For the last few years, change feels like the only constant on Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street. There’s always been a bit of college-town turnover in the iconic stretch from Linda’s to Carrboro, but between the pandemic and a proliferation of corporate chains like Target, it’s starting to become unrecognizable.
Summit Coffee owner Brian Helfrich can’t change that, but he does hope to provide a safe new constant at 140 W. Franklin, where the small North Carolina chain is setting up post.
The coffee shop and roastery first opened on Main Street in Davidson in 1998 and became an outdoors-themed staple of Davidson’s small-town college scene. Since then, it’s expanded, with locations in Asheville and Charlotte; the Chapel Hill location will be its fourth coffee shop, though Helfrich says that he envisions the Franklin Street will be the anchor location of his three Triangle coffee shops.
“Chapel Hill just feels like a really big Davidson,” Helfrich says. “It’s a college town that has a great Main Street. [There’s] similar sensibilities and similar like energy in the town and so, to us, it just made a lot of sense.”
The new location—which will open in the space vacated by Frutta Bowls, two blocks away from UNC’s campus—has an anticipated early October opening date. Helfrich says the shop will open at half-capacity, per state regulations, and will serve a small food menu alongside coffee and espresso, with a beer and wine program gradually being built into the mix. Hiring will begin as soon as next week.
“We have the foundation of a good organization and can be a small business that is really intentional about being a good neighbor,” Helfrich says, “[We hope] people in these towns that might be losing some of their favorite restaurants and cafes can have something to look forward to and feel good about the company that they’re supporting.”
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That’s Brian’s older brother Tim in the photo