You can own a piece of Southern Season as the iconic store auctions off its kitchen
The closing of Southern Season in Chapel Hill was an emotional loss for many Triangle foodies.
But the gourmet grocery store could live on in your kitchen, as hundreds of items go up for sale.
The Wester Auction house is selling hundreds pieces of cookware and kitchen goods previously used by Southern Season and its restaurant Weathervane. The auction looks to be geared toward the restaurant industry, with hundreds of pots and pans, sheet trays and catering gear up for grabs. But the auction includes other pieces that might appeal to the serious home cooks that made up most of the store’s fanbase.
Nestled among the auction lots are a host of kitchen gadgets. There’s a french fry cutter, cast iron skillets, saute pans, slate cheese boards, cake stands and wine racks.
The auction can be found at westerauction.com and will remain active online until Feb. 3. A second in-person auction for larger restaurant equipment and furniture will be held Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. at Southern Season, at 201 South Estes Drive in Chapel Hill. Future auctions are expected throughout the month of February, according to the auction house.
Store is now online only
Southern Season announced last fall that the store would end its four decade presence in Chapel Hill, eventually closing for good earlier this month after weeks of sales. The store was founded in 1975 and grew into an influential foodie superstore and cooking school.
Southern Season is owned by Delaware-based Calvert Retail, which bought the company in 2016 as its previous owner TC Capital Fund was in the middle of an $18 million bankruptcy restructuring of the brand.
“Southern Season is an incredible business, and I firmly believe that the concept is part of the future of retail,” Calvert Retail owner Eric Brinsfield said in the release last fall. “However, it requires a more robust organization and more capital than I can provide as a small business owner. I have made the difficult decision to close the Chapel Hill retail store and focus on our online business from our facility in Graham.”
The auction offers a glimpse into the industrial scale of Southern Season’s prepared foods operation, with hundreds of kitchen tools and pans now heading to the highest bidder.
While Southern Season’s brick and mortar era is over, the brand lives on with its gift baskets and prepared food sales online. The company manufactures and assembles many of its previous products in a facility in Graham and sells them online.
