Chapel Hill’s Rise biscuits to open with limited-edition T-shirts, school PTA fundraiser
Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken will raise money for a Chapel Hill school when its ninth Triangle store opens next week.
The store is one of three anticipated additions to Eastgate Crossing shopping center, between East Franklin Street and Fordham Boulevard. Renovations are underway for an Aldi grocery store in the former Stein Mart space, and a Shake Shack restaurant is slated for the former Zoes Kitchen building.
Rise Chapel Hill will open its door at 7 a.m. Saturday, March 19, in a 940-square-foot space between Trader Joe’s and Bruegger’s Bagels, company officials said in a news release Tuesday. The store will donate 10% of its grand-opening day sales to the Ephesus Elementary School PTA, they said.
At 11 a.m., 100 customers also will receive limited-edition T-shirts, screen printed on demand by Durham’s Laboosh Printing.
The store will be the first Rise to open in the Triangle in over four years. It won’t have indoor seating, but Eastgate has a small patio with tables nearby, the release said. Customers will order food online or with a QR code or kiosk in the store, and receive a text when their order is ready. Food will be placed in heated food lockers for pickup, it said.
The company launched the no-contact system in its Carrboro and Durham stores in 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. Customers also can order through third-party delivery companies, such as UberEats and Doordash.
Late owner saw more stores
Durham chef Tom Ferguson, who founded Rise, was optimistic about the company’s future when he spoke with The News & Observer about the Chapel Hill store in November. Rise has 16 stores and over 100 franchise locations under contract, the release noted.
Ferguson, in the November interview, called the company’s push to add more stores “Rise 2.0” and bragged on the “foundation of culture and love” that he was trying to build for employees following his own challenges.
Ferguson died in February at age 57. The cause of death has not been released.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 8:24 AM.
