Two new tastes of Italy are opening in downtown Carrboro — a block apart from each other
In a century-old building and in one of the town’s most beloved breakfast and brunch spaces, a pair of Italian restaurants are joining Carrboro’s dining scene.
The intimate, 18-seat restaurant Tesoro will bring a neighborhood restaurant vibe to downtown Carrboro. And Grata Cafe has moved into the former Elmo’s Diner space, serving all-day fare Italian-style.
Grata Cafe
Grata Cafe opened Tuesday, Aug. 3 in the former Elmo’s space. Owner Jay Radford said Grata will have a lot in common with Elmo’s, only with an Italian accent, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“We’re kind of doing Italian Elmo’s,” Radford sad. “Instead of bacon we’ll have pancetta. Instead of mayo, we have pesto.”
Radford said his last restaurant job was 20 years ago, when he ran a Planet Hollywood. Recently he’s been a stay-at-home dad, but said he was considering getting back in the business as his family’s children were in school.
“I kind of live my life with my toes on the edge to begin with,” Radford said.
“It was quite the journey,” Radford said. “‘Grata’ is Italian for gratitude. The thing that struck me the most (during the pandemic) was the gratitude people had for one another. It’s a simple, Italian-themed eatery.”
Grata Cafe will be a counter-service restaurant, with diners ordering at a register and then receiving their food from the kitchen.
Currently there are 22 staff members. The restaurant is one of several in the Triangle to move away from tipping. Radford said all workers make at least $18 an hour and that there isn’t any mechanism in the restaurant’s ordering system to tip. If diners leave cash, Radford said it will be collected in a bucket and donated to a local non-profit of a worker’s choosing.
On the bar side, there will be beer and wine, but not liquor. The wines will all be from Italy, Radford said, and there will be large batches of seasonal sangria.
Some of the Italian touches to make it on the breakfast menu are ciabatta french toast and a biscuits and gravy made with house marinara sauce. There will also be pancakes, a waffle, an often-changing fritatta and a variety of omelets. For lunch and dinner, there are Italian sandwiches, including a meatball sub and a caprese sandwich. Larger plates include chicken parm and pasta bowls like linguine carbonara.
Elmo’s fans will find a familiar dining room, with the green booths and chairs inherited by Grata. The menu is different, but the mission is the same, Radford said.
“It’s all about community and supporting people,” Radford said.
It’s located at 200 N. Greensboro St., D-6, in Carr Mill Mall, Carrboro.
Tesoro
Chef and owner David Peretin is putting the finishing touches on Tesoro, his Italian restaurant, preparing to open this month.
At 18 seats, Tesoro will be an uncommonly cozy kind of restaurant, focusing on house-made fresh pastas and situated across from Weaver Street Market.
The menu will blend Italian, French and Croatian, with classics like cacio e pepe and spaghetti pomodoro, made with fresh pasta. From there, Peretin said he’ll add in some of the formative flavors of his youth, Croatian dishes made by his grandparents, likely braises and stews and possibly game meat.
“I vividly remember stealing lamb off a spit,” Peretin said. “There’s an endless bounty (in North Carolina). It’s just want you want to lean into.”
Tesoro will serve dinner Tuesday through Saturday and lunch on Fridays and Saturdays. Lunch will feature sandwiches served on housemade foccocia bread.
Peretin’s restaurant career began as a dishwasher at The Fearrington House Restaurant, one of the Triangle’s fine-dining destinations. At first he said he could barely boil water and had to be shown how to hold a knife, but Peretin began to get opportunities to cook in the Fearrington kitchen. He said the passion of the experienced cooks set him on the path he’s on now.
“I was so enamored, but I had no idea what I was watching,” Peretin said. “The food was a huge part of (the attraction), but a large part of it was the vigor and enthusiasm of the cooks in the kitchen. That pulled me in more than anything.”
He’d go on to work at some of the Triangle’s most ambitious, yet casual restaurants, like Rose’s Noodles, Dumplings and Sweets, Saint James Seafood and Pizzeria Mercato, led by Gabe Barker and his parents Ben and the late Karen Barker.
Peretin said working with Ben and Karen Barkers, each James Beard Award-winners, taught him that running a restaurant required relentless dedication.
“It’s undeniable what the Barkers taught me,” Peretin said. “I knew how to cook and knew how to work a line, but stepping into work at Pizzeria Mercato, it blew my mind how thoroughly they lived it. They taught me you don’t do it half way. I only understand a little bit of that now.”
For Tesoro, Peretin gutted the former Market Street Coffeehouse, one of the numerous closings from the COVID pandemic. The ceilings are 12 feet high, Peretin said, giving the small space an airier feel. Most of the dining room is one long banquette, with a six-person bar on the opposite wall, which will be held for walk-ins only.
The pandemic looked to change the kind of restaurant Tesoro would be, Peretin said. When diners were reluctant to eat indoors, Tesoro was going to be made for takeout and retail, selling freshly made pasta to-go. In the summer, as COVID cases declined, Peretin felt he could create the dinner service he imagined.
Peretin’s daughter came up with the name Tesoro, meaning “treasure” in Italian and Spanish.
“Colloquially it’s a term of endearment,” Peretin said. “It’s like saying ‘My soft spot.’ I knew that was it.”
Peretin plans to cook nightly in his own restaurant and lead a staff of six.
“I love big restaurants, they’re big, boisterous environments,” Peretin said. “But we’ll be an intimate setting. ... Restaurants are important to a community. People dine with you and you provide a service for others that live and work in your community.”
Tesoro is located at 100 E. Weaver St., Carrboro.
This story was originally published August 5, 2021 at 4:28 PM.
