City: Chapel Hill, NC

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (919) 929-7643

Address: 610 W. Franklin St.

Description: Bill Smith continues the traditions of this legendary restaurant, where Bill Neal presented groundbreaking dishes like shrimp and grits in the 1980s and made a new name for Southern cooking. It’s a small space that used to be a fish market, then a barbecue joint, and now sports a cheery atmosphere with chrome details, local art inside, and its trademark pig statue flying high above the roof. The menu changes with the seasons to reflect the local harvest. Come in the fall to get grilled short loin steak and persimmon pudding or, if you’re lucky, show up in the summer when honeysuckle sorbet is on the menu. After you’ve had the legendary shrimp and grits for brunch, go back and try the Eggs New Bern and see what a difference a biscuit makes to a Benedict. The outdoor patio, shrouded in bamboo and decorated with folk artist Clyde Jones’s wooden critters, is a lovely place for a warm evening’s dinner.