Napoli Parks Its Kitchen, Settles Into Cafe

Posted on July 2, 2019

At first glance, a diner might expect that the big red food truck with a picture of pizza covering the cab has pulled up next to Napoli Gelateria & Cafe to stock up for the road. But it’s the other way around: The food truck is supplying the restaurant.

“The truck is our kitchen, while the patio and cafe are our dining room and ordering station,” said Gael Chatelain, owner with his wife, Sonja Komozec Chatelain ’05. Order inside for coffees, teas, wine, local craft beers and Belgian waffles made in house and for Neapolitan pizza made outside in the truck. Then just sit, and the staff will bring your order, Gael Chatelain said, “unless you want to see the wood-fired oven in the truck and see it work, which a lot of people do.”

Napoli adheres to Neapolitan tradition, with flour and tomatoes from Naples, hand-stretching the dough and wood-firing the pies at 900 degrees so they cook in under 2 minutes. The cafe aims for authenticity with its gelato as well, making it at the Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center in Hillsborough. “We’re only one of a few places in the Triangle that make it from scratch, from milk, cream and eggs,” Chatelain said. “A lot of places will order a mix for it. We got Italian gelato equipment and taught ourselves how to make it.”

Before they parked in Carrboro, the Chatelains were well-traveled. Gael grew up partly in Hillsborough and attended N.C. State; Sonja grew up in Chapel Hill and went to UNC. After college, they saved for six months, then traveled Southeast Asia and Africa on motorcycles.

In 2008, they settled in Mali in West Africa and opened a guesthouse, where they learned to make their own ice cream and built a wood-fired pizza oven. They returned to Chapel Hill in 2012. “We were ready to start a family and kind of settle down,” Chatelain said.

In 2014, the couple bought a delivery van, built a wood-fired oven to go inside it, and Napoli was born, as a food truck often parked near Harris Teeter in Carrboro. Last fall, they settled in the Main Street building, parked the van in the adjacent lot and bought a second van for catering.

Now that Napoli has expanded beyond the food truck, its menu will grow as well. “Everything will be cooked in the wood-fired oven, but it won’t just be pizza,” Chatelain said.

105 Main St., Carrboro || napolicarrboro.com

Mad Hatter’s Comes to UNC

Mad Hatter’s Cafe is replacing EspressOasis in the first floor of Brinkhous Bullitt, a UNC School of Medicine building. Owners Fida and Robert Ghanem will offer a smaller version of their Mad Hatter’s Cafe & Bakeshop, located at the corner of Main and Broad streets in Durham near Duke University since 1992. The UNC version will serve coffees, pastries, desserts, salads, paninis, made-to-order crepes and more, all made from scratch. “We are so fortunate to be able to go to UNC,” Fida Ghanem said. “We have a son who goes to UNC. Our relationship with UNC is very strong.”

160 Medical Drive || madhatterbakeshop.com

Departures and Transitions

CrossTies Bistro & Beer Garden, situated in the former Carrboro Railway Station, has closed. Owner Drew Moore wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page that he wanted to carve out more time for his family. Moore also owns The Station (beside CrossTies), Venable Bistro and B-Side Lounge in Carrboro, which will absorb some of the CrossTies staff, he said.  ■  Asia Cafe, a fixture for more than four decades on East Franklin Street, closed after family members of the daughter running the restaurant decided they would like her to come home to New York to help run their businesses there, said Michael DePersia of National Restaurant Properties. The space will transition from Chinese to Indian, as the business was bought by Ravi Gadireddy of Curry Point Express in Research Triangle Park. The new restaurant will open after remodeling and repairs, DePersia said. Wraps, salads, biryanis and kabobs, plus some Asia Cafe favorites, will be on the menu. 118 E. Franklin St. currypointexpress.com  ■  Milltown, 307 E. Main St., Carrboro, closed after service on Memorial Day, having held down the spot since 2006. The owners, brothers Josh ’90 and Drew Wittman ’88, announced the closing on Milltown’s Facebook page. Milltown served wide-ranging pub and bistro-style food as well as 18 draft beers from around the world and 150 more brands in bottles. “Although we were still doing great numbers on certain weekends during certain months, things were just too up and down and not predictable enough to keep things breaking even, let alone make a small profit,” Josh Wittman wrote in an email. ■  Chocolatay Confections closed its stall in Blue Dogwood Public Market on West Franklin Street in June. In an email to patrons, the owners said they plan to sell at farmers markets and other retail venues in the Triangle as well as continue catering and filling custom orders. chocolatayconfections.com

— Laura Toler ’76

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