When Breadman’s customers arrived at the restaurant Aug. 6, they found more than an empty dining room. The doors of the Elliott Square location were padlocked by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office after the restaurant and its owners defaulted on their lease, ending the latest chapter of a Chapel Hill institution that has served generations of customers.
The closure followed months of unpaid rent. Landlord Tyler Lusk with SouthCoast Commercial LLC said the restaurant had not made rent payments during their period of ownership. Multiple attempts were made to arrange payment, but agreements with the tenant were not fulfilled, he said.
“We’re not in the business of kicking tenants out that don’t want out, but we are in the business of collecting rent and enforcing the leases that we purchase,” Lusk said.
Breadman’s could theoretically return, Lusk said, but the restaurant would have to resume paying rent. Lusk said they are now seeking a new tenant and actively marketing the building at 261 S. Elliot Rd. The Castro family, who currently owns Breadman’s, did not respond to request for comment.
For many former customers, however, Breadman’s closing is less about a lease dispute than the disappearance of a familiar gathering place.
The restaurant’s history stretches back more than five decades. Breadmen’s opened in 1974 and spent most of its early years on West Rosemary Street. Owner Roy Piscitello eventually sold the restaurant, and former employee Omar Castro-Juarez later took over ownership. In 2020, the restaurant moved to its current South Elliott Road location, swapping the “e” in its name for an “a” and continuing to serve breakfast and lunch.
Jeffrey Hahn, who attended UNC from 2001 to 2005 and frequented Breadmen’s before and after college, remembers the restaurant as a place where groups of roommates could gather on Sunday mornings.
“It felt like we were almost in somebody’s house, like not quite, but it felt really familiar and easy,” Hahn said.
A core memory of dining at Breadmen’s was ordering their regular BLT while occasionally adding avocado, Hahn said. He also remembers small imperfections that became part of the restaurant’s character, like a drafty booth that left his wife cold during a visit. For Hahn, those details were part of what made the restaurant feel familiar, almost like somebody’s house.
For Jesse Barker-Booth, another former customer and UNC alumnus, the original location was tied closely to his college experience.
After an all-night study session, Barker-Booth remembered walking in at 6 a.m. and feeling rejuvenated by the smell of fresh coffee. His classic order would consist of a double cheeseburger, waffle and coffee. He said the restaurant brought together students, professors and local residents, creating a “town watering hole.”
“I feel like that was a very quintessential UNC Tar Heel experience, at least for my undergrad days,” Barker-Booth said.
That sense of community is what former customers say is hardest to replace.
Barker-Booth said Chapel Hill once had more inexpensive, independent restaurants where people from different parts of the community could eat alongside one another. Breadman’s was the pinnacle of that ideal, with its generous portions, affordable prices and welcoming atmosphere, Barker-Booth said.
“I just think my heart hurt a little bit because it was another piece of what was at the core of my four years in Chapel Hill,” Hahn said.
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Dining and Cooking