For some time, Cary has held the reputation of cruise ship: a self-contained community docked in a corner of the Triangle, dominated by corporate sprawl and out-of-towners who occasionally interact with folks in the port of call.
But over the past few years, revitalization efforts have begun to help the town shed this image and emerge with its own distinct identity. Cary’s once-sleepy downtown area is well on its way to becoming a vibrant, walkable urban center—and independent restaurants are leading the charge.
Bond Brothers Beer Co., Pizzeria Faulisi, and SideBar—three businesses that got in on the ground floor of Cary’s downtown food and beverage scene, opening in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively—have each successfully launched second ventures (Bond Brothers Eastside, Big Dom’s Bagel Shop, and Hank’s Downtown Dive) a few doors down from their original spots.
“To plan, open, and succeed with two concepts inside of five years speaks volumes to the enthusiasm that the neighborhood and the town have for growth,” says Matthew Bettinger, owner of SideBar and Hank’s.
That enthusiasm is also driving restaurants based outside Cary to put down roots there: Scratch Kitchen & Taproom, which originated in Apex, and Di Fara Pizza Tavern, a family-run, by-the-slice spot in Brooklyn, New York, both opened a second location in downtown Cary this year.
When Di Fara co-owner Greg Norton moved to Cary six years ago, he was initially unsure whether to go into construction or expand the restaurant his uncle established in 1965. After seeing how many Northeast transplants live in the town, though, he knew his pizza would be a hit. His only concern? The local water.
“When I make pizzas with North Carolina water, the pizza crust curls up on the edges, like a stingray,” Norton says. “When I make it with New York water, which is the best water in the world, it comes out perfect every time. It’s night and day.”
At first, Norton thought he’d have to get his relatives to ship him water from New York—“I wasn’t gonna cook the pizza any other way,” he says—but then he discovered the New York WaterMaker, a filtration machine that uses a purification process and mineral concentrate to replicate water from the Catskills.
“Boom,” he says. “Problem solved.”
A few blocks away, another restaurant just opened, but unlike Di Fara, this one uses its Cary locale to define its brand. Peck & Plume, which opened in August as the revamped dining room at The Mayton—a boutique hotel that was bought out of bankruptcy by local developers in 2020—is decorated to spotlight local flora and fauna, drawing its theme from the seven-acre landscape it will overlook once Cary’s Downtown Park Project is completed in 2023.
The restaurant’s crown jewel is its botanical wallpaper, which poses cardinals and turtle doves against a tangled backdrop of native North Carolina plants. The wallpaper, designed by Hillsborough artist Katie Hayes and produced by the Durham-based company Spoonflower, stands alongside a number of pieces that The Mayton commissioned from area artists.
The Mayton’s renovation was executed by Early Bird Night Owl, the same management team partnered with The Durham Hotel. Like The Restaurant at The Durham, Peck & Plume is chef-driven, with a seasonal menu built around locally sourced ingredients, though it features more international flavors than its Bull City counterpart. Its dining environment is a tad more casual; guests can take their plates to the outdoor terrace, if they want, or to an armchair in the hotel’s cozy library. And if the Peck & Plume menu doesn’t strike a guest’s fancy, The Mayton staff won’t hesitate to suggest an alternative.
“If we don’t have something they’re looking for, right outside our door, there’s lots of great places we can recommend for them to stroll to,” says Craig Spitzer, co-founder of Early Bird Night Owl.
Zach Faulisi, who owns Pizzeria Faulisi and Big Dom’s, shared a similar sentiment; downtown restaurant owners want to lift each other up, he says, not poach each other’s customers.
“It’s the more, the merrier,” Faulisi says. “We don’t look at it like some big competition, we just look at it like, the more buzz there is around downtown Cary, the more people will come in and check it out.”
Bettinger agrees: “It’s nice to know that if we’re on a wait, there’s somewhere else great that someone can sit down and have a good dinner,” he says—also noting that with Cary’s massive Fenton development (a 92-acre mixed-use project) opening in a few months, it’s crucial for independent downtown businesses to support each other right now.
“It’s gonna be important that downtown Cary can stand on its own and create its own energy,” Bettinger says.
But he’s not too worried.
“Our customer base is built on familiar faces that have a lot of pride for where they are,” Bettinger says. “That’s the thing I love about Cary. People are really motivated to be loyal to their spots.”
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