Moon & Lola opened earlier this month at 208 S. Wilmington St. in downtown Raleigh .

The opening fulfills the nine-year dream of owner Kelly Shatat.

A pharmacist by training – and in practice until a little over a year ago – she started selling her jewelry wholesale around 2003. (Her necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings are now sold in more than 700 boutiques in 37 states – even Montana). Then she opened a studio in Apex. But the Raleigh native – “I was born in Rex Hospital” – always wanted a flagship store in her home town for her brand.

And brand it will be. Moon & Lola has just added a beauty line and Shatat envisions a time when there will be Moon & Lola hand bags, gift cards and the like. “Who knows where else we’ll go,” she says.

The store is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. And once the Raleigh Times finishes its planned expansion (which includes a roof-top bar on top of Stitch right next door to Moon & Lola), Shatat says customers will be able to flow through the restaurant and into her store’s Lola’s back door.

Wendy’s has started a multi-year rebranding strategy that includes a sleek, new design for its restaurants. The first in the state opens Sept. 5 near Wake Tech’s north campus at 7460 Louisburg Road.

The store features varied seating where customers can eat at high-top, bar-style tables, choose a booth or a chair around a see-through fireplace. In addition to digital menu boards inside and at the drive-through, customers will line up against one of the walls not, in the big, snaking line in front of the registers. There will be flat-screen TVs, free Wi-Fi and a view into the kitchen. It also will have one of those Coca Cola Freestyle machines with more than 100 drink choices.

In the past year, the chain also has tested new menu items such as fries with the sea salt, smoothies and muffins. Bart Allen, Wendy’s field marketing manager for the region, said based on the response of customers to the revamped stores in other areas, Wendy’s will be converting more.

The next in the Triangle will be an old Wendy’s on U.S. 70 in Clayton that has been scrapped and rebuilt. It’ll open in late October.

The Hope Cafe, the coffee and sandwich shop, on Tryon Road in Raleigh, is closing on Sept. 3. The cafe, which had given bluegrass musicians and other entertainers a regular spot to entertain, was an outreach effort by the Hope Fellowship Church.

Mad Hatter, a specialty shop, is opening inside Unique Boutiques and Marketplace, 21 Anna Drive between Clayton and Cleveland. The shop will offer hats, teapots, teacups, tea and tea accessories. The shop is organizing a social group called Mad Hatter Tea Club, which will meet every other month for lunch or an afternoon tea.

Staff writers Mary Cornatzer

and Amy Rue

Send retail items to arue@newsobserver.com.