Rosemary Street’s Mama Dip earns business honor for restaurant

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce will honor 12 local business leaders at its inaugural Hall of Fame Wednesday.

The Daily Tar Heel will feature each of its inductees. Mildred Council will be inducted.

Mildred Council, better known as Mama Dip, started cooking when she was just 9 years old living on her family’s farm in Chatham County.

Years later, in 1976, she opened Mama Dip’s restaurant on Rosemary Street with $64 and some breakfast staples, hoping she would have enough money to buy food for lunch.

“I was getting into something I didn’t know how, but I did know how to cook,” she said.

Mama Dip left work that day with $135.

Since opening her restaurant, Mama Dip’s love of cooking and people has taken her far.

In 2002, she met former President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., where she was named the fourth-best small businessperson of the year by the Small Business Administration.

She has been featured on Good Morning America, in The New York Times and has written two cookbooks.

“You learn everything after you leave,” Mama Dip said.

A homecoming

Mama Dip never left her home for long, and her traditional country cooking keeps people coming back to her restaurant even after they’ve moved away.

Sherry Holbrook-Atkinson said she and her husband, Delton Atkinson, come to Mama Dip’s from Maryland every year the day after Homecoming.

“My husband sort of grew up with Mama Dip’s,” she said.

Atkinson attended UNC in the 1970s for his undergraduate and graduate degrees.

“We’ve made this a tradition after Homecoming — to meet up at Mama Dip’s,” Holbrook-Atkinson said.

Things have changed at Mama Dip’s since it first opened.

Spring Council, Mama Dip’s youngest daughter, said the work is harder now and the restaurant and staff are larger.

“Life was much simpler then,” she said.

Giving them love

Despite the changes, the family’s love of cooking stays constant, as does Mama Dip’s compassion and love.

Mama Dip said she hires many young people who have dropped out of school or are losing direction in their lives.

“I give them that love that shows you can make it.”

She said she teaches students how to deep-fry foods and slice tomatoes and apples.

Mama Dip has also actively worked within the community, starting the “Share the Love Fund” in 2009 to benefit children facing financial difficulties.

Spring Council said her mother always had someone over at the table, even strangers on Christmas and Thanksgiving.

“Her mother died, and the community helped her dad out, so she’s always instilled in us to go out and help other folks,” she said.

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