Restaurants and breweries prepare for students' arrival

First-years aren’t the only newcomers on campus this year — many new restaurants and breweries have come to the Chapel Hill area to get a taste of what this community has to offer.

Benny Cappella’s opened its doors on March 21, toward the end of the 2016 spring semester.

While Benny Cappella’s is known for its larger-than-life “Virginia slices,” the restaurant also offers monthly specials, whole pizzas and a delivery service.

According to Lucy Bernard, assistant manager, business was doing very well when it first opened. She expects this academic year to be the same once students start coming back to campus.

“It’s been a lot slower during the summer, but we are expecting things to pick back up a lot now that kids are back,” she said. ”(Chapel Hill is) definitely a good place to run a business, especially now with lots of new faces and lots of things going on.”

In addition to Benny Cappella’s, YesterYears Brewery opened in Carrboro on May 14, 2015.

Located at 300 E. Main St. in downtown Carrboro, YesterYears offers a variety of beers on tap and hosts tasting parties to preview the new brews coming in the future.

“We are all about community here. It’s all the businesses within this plaza and we promote each other,” Taproom Manager Cynthia Burnkinf said. “So if (customers) come to one brewery, we want to send them to another brewery.”

YesterYears uses social media to promote its business, and Burnkinf said they have never advertised and rely heavily on word of mouth.

“Brewers are very tight, we help each other because it’s all about making a destination,” she said.

Because YesterYears is purely a taproom, they provide customers with the menus of several local restaurants to collaborate and create business within the community.

“Carrboro is awesome and very friendly,” Burnkinf said. “The people that live here will give you a chance.”

In the midst of newer businesses coming to the area, more established restaurants, like Carolina Brewery, are feeling the effects of the changes, assistant manager Jesika Rubin said, especially as the school year starts.

“It also works the other way around,” she said. “When school starts, students are happy to see that we’re still here and a lot of times parents are happy to see that we’re still here if they remember us from when they went (to UNC).

Carolina Brewery has been a part of the Chapel Hill community for 21 years and Rubin has worked there for three. She said she’s seen many businesses come and go on Franklin Street.

“We like that people are familiar with us and know our name and our brand,” Rubin said.

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