N&O - Artsy Pittsboro cafe closes

[Sam-I-Am]

On elections nights, don't the Dems hand at the General Store and the Repubs at the Carolina Brewery?

Where will Deb or Jeff go on primary election night?

[Bill Crawford]

Applebee's in NC is a total franchise operation, and they just opened one in the Patterson Place shopping center in Durham. That diminishes greatly the chances they would look again here- part of their traffic projections were of traffic coming north.

The time for that exploration would have been last year, and because they operate with 160-180 seats, that just wasn't going to happen here.

While I am in agreement with many here about the service problems at the GSC, it is still a damned shame that they had to shut down. While their decision to expand was ill-timed, I didn't see anything about their operation that could not have been fixed from within. This didn't have to happen.

[NC YIPPIE]

After they expanded I imagine they could only cut costs but so much. I don't think you can always pin things like this on the management. Now perhaps that was the case, that things could have been fixed, however, perhaps an unwise expansion at the very time the economy tanked was just about all it took. Too bad they could just reorganize and try again.

[mysticbutterfly]

In the article Vance mentioned about possible buyers.  Hopefully they will keep the same concept with organic/local foods  It is really a shame that the GS had to close.
Vance is a really great guy.  Always did his best to help charitable organizations. I really never had any issues with service.  Maybe they were a little slow at times but heck who
wants to rush your meals.  Anyway I enjoyed breaking bread there with my fellow liberals.

[dmccarty]

Looks like the Food Nazis are coming out.

Those guys are Commies not Nazis!   

Later,
Dan

[zorro]

In the article Vance mentioned about possible buyers.  Hopefully they will keep the same concept with organic/local foods  It is really a shame that the GS had to close.
Vance is a really great guy.  Always did his best to help charitable organizations. I really never had any issues with service.  Maybe they were a little slow at times but heck who
wants to rush your meals.  Anyway I enjoyed breaking bread there with my fellow liberals.

Nice speech.

If you all really cared about him as much as you claim, you all should have done a better job supporting the business.

Sounds like you might have taken advantage of him.

[sofa king]

       It's just another day in the business world. Accept it. And try to look at the bright side of things...at least there won't be so much traffic.

[Golfaholic]

since moving to Pittsboro 4 years ago, from my understanding the GSC has never done well.  The service nor food was never consistant and overall not that good.  Breakfast was good, but preparing eggs doesn't require much skill and majority of folks don't care if the chicken is free range or not.  

The fact is this is a business that failed to CHANGE and ADAPT.  I was usually a Friday/Saturday night patron looking to listen too music and dance, but not to Bluegrass every weekend.  I was excited when the stage/bar was added and thought this would help business, unfortunately a very small bar area and closing at 11pm doesn't help. At 11pm the GSC staff and customers moved to the City Tap.

For the next owners, look at the demographics of Pittsboro.  Where are majority of new residents coming from and cater to all types of people?  I would thing a Carolina Ale House would do very well in this area.

[mysticbutterfly]

In the article Vance mentioned about possible buyers.  Hopefully they will keep the same concept with organic/local foods  It is really a shame that the GS had to close.
Vance is a really great guy.  Always did his best to help charitable organizations. I really never had any issues with service.  Maybe they were a little slow at times but heck who
wants to rush your meals.  Anyway I enjoyed breaking bread there with my fellow liberals.

Nice speech.

If you all really cared about him as much as you claim, you all should have done a better job supporting the business.
Sounds like you might have taken advantage of him.

I think everybody supported the GSC.  Did you?  No one took advantage of anyone!  It is the sign of the times when a business closes.  The expansion in my opinion caused the demise of the GS.  I have no doubt that someone will come in shortly and buy the property and open another restaurant.

[Kira]

I read here that Elmo's had been rejected.  What is the story on that?  I used to go there in Durham and in Chapel Hill years ago and it seemed to have a similar flavor and clientele as the General Store.  Maybe they could come into that space now.  Why was it rejected?

[votecounter]

Mediocre food and bad service will kill a restaurant every time.  Hopefully someone will come in there with a vision beyond being hip, like really good food and a waitperson who has more than one gear.

[mary51802]

In the article Vance mentioned about possible buyers.  Hopefully they will keep the same concept with organic/local foods  It is really a shame that the GS had to close.
Vance is a really great guy.  Always did his best to help charitable organizations. I really never had any issues with service.  Maybe they were a little slow at times but heck who
wants to rush your meals.  Anyway I enjoyed breaking bread there with my fellow liberals.

It was not just the service it was the food. Cold eggs like rubber, hard unspreadable butter, cool coffee at times and not being able to make eggs sunny side up or over easy with no explanation. Also got orders wrong at dinner time. More than one waiter got the checks messed up bad. The issue at night was not a large variety of music. Same old, same old.

[votecounter]

Maybe the herbs weren't just in the soup?  A stoner kitchen will muck up an order in a heart beat.  First hand experience waiting tables at the Coffee Shop in the 70s when we'd have to go out back to find the cooks through the haze of smoke.  Good old days, indeed.

[NC YIPPIE]

Yeah, but I think that some people just have an ax to grind with 'generic liberals' and are perhaps exaggerating their issues with food quality and their complaints about service a bit. That is how it seems anyway. I had probably 15-20+ breakfasts there over the years and never had cold eggs once. Not once. I agree the food was mediocre and the service at times a bit spotty though, sure, but it was certainly not a train wreck. The vibe that others complain about is one I happen to like. My kids loved all the art and books.

However, Pittsboro is still quite a sleepy town at night, in general, so I'm just not sure that at the moment any late night music hall is going to do much. They didn't just have bluegrass - they had jazz, blues, reggae, rock and all kinds of music at GSC.

[mary51802]

Not discounting your experience Yip but it was in the last couple months like that. It is also strange for a restaurant to say all we have left from the week is whole wheat bread for toast. Did not sound appetizing to get week old toast and a good restaurant has a variety.

I did get good nes now and then but most folks I tlk to said the service was hot and cold most times.

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