Time-Out leaves University Square, moves down Franklin

Since Time-Out Restaurant opened in 1978 , not much has changed — but after almost four decades at University Square, the iconic restaurant is moving down Franklin Street.

Time-Out will close its doors for the first time in more than 35 years Aug. 31, when it will relocate to 201 E. Franklin St., the previous home of East End Oyster and Martini Bar .

“Getting the business started and working it like I have, it’s almost like this was more my house than my house,” said owner Eddie Williams. “It really hurts, honest to God, it hurts for me to leave, and I never thought that I’d have to leave.”

It’s not just Williams who sees the location as a home.

Longtime patrons Larry and Ann Farmer have regularly had lunch at Time-Out on Sundays since the 1990s.

“Why cook Sunday lunch when I can come eat with Eddie?” Ann Farmer said. The Farmers have even had Thanksgiving lunch at the restaurant several times.

Despite the change in location, Williams said he is working as hard as he can to make the new place feel just like the old one.

“I do think that the place that we have on Franklin is just as good, if not better,” he said. “It’s definitely good for walk-around traffic. It’s just not good for drive traffic.”

Time-Out’s current location has free parking in front of the store, which the new location won’t have.

Williams hopes to solve the potential parking problem by adding a new part onto the Time-Out Sports Bar.

“I decided that for people who had to have the parking that I’d spoiled them with, that I would open another place behind the bar down there, and it would be just like Time-Out for the people that need to park,” he said.

The new place at the bar is only open at night, but Williams said he hopes to open it for lunch as well once he moves to the new location on Franklin Street.

Special events manager Ira Green said he hopes the new Time-Out can open immediately after the old restaurant closes.

“If we’re down at all for a day or two, we may at that time just use our food truck for the people that want to get our biscuit or some other thing,” he said.

Williams opened the restaurant in 1978 after he graduated from UNC. Before he took over, it used to be a pizzeria, which he worked at while he was in school.

“When I got out of school, I wanted to be in a sports-themed restaurant, and my wife is the one that named it Time-Out,” he said.

When Williams first opened Time-Out, the restaurant was not open 24 hours a day, but he made the change after a few years.

“I knew, being a recent student, that students never sleep,” Williams said. “Sometimes people think they’re up partying all the time, but a lot of them are studying, a lot of them are working, doing something else. We just thought, ‘Well, this should be the town that never sleeps.’”

Since the change, Time-Out has become a staple of late-night cuisine in Chapel Hill.

“We’re kind of like a historical site,” Green said.

“Another slogan we could use is ‘Memories by the mouthful,’ because with all of our pictures, we’re like a UNC museum.”

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