All Up In Your Business, Sept. 26

Beat Making Lab finds Chapel Hill home

Beat Making Lab has traveled all over the world, but its founders haven’t forgotten where it began.
The Chapel Hill Community Beat Making Lab will be a free resource for anyone who wants to create electronic music. It will open Friday in a space below the post office on Franklin Street donated by the town.

UNC professor Mark Katz started the lab in fall 2011 as a class in the music department to teach students how to create instrumental hip-hop music.

“We want to spread good positive interaction and show the positive side of U.S. culture,” he said.
The program was expanded internationally under the direction of Pierce Freelon and Stephen Levitin.
“Our mission is to merge art and activism,” Freelon said.

Freelon and Levitin co-taught the first international lab in the Congo and realized there was considerable interest elsewhere in the world.

A grant from the U.S. Department of State will fund the lab in Chapel Hill and allow the overseas lab to travel to six more countries in the next two years, Katz said.

Levitin said Red Bull, Lenovo and the town donated equipment to the center, which will be staffed by former students. Freelon said the center will likely be open after school and on weekends to target local high school and college students, but no definite hours have been set.

Workshops and performances will be held in Durham and Chapel Hill this weekend to celebrate the grand opening. The events are sponsored by ARTVSM, a company created by Freelon and Levitin that funds the lab.

Al’s Burger Shack open for business

For students looking for locally sourced burgers and hot dogs paired with fries and drinks, Al’s Burger Shack is a new option on Franklin Street.

Al’s Burger Shack opened last week at 516 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill.

The restaurant’s owner, Al Bowers, said it received plenty of business in its first week.

“We like this end of Franklin, being situated right between Carrboro and Chapel Hill,” he said.

Bowers said his customer base varies. He said this week’s customers were a combination of students, families and residents.

Bowers hopes to bring in even more customers in the coming weeks with friendly counter service, he said.

The restaurant includes both indoor and outdoor seating. There is a TV inside, and Bowers said he hopes it will attract sports fans.

Bowers said he wanted to keep the restaurant’s menu small and focus on local, sustainable food sources to produce a tasty and affordable product.

According to the Burger Shack’s website, the restaurant will serve a quarter-pound all-pork hot dog sourced from Chapel Hill restaurant The Pig. The hot dog will be topped with a spicy sweet mustard from Brevard, N.C.

All beef served at the restaurant comes from cows raised in North Carolina, he said.

Bowers said the fresh ingredients make burgers from the restaurant unique.

“You can taste the freshness,” he said. “Everything is made with a lot of love.”

Greenbridge gets coffee importer

Caravela Coffee, a Carrboro-based green coffee importer, will soon open a new office in Greenbridge Condominiums.

The office will be located on the second floor of Greenbridge, a 10-story mixed-use development on Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill.

The space purchased by Caravela Coffee is on the Greensboro Street side of the building.

Snyder said the office will open in a few months, but the company has not yet started the renovation process.

Owner Badi Bradley said the business is moving to Greenbridge because it has recently outgrown its Carrboro office.

“I like the building and the principles behind it,” he said.

Caravela, which Bradley said he started in 2010, imports green coffee from all across Latin America, especially Colombia.

The coffee is purchased directly from farmers.

Bradley said Caravela stores its coffee in New York and Oakland, Calif.

He said he has had wholesale buyers all over the world use Caravela Coffee.

The company’s green coffee is also sold in local establishments.

Bradley said people who want a taste of Caravela’s coffee can find it at Carrboro’s Open Eye Cafe.