It’s the end of an era for Chapel Hill foodies. The Southern Season store is no more.
A cornerstone of Chapel Hill’s foodie culture has closed its doors for good.
Gourmet retailer Southern Season closed its flagship store in Chapel Hill’s University Place shopping center, ending an era stretching back to 1975.
Southern Season announced plans in the fall to close its last remaining store, offering steep discounts through the holiday season, starting at 20% off, then 30 and finally 50 on its last day. This week, employees taped signs on the windows that the store had permanently closed, thanking shoppers for years of support and directing them to the only place Southern Season now exists, online.
Southern Season will be remembered as a foodie specialty store and cooking school, that at its peak had three locations in three states. It was born out of Chapel Hill’s culture as one of the South’s influential dining cities, and it hosted local and national chefs for cooking classes and demonstrations.
But in 2016, then-owner TC Capital Fund filed for bankruptcy, aiming to restructure $18 million worth of debt. Delaware-based retailer Calvert Retail bought the brand for $3.5 million. It plans to continue operating online, selling gift baskets and prepared foods.
“Southern Season was at the heart of the food scene in the Triangle for the last 40 years,” local chef and cookbook author Sandra Gutierrez said in a phone interview last year. “So many places, Whole Foods, Wegmans, began to cut into the niche that belonged to Southern Season. The role as an education center, that’s going to be sorely missed. ... People would come from very far away to teach at the Southern Season. Its reputation as a store and cooking school was very solid nationally.”
The closing of Southern Season looks to make way for the future redevelopment of University Place mall, which was recently purchased by Florida-based Ram Realty Services for $51.6 million in 2018. Plans include nearly 1 million square feet of new development, meaning new apartments, hotels and a parking deck.
