A staple of the Chapel Hill restaurant community has closed its doors for good.
Crook’s Corner, which has long served refined spins on Southern cuisine, announced in an email to customers on Wednesday it is permanently closed. The restaurant at 610 West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill first opened in 1982.
“With an incredibly heavy heart, I must share the news that we are closing,” reads the message attributed to the Crook’s Corner team. “The position we find ourselves in, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, is no longer tenable.”
Gene Hamer and chef Bill Neal first opened the restaurant with the goal of featuring regional recipes and meals. After Neal died in 1991, Bill Smith assumed the role of chef for Crook’s Corner and earned several regional awards for his cooking. The James Beard Foundation named Crook’s Corner one of America’s Classic Restaurant in 2011, which the foundations gives to restaurants for qualities like “timeless appeal, beloved for quality