Former Blue Cross CEO Bob Greczyn has apparently embraced his new life as a pizza parlor owner.
Greczyn, who with his son opened a Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Cary last year, is helping to open another in Chapel Hill. For this endeavor, he’s teaming with Casey Fox, Kent Hodges and Karen Halsey, who own the Mellow Mushroom franchises in Raleigh, Durham and Wake Forest. The trio consulted with the Greczyns on their Cary site.
The Chapel Hill Mushroom will open later this year – no exact date has been set – at the old Ham’s location at 310 W. Franklin St.
The restaurant will embrace the Mushroom’s peace and love vibe by featuring a VW party bus with built-in booths; pages from university yearbooks from the ’60s and ’70s will be the art on the walls. The patio will be designed as a garage with walls that open and close like doors.
And if you’re thinking “Hey, I thought Chapel Hill already had a Mellow Mushroom,” you’re right. Fox and Hodges opened their first restaurant there, on the corner of Franklin Street and Estes Drive, in 1999. It wasn’t the best spot as students couldn’t walk to it, so the two closed it in 2005 to focus on the Raleigh restaurant, which had opened in 2002. Halsey, by the way, waited tables at the Chapel Hill location before it closed.
Hiring for the Franklin Street site will start in the late fall; about 80 workers will be needed.
At the Streets at Southpoint in Durham, Papyrus, a stationery and gift store, has opened. Yolavie, a frozen yogurt shop, holds its grand opening at the same mall on Aug. 24.
Still in Durham, Bullseye Bicycle has its “soft opening” on Aug. 25 at 102 Morris St. (at Chapel Hill Street) and plans a grand opening on Sept. 2. Owner Tyler Kober has “years in the business,” having worked at nine shops in such diverse cities as Portland, Ore., Atlanta and London. He promises a shop with no attitude for people who just want to have fun riding bikes.
The shop will sell new and used bikes, take bikes on consignment and offer rentals and provide a full service shop for maintenance and repairs. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
In Raleigh, the Indigo Hot Yoga Center opens Saturday at the Oberlin Court complex on Oberlin Road in Raleigh. It’s between Right Time Kids and Zoe’s Kitchen. The center will feature the Barkan Method of yoga, practiced to music in a room heated to 105 degrees.
Staff writer Mary Cornatzer
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