Welcome back to Chapel Hill, y'all

ya, ruby... were're playin' in a band. It's amazin' how little we care about your little-shit world.

john allore

Yea.....Chapel Hill and Carrboro have needed a specialty bakery for years. Looking forward to one of those cinnamon rolls!

It's hard to imagine that someone who lives in Carrboro might have a business in Chapel Hill, or vice versa! That commute's a killer, and I'd guess the language and cultural barriers would be difficult to overcome. Thank God for the free-trade accords.

d

(who walks 327 steps from his door to his office here in beautiful downtown Pittsboro-by-God-North-Carolina)

And what's the Plenty exchange rate, anyway? Is there a currency trading floor at the border, or do y'all just wing it?

My band cares.

And then naming the place after a penitentiary?

If John Edwards had done that he'd be getting pilloried on the front page of the Wall Street Journal...

Sugarland is a town in Texas, the home of the Imperial Sugar company, which I visited at the age of four. During that visit, I was given a cookbook, My First Cookbook, so it is a name conceived purely of sentimental recollection.

Sugarland is also a quite popular country band, which I found out by googling the name while domain shopping.

The Central State Prison Farm, located in adjascent Brazos has been closed for forty years and is being converted into a museum.

http://www.theeagle.com/stories/122306/texas_20061223017.php

Leadbelly's address for a while.

Katrina, thank you for considering Chapel Hill for your business - I look forward to visiting though, to be frank, I'm working to shed a few pounds and might entail more window shopping than purchasing.

( warning- shameless plus alert) Well, Will, you know gelato only has 5-8% fat compared to premium ice creams at 30-ish percent. We'll have 22 flavors made daily. Gelato school is a great way to write off a trip to Italy!

Katrina, always the entrepreneur? Considering how well I support Downtown's business with my hard-won lucre, I'll have to force myself to indulge (just don't tell Ellie ;-) ).

But will there be Rose Gelato?

Rose and Violet will be on the menu on a rotating basis ( there will be one or the other in the case every day)

Now, if she can only parlay that business acumen into the Town of Carrboro Government then things would be right.

Oh...BTW we're looking to hire an early shift pastry baker. Anybody not feel like hauling themselves to the "foodhouse" at 2AM ? We'll match pay.

Wow, I haven't had Rose Gelato since I was in Rome in '94. I always wonder why American places don't carry it. Sounds like Sugarland is going to be in the category with Loco Pops, places I wish were in Carrboro.

Which leads to the question - do you find it a little contradictory to talk about increasing the business tax base in Carrboro while opening a shop in Chapel Hill?

The millhouse for sale on Weaver Street has good parking and would have made an excellent sweet shop. The porch would have been darling.

I agree with you Maria, it would be a great spot, but with both Maple View as a local frozen dessert maker down the block, and Weaver Street Market as a bakery right across the street from it, it was a better business move to locate on East Franklin.

With the bus stop depositing thousands of customers at our door each morning, it was an easy decision.

mmmm... gelato....

Hmmm, when Open Eye opened I remember people commenting that it couldn't compete with Weaver Street Market. And yet it did and expanded. To this day, there are still mornings you can't find a place to sit in either cafe'. Maple View is only open a portion of the year and I know I crave cold desserts during the months they're closed.
Having similiar businesses clustered together - whether it's massage therapists or art galleries, bars or bicycle shops - is good for the businesses as it creates a destination for that product. And it's certainly good for the towns in which that occurs.

Of course, Franklin Street has the students bussed in every day and by that arguement any food establishment would make more money on Franklin.And yet people decide to open places in Carrboro anyway and those places succeed.

I would think someone who wants to become a leader in a town would make that decision, to lead by showing how businesses can and do thrive in that town.
Not by opening up one town over and then saying how it's not only a better business decision but an "easy" one.

Anyway, I am probably breaking one of Ruby's rules of etiquette and should stop beating the dead horse. Mea Culpa.

Katrina,

Sugar Land, TX is my home town. Hold on to that cookbook because the Imperial Sugar Co. was bought out by Dixie Crystals years ago. The refinery was shut down in 2003 and it currently up for redevelopment.

Oh yeah, you might need to rename your business. In Texas, Sugar Land is two words. ;-)

"With the bus stop depositing thousands of customers at our door each morning, it was an easy decision."

Wait a minute Katrina. Didn't you post a comment on OP a couple of years ago about bus stops being associated with a higher rate of crime? So what again is the nature of your business?

Just kidding. Good luck.

Maria,

I don't mind the discussion. There are additional factors, such as the cost of waiting for a rezoning, the extraordinary costs of the electrical engineering required to run our imported gelato machines and case ( the University had recently upgraded the electrical in the Julian's space) and the fact that the millhouse could never support the rooftop glycol unit needed to cool our gelato maker ( without which we would be dumping 700-800 of gallons of water into the OWASA sewer system per batch of gelato) that would make it unsuitable for an in-house production facility. It would make a charming cafe.

I think one of my key attributes as an Alderperson is my business acumen. If we want more businesses in Carrboro, then someone who can realistically look at what types of businesses are suited to different locations and situations and can bring those ideas to fruition.

And for what it is worth, we wanted to build a Sugarland in Winmore, serving northern Carrboro where there is a real need for the type of gathering place that we hope Sugarland will be. Unfortunately, the commercial component of Winmore has been gutted and there is no commercial center, a la Southern Village, to put it.

My father told me stories about his many meals at the Danziger's coffee house on Franklin Street (circa 1941-1943). They opened it in 1939 above the Rat. (well, actually the Rat opened in 1948 below the Danziger's coffee house)
They had fresh baked pastries, carried around on trays by the waitstaff, you took one off the tray and they marked it down on a slip. Their marketing trick -- too many students took far more pastries then they planned when they came in to the restaurant.

The Danziger's had fled Vienna ahead of the Nazis.

Katrina, will you be baking pastries?

I personally will be doing MUCH baking. I went to cooking school at La Varenne when I lived in France, and have been pastry chefing at La Residence for the last year and a half.

My husband has always wanted to retire and open a restaurant, ergo, we thought one of us should know something about running one.

There used to be a Gelato shop on Franklin Street in the mid 1980s when I was at UNC. I believe it was called Gelato d'Oro or something like that. It will be missed.

In fairness to Katrina, IIRC, several incumbent members of the Carrboro BOA make their living outside of Carrboro.

I hope your business is a success, Katrina.

Yes, Ruby, I agree. The logic is a bit dodgey on my husband's part, but when he was a child, he used to go from Manhattan to visit his grandparents in Indiana. They owned a dairy farm and a cafe in town called the Polka Dot. As a nine year old he liked making milkshakes for the customers and serving them his grandmother's pie.

So, who am I to argue and dash a childhood dream ? So we're making our gelato with milk from the local dairy farm and serving fresh crostata or pie.

Besides, making gelato is a little easier than what he does now. ( Train rescue workers and first responders).

I have to confess that I voted for Mark Chilton back when we were students, so having followed his work on both boards in both towns (having lived and voted in both towns), there's obviously things that I like about him as a leader other than his business, which is a more recent development.

However, Ruby, it does make me pretty happy whenever I see those free Home Buying Class signs out in front of Community Realty. I know several families who have utilized those classes.
I think it's a business really invested in serving an underserved population here, middle class families starting out and wanting to become home owners in a town where that's increasingly difficult.

As well I like seeing Mayor Chilton out and about in Carrboro. Just like Mike Nelson was always around when he was Mayor. When friends visit from out of town, it's one of those things that impresses them about this community, the accessibility of our elected officials.

Why was the Winmore commercial area gutted?
Anyone know?

What's the news on this? I notice that it's still not open; any word on when it will be?