STORIES

Mama Dip’s Kitchen, located at 408 W Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, commemorated what would have been its founder Mildred Council’s 95th birthday on Thursday, April 11, 2024.

In 2023 Barbara Foushee was the first Black woman elected as mayor of Carrboro and the second Black person to hold the office.  Foushee has served on Carrboro’s town council for six years. Foushee grew up in eastern North Carolina and graduated from Saint...

Lillian Lee is one of those guardians of the Chapel Hill community who puts her arms around the town’s soul, holds its close and tries to protect it. And she’s done an amazing job. In 1965, during her husband Howard’s graduate school years, she joined a colleague —...

One of the great moments in civil rights history took place in Chapel Hill on May 6th, 1969. That’s when Howard N. Lee was elected mayor of this town. In so doing, he became the first African American elected mayor in a predominantly white southern town since...

Tressie McMillan Cottom is a sociologist, professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, columnist for the New York Times, and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Her 2017 book, Lower Ed, has been cited by influential American policymakers, among them the esteemed...

Rebecca Clark (1915-2009), a former UNC Chapel Hill staff member, African-American political activist, and civil rights organizer, fought against unequal pay and workplace discrimination. Clark worked briefly as a housekeeper at the Carolina Inn in the late 1930s and...

By James Dupree | Photography by John Michael Simpson Trading in his chef’s hat for farmer’s boots, Howard Allen followed his calling to cultivate a beacon for community and sustainability “I had no intention of being a farmer at first,” says Howard Allen, owner of...

Superior Court Judge Carl Fox has been a fixture in Orange and Chatham County courtrooms since 1978, when he first began his law career as an assistant district attorney. “After nearly 40 years of practicing law in the same community, I’ve made many, many friends and...

Carrboro, North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s cool cousin, has an old soul. For decades, Carrboro has embodied a smart, interesting and — more than anything else — a warm and welcoming personailty, its arms open to all comers. You can be yourself in Carrboro. It’s vibrant...

Meet Kiara Sanders, the visual artist behind the African American Trailblazers mural. This mural honors twelve Black leaders from Chapel Hill and Carrboro who helped shape and improve our community. The mural features twelve African American pioneers who were vital to...

Sharing a meal with Carrboro resident Braxton Foushee, in a public restaurant, is as pleasurable as it is busy. Just as you’re about to lift a fork someone stops by to say hello and to get his advice on a particular issue. And then just as you’re about to dig in, two...

There are a few things to know about Chapel Hill resident, Jim Merritt, to understand the kind of man he is. In 2008, Jim Merritt was appointed to the Chapel Hill Town Council after sitting council member Bill Thorpe died. It was a decision that was made through a...

LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant serves as the Director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. A proud native of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, she wholly and critically grapples with the profound questions that inform our understandings of gender,...

In December 2022 Paula De Pano, the former beverage director at the Fearrington House and one of the South’s most prestigious sommeliers,  opened a wine shop in Southern Village, Chapel Hill, Rocks + Acid. De Pano—who grew up in Manila in the Philippines and moved to...

Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe is an Indian restaurant on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Vimala Rajendran, an Indian immigrant to the United States, opened the restaurant in 2010. The restaurant purveys home-style Indian cuisine, and Southern food with local produce and...

Nomad is located on King Street in Hillsborough and offers a global dining experience unlike anything else in the area. B.J. Patel, co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Smita, and his brother, Sejal. “With its proximity to Chapel Hill, Durham, Carrboro we definitely...

Established in 2004, Talullas has become a favorite dining and late night destination among locals and visiting foodies alike with their unique Turkish Cuisine, perfectly situated on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Turkish cuisine is one of the world’s top cuisines,...

In the October 2022 edition of OUR STATE magazine, editors feature the delicious success of Chapel Hill native, Annette “Neecy” Council, daughter of the late Mildred Council, of Mama Dip’s Kitchen on Rosemary Street.  In her own words: “I remember watching my mother...

Driving around Chapel Hill it’s impossible to miss the Carolina-blue building at the intersection of Franklin and Main Streets. It juts out like a small peninsula at the precise spot Chapel Hill and Carrboro meet. This is Carolina Car Wash. It’s a friendly place, one...

Al's Burger Shack is known for exceptional burgers, dogs, and shakes from the best local ingredients. That means North Carolina pasture-raised beef, custard and cheese from local dairies, and vegetables from local farms. At Al’s Burger Shack (located in downtown...

On a cool September morning, The Flying Biscuit restaurant at University Place is filled with dinners who want a hot biscuit, bacon and coffee. The southern-inspired restaurant known for its all-day breakfast menu made its Chapel Hill debut in 2022. “Bringing southern...

The closing of Merlion restaurant in Southern Village in 2015 reduced the number of Malaysian restaurants in the Triangle to zero. But just three months after Merlion was shuttered, Rasa Malaysia opened in the same space in Chapel Hill’s Southern Village. The place...

Since 2006, Kevin Zhu has owned and operated Red Lotus restaurant in Chapel Hill, near Whole Foods on Elliot Road. Zhu originally worked in kitchens while living in Shanghai, building the knowledge base that he would need later once his family moved to the States. His...

Mildred Council may have been known to the world by her childhood nickname, Dip (inspired by her long arms), but her reach has been so much longer. Mildred Council died in 2018 at age 89 and today her children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren still work at...