Around Town: Rise Brings Its Dough to Carrboro
Rise Biscuits & Donuts, a growing franchise that began in Durham, has opened a shop on Main Street in Carrboro.
On a recent Sunday morning, a line of breakfast diners cued up to the tune of Donna Summer’s 1980s disco hit She Works Hard for the Money while an eager staff did just that, wearing Rise’s signature cheery pastel-orange-and-white baseball caps.
A slogan on the door promised “the best dang biscuits,” as did the retro-cartoon waitress stenciled on the wall, with a big, pink slice of ham for a face, a yellow-biscuit torso and black high heels.
The biscuits are assembled out of sight with a regionally influenced choice of fillings and handed over lightning fast in white takeout bags. Assistant manager Eric Taylor pronounced Fried Green Tomato the most popular.
The sweeter half of the shop’s creations was on full display at the front counter in a gleaming glass case labeled “Behold the Donuts.” They come in three varieties: Old School (glazed), New School (Maple Bacon Bar, S’more) and Our School (Cheerwine icing, Nutella icing, sprinkles).
Rise is strictly takeout; there are tables on the patio facing Main Street.
Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m., seven days a week.
Rise Biscuits & Donuts, 310 E. Main St., Carrboro, 919-929-5115
Tandem Takes a Chance on Carr Mill Mall
It’s hard to beat Weaver Street Market takeout. Two former restaurant owners learned this lesson in the space around the corner in Carr Mill Mall.
The first tenant, Weaver Street Market itself, ran sister restaurant Panzanella for 14 years, sharing the restaurant’s kitchen and office space. After moving its bakery to Hillsborough, Weaver Street management decided it no longer made sense to run a separate restaurant in the mall. Next came Cafe Symmetry, hoping to combine Panzanella’s use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients with cafeteria-style delivery that had worked for Weaver Street. Diners just kept going around the corner to the ol’ reliable for favorites such as barbecued chicken thighs, lentils and brown rice casserole.
Now into that corner mall space comes Tandem. This may be the new owners’ first restaurant, but Emma Dunbar and Younes Sabouh are no novices. For the past four years they worked at City Kitchen in University Place — Dunbar, a United Kingdom native, as general manager, and Sabouh, originally from Morocco, as chef. Both trained at upscale hotel restaurants before meeting at City Kitchen — where they became partners in love and work.
They plan to serve regional American food with international influences, plenty of fresh ingredients from local farmers and some tagine specials. They’ve commissioned pottery, in distinctly Moroccan earth tones, as the serving ware. It will have a large wine list and a full-service bar with craft cocktails. Renovations underway at press time augured sophistication without fussiness, and the outdoor patio is sure to make seasonal dining a pleasure. “We want to offer a superior product in a welcoming environment,” Sabouh said.
Hours: 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Brunch on Sundays.
Tandem, 200 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro, 919-240-7937
ONE Closes as Two Chefs Move On
Chef-partners Daniel Ryan and Kim Floresca announced that they would be leaving Meadowmont’s ONE restaurant and that it would close in early April.
The high-concept chefs, who mastered their craft at such well-known restaurants as Per Se in New York and the French Laundry in California, were lured to Chapel Hill in summer 2013. During their tenure, ONE earned rave reviews. Food and Wine named Ryan and Floresca the best new chefs in the Southeast. But after two years, they called it quits.
In a news release, Ryan and Floresca said they’d offered to stay until the owners, brothers Dan and Gad Cotter, could find a replacement but that the Cotters had decided to close the restaurant instead. A separate news release announced the closure of the brothers’ G2B Restaurant & Brewery in Durham on the same day in April. Nobody wanted to give an interview, but as News & Observer food writer Andrea Weigl observed, “Given their resumes, [Ryan and Floresca] shouldn’t have any problems finding a new gig.” Fans of these talented chefs posted tributes on Facebook and said they hoped the duo might stay in the area.
Barbecue Coming to Carrboro Rail Cars
Southern Rail, the funky place in former railroad cars that served drinks, food and live music at the rail head in Carrboro, closed in January after nine years in business. But the historic boxcars proved an irresistible draw for Andrew Moore, chef and owner of Carrboro’s Venable Rotisserie Bistro and B-Side Lounge.
Moore says his new establishment, CrossTies Barbecue, will be an equal opportunity barbecue restaurant. “We’re looking at it as a tour of barbecue. We’ll have a real traditional mesquite-smoked brisket, St. Louis- and Memphis-style ribs, also western N.C.- and eastern N.C.-style ribs, smoked wings with Alabama white sauce, and sometimes Asian barbecue. We’ll have a nice variety for everybody.”
Moore also plans to reopen The Station, the former train depot that dates to 1892, as a bar and live-music space. The adjoining Tiger Room will be converted into CrossTies’ smokehouse and prep kitchen. All are slated to open in May; hours to be announced. All aboard!
CrossTies Barbecue, 201 E. Main St., Carrboro
— Ann Loftin
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