Last weekend, I made my way back to the “Southern Part of Heaven”, aka Chapel Hill, NC…my college stomping grounds. There is much about Franklin Street that is new since I was in school oh so many years ago, but some of the old favorites are hanging in there.
But first, please, a moment of silence for Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta … … I was hoping to have one last slice of penne and eggplant stuffed pizza (with a side of marinara sauce), but it had already switched over to a Tomato Jake’s.
I had dinner at Lantern on Friday evening, which I recently read about in Food & Wine magazine. We didn’t get seated until almost an hour after our 8:30 reservation, but they made up for it with free appetizers. We tried the salt and pepper shrimp, asparagus and mushroom spring rolls, and pork and chive dumplings. I’ve never seen salt and pepper shrimp on a menu except for the one and only Peach Farm in Chinatown, so I had to try it, but Peach Farm sets a very high bar.
For entrees, we split the steamed arctic char (I can’t resist arctic char when I see it on a menu) and the wok-seared rice noodles. The Junebug cocktail was also delicious.
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| Salt and pepper shrimp…no heads! |
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| Arctic char |
The next day we made our way to Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe for breakfast, a place I should have frequented more often in my college days. I love when breakfast places have a pancake/waffle and egg combination, and that was a pretty delicious waffle. After heading to Student Stores and the Carolina Basketball Museum, we hit up Top of the Hill for lunch, Yogurt Pump, and Four Corners to do some serious catching up.
It seemed impossible that we could be hungry for dinner, but turns out we were. We decided to go to 411 West, which was a pretty “fancy” place to go when we were in school (aka a place you got your parents to take you when they were visiting). I had a grilled pear salad with walnuts and gorgonzola. Then we split the Luigi pizza and the hazelnut pesto pasta.
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| Luigi pizza |
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| Hazelnut pesto pasta |
And since there is always room for a cupcake…we headed to Sugarland bakery for dessert.
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| Vanilla bean |
It was so great to reminisce and catch up with some truly fantastic people, whose friendships have withstood the tests of time and distance. I am thankful they were willing to drive in from all over North Carolina to make this weekend happen. We decided this needs to be an annual trip, and I’m already looking forward to next year!
The rundown:
Lantern
423 West Franklin Street
Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe
173 East Franklin Street
Top of the Hill
100 East Franklin Street, third floor
Four Corners Grille
175 East Franklin Street
411 West
411 West Franklin Street
Sugarland
140 East Franklin Street
Carolina Crossroads at the Carolina Inn
211 Pittsboro Street
Kara Cooks and Eats 