I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a few weeks ago, and it still doesn’t feel real. I don’t know how it’s possible that four years went by quite so quickly, but as my friends and I stared down our last week in Chapel Hill, we decided extreme measures were necessary to finish our college careers with a bang.
Most graduating seniors embark on a bar crawl to bid farewell to their favorite Franklin Street haunts. Instead, we put our own spin on this tradition. The final Saturday before graduation quickly turned into a day-long foodie’s odyssey through downtown Chapel Hill. While most students studied for finals, the three of us walked 10 nostalgia-fueled miles and ate at 11 of our favorite restaurants in 10 hours. Here’s the full recap of our insanity.
Stop #1: Carolina Coffee Shop (Banana Oatmeal Pancakes)
Shreya, Cathy, and I met at our first stop at 8:30am to beat the crowds. This was quite the feat for our triad, seeing as somehow we’re never on time anywhere. But Carolina Coffee shop is one of those places you arrive at early on a weekend or expect to wait for a table, and we didn’t have that kind of time. Not today.
Founded in 1922, Carolina Coffee Shop is both a local brunch favorite and the oldest surviving restaurant on Franklin Street, just edging out Sutton’s across the way. We devoured their oatmeal banana pancakes, which were fluffy, flavorful, and served with blueberries and yogurt to cut the sweetness. It was here that we also received our first confused/concerned look of the day. Broke college student stereotype aside, three students splitting a single entrée admittedly looks a little weird. Our server was definitely amused, and she was but the first of many. But hey, we had a long way to go and a limited amount of stomach space to work with.
Stop #2: Epilogue (Lavender Sea Salt Hot Chocolate)
After leaving Carolina Coffee Shop, we took a quick trip across the street to my favorite off-campus study spot. Epilogue Books and Chocolate Brews is an independent bookstore-meets-Spanish-café that caters equally to the literary and the culinary imagination. It’s really no wonder I like the place so much.
On the edible side of things, Epilogue is best known for their house made syrups, which can be added to any drink on their menu. The syrups come in flavors ranging from dulce jalapeño to your more traditional vanilla spice. My personal favorite is lavender sea salt.
We ordered a lavender sea salt hot chocolate to share and spent a while perusing the bookshelves. Then, as the sugar started to kick in, we embarked on our first food-free outing of the day.
Interlude: Battle Park and Gimghoul Castle Visit
Nestled to the east of campus, Battle Park offers the perfect place to enjoy nature with a quick hike/trail run. (Note: although the park is gorgeous covered in white, I don’t particularly recommend the trails in the snow.) We took the shortest hike in the history of the universe, effectively using the park as a shortcut to the infamous Gimghoul Castle.
“Castle” is maybe a bit of an exaggeration. That said, the odd-looking building has enough mystery and intrigue surrounding it to make up for its lack of stature. As Carolina legend has it, Gimghoul Castle marks the site of an ill-conceived duel resulting in the death of a student in 1833.
Today, the castle serves as the headquarters for a secret society known as the Order of the Gimghoul. Although very little is known about the century-old Order or their practices, according to Wikipedia, the society adheres to an Arthurian code of chivalry and inducts only male students and faculty. And the Order’s mystique remains as powerful as ever. Spring 2020, a UNC student shared information she found in the university archives regarding the Order of the Gimghoul’s initiation rites and received a sealed note warning her to “look no further.” Recently, Gimghoul Castle and its secret inhabitants also inspired aspects of Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn, a modern fantasy novel set in Chapel Hill and my latest form of I-miss-UNC therapy. (To keep this from turning into a book review, let’s just say I highly recommend!)
By this point, it was almost a socially-acceptable lunchtime, so we made our way back to Franklin Street to continue the eating portion of our goodbye tour.
Stop #3: Purple Bowl (Acai Bowl)
Purple bowl is one of several Chapel Hill establishments that popped up in response to the smoothie bowl fad of sophomore year. It remains the best and last-standing acai bowl option on Franklin Street. (Interesting sidenote: the owner of Purple Bowl’s biggest former competitor Frutta Bowls was recently arrested for participating in the January 6th Capitol Riots, so yikes…)
Anyway, Purple Bowl is both hipster central and another popular Franklin Street study spot. It used to be that if you stuck around long enough to struggle through a couple organic chemistry assignments, the staff would start giving you free avocado toast samples, (which are amazing). But given pandemic precautions and our packed schedule, we built our own acai bowl to share and kept on moving.
Stop #4: Mediterranean Deli (Greek Grape Leaves)
Mediterranean Deli might be my favorite restaurant on the face of this planet. As an underclassman still reliant on a meal plan, I ate an unholy number of lunches from Med Deli’s satellite restaurant at the bottom of Lenoir on campus. And Med Deli is undoubtedly the establishment I will miss most after leaving Carolina.
It honestly would have been easy to spend the whole day just sampling our way through Med Deli’s miles-long display case of salads and sides. And that would have been without even touching any of their baked goods or main dishes. What I’m trying to say is that we could have chosen any number of Med Deli specials for our food crawl. We ended up ordering a side of Greek grape leaves, helping ourselves to roughly a quart of tzatziki, and enjoying them at one of the tables outside.
Stop #5: Brandwein’s Bagels (Egg and Chive Cream Cheese on Everything)
Brandwein’s Bagels is a relatively new addition to the Franklin Street food pantheon. Opened in 2020 by a UNC alum, this place attracts lines that stretch down the street on any given morning.
As we waited for our order, we amused ourselves by posing with several pieces of community artwork scattered around Franklin Street as part of an exhibit promoting scientific discovery and innovation in STEM. Apparently people in Carrboro really, REALLY like Fauci.
Our bagel was delicious, (albeit quite a struggle to split three ways), and would have fit in just fine on the streets of Manhattan.
Interlude: Thrifting and a Stop at the Barcade
At this point, we basically straddled the border between Chapel Hill and neighboring Carrboro. Having just hit three restaurants in quick succession, it seemed like the opportune time for another break.
Located just down the block from Brandwein’s, Chapel Hill’s premier thrift store sits unassumingly between a barber shop and a bike store. Rumors both buys and sells vintage clothing, engaging in a bustling cycle of trade with local college students. You truly never know what you’ll find on the racks, and shopping at Rumors is always a fun adventure.
Eventually, we left our retro sunglasses behind and backtracked to the Barcade, which is exactly what it sounds like. (I just realized while writing this that this entire interlude was basically a miniature trip to the 1980’s, haha.) Day-drinking wasn’t really on our agenda, so we stuck to the arcade side of things. And while we discovered that Pacman is harder we remembered, we don’t really understand how pinball works, and we’re hopelessly terrible at Frogger, the fun was well worth the quarters spent.
Stop #6: Al’s Burger Shack (Rosemary Crinkle Fries)
By this point, we had managed to work up a hunger again. (Surprise!) We turned the corner to Al’s Burger Shack, home to the best burgers in America according to TripAdvisor in 2018. I have to agree with that ranking, honestly. Al’s burgers are fantastic, and their fries might be even better. We ordered a side of Al’s signature rosemary crinkle fries and tried not to devour them too quickly.
Stop #7: Vimala’s Curryblossom Café (Hibiscus Tea)
I was lucky enough to meet Vimala, the café’s proprietor, as part of a class I took last semester. As she fed us in the shaded courtyard outside her restaurant, Vimala shared both her life story and her culinary philosophy, which focuses on supporting local farmers and providing workers with livable wages. She’s amazing, someone you could listen to for hours and leave wanting to be just like when you grow up.
As it turns out, not only does Vimala make delicious samosas; she also makes a mean biscuit! Her cardamom brownies are to die for. But my favorite of the items she had us sample was her hibiscus tea. It’s floral, and tart, and unlike anything else I’ve ever tasted. We had to incorporate it into our food crawl. Tea in the shade provided the perfect mid-afternoon respite as the temperature started to rise.
Stop #8: Cholanad (Masala Tartlets)
Cholanad was the only stop on our list that I had never visited before. This is despite the fact that they too had a satellite restaurant on campus. (See my previously mentioned Med Deli obsession.) The Franklin Street version of Cholanad moved several times throughout my four years in Chapel Hill. We visited its newest location during likely the slowest hour of the day and watched University of Michigan’s field hockey team stream by the restaurant’s open air dining room. (UNC beat Michigan in the NCAA championship final the next day. :)) Go Heels!) This was another occasion where we got strange looks for ordering and splitting only an appetizer.
Stomachs full with the strangest amalgamation of foods they had ever encountered, we decided it was time for another break.
Interlude: Bike Riding
The Tar Heel Bikes first arrived on campus when I was a freshman. They’re free for the first hour of riding time, and Shreya and I used to make the most of that grace period by maniacally wheeling around South Campus.
Nostalgia aside, Tar Heel Bikes were on our bucket list for two more practical reasons. First, my mom discovered you could earn credit in the bike app by riding uphill from South to North Campus. (Not exactly a popular route with students.) So I had “money” to burn. And second, we found out that Cathy had never learned to ride a bike.
I can’t say that we really made any progress teaching her. But there was a lot of laughter, swerving into the grass, and nonsensical loops around the Planetarium. Besides, those bikes are HEAVY. Pushing the bike plus Cathy upright ended up being a better workout than actually riding it.
Stop #9: YoPo (Coconut and Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt)
Having worked up a sweat, we figured we deserved some frozen yogurt. Where else to go but the Yogurt Pump?
Affectionately labeled YoPo by students, this hidden gem shares an alleyway with He’s Not Here, (mentioned later), bracketed by I Love NY Pizza, (which I’m still convinced is a front for something), and a new barbecue joint where Moe’s used to be. And although their prices have risen, YoPo remains the best place to get the most/best frozen dessert for your buck. Their flavors change by the week, and I’ve never met one I didn’t like.
We treated ourselves to a medium cup of coconut (which might be my new favorite) and strawberry cheesecake yogurt. (Hey, when a medium is only 30 cents-ish more than a small, you go for it.)
Stop #10: Spicy 9 (Avocado and Salmon Rolls)
As a California girl, my standards for sushi are set pretty high. Spicy 9’s sushi meets that standard at a student friendly buy-one-get-one rate. We ordered a couple of their simpler rolls to share and cackled at the tin foil hat clad man on the news as he solemnly proclaimed the hat’s protective powers against 21 tons of Chinese rocket debris expected to plummet back to earth that weekend.
Stop #11: Cha House (Wintermelon Tea with Boba)
The sophomore year rise of the smoothie bowl empire on Franklin Street paralleled the arrival of boba shops, which was music to my Bay Area ears. Now, Franklin Street has at least three tea options, but Cha House has long remained my favorite. Our favorite, really. The number of photos Shreya, Cathy, and I have in front of Cha House’s chalkboard menu is embarrassingly large.
We ordered an iteration of the Janie special— wintermelon green tea with 50% sugar, less ice, and boba instead of lychee jelly— and tried not to be too sad about the fact that our boba run days were numbered.
At the end of the day…
It was (unfortunately) another day over. Walking at least some of that food off was a must, so we finished our journey with a stroll around campus. We visited all the most important landmarks (the Old Well, the Bell Tower, Chase Dining Hall, what Shreya fondly labels “the Coker Arboretum of crap,” etc.) and wondered for the 10,000th time how graduation could possibly be next weekend. Finally, we finished off our food crawl by participating in yet another iconic Carolina senior tradition: stealing a brick.
Well, more like borrowing, really.
This year, someone (probably a bored freshman) started stealing bricks from campus walkways, painting them, and returning them, likely driving the maintenance people insane in the process. We decided to adopt the practice. After all, if our food crawl was anything to go by, we had a pretty stellar track record of adapting senior traditions into something new and unforgettable.
Honorable mentions (a.k.a. places that could/should have been on our list)
Que Chula
Que Chula is another newer restaurant that specializes in generous portions of delicious Mexican food and margaritas so good you’ll be tempted by the toilet bowl-sized incarnation. We left this one off our list simply because it didn’t evoke enough nostalgia. Only I had ever eaten there prior to food crawl day. And honestly, had we included another stop on our crawl, we probably would have given precedence to Cosmic Cantina due to its status as a late-night favorite for UNC students. With another year of eating, though, I could definitely see Que Chula included in our culinary pilgrimage.
Lime and Basil
We did actually plan on incorporating Lime and Basil into our day. Unfortunately, they have operated under unusual hours during the pandemic and were closed when we stopped by. Lime and Basil dishes up fantastic Vietnamese food and played host to many a Friday night dinner over the course of our college careers. We were sad to miss it.
TOPO
TOPO’s food is pretty great, but what really makes the restaurant special is its lofty perch, affording guests an expansive view of Franklin Street and miles beyond. We toyed with the idea of topping (haha, get the pun?) off our day with drinks here, but decided we were too full. It’s one of those places best visited with parents or professors, anyway.
He’s Not Here
Last but certainly not least, with its iconic blue cups and overflowing picnic tables, He’s Not is undoubtedly a Carolina staple. We stopped to take photos with the murals outside during or food crawl but didn’t grab a drink since we had been recently. Definitely a must-visit though!
Anyway, that’s a wrap, folks! (On senior year, college, and this post.) I already miss Chapel Hill and can’t wait to go back and visit someday. But in the meantime… I guess I’ll just be gone to Carolina in my mind. :))
