Life in Carrboro, NC

Carrboro is the most progressive town in North Carolina. Formerly known as The Paris of the Piedmont because of the number of artists and writers living here, Paris is now being called the Carrboro of Europe. OK. Maybe not, but the Paris of the Piedmont label sounds a little pretentious if not just plain goofy now. Let's just call Carrboro the least-boring small town in the southern United States. The residents of Carrboro not only were against the war in Iraq but they also fully supported the French: they've kept the name associated with fries, toast and kisses, and still drink champagne and eat brie. Ex-mayor Ellie Kinnaird became a state senator, where she sponsored a two-year moratorium on the death penalty. Unbelievably, this passed in a state that like Texas seems to have a love affair with capital punishment. Presently, Mike Nelson is the South's first openly gay mayor and certainly one of the most progressive and friendliest and he doesn't own a car. Carrboro is a town full of writers, artists, rock musicians, visionaries, activists, lovers of freedom and civil liberties, non-conformists and a few good ol' boys and girls thrown into the mix. Carrboro is a town where it seems almost everyone comes from somewhere else. You will find neighbors are British, Italian, French, Australian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Salvadorian, Libyan, Greek, and from just about every state in the USA. It's home to Baptists and Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims and there are even a few Rastafarians, Rosecrucians and a Sufi Order. It's a town that makes a lot of conservative people in North Carolina a little uncomfortable. Maybe more so than Chapel Hill. In fact, the Republican-controlled state government felt so threatened by tiny Chapel Hill and Carrboro they rezoned the voting districts to give us one state senator instead of two.

Carrboro History

In the late nineteenth century, there was a proposal to build a railroad station for the University of North Carolina. The merchants in Chapel Hill were concerned because they didn't want the students to be able to leave town so easily and spend their money elsewhere every weekend, so they stipulated that the station had to be two miles from the campus, just to make it a little more difficult to get away. They built the station and connected the tracks, and since they now had transportation to the markets they decided to build the Alberta Cotton Mill. Once they built the factory, they needed to build houses for the workers, and this resulted in the coveted mill houses of Carrboro, which everyone now wants to own. (Sorry. There are only about 28 of them left.) The town began as West End, meaning the west end of Chapel Hill, but was later named Venable, after UNC president Francis P Venable. In 1914, it became Carrboro, after Julian Carr, the last owner of the mill and the man who gave electricity to the town. The mill closed in 1930.

Carr Mill Mall

Carr Mill Mall is the old Alberta Cotton Mill that the town was built around in 1898. Surprisingly, the Carrboro Board of Alderman wanted to demolish the mill and build a new mall (like the ones that are being torn down all over the country). The community was horrified and fought to save the mill, which reopened in 1977 as Carr Mill Mall. Probably one of the most architecturally interesting malls in America, with wood floors, ceilings and walls and giant beams, it contains a number of interesting shops and galleries including Cherokee Spirit Gallery, which sells Native American art, jewelry, sculpture and collectibles. Within Carr Mill is Elmo's Dinner (sort of the Breadman's of Carrboro), which on weekend mornings has a line so long that they give everyone free coffee. (They have a community bulletin board here and it is sort of my unofficial job to keep it neat.) On the opposite end of the long hall is Panzenella, a Northern Italian restaurant with high ceilings, a cool bar and an engaging bartender named Joe who loves Captain Beefheart, in case you want something to talk to him about. There is a nice outdoor patio under the trees and they make some great little pizzas. The food could stand to be a little less Northern and a little more Italian, but the atmosphere is good, the wines and draft beers are good, and if you like sitting at the bar and discussing Trout Mask Replica you won't find a better place to spend a Friday night.

The original Carrboro train station is still standing. For many years it was The Station, a restaurant and rock club that hosted such bands as The Bad Brains, REM, The Dads and Secret Service. Then it went out of business and became a Chinese restaurant, a store that sold Lionel Trains, a cafe and a few other things. In the meantime, the railroad cars parked next to it have housed a number of bars, restaurants and cafes. Now it's become Nomadic Trading owned by Demir Williford, a Turkish American who travels back and forth to Asia Minor filling ship containers with carpets, ceramics, antique furniture and many other interesting objects. Demir also owns the popular Turkish restaurant Tallulah's in Chapel Hill across the street from the Courtyard.

Weaver Street Market

The center of Carrboro is Weaver Street Market , a natural foods grocery store and cafe with a big tree-shaded lawn that is a gathering place whenever the weather is nice, which is several hundred days a year. From spring to fall, there are concerts of local musicians on Thursday evenings and jazz on Sunday mornings. The picnic tables are a favorite place for people to come and eat and drink beer and wine on warm evenings or lazy afternoons. Celebrations like Earth Day or the annual Blessing of the Pets is also held here, and this is usually where you can find people setting up their information stands to collect petitions against whatever war we are in, to get Ralph Nader on the NC ballot, to close the Shearon Harris nuclear powerplant or any number of other noble causes. The best time to be here is for their wine tastings or when local reggae star Pluto shows up with his pots of chicken, turkey and pork to show off his Caribbean Bliss Jamaican Seasonings .

Cat's Cradle

Just east of the mall on Main Street is Cool Breeze Cuts and Styles, in the longest and narrowest store space in Carrboro. It's right across the street from the musical Mecca of North Carolina, perhaps the state's greatest treasure, the jewel in the crown of Carolina culture. I am talking of course of the Cat's Cradle ,one of the best places in the world to hear your favorite band. To list who has not played at the Cat's Cradle would be easier than who has. The Beatles, the Stones, Beethoven and a couple others. I can think of several dozen of my favorite performers who I've seen there. For starters: Arrogance, Badfinger, Jonathan Richman, Al Stewart, Cheap Trick, Ben Folds Five, Bruce Cockburn, REM, Dave Davies, NRBQ, Nils Lofgren, Bad Brains, Del Amitri, Alex Chilton, John Mayall, Junior Brown, Let's Active, John Hiatt, Chris Stamey, Elliot Smith, Replacements, 3Mustaphas3, and probably a few hundred bands that are more famous then these but not to me. A club the size of the Cat's Cradle, situated midway between Atlanta and Washington is attractive to groups and promoters because it breaks up the trip and it's a college town. So performers who play the Cradle may have sold a million records a few years ago or may sell a million next year or they may sell fifty thousand of each of their records until they reach a million. But unless a performer has been raised in an incubator until they were ready to get their first multimillion dollar record deal and headline an arena tour, any band or singer who is making it the hard way and paying their dues will at some point in their career be at the stage when they are suited for playing the Cat's Cradle, and many of them do. And it's in tiny Carrboro. Frank Heath, who owns the club, has the reputation of being the nicest and most honest club owner in America, and bands love to play here because they're treated with respect and their shows are well promoted. Besides The Poster Guys, Frank Heath is the best flyer-putter-upper in North Carolina.

Check out this clip of Dixon at the Cradle doing Fever . Also take a look at the Cat's Cradle calendars from bygone days. See also reviews of Chapel Hill/Carrboro Clubs Bars and Nightlife

The ArtsCenter

In the same little former Piggly-Wiggly supermarket shopping center that holds the Cat's Cradle, Avante Pizza and Visart Video is The ArtsCenter . The center was created by Jacque Menache, a Frenchman who spent his life in Mexico City before coming to America in the late seventies. Fueled by the passion and hard work of Menache and the small group of talented people around him, the center grew so fast that they couldn't be contained in Carr Mill Mall. They bought the supermarket property and built the ArtsCenter into what it is today: a theater, classrooms, a large central gallery and several other multi-purpose rooms. For a while, the ArtsCenter was the pride of the town, attracting the best bands and performers, showing art films, lots of different classes, and putting out a monthly newsletter of everything that was coming up. Then, in a bloodless coup, Jacque was overthrown, and the era of growth ended. Since then, the center has struggled with a lack of money, vision and leadership. The ArtsCenter still offers classes and has performances, but without a dynamic personality making things happen it may not be destined to fulfill the potential that Jacque had in mind when he created it. But they still manage to bring in some pretty good acts and many of the programs they provide fulfill a need in the community. Maybe one day they will realize somebody really screwed up, and they should get Jacque back to fulfill his destiny and get the place back on track. And they might also bring back Jerry Williams, who booked some pretty good bands there. As for Jacque Menache, he is now running Carrboro's very own radio station WCOM.

Eastern Carrboro

Where Rosemary and Franklin streets actually meet is Carrburritos , owned by my favorite California person, Gail, and her jazz bass-playing husband, Bill. If it's not the best Mexican restaurant in greater Chapel Hill, it's at least the best in Carrboro. Fantastic burritos, ceviche and the best collection of complimentary salsas in an informal atmosphere that reminds me of a small cafeteria on acid. It's all self-service, but you can make a lot of friends in the line on Friday and Saturday night and it's a pleasure to hand your money to a beautiful smiling California girl at the very end who always seems to be in a good mood. They also have a small outdoor patio so you can eat your burrito and drink your cerveza under the stars.

 In the old gas station right next door to Carrburritos is the new coffee-shop called Padgett Station with a comfortable environment and a long menu of all natural coffees, teas, organic wines, fruit drinks, deserts and something unique: a large variety of crumpets, a cross between a muffin and crousant (you know...like they have in England) made into sandwiches. Great coffee and there is an outdoor area too. Across the street, where Main Street has to veer off to connect with Franklin Street, is one of the wonders of the modern world, Ted Bleeker's Bleeker Street Gallery  that's not only built entirely from mung-bean and alfalfa sprouts but has been built by one man and his dog. (Great job Ted!) There were spaces for artists to work as well as hold exhibitions and it was a popular stop during Carrborro's 2nd  Friday Art Walk, held the second Friday of each month. Unfortunately when Ted died of cancer the gallery was bought by Fleet Feet, the local running shoes company and they pretty much gutted it leaving the outside as the only evidence of the work that Ted spent the last 10 years of his life on. In case you are wondering they did not buy it to keep it as a gallery or workshop for artists, but it will still be included during the Second Friday Art Walks.

Not only are the many galleries open with wine and food and of course some art to go with it, but even some of the businesses take part and become art galleries for that night. Recently The 2nd Friday Art Walk added Chapel Hill's Ackland Museum and The Chapel Hill Museum, to their long list of venues.

Next door to the former Bleeker Street is Nice Price Books and CDs, which sells used books, and CDs of course. Across the street is Sizl Gallery , a sort of cooperative of artists and crafts people which usually has some of the most interesting works in Art Walk. Next to that is Gates of Beauty owned by the man known as PeaceMaker, a fine body worker and a legend in this town, who lost 35 cars when the hotel behind his shop burned down. Beyond Peacemaker is a no-man's land of muffler shops and corporate pizza until you get to Brewer Lane, where you'll find Automotion , where Ronny from Brazil fixes my car every other week with help from Daye Thorpe, a fine guitar player and mechanical wiz. Brewer Lane also has the Tai Kwan Do School and Apartments , where you can totally live, eat, sleep and breathe martial arts. If you continue down Brewer Lane, you'll pass Kitchen Media , where you can get your CD mastered and manufactured before taking a right on the Elizabeth Cotton Memorial Bike Path. Elizabeth Cotton was a local blues singer who wrote the song Freight Train back when the mill was shipping their cotton goods all over the country by rail. The path brings you past a cement factory, Butler's Junkyard and what looks like a small oil refinery until you find yourself right back in the middle of Carrboro.

Midtown Carrboro

If you walk west on Main Street, you'll come to the old church that is now the Carrboro Century Center , another performance and dance hall, hosting, among others, the area Swing Dancers, who make being a couple fun, at least for a few hours or so. It's also the home of the Carrboro Police Station and the popular Officer Bob. (Officer Bob has a plan that would end traffic snarl in Carrboro and eliminate all the traffic lights. He also saved us from a snake.) Behind the Century Center you'll find the Club Nova Mural, and parked in front of it the newest, fastest most powerful looking police cars in the state. The Recreation Department has their offices in the Century Center for their many classes, baseball, basketball and various seasonal sports and events.

Right across the street is Tyler's Restaurant ,which is owned by former School of the Arts and NYC ballet dancer Tyler Huntington, who was one of the most promising dancers in the state before he injured his back.Tyler proves that it sometimes takes someone with the sensitivity of a ballet dancer to create a place where beer-drinking sports fans can feel comfortable. Tyler's has a large menu that mixes American, European and bistro food, great nachos and lots and lots of different kinds of beer. It's probably the best all-purpose restaurant in Carrboro, where you'll find college students, families and senior citizens all eating and drinking beer together. There's a wood-burning pizza oven right next to the secret door that is the entrance to the Speak Easy, where you can hear local rock, folk and blues performers, watch the NY Mets or the Tarheels or watch girls playing pool with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. 

On South Greensboro Street is the Open Eye Cafe, which besides having local art on the walls and bluegrass and folk performers, features David, who makes coffee so good that I can write the text on these pages for both Chapel Hill and Carrboro in one four-hour sitting after one double latte (try it with almond flavor). It's one of the simple pleasures of being an artist in Carrboro to sit outside at the cafe tables and watch people with real jobs on the way to and from work before heading home to figure out how you're going to eat tonight or pay last month's rent by yesterday. In September of 2005 they took over the building that used to house Scott's Rent-all ("Nobody rents anymore-if they need something they just buy it" says Terry the final owner). We will miss Terry but the new Open Eye is ten times large than the old one and they are doing their own roasting at 6am which makes my neighborhood smell delicous. (Do you know anything that smells better than roasting coffee with the exception of  the smell that comes from Chinese restaurants? If  coffee and Chinese food tasted as good as it smelled I would be a 500 pound insomniac).

Next-door is Touchwood Antiques , owned by Emily, a former rock star who wrote the big hit "I Want To Be Like Jackie Onassis". Emily moved here from Indiana  and has managed to hunt down some of the most interesting antiques you can find and put them in what has to be the smallest shop in Carrboro. Across the street is Richard, who owns The Trading Post antique shop, which is the size of a small factory. He has a big old moving van parked outside that says "TRADING POST WORLDWIDE MOVERS" and, in small letters, "If Your World Is Chapel Hill."

If you go back to Main Street in downtown Carrboro, Acme compares favorably with Elaine's, Crooks Corner and The Lantern in Chapel Hill. Kevin, who opened the restaurant in the old hardware store played manager-maitre'd for years and a succession of chefs, some great and some not so great. Finally taking matters into his own hands he took off his suit and went back into the kitchen and became the chef himself with surprisingly delcious results. Acme serves generous portions of local vegetables, steaks, fish, pastas and is in my opinion one of the best restaurants in the triangle.  The menu goes through changes with specials every week but there are some staples you can almost always count on, including the fried calamari, which is more like a fried-squid salad or slaw than your typical fried squid rings. Now that Kevin is the chef the quality is always good, or has been everytime I have gone there which is a couple times a week. It is also the place to be on Sunday for their brunch. If I have not convinced you yet let me add that they give big portions and you leave Acme feeling like you have gotten your money's worth. You can get their weekly specials and events e-mailed to you by writing to kevin@acmecarrboro.com

Across the street is theJade Palace Chinese Restaurant , owned by the elegant Jenny Chan and her staff of smiling Chinese people who always make you feel that you should eat there more often. Remember to ask for "no MSG" if you do. I love the homemade kimchee. It may not even be on the menu so just ask for it.

Past the year-round Christmas-tree lot is the Spotted Dog in the oddly shaped building that used to be Bullwinkles Bar and later Spring Gardens. When Spring Gardens closed, this building sat empty for years. One night I hung up some posters that said "COMING SOON: HOOTERS!" with the Hooters logo I had gotten from a book of matches and had blown up at CO Copies. This sparked an avalanche of calls to the mayor, to the owners of the building, to the newspapers and to the corporate offices of Hooters from an army of horrified Carrborians. A year later it was open, not as a Hooters but as a family restaurant with burgers, pastas and some great salads like the Tofudabeast . This was proof that activism goes a lot further when combined with humor. I can't think of any restaurant less like a Hooters than the Spotted Dog.

The Carrboro Scene

While the lawn at Weaver Street may be the center of Carrboro for families and conventional people, it's the bar known as the Orange County Social Club that attracts many of the people who had no place to call home when the Hardback Cafe closed. Though at primetime hours, the bar is significantly smoke infested, there are off-peak hours where it's a comfortable place to have a drink and find someone interesting to talk to. When the weather is warm at night, the back garden is the best place to be in town, and if you imagine the parking lot as a small harbor with SUV-shaped fishing boats you might think you were in the Greek islands. Here is Mike Simpson, a talented artist and a veteran of such famous old bars as Tijuana Fats, Pyewacket and Linda's. This is the place to come before a show at the Cradle, after a show at the Cradle, or during a bad show at the Cradle. On Sunday afternoons, Alvis buys the New York Times , opens the bar and people come in to talk culture, politics, revolution and the Tar Heels.

Carrboro Fish

Behind the main street of Carrboro and across from the Emergency Rescue Station is Tom Robinson's Seafood , where you can get fresh fish on Thursday through Saturday, driven in from the coast by Tom himself. Tom started out in an outdoor stand in Chapel Hill in what was the first outdoor fruit and vegetable market in town. Tom left the area and went overseas to work and study and finally returned to reopen in his present location. His specialty is seasonal fish from the coast of North Carolina, and so what he sells depends on what they're catching. Some of my favorites are his fresh oysters in the shell or already shucked, king mackerel, bluefish, North Carolina shrimp and live bluecrabs and soft-shell crabs. He has some non-NC fish like Norwegian smoked salmon and fresh Atlantic salmon. Tom is very involved in the conservation of the North Carolina coast.
TIP: I buy octopus from Tom, and instead of beating it on a rock like they do in Greece I put it in a cuisinart with the bread-kneading blade rather than the cutting blade for about a minute to make it tender. Not much longer, or it makes it mush. Then I grill it.

Music Stores in Carrboro

Chapel Hill doesn't have a musical instrument shop. Carrboro has two, but with Bryan's Guitars doing mostly mail-order and internet sales the only walk-in and play music store is The Music Loft on Main Street.all within a half a block of each other, starting with the Music Loft, on Main Street. With a great collection of new and used acostic and electric guitars, bases and amps, and people who know how to play them work there. There is also a music school affiliated with the loft where my daughter takes bass lessons from Robert Sledge, former bass-player of Ben Folds Five. In fact if you call them for lessons you never know who will be your teacher since there are so many great musicians in the neighborhood, many from bands you have actually heard of.

Carrboro Farmers Market

On Saturdays, the area next to the Town Hall becomes the Carrboro Farmer's Market , where about a hundred farmers sell their seasonal vegetables, fruits, meats, cakes, crafts, plants and cheeses. My sister and her family sell their organic vegetables here and my mother sells her knitted hats and sock dolls at the Eco-Farms stand. They also provide many of the restaurants with their various lettuces and arugala. Though most of the young people who hit the clubs and bars wake up too late to ever see it, the market is a nice meeting place on Saturday mornings and the best place to do your meat, fruit and vegetable shopping for the week, supporting local farmers instead of giant agri-business corporations that are filling you and your children with pesticides. The covered area also hosts displays for Carrboro Day and a Crafts fair. The Farmers Market is also open on Wednesday afternoons. My favorite stands are the guy who sells organic meat and eggs, the woman who makes the brown-rice and aduki bean thingys, the two cheese stands (one goat, the other cow) and Alex and Betsy during pepper season.

Carrboro Music Festival

Every year, Carrboro hosts the Carrboro Music Festival with a couple hundred bands and solo performers playing on several dozen stages indoor and outdoor. Originally this festival was called Le Fete De Musique . Jerry Williams, who moved to Carrboro from Georgetown in DC to open his Roots Record and CD store, has turned it from a local event to something that attracts people from all over the Triangle by bringing in great acts playing a variety of styles and changing the name from Le Fete De Musique , because so many people didn't know what it meant and didn't come. Besides making the festival a success and bringing a great used-record and CD store, which the town was unable to support, Jerry was responsible for bringing some terrific acts to the floundering ArtsCenter and for Carrboro hosting the annual CD and Record Convention, where collectors from all over the Southeast come to buy, sell and exchange rare music on CD and vinyl, held in the Carrboro Century Center. Check out Greenville's Lightnin' Wells from his performance at the Carrboro Music Festival in 2002.

Changing Carrboro

Visually, downtown Carrboro needs a little work. The sidewalks are a little too narrow to inspire the type of shopping and pedestrian traffic that Chapel Hill has. The traffic patterns, courtesy of the NC Dept. of Transportation, seem like they were created by some guy at a desk who did it by looking at a map while he was arguing with his wife on the phone. Getting through town at rush hour or crossing the street can be a frustrating experience. There is a useless traffic light in front of  Performance Bicycles that make the cars stop for no reason when it used to always be green. Nothing has changed. People still don't cross the street in large enough numbers to stop 5000 cars a day. Then there is the Wendy's entrance right after the traffic light at the corner of Main and S Greensboro Street which invites rear end collisions. OK. I understand that anyone who eats at Wendy's has to be ignorant or not care about their health. But to give them the opportunity to sue someone who is smart enough to not eat at Wendy's for rear-ending them does not seem fair.  But that being said, Carrboro has a lot going for it. More walk-able than just about any town or city in North America, plans are in the works to make it even more pedestrian friendly. Carrboro is one of the few places in America that when someone buys a piece of real estate downtown, they invite the whole community to a meeting and let the people tell the developers what they would like to see on the property.

The town has seen its share of development, and areas that were woods and farms are now houses and streets, but for the most part it's been very sensible. One reason is because the town is very strict about what you can and can't do with your property, and in some situations neighborhoods have risen up in arms against a plan. An example is the tiny street of Old Pittsboro Road, with its single-dwelling houses and lots of wooded area. Real Estate Associates, a developing company, came in and decided to get rid of the woods and build an apartment complex for students in this tiny residential neighborhood. The Old Pittsboro Road neighbors fought back, bringing experts in several fields to testify about environmental and traffic impact and the dangers of having a couple hundred college students plunked into the middle of a small family neighborhood. In the end, the neighbors won and the developers lost, something that rarely happens in America.

Frank Porter Graham Elementary School

Many of the people who grew up in Carrboro attended Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, one of the best schools in the state, due to its ability to attract some of the best teachers in the state, like Meg Malliard and the legendary Mrs Friarson, who somehow manage to create a love of school in their students. There are two other elementary schools in Carrboro, Seawell and Carrboro. At the end of the year, the Frank Porter Graham Elementary School holds its annual dance, where each grade does a performance outside on the basketball court. By the time a student has reached the fifth grade, he or she has done the Chicken Dance in kindergarten and seen it every year since. Even people who are now adults have performed the Chicken Dance and remember it. It's a rite of passage in Carrboro. That's why for the first time on the Internet, I am presenting for those of you who have never been to or had a child in school here, the FPG Kindergarten class of 2003 doing The Chicken Dance .

While FPG is a progressive school, there is a problem which I would like to use this page to bring attention to. It's the absence of sidewalks leading to the school. The school is a sort of island that can only be reached by car. People who want to walk their kids to school or ride bikes are risking their lives every day. The problem, I assume, is no money in the school budget and a Depart. of Transportation that doesn't believe in sidewalks. In fact, if you walk or drive around Carrboro and Chapel hill you'll be amazed at how the roads controlled by the state are unfit for pedestrians. In some places, they've painted a line on the edge of the road so that if you're on a bike and you're within the line and the shoulder, an area of about six inches, cars are not allowed to run you over. Most people assume that because of Chapel Hill and Carrboro's left-of-center politics, sensible ideas like sidewalks and bike lanes are put on the backburner by the State of North Carolina in order to have money for more important projects like building a private road for the fatcats who donated money to the Smith Center, so they can avoid traffic after games.

Sculptures of Carrboro

Another unique thing about Carrboro is the number of large sculptures that have been placed on lawns all over town. In the same way that Chapel Hill has murals scattered around, you can't walk down the street in Carrboro without coming across a sculpture, from the giant fountain birds at Weaver Street to my favorite, the dinosaur thing in front of the Century Center. My favorite used to be the helicopter on Weaver Street that was so convincing that a man used to sit on it every day and pretend he was a pilot.

So there you have it. The good with the bad of this little town of Carrboro, that has been the toast of Paris and has become one of the best places to live in North Carolina.

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