Linda’s Bar & Grill, Chapel Hill Watering Hole for Decades, Closes Its Doors

On January 5, Linda’s Bar & Grill will close its doors after 47 years of business in Chapel Hill. 

Best known for its generously loaded tater tots, wide-ranging beer, and weekly trivia nights, the restaurant has become a beloved watering hole for decades of students and Chapel Hill residents.  

Since owner Christopher Carini broke the news to the Daily Tar Heel on Tuesday, there has been an outpour of tributes both online and in-person, with packed tables at all hours of the day, this week. 

The closure comes three months after Carini created a GoFundMe asking the community for help to keep Linda’s running with a goal of $135,000 to cover payroll and update infrastructure after years of recovering financially from COVID-19. Although Carini raised more than $35,000 of that goal and had almost turned the corner, business took another plunge, he says, over winter break with students out of town.

“I don’t have big corporate pockets to dig in and get through the hardest of times,” Carini says. “We were doing great, 2011 to 2019—it was unbelievable how well we did. And then in 2020, the pandemic changed everything.”

After meeting with bankruptcy attorneys and accountants, Carini said he realized there was no long-term solution for the debt he had racked up in trying to keep the business afloat during the pandemic and keep up with rent. This month, he decided it was time to call it.

“I have to declare personal bankruptcy in order to make anything work because I don’t have anything left to give,” Carini said. “The only things that I own are my old car and my ownership of the business. And so if there was ever going to be a time to make this call, it would be when I am on my knees and that would be now.”

Ross White, the restaurant’s Tuesday night trivia host for the last 15 years, says he’s seen how much the hospitality industry is still suffering from years of scant business during the pandemic.

“I’m surprised any bars or restaurants in Chapel Hill survived COVID,” White said. “We feel like we’re on the other side, but the businesses all around are still struggling with it day to day because they incurred so much debt just trying to stay open.”

As a UNC-Chapel Hill undergrad in the late 90s, White began coming to Linda’s weekly to meet with a small group of fellow poets—one that has continued meeting to this day, every Thursday. They’re not alone in this tradition: many professors use the space to bond with their students outside of class, and members of student organizations like the Loreleis, UNC-Chapel Hill’s female a cappella group, and the Daily Tar Heel also regularly congregate at the restaurant. 

Upon turning 21, fourth-year student Sadie Jane Allen began attending White’s trivia every week. Allen says she cried when she heard the closure news.

“We were actually planning grad pics and were hoping to do grad pics in Linda’s because we spent so much time there,” Allen says. “So it’s really sad that we won’t get to do that and especially since it was such a big part of my college experience, I am so sad that it’s closing and I won’t get to visit it when I graduate.”

Alumni and graduate students are also feeling the loss. Theodore Nollert, a graduate student at UNC and the youngest member of Chapel Hill town council, says he sees the restaurant’s closing as a sign that Franklin street desperately needs community attention. 

“The situation at Linda’s is unique in some ways, given the specific financial conditions that [Carini] is dealing with,” Nollert says, “but I think that what this illustrates is the need for more residents to come downtown. It illustrates the need for spaces and events that excite people about being downtown.”

Linda’s closing comes a week after the permanent closure of Basecamp, a tapas and cocktail bar that replaced short-lived Jed’s Kitchen last year on East Franklin Street. Another building, on the corner of West Franklin and North Columbia, which most recently housed Seafood Destiny Express, has seen so much turnover in the past few years that it never got the chance to change its signage from the previous ownership before shuttering, due to legal trouble.

But rising rents and quick commercial turnover in a college town like Chapel Hill is also a testament to how impressive it is that Linda’s stayed open for as long as it did. The restaurant’s decoration speaks to its history: decades of signs and photographs cover the walls and hundreds of names have been carved into the tables, chairs, and benches that are full each Tuesday and Wednesday night for trivia. 

The restaurant was founded by proprietor Linda Williams in 1976, who ran it until 2004 and remained the building’s property owner after retiring. Carini, who has 25 years of food experience, took it over from the last owners in 2011 and has run operations ever since.

Williams’ daughter, Kim Scott, tells the INDY that Williams ran into conflicts over rent with Carini, who still had more time on the lease when he declared bankruptcy.

“He was having some trouble paying the rent, so we told him he needed to get caught up,” Scott said. “I guess that was his way of getting caught up.”

Carini says that declaring bankruptcy was the only way to wipe the slate clean and, perhaps, get an offer from someone who wants to keep Linda’s whole and operating in the future.

He recently sold his 2015 white Toyota pickup truck to ensure that he could make the last payroll for his staff, some of whom he’s worked with for over 13 years.

“Linda’s means everything to me and I’ve given everything back to it that I can,” Carini said. “At this point, my only play is to take care of my people and try and find someone who might love it in the future. It’s the only play I have left—everything else is gone.”

Scott also says she hopes that a new owner will come in and open the business back up. 

“Just because he’s not going to be owning it anymore doesn’t mean we don’t have the choice of just asking somebody else to come in and lease from us,” Scott said. “Everybody thinks this is the end of the line and I’m hoping it’s not. I’m hoping there’s somebody out there that really wants to see Linda’s thrive.”

That’s one thing everyone who loved Linda’s has in common: Not only do they want the business to survive, but they want the next owner to maintain the restaurant’s character and charm that has kept regulars coming for nearly five decades.

Nollert, who held his recent election-night watch party at Linda’s, says that he understands the pangs that Chapel Hill residents are feeling right now. But he also believes that Linda’s closing is an opportunity to have conversations about what Franklin street should look like in the coming years, and how we can do better to support local businesses. 

“I want people to feel some level of hope and optimism that there’s a lot of people who care about Franklin Street—they care about places like Linda’s, they want this to be a place where places like Linda’s exist,” Nollert says. “We want to hold on to that feeling and figure out how we’re going to now move forward and make the best of this situation, even while we treasure what we loved about places that have come and gone over time.”

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