Meet the six Chatham County restaurants, shops, nonprofits and more that readers voted Best New Business in our 2026 Best of Chatham poll
By Sharon Kinsella
The Quiltmaker Cafe
Jennie Knowlton, her husband, David Knowlton, and their daughter, Elizabeth Knowlton, noticed something during the COVID-19 lockdowns: even the most stable-seeming families in their community could be fragile when it came to food security. “I realized there was a greater need than was apparent,” Jennie says. Elizabeth, who had been volunteering at a donation-supported community cafe in Boone while attending Appalachian State University, encouraged her family to start one of their own in Chatham County, and The Quiltmaker Cafe was founded in early 2021.
After five years of serving the community through mobile pop-up events, the nonprofit cafe – led by Jennie along with board members Jean MacDonald, Tonya Maness, Erica Singleton, Denise Carman and Marilyn Moore – opened a permanent home at 75 W. Salisbury St. in Pittsboro this past May.
The counter-service cafe serves up hot deli sandwiches, cold cuts, soup, salad, brunch items like frittatas and waffles, and desserts made in-house and by Carolina Cravings Co. The one thing missing from the menu? Prices. Instead, guests can contribute financially, donate produce or eggs, or volunteer their time before or after their meal. Volunteers run food to the tables, prepare and serve coffee, tea and other beverages, bus tables and wash dishes.
The cafe joins roughly 35 other pay-what-you-can community cafes across the U.S., including two others in North Carolina: A Place at the Table in Raleigh and F.A.R.M. Cafe in Boone. Their shared mission – providing community and healthy meals to all, regardless of ability to pay – is especially relevant in Chatham County, where one in eight residents faced food insecurity in recent years and one third of the county’s students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Jennie says a permanent home for the cafe not only allows them to serve more meals, but also offers greater inclusion, safety and a space to build deeper community involvement. “I think my favorite moment was during one afternoon when just about every seat was full, a guest was playing our donated piano, teenagers were at the back table crocheting and crafting, board games were being played at three different tables,” she says. “The laughter and smiles took my breath away.”
Jennie recently became Chatham County’s recipient of the Governor’s Medallion Award for Volunteer Service, an honor she hopes will attract more guests, volunteers and donors to the cafe. The Quiltmaker Cafe is open Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Children’s Culinary Institute Pittsboro
Chef Arlena Strode often noticed the same gap in each community she lived in while traveling for her husband’s military career: a lack of hands-on activities for kids. She taught cooking classes on military bases overseas and, when stationed stateside, at community centers and YMCAs. When she settled in Pittsboro in 2023, she started teaching at the Chatham Grove Community Center, adjacent to Chatham Grove Elementary, and saw an opportunity to give children a tangible way to practice the math, science, history and geography they were learning in school. “Kids are professional students and are so excited to be in the kitchen,” she says. “Cooking is such a joy, and when you can share it with young inquisitive minds, it is even more fun!”
She opened Children’s Culinary Institute Pittsboro at 88 West St. in downtown Pittsboro in December 2025, offering weekly classes for kids ages 18 months to 18 years, covering everything from cookies and pastries to pizza, pasta, soup, pancakes, pierogies, chutneys and more. Beyond weekly sessions, CCIP runs fun themed camps during school breaks, full-day clinics on teacher workdays, monthly “Super Saturday” multi-age classes, teen Friday night cooking parties, parent-and-me classes and even the occasional adult class, like sourdough baking. Kids can also celebrate birthdays with a group cooking class – and even set the menu.
One of Chef Arlena’s favorite parts of teaching is watching kids learn the science behind everyday ingredients, like yeast, and try new foods they were initially unsure about. “Ninety-eight percent of the time they decide that it is not as bad as they expected,” she says. “In fact, they might like it!”
More than recipes, Chef Arlena hopes students leave with real-world confidence – the kind that shows up at home, in family responsibilities and even back in the classroom, when they recognize fractions or science vocabulary from something they made in her kitchen. “I love that they are able to make a full-circle learning experience,” she says. And, in a world short on screen-free time, cooking can help build self-assurance, planning and organizational skills in kids of every age. “When we learn with all five senses, we have a longer-lasting, more complete understanding.” she says.
Mortalis Jiu Jitsu NC
Jose Batista relocated from Miami to North Carolina with his family in 2019 to follow his real estate career. But when his childhood best friend, David Perez, opened Mortalis Jiu Jitsu in Miami in 2021, Jose trained there – and recognized a need for the same kind of school back home. He opened Mortalis Jiu Jitsu NC at 697 Hillsboro St., Ste. 500, with partners David, Tony Diaz and Tony Melo in September 2025. “There were no local options for a dedicated no-gi jiu-jitsu program,” Jose says. Unlike traditional martial arts practiced in a kimono, no-gi jiu-jitsu relies on rash guards, shorts and direct body grips instead of fabric grabs, making for a faster, more athletic style with roots in wrestling.
Mortalis offers classes for kids and adults, and while the gym boasts a strong competitive team, competing is never required. The focus, Jose says, is building confidence, mental resilience and real-world self-defense in a safe, supportive setting – an aim Brazilian jiu-jitsu is uniquely suited to, thanks to its emphasis on leverage and technique over brute strength. The practice implements a ground-based grappling system that allows a smaller, less powerful person to successfully defend against a larger opponent, which Jose credits for the sport’s growing popularity across the Triangle as more people seek practical self-defense skills.
One example of that is when a Mortalis student faced escalating bullying at school that turned physical. She remained calm, brought the other child to the ground and safely controlled the situation until staff arrived – with no punches thrown and no one hurt. For Jose, it’s proof of the gym’s four pillars – confidence, respect, discipline and self-defense – in practice. But Mortalis, he says, is about more than technique. “Real, lasting friendships have formed here, not just among the kids, but among parents as well,” he says. “It’s very common to see our families spending time together outside the academy, and that tight-knit environment is truly the heart of what we do.”
Craving Curry?
Tikka Masala Indian Grill opened its first brick-and-mortar at 440 East St. in Pittsboro, following the original food truck’s success in Apex. The restaurant opened for takeout in November 2025 and added dine-in service in January 2026, dishing out flavors from both South and North India – think chicken tikka masala, fresh-baked naan and fragrant biryani, as well as halal options and live dosa, kebab and chaat stations. Stop by Wednesday through Friday, 5-8:30 p.m., and weekends from noon-3 p.m. and 4-8:30 p.m.
Thistle & Oak
Thistle & Oak Men’s Apparel and Gift shop opened in August 2025 at 209 Market St., bringing a new kind of shopping experience to Fearrington Village. The boutique – owned and operated by Fitch Creations – grew out of a simple observation: the men shopping alongside their partners throughout Fearrington deserved the same thoughtful curation and personal service the village had built its reputation on. “We wanted to offer timeless clothing, quality craftsmanship and distinctive brands in a welcoming environment where men could build a versatile wardrobe and enjoy shopping as much as the women in their lives,” says Fearrington Village General Manager Theresa Chiettini.
Inside, Thistle & Oak carries a mix of established and emerging brands spanning contemporary apparel, premium denim, performance wear, knitwear, outerwear, handcrafted leather goods and grooming accessories – a style Theresa describes as relaxed yet refined, equally at home in the office, on the weekend or on the road. Rather than stocking high volume, the shop leans into a curated approach, with a knowledgeable staff offering one-on-one styling and wardrobe guidance to help customers build a lifestyle, not just a closet.
A year in, Theresa says the response has exceeded expectations, with local residents and visitors alike folding the shop into their regular Fearrington routine – whether refreshing a wardrobe, hunting for the perfect gift or simply stopping by to see what’s new. “The enthusiasm and support we’ve received have exceeded our expectations,” Theresa says. “We’re excited to continue bringing unique brands, exceptional service and an enjoyable shopping experience to our community.”
Radio PBO
Radio PBO hit the airwaves on Valentine’s Day 2026 – a fitting launch for a station built on love for Chatham County. Husband-and-wife team Chris O’Brien and Anna O’Brien own and run the internet station through their business, Circle City Music Company LLC, bringing more than four decades of broadcasting chops, much of it in major markets, back to their own backyard. “We believe in shopping local, living local and growing local,” Chris says. “That belief is at the heart of Radio PBO.”
The station currently broadcasts out of Chris’ professional voice-over studio – which means Radio PBO sounded polished from the very first note – while Chris and Anna scout the county for a spot to plant a more public studio flag. Musically, Radio PBO features classic rock through-and-through: the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s take center stage, anchored by weekday programs like “O’Brien in the Morning” and “The Classic Cafe” at noon. The lineup rounds out with weekend flavor, too, from “Blues for Breakfast” and “The Jazz Brunch With Marcus Reed” to late-night jazz and easy listening on “Chill Until Dawn” and a weekly countdown of the top 10 rock songs from a single year in music history.
Beyond the music, Radio PBO is meant to reflect the county it serves, covering local events, nonprofits fundraisers, small businesses, weather and the everyday people who make life in Chatham go ’round. That spirit carries over into advertising, too. Chris also owns a national voice-over agency, giving Radio PBO the horsepower to make local businesses sound like major-market players, minus the major-market price tag. “We believe even mom-and-pop businesses deserve Madison Avenue-quality commercials,” he says.
The station recently launched an app for iPhone and Android, and it’s just an “Alexa, play Radio PBO” away on smart speakers. Still, for Chris, nothing beats the moment a stranger stopped him at a local event and said, “We love the station, and this community really needed this.”
“That meant everything to us,” he says. “It reminded us that Radio PBO is not just about music or programming. It is about creating something people feel belongs to them.”
