In December 2023, the new European-style restaurant Bombolo was named Best Restaurant in North Carolina by Eater Carolina. With its eccentric bistro environment, the restaurant—located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the space formerly occupied by Kitchen—has been a hit for foodies around the Triangle.
Opened by the previous owners of The Big Belly Que in The Blue Dogwood Market in Chapel Hill, siblings Eleanor Lacy and Garret Fleming have had Bombolo in the works for years.
“We opened Big Belly Que back in 2019 in hopes that someday we might be able to open a restaurant like Bombolo with the profits,” pastry chef Lacy shared.
While Big Belly Que was open for four years, Lacy explained the struggles the restaurant faced. “We suffered from being in a hard-to-notice location and then from the challenges of Covid,” she said.
With these challenges at hand, the smokehouse went on the move.
“We tried to move Big Belly to a different location but discovered how hard it is to find a place in town that will allow a wood-burning smoker, so we decided to throw our efforts into the kind of place we always wanted,” she said.
During this process, co-owner Fleming started working at the French Bistro Kitchen and learned that the head chef and his wife were ready to retire.
“With their willingness to sell the business, a new sign, some paint and paperwork and a shocking amount of hard work from a lot of friends, we opened at the end of February 2023,” Lacy explained.
Bombolo offers a unique menu based around pastas but not limited to Italian cuisine. “We find it hard to choose favorites or to put limits on what we can share with our guests,” Lacy said.
She and Fleming said their goal is to create a “cozy, quirky experience of hospitality,” which they hope to achieve by introducing dishes their guests may have never heard of, alongside foods that are more familiar.
Lacy has two sons who attend Chapel Hill High school. Junior Thomas Lacy works at Bombolo as a dishwasher, and his brother Albert, who is a freshman, is a food runner.
Thomas Lacy highlighted his experience working with his family at both Big Belly Que and Kitchen. “One of the coolest things about the food is that my Uncle hand-makes the pasta daily. My favorite dish is the All’Amatriciana—it’s a classic,” he shared.
His brother Albert also shared his love for some of the popular dishes. “I really like the Ragu and the Fried Chicken, basically all the food is good,” he said.
Senior Sydney Lin, who is a hostess at Bombolo, expressed how grateful she is to be a part of their team. “One of my favorite things about Bombolo is the environment. Not only is the decor in the restaurant itself warm, inviting, and comforting, but I love getting to work with my coworkers,” she said. “They all bring in different levels and years of experience and teach me something new every day.”
Being a first time hostess, Lin is also learning her way around a restaurant. “I have enjoyed getting to learn about how restaurants work, the fusion of different cuisines and the importance of good ingredients,” she added.
When, a few weeks before Christmas, Eater Carolina awarded Bombolo with the prize for Best Restaurant in North Carolina, the restaurant saw a surge in business.
Lacy expressed her gratitude with the distinction Eater bestowed upon her restaurant. “We are so flattered by the praise and hope to secure many more regular friends from the attention,” she said.
