All Up in Your Business for Aug. 28

Pizzelle Bakery

Kelly Taylor has wanted to open a bakery for years, and finally achieved her goal with Pizzelle Bakery. She said she hopes to have the bakery open within a month. 

Pizzelle Bakery was originally supposed to open in the spring, but complications with building permits delayed the opening. Taylor said the bakery, located at 306 W. Franklin St., is slated to open sometime this fall. 

Taylor said Pizzelle will be a gluten-free bakery.

“I’ve been a chef for years and when I had to go gluten-free it was quite a change for me,” Taylor said. “I feel like I offer a higher quality of products — the gluten-free market is needing some better food. Right now it’s hard to find fresh quality gluten-free baked items. They just don’t exist.” 

The name of the bakery comes from the Italian cookie of the same name, Taylor said. Pizzelle cookies are flat, waffle-like cookies often eaten during celebrations. Taylor said the bakery aims to put a twist on the traditional cookie. 

“We’re gonna make pizzelles in all types of shapes; for example, a s'mores pizzelle,” Taylor said. “It’s an Italian meets Southern bakery — Italian-type recipes that I have mashed up with Southern ingredients and southern tastes.”

When Taylor, who lives in Chapel Hill, chose Franklin Street as the location for Pizzelle, she said it stemmed from more than just convenience. 

“I wanted to open something in Chapel Hill because if you haven’t noticed, most of the interesting food has been in Durham,” Taylor said. “I wanted a really small footprint of a bakery like you’d find in an urban area. It allows us to bring more interesting food to Chapel Hill.”

Bartaco

For those who like drinking cocktails and eating tacos, Bartaco opened in Chapel Hill this past summer at 201 S. Estes Drive.

Bartaco is a corporate chain, and the Chapel Hill location is the 13th to open. Other locations include Homewood, Alabama, and Boulder, Colorado. 

Shift Manager Whitney Roberts said Bartaco is set apart from other restaurants by the ingredients and styles from different ethnic cuisines used to make their tacos. One example is their shrimp taco, which features Vietnamese-style banh mi vegetables. 

“The menu is tapas style, and we have so many different tacos,” Roberts said. “We want you to be able to try a whole different variety.”

Roberts said the combination of Bartaco as a bar and restaurant is also unique, especially because the drinks are made on the spot for customers. 

“You literally watch us squeeze lime juice into your margaritas,” she said. 

Bartaco hopes to appeal to both town residents and UNC students. 

“We’re a family-oriented place,” Roberts said. “Every location is going to be different because we want to cater to the neighborhood that we’re in, so of course we’re thinking of students too, but we have a ton of families here.”

Zoë's Kitchen

In a town where pizza, ice cream and cheese fries form the basis for quick eats, Zoë’s Kitchen is bringing “simple, tasty and fresh” cuisine to the Eastgate Crossing shopping complex.    

With menu favorites including salads, kabobs, pitas and wraps, the Mediterranean chain has seen steady business in the six weeks since its July 7 opening, said manager Adam Bauer.    

“I’ve had lots of good feedback from customers who like the food and not too much negative stuff yet,” Bauer said. “Besides that, it’s just been us getting everything going — it was a little crazy for the first few weeks.”   

Bauer said he hopes having students back in town will boost business — in the week since official campus move-in, he said, the restaurant has been a popular spot. 

He said he hopes to partner with delivery services in the future so students can order from their dorms. 

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