“With an incredibly heavy heart, I must share the news that we are closing,” reads a message sent from Crook’s Corner to its customers. “The position we find ourselves in, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, is no longer tenable.”
The restaurant has been a mainstay in the Chapel Hill community since Gene Hamer and chef Bill Neal first opened it in 1982. 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 of food that reflects the character of their community.”