Chapel Hill Dining: Quality, Quantity, and Price

Chapel Hill Dining: Quality, Quantity, and Price

Alix Desch

Upon walking down East Franklin Street on an unusually warm day in March, there will be many townspeople strolling down the streets, getting food and shopping. On most days like this, you will see a man and his dog sitting outside of the Walgreens and Asia Café. Some days, he has friends with him. On other days, he and his dog wait on their own for a kind soul to come along and help them to eat.

The man, whose name is unknown to most, describes his ordeal at length in hopes of getting help. He was injured at work, lost his job and his home, and now lives with his dog, a darling pit bull, in the woods somewhere outside of Chapel Hill.

Usually he just wants someone to buy him some chicken wings from the Asia Café, as he spends the only money he receives from the community on dog food. Some days, however, he just wants a friend to talk to.

This man and his dog are not the only people in this situation. Chapel Hill is an expensive town to live in. As the economy falls people are placed out of work daily. In what way are others staying in the financial “game,” and surviving these difficult times?

Chapel Hill is a unique town in that it envelopes all different socio-economic classes. From the upper class to those in poverty, Chapel Hill offers something for everyone, although food types and prices allow most healthy options for the people who can afford more.

If you visit the McDonald’s on West Franklin Street or the Bojangles’ on highway 15-501, you will see a menu of fast food at cheap prices. This is great for families or individuals who are on the go, but for some this choice of food is an everyday meal. This may be decided by its delicious taste, but for some people the processed food full of trans-saturated fat is all these people can afford to provide a full meal for their families.

Nationwide, fast food restaurants seem to be less expensive, and more filling, than shopping at a grocery store for the same meal. While you can go to a McDonald’s and get a burger, fries, and a sweet tea for about $3.00, buying the ingredients to make these items and preparing them yourself often can cost $20 or more, depending on if you choose to go organic with your shopping. For this reason, it is obvious that the financial burden is sometimes relieved by fast food restaurants.

Unfortunately, fast food restaurants do more to your health than may be obvious upon consumption. What most consumers don’t think about is how every time you eat a Big Mac, your caloric intake skyrockets and cholesterol rises through the roof. For one meal, this will not do much to harm you, but upon habitual eating of fast food, you put your body in danger of cardiac problems, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and many more medical issues. For some, the economy has created health issues never before foreseen, while other individuals in the Chapel Hill area are able to excel in this expensive world.

For some Chapel Hill-ians, the fast food diet is not the way to go. Known as a gourmet town, Chapel Hill is full of restaurants and stores that offer the finest, freshest food. With all the options for dining, one might wonder when people decide to eat out, and why.

When asked, most residents of Chapel Hill say that they eat out about once a week, with that average going up for college students, who otherwise eat all of their meals at the dining halls on UNC’s campus. For those in the area, they say that fast food is chosen when they don’t have time to go home and cook a meal. On the way to after school activities, home from a late night at work, or running form one place to another, it is obviously convenience.

But why choose “gourmet” dining instead for a home cooked meal? It is known by those who attend these dine-in restaurants that the evening is usually spent with an enjoyable meal being served, although the time is often much longer spent waiting between sitting down and consuming your meal. So why is this choice made so frequently?

Many people eat out in Chapel Hill and Carrboro after their church services on Sunday in Chapel Hill. Although every day in Chapel Hill is busy, the vast majority of people who live in Chapel Hill admit that they don’t eat out on game days because of all the fanatic traffic. It is known though, that UNC game days are some of the most popular eating-out days in the area. On these days, fans from across the state come into town to watch the game and enjoy Chapel Hill cuisine. It is also on these days that Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street gets its most various and distinguished clientele.

Chapel Hill attracts people for different reasons. Ms. Nora is about 60 years old, a small woman with a big heart, she wore a cream dress with two large pockets, where she kept her hands during our conversation. Speaking with Ms. Nora, as she called herself, I learned of her reasoning for eating in Chapel Hill:

“I live in Carrboro, but when I’m fixin’ for some good food I always end up on the part of Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. I really like goin’ to Four Corners on nights when they put the baseball games on the T.V. Plus, the cheesesteaks are to die for. When my husband is in town, we like to go eat at Top of the Hill. Otherwise, it’s too much money for only myself,” (sic).

Again, the idea of expense is brought to the food choosers’ mind. So why do some families choose to eat out so often? As a child, I only ate out about once a month because my family valued eating our meals together in the dining room most nights. Some living in Chapel Hill agree that they would rather stay in and eat because that is what their family raised them to do. There is still a large population, however, that would rather spend the money to go out.

“I hate cooking, and my kids don’t eat what I make, so we go out to eat about every night,” said one commenter. He also added that he enjoys teaching his children about different culture by introducing them to ethnic foods, many of which he would not be able to prepare himself.

Including children’s pickiness and time constraints, there are many other things that may impact a food decision, especially in the Chapel Hill area. In the McDonald’s on Franklin Street, one man, who chose to remain anonymous, said that McDonald’s is all that he can afford to bring home to his family because he was recently laid off from his job. While his wife is still a nanny, he no longer had work and there were no open jobs for him to take, and her salary alone could not support them both and pay the rent. The man said that he did not enjoy the food at McDonald’s, and was forced to only eat once a day, with his meal chosen off of the Dollar Menu.

Some people, however, are able to obtain more healthy food because of their careers. On campus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, those that work on campus are able to obtain cheaper, healthier meals by eating in the dining halls. While dining halls are known to have some unhealthy, fast food-type choices, they also usually have something valued like a home cooked meal. For a little more money at the bottom of Lenoir, a consumer can choose sushi for a bit of a higher price instead of Chic-fil-a or something off of the grill. While choices are available, not everyone makes the healthy decision.

The body is an interesting thing, and the way that our food choices impact our bodies is still greatly unknown across the nation. It is extremely complex and is able to prepare for the extremes. When a person does not eat three to five portioned meals a day, the body knows that something is wrong. If you do not eat within two hours of waking, your metabolism never fully kicks into gear. It is for this reason that eating a single meal a day causes a person to gain weight, in that their body is getting ready in case that is your last meal. The person’s body will store any food as fat and will only begin to break it down again in dire emergencies.

In the future, our economic conditions may cause increase in obesity and other related issues because of the price of healthy and organic food in comparison to fast food. Fast food is more likely to be packed with high fat and sugar content, as well as lots of processing before consumption.

From this piece, you may gather that everyone in Chapel Hill eats their meals outside of the home. This is not true. The majority of Chapel Hill’s community does eat many meals at home, at the convenience of their own kitchen. Asking a random stranger, you will find that eating out in Chapel Hill can be a hassle as much as it is a treat.

I would choose a home cooked meal any day. What would you choose? Maybe next time, you will be more aware of how what you eat affects your body. You may also be more aware of how your financial and socio-economic status affects your diet. What will you do to change that, and live a healthier life?

Whatever it may be, you need to start. Now.