52 in 52: Carolina Coffee Shop [@unccoffeeshop]
So, the husband and I are eating at home a lot, but we still love to go out to eat every once in a while. But honestly, we always go to the same places. Chick-fil-a. Chipotle… to name a few.
So we decided that something fun to do in our first year of marriage would be to go to 52 different restaurants in 52 weeks. Most of which we’ve either NEVER been to, one of us has never been to, or we’ve only been once or twice. There are so many restaurants in this area of North Carolina, surely we can find a different one to go to each week.
Well, I also decided it would be fun to blog about and review those restaurants. So, here we are.
The first edition of 52 in 52.
The 52 in 52 posts will be done each Friday from the restaurant we went to the previous week (unless otherwise noted).
And if you have a restaurant recommendation, PLEASE, let us know! We are always looking for new tastes and new places. I know we’ve been married a month, but honestly getting this started wasn’t going to happen until now – we’ve been eating at our standard places. I know. Embarrassing. Anyway. Here we go.
FIRST EDITION: Carolina Coffee Shop. | 138 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC | (919) 942-6875
John and I went here with our friends Dave and Kristin on a double date last week. Now, seeing as Carolina Coffee Shop is the OLDEST restaurant in Chapel Hill, I was actually somewhat embarrassed that I’d never been. It first opened in 1922 and has been in that location ever since. WHOA.
As far as atmosphere, it’s a really cool looking place. Old wooden booths and kitschy Chapel Hill stuff on the walls.
We got an appetizer of Carolina Nachos. YUM. (Sadly I didn’t take my own pictures this night… I didn’t think about it until it was too late. I will do better next time. I promise.)
The nachos were REALLY good. Like, really good. But I love anything with jalapenos, cheese, chili, and salsa on it. So, I might be biased.
Now, once we got our appetizer, I realized water wasn’t cutting it for my beverage. The Coffee Shop has some good beers on tap so I figured I might try and be fancy for once. I was interested in their Sweetwater beers and asked the waiter – sadly, he knew nothing about the beers cause he was only 20. Now, I understand you’re underage, I’m not saying drink them, at all, but when you’re a waiter, you should still at least know whether a beer is dark or light, hoppy or sweet, etc. You don’t have to drink them to know a little about them. Come on, do better.
Oh well, in the end I chose the Sweetwater Blue over the Sweetwater 420. This ended up being a good decision because they were out of the 420 anyway. Oh well. It was a pretty good beer – reminded me of the Highland Gaelic Ale a little bit. Just the right amount of hops.
Anywho. For dinner, I ordered the “Mexican Burger” with pub fries – shocker – it has pepperjack cheese, salsa, lettuce, and tomato on it. I also asked to add jalapenos. Came in a reasonable amount of time, and was definitely fresh. I have to say it was really good – not the BEST burger I’ve ever had, but I definitely liked it a lot.
Overall, I really enjoyed the coffee shop. I’ll be going back. I can understand why it’s such a staple of Chapel Hill.
The Stillman Grade: 3.5 stars out of 5
Have you ever been to Carolina Coffee Shop? Got another restaurant to recommend? Comment below!
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