The Tar Heel Thursday. July 10. 19869
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am's opens in Chapel Hill
offering food and beverages
at prices not full of baloney
Tar HeelChip Beverung
The new Ham's Restaurant on Franklin Street
By ALLISON BELL
Special to STH
Ham's may be the only deli in
Chapel Hill that serves 31 brands of
beer.
The Franklin Street restaurant
bar, which opened Monday, is owned
by Chelda Inc. Two-and-a-half years
ago the company bought the original
Ham's, a Greensboro eatery that has
been in business for 50 years. Chelda
also started the Ham's in High Point.
Rick Halstead, the restaurant's
manager, estimated that 90 percent
of his 55 employees are associated
with UNC. He said he hoped to see
a 50-50 mix of students and towns
people in the business.
Jay Norvell, assistant manager and
UNC alumnus, said he enjoyed the
restaurant business and had a lot of
faith in the product he was selling.
Norvell said he also believed inhis
fellow employees. "It's a really close
working crew. I think it shows to the
customers. It's a good atmosphere.
I think it will be a fun atmosphere,
too."
A model train like the one at the
Greensboro location chugs along
tracks near the restaurant's ceiling.
Otherwise, the Chapel Hill Ham's
doesn't bear much of a resemblance
to its homey sister restaurants.
According to Halstead, Chelda
invested $500,000 in equipment,
furniture and other restaurant supp
lies for the Chapel Hill location. The
bar, booths and tables were hand
made from oak and red mahogany
specifically for Ham's. Ferns grow in
pots hanging by the windows.
The restaurant looks luxurious;
however, all is not lost for the average
college student. The menu in the
Chapel Hill Ham's is the same as the
menu in Greensboro, and the prices
aren't bad.
Munchies include nachos, $1.75;
ham and cheese nuggets, $2.10; and
chicken drummettes, $3.00. After 3
p.m., Ham's sells its "Almost Famous
Homemade Potato Chips" for 95
cents.
Sandwiches run from $ 1 .85 for egg
salad to $3.59 for a pita pocket
stuffed with crab or shrimp salad.
Liverwurst, $1.95, is a Ham's spe
cialty. Six different submarine sand
wiches are sold. The "Kosher" sub
is misnamed it's made with salami,
pastrami and Swiss cheese.
Five burgers are offered, from
$1.70 to $3.60, along with a $1.50
hotdog.
Ham's packages food for takeout
and has a catering service. It will
deliver its 6-foot submarine sand
wiches, which can feed more than 30
people. The big subs start at $75.
Tar Heels 21 and older can wash
their meals down with one of the
many domestic or foreign beers
available. Ham's sells Danish Carls
berg Elephant, French Fischer and
Czechoslovakian Pilsner-Urguell, as
well as better known brands.
Ham's full-service bar can make
margaritas, pina coladas and other
mixed drinks along with the usual
concoctions.
The restaurant is located at 310
West Franklin St., next to Fowler's.
It's open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday
through Wednesday, and from 1 p.m.
to 2 a.m., Thursday through
Saturday.
Independent -revelers celelwrate Fourth at the lake
By SCOTT GREIG
City Editor
The six college students had come
to celebrate the Fourth of July, but
most of them looked as if they did
not know what day it was. A pile
of empty, crushed beer cans signaled
that they had been sitting by Sugar
Lake for quite a while.
It was just about then, that the
traditional Sugar Lake rebel yell
started making its way around the
perimeter of the water-filled rock
quarry. Everybody in the merry little
group had soon joined in happily.
"We came here because the beach
is too expensive and nobody had the
time or money to make the trip to
the coast," Bill Pittman, 20, of
Raleigh, said.
"Sugar Lake's an inexpensive way
to have a good time without having
to go very far," Pittman said.
Sugar Lake, which opened to the
public in 1977, has an admission price
of $ 1 for a full day. The lake is located
about 16 miles south of Chapel Hill
on Hatley Road. It was bought by
Edward Cox in 1975 from the
American Stone Co.
Odessa Gladon, the lake's gate
keeper, said the price has remained
the same for the past nine years.
The lack of excess funds by
students and the low price of admis
sion have combined to make Sugar
Lake a perennially popular party
spot with UNC undergraduates.
Pittman and his friends said the
easygoing attitude displayed by
Sugar Lake's visitors is another
reason they decided to spend their
holiday there.
Tommy Kitchen, 22, of Towson,
Md., said he had not forgotten what
the Fourth of July was supposed to
symbolize, so he was going to have
a traditional American meal of hot
dogs and apple pie. Then he was
going home to watch baseball on
television.
"What better way to celebrate the
greatest of American holidays then
to watch 'America's Team,' the
Atlanta Braves, on America's Super
station, WTBS?" Kitchen asked.
Kitchen said he thought many of
the lake's visitors were there because
drinking is allowed on the premises.
"You can't drink alcohol legally at
Jordan Lake, and I didn't want to
take a chance on getting caught,"
Kitchen said.
Enjoyment seemed to be the order
of the day, and everyone was caught
up in it.
Kitchen, somewhat sarcastically,
said the greatest thing about the
Fourth of July is that the Soviet
Union has nothing comparable to it.
"The only thing they have on this
scale is May Day," he added. "That's
a farce, though. All they do is stand
around and antiseptically clap every
time another tank or missile carrier
rolls by."
Aside from a few isolated fire
crackers, there were no fireworks, but
the lake's visitors enjoyed the free
dom of the day anyway. Sunbathing
and swimming took the place of flag
waving, and the majority of the
people at Sugar Lake said they
wanted it that way.
Kitchen said the great thing about
July Fourth is the fact that it is a
holiday when everyone is free to
enjoy whatever he wants in whatever
fashion he wants.
The consensus was that the Fourth
of July was a chance to celebrate each
other just as much as a chance to
celebrate this country's freedom. And
as Pittman said, "Sugar Lake's the
place to do it."
HE'S NOT HERE
presents
Alkaphonics
Saturday, July 12th, 9:00 pm
Music from the
50'sand 60's
Don't forget about our
Tuesday Draft Special
HE'S NOT HERE
Village Green behind Pizza Hut
Elegant dinners
from Cities
visited by
Europe's most.
glamorous
train (
Summer
Specials
geared to the
elusive Tarheel Mentality:
Entrees from $7.95
Four-course early dinner special,
every evening from 5:30-6:30: $10.95
Free champagne for each 6th table
on our by-now-legendary Boardwalk.
Free dinner for baritone best able to sing
Idiot's solo from Modest Moussoursky's "Boris Gudonov."
Bring this handsome notice, Sunday through Thursday,
until July 17 and get two entrees for the price of one
on 3-course dinners.
The Orient Express is at 201 E. Main St., Carrboro
5 minutes from Chapel Hill. Reservations: 967-8933.
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