A beloved Chapel Hill bar is asking for the community’s help as pandemic woes stack up
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The changing face of Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street
Every time a fabled establishment shuts down in Chapel Hill, the laments grow louder. But when Linda’s Bar & Grill shut its doors this month, potentially for good, those cries grew to a loud roar. Can Franklin Street survive the changes, or is UNC’s main drag merely staging a dramatic wardrobe change? Here’s The News & Observer’s coverage of the downtown thoroughfare.
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A beloved bar is in trouble.
The owner of Linda’s Bar & Grill, a staple of the UNC community for nearly five decades, launched a six-figure GoFundMe campaign last month aimed at ensuring the Franklin Street icon will remain open for another generation.
Owner Chris Carini set a goal of $135,000, which he said is needed to catch the restaurant up after years of more than a million dollars in losses during the COVID pandemic. In that time, Carini said the restaurant took on more than $100,000 worth of debt to remain open during the past few years. With school in session and UNC teams winning games, Carini said Linda’s is doing well at the moment, but a tide of debt could upend its future.
“Operationally as a restaurant, we’re basically back to pre-COVID numbers, but everything is 20 percent more expensive now,” Carini said. “Over the last two years there wasn’t a lot of business in town, and the amount of empty storefronts echo that.”
‘What happens six months from now?’
Carini said he grew concerned Linda’s would never be able to catch up and could eventually become one of those empty storefronts, leaving a hole in the hearts of countless regulars and fans.
“I know how important it was to everybody, and I’ve seen a lot of places go in and go out on Franklin Street,” Carini said. “I found myself looking at numbers for next year and next summer. I’m not immediately worried, but what happens six months from now? I don’t want to be a place that shuts the doors because we didn’t ask for help.”
Carini notes that Linda’s received PPP loans and economic disaster grants, most of which were forgiven, but that remaining open and maintaining a staff for two years of losses took its toll.
“When you take on debt, you have to do at least 101 percent, and we’re not doing that,” Carini said.
Linda’s opened in 1976 and Carini is its third owner, having purchased the bar in 2011 after years of managing upscale steak houses. The original owner and namesake, Linda Williams, continues to own the building, but left the bar business in 2004, when it was first sold.
‘A place to feel comfortable’
Carini moved to Chapel Hill in 2008 as a restaurant consultant, he said, and fell in love with Linda’s. Eventually he fulfilled a life-long dream of running a bar of his own. Immediately, he said, it was clear he had inherited a community with Linda’s.
“I’ve seen people get engaged here, we’ve hosted wedding parties, baby showers, funeral after parties,” Carini said. “We’ve hosted anything you can think of, where people want to gather and feel safe and warm; it’s a place to feel comfortable.”
Since the GoFundMe launched on Sept. 27, it’s raised more than $18,000 of its goal, with the vast majority of that coming in the last week as it’s picked up steam. Carini said the response has been more than he expected.
“I’ve been blown away,” Carini said. “I love Linda’s with all my heart. I wouldn’t be asking for help if I didn’t think it was so valuable, not only to the community within Linda’s but the community we’re living in.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2023 at 12:17 PM.
