers or customers to toxic chemicals. The store has a turnaround driveway for drop-off and pickup.

H2Only Cleaners, 601 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill, 919-827-8426

Empanada Restaurant  Ventures Into Carrboro

A Raleigh empanada and tequila bar  has established an outpost in Carrboro. CalaVela opened in March in the redeveloped Arts Center commercial strip anchored by Hampton Inn. Owner Ken Yowell serves the full menu of Latin American meat-stuffed pastries that have won over Raleigh and is creating a tequila bar.

CalaVela’s menu features empanadas that are savory (such as Carolina-style pulled pork or pork with pineapple and lime), sweet (banana and Nutella) or vegetarian (tequila-marinated poblano peppers with onions and cheese, and a black bean, sweet potato and cheese) for about $3.50 apiece. Open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday.

CalaVela Empanada and Tequila Bar, 370 E. Main St., Carrboro, 919-617-1674

Comings and Goings

Nick Hammond ’70 and his wife, Sarah, have retired and closed The Printery at 1201 Raleigh Road, next to Glen Lennox shopping center. They were the last owners of the business that began in 1893 as University Press, original printing press for The Daily Tar Heel. … Cold Stone Creamery, 131 E. Franklin St., went out  of business in February. … In Village Plaza, a former barbecue restaurant has been razed to make way for a six-story apartment tower and a parking deck. … In Eastgate Shopping Center, The Barber & Style Shop and Eastgate Hair Styling have closed; Petco has opened; Lynn’s Hallmark has downsized; and a Lilly Pulitzer boutique is planned.

— Nancy E. Oates