About

Since 1998, Acme has been one of the South’s leading advocates of sustainable and local farms.

Chef Kevin Callaghan’s menu is focused on the food and time-honored techniques of the country south where he grew up, and the robust flavors that grow out of that deeply American tradition. And the menu changes often. On any given night, there may be fried chicken and soft shell crabs, char-grilled Carolina ribeyes and oysters on the half shell, pecan pie and slow-churned peach ice cream. And always pickles and cornbread and smoked whole-hog pork.

But first and foremost, Acme is a neighborhood restaurant.

Friends meet here for cocktails. Or for dinner before a show. It’s not a big place; Acme is part of the old Carrboro downtown – in a building from 1923. If it’s nice out, people can eat on the new, fully covered patio. The restaurant sits just down the street from the renowned farmers’ market, next to the local barbershop, a block from the Cat’s Cradle, and about a mile from UNC – Chapel Hill. And seven days a week, the bakers open the doors early in the morning. And the bartenders lock them late at night. And in between, well, the talented kitchen cooks. After 23 years, the food has only gotten better. Cross our collective heart. We feel that it’s pretty great to live right here. Right now.

Acme has been featured in Southern Living, Garden & Gun, The New York Times, Local Palate, Our State, Esquire, Bon Appetit, and many other national and local publications. But it’s not the professional critics that make the staff show up every day determined to be better than we were the night before. It is the legions of familiar faces that eat at the restaurant week after week. And the bar and kitchen are inspired nightly by the hard-working farmers and purveyors who provide us such wonderful ingredients. The rich history of southern food has always been about the bounty of the land and the determination of its people. And the shared belief that when you sit down to eat with family and friends, life just gets better.

And we get it. If there’s just too much family, we do have lots of bourbon. Lots.