PT's Grille in Chapel Hill (Wilmington, Franklin: college, closing, to live in)

[primetime00]

Hello,

I moved to the area around a little over a year ago. In that time I've made several trip to Wilmington and found that PT's Grille out there has one of the best burgers that I've ever had. The service was also top notch.
I was wondering if anyone knows why the one in Chapel Hill failed? I would think with how inexpensive the food was that it would boom in a college town. I can only assume the service wasn't great?

I've had Char-Grill. It was disappointing.
Freddy's is pretty good though.

[pierretong1991]

I used to live in Wilmington and PT's is far superior to Char-Grill IMO.

[poppydog]

Have you had Al's or Bun's? Both are Chapel Hill faves. People just rave about and drooooool over the burgers at Al's. I'm not a burger person so I don't have a dog in the fight, but those are the go to burger joints in Chapelboro.

[hey_guy]

I think the owner got into some personal issues.

Rent on franklin is notoriously high and spurns a lot of turnover the one in wilmington is out there in shopping center or something

Al's and Bun's are just as good too

[TarHeelNick]

Don't know...never went when it was here (maybe that's why).

Have yet to find a burger in the Triangle better than Al's. Some have come close; but nothing beats it.

If Buns didn't have more variety in toppings and better fries than Al's....they'd be out of business too.

[BullCity75]

The restaurant scene on Franklin Street is very competitive. I think many people overestimate how good the location is. There isn't really that much foot traffic and parking is a pain. So you really have to give people a reason to go out of their way to visit your restaurant.

The area where PT's was didn't have convenient parking. I went there once. It was fine, but didn't really give me a reason to come back.

[pierretong1991]

Al's is definitely the best burger in the Triangle.

[poppydog]

Sutton's makes a pretty good burger too, according to the reports...

[T|K]

Originally Posted by hey_guy

I think the owner got into some personal issues.

Correct, that is what really caused it closing. It was making good money and doing fine. There is an article somewhere out there about what happened.