Women's Clothing Boutique Near Me Holly Springs, NC

There are few places in downtown Holly Springs that stay open past 10 p.m.

For most residents, enjoying a night out means traveling to nearby towns like Raleigh, Durham or Cary’s Fenton.

But, some residents are working to change that.

As the town is in the process of drafting a plan for the revitalization of the downtown district this year, the construction of a new rooftop bar in the heart of downtown is in the backdrop.

Nightingale Rooftop Restaurant & Bar will be built on the roof of The Block on Main, a mixed-use building in downtown Holly Springs’ village district.

The restaurant is set to open by the end of this year.

Nightingale Rooftop is owned by husband-and-wife team Christy and Matt Griffith, the current owners of Pimiento Tea Room, and Chris Harol, a real estate developer and a co-owner of The Block on Main.

The couple moved to Holly Springs from Raleigh in 2006 and Harol moved to the town in 2011. Being both business owners and residents, they have seen Holly Springs transform to over 47,000 residents and have been able to identify the new demands for the area.

Pimiento Tea Room, located inside a nearly 200-year-old house at 200 N. Main St., opened in December 2020 and serves lunch, dinner and brunch with a diverse tea and tea-based cocktail menu. Christy Griffith also serves as the chef. The menu changes every week depending on what’s in season.

The Griffiths said they saw a need for cocktail lounges in the area and wanted to give Holly Springs a first-of-its-kind bar to expand the nightlife scene. The planning began a year ago.

“We wanted to bring something exciting, a little upscale and build on the nightlife,” Matt Griffith said. “There’s a very small nightlife down here.”

The team said the name “nightingale” was one of the first ideas for the restaurant since it will be perched “high atop Holly Springs.”

“Well, Nightingale, obviously, you can picture flying in the sky,” Christy Griffith said. “(The restaurant) kind of lends itself to not only like a more upscale place in the evenings but it also can be felt like a place that you could picture yourself having brunch as well, which we plan to introduce after we get our separate service up and running after a while.”

Nightingale will not just be a cocktail bar, she said, but will also serve globally-inspired small plates. In the future, the rooftop will be an option for private events or special occasions.

Griffith will serve as the executive chef of the restaurant. She said the menu, like Pimiento’s, will change each season with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. She said she makes it a point to source the food locally.

“I think it’s important for everyone, and you support the local farmers who are growing your food and you’re not contributing to the carbon footprint by having food shipped all over the world that you don’t need to. Food just tastes best when it’s in season,” she said.

Two years ago, Harol and a group of business owners opened The Block on Main.

The 52, 530-square-foot building has nine tenants, including Mamma Mia Italian Bistro, JT’s Creamery, and Prana Yoga. The rooftop bar will bring the building to 100% completion, Harol said.

The Block on Main, other mixed-use development the Town Hall Commons and investments to parking and roads are three projects in town that have generated $49.7 million each year to the economy, according to the town of Holly Springs.

Over the next 20 years, the projects are projected to have a $1 billion impact to the town’s economy, the town reports.

Harol said the town’s plans to revamp the downtown district are integral to its future.

“But it’s a challenge in Holly Springs because we have so many private landowners kind of intermingled within everything downtown,” he said. “I think the best example of what we can hope for downtown Holly Springs to be as similar to what downtown Cary was like, where it’s a little bit more spread out and different cool, little places and projects are still very walkable — but not just on this one street.”

Harol said he sought out the Griffiths to operate the rooftop bar because he liked their business model for Pimiento Tea Room. The Block on Main building was created with the idea of having a rooftop bar.

“They were my number one choice, the one and only people that I reached out to,” Harol said. “Pimiento Tea Room is one of those places that when you go, you’re going to be talking about it the next day.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2023, 10:56 AM.

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. (WNCN) — The Town of Holly Springs is looking to revamp their downtown.

If you take a walk in downtown Holly Springs, you can see there are a number of shops and restaurants on a part of Main Street. It’s a relatively small number, and as the population grows, the town wants to keep up with the growth.

Right now, they’re in the process of doing a study to see what people who live here want to see downtown.

They put out a survey last month.

In some of the feedback, residents requested more restaurants and shops, kid friendly places and a downtown that’s walkable.

“Holly Springs is just growing so fast,” said Aaron Prichard, Holly Springs Senior Planner. “We’ve quadrupled our population since 2000, so it’s really important to have a town center where you can hold events, you can hold festivals, you can spend a day and eat, shop, play.”

Main Street is a popular spot for those who call Holly Springs home, but also for folks from surrounding areas.

“This is just such a nice area. It’s some outdoorsy but yet inside. It’s the only place that we really have to actually do that and be part of the local community and support these local businesses,” said Sara Potter. She lives in Fuquay-Varina but visits downtown Holly Springs often.

Aaron Prichard is the Town’s Senior Planner. He says in the last 20 years the area has quadrupled in its population.

That’s why the town is looking to revamp its village district.

Over the last 6 months they have hosted community meetings and put out surveys to get a better glimpse of what people want to see downtown.

“It’s really important to have a town center where you can hold events, you can hold festivals, you can spend a day and eat, shop, play,” said Potter.

In some of the feedback, residents requested more restaurants and shops, kid friendly places and a downtown that’s walkable.

Potter says she has teenagers and wants to see more places for youth.

“These teenagers really don’t have really a place to go to really hang out,” said Potter. “They have the ice cream shop and they have this and that but nothing like really just for them to do so I feel like we’re missing that… and a really good steakhouse.”

The town says the survey is still open on their website.

They hope to have a completed plan adopted by this fall.

Local Time Brewing, a travel-inspired craft brewery and taproom designed to celebrate culture and community, will open its doors in Holly Springs, North Carolina, in early 2023. Owners Chris and Kelly Gallagher have joined forces with Devin Singley, an award-winning brewmaster renowned throughout the Triangle, to bring their wanderlust spirit to life through the lens of craft beer and a friendly gathering space.

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A rotation of six to eight handcrafted beers will be brewed on site, embracing the styles and ingredients of regions throughout North Carolina as well as those across Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Visitors and patrons will be invited to recommend their own cultural inspirations as the basis for upcoming microbrews.

While distribution is part of the Gallagher’s long-term plan, the brewery’s initial focus is to cultivate a unique and relaxing environment throughout the 75+-seat capacity taproom and outdoor space. In addition to live music and trivia nights, Local Time is looking for partners to co-host programs like language classes and travel-planning workshops. The brewery will also be available for private events.

The Gallaghers, who have resided in the Triangle for 11 years and Holly Springs for three, met 20 years ago while working at Boston’s famed Cask n’ Flagon. Over the last two decades, business and personal travel has taken the couple and their 8-year-old daughter across the globe. “The best experiences we’ve had abroad started at local pubs,” said Chris Gallagher, who left a corporate career to pursue the development of Local Time. “Whether it’s striking up a conversation with the bartender, trading stories with patrons or getting a hike recommendation – there’s a special camaraderie that happens while sharing great beer, and that dynamic is what we’re excited to cultivate through Local Time.”

Partnering with Singley, a former librarian with a passion for beer history, was a perfect fit. Since 2016, Devin has been a head brewer in the Triangle, serving as an executive member of the Triangle Craft Beer Alliance and holding distinctions including a GABF medal. The travel concept of Local Time held a natural appeal for Singley, who has created beer programs for brewpubs across North America.

Holly Springs and the Triangle at large is uniquely suited for a brewery concept like Local Time, according to Gallagher. “One of the things we love most about living in this area is that people have moved here from all over the map. What better place to have a brewery that celebrates not only the amazing cultures of the world, but the community we all now call home?”

Apex and neighboring Holly Springs, just a 10-minute drive south of downtown Raleigh, recently got dubbed a “superstar region” that is primed for more out-of-state investment dollars as its local economy surges.

A quick look at their development pipeline underscores this point. Over the last few years, developers have lined up to construct new buildings and offices as Apex’s population swells to over 62,000. In Holly Springs, it’s closer to 44,000.

“I’m excited about the future of possibilities at this moment,” Apex Mayor Jacques K. Gilbert recently told The N&O.

Here’s a look at some of those projects:

Description: The long-awaited Veridea development is moving ahead. New York developer RXR recently purchased multiple parcels, roughly 1,100 acres in total, sandwiched between U.S. Highway 1 and N.C. 540, along N.C. 55, for $91 million.

Details: The project is a public-private partnership that is expected to cost around $3 billion over 10 years. It will include:

Developers plan to break ground early next year. The first residents for multifamily units should be able to move in by late 2025.

Description: New York-based global private equity firm Apollo Global Management and its development partner GeneSuites announced plans for Catalyst BioCampus in January. It promises “up to 446,000 square feet” of biomanufacturing, lab and office space in Holly Spring’s Oakview Innovation Park.

Details: The campus covers 25 acres at the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway and Holly Springs New Hill Road.

It includes the first phase of Charlotte developer Crescent Communities’ recently completed biomanufacturing complex, formerly called The Yield, purchased for $40.5 million in January. It includes two shell-ready buildings – each 105,000 square feet – and a seven-acre parcel for future development.

The project’s second phase entails building out mezzanines and installing primary mechanical, electrical and building infrastructure. It’s scheduled to be delivered this spring.

Plans also call for a third building for process development, lab and office space that will be up to 140,000 square feet and five stories.

Description: California-based Amgen broke ground last March on a new 350,000-square-foot multi-product drug substance manufacturing plant in Holly Springs.

Details: Amgen said it plans to invest $550 million in the project. It’s expected to employ more than 355 people. The jobs will pay an average wage of $119,510.

Amgen received local incentives worth more than $35 million for the expansion, which is scheduled to open by 2025.

“This area — and North Carolina in general — attracted us due to the access to great and diverse talent,” said Amgen CEO Bob Kenyon. “We intend to take advantage of that.”

Description: Japanese contract drug manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth is building a $1.5 billion manufacturing plant, announced in 2021, in Holly Springs’ Oakview Innovation Park.

Details: The 1 million-square-foot plant will be built on 150 acres off State Road 1152, near the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway. It’s about 1.5 miles west of Holly Springs Towne Center on N.C. 55.

It’s expected to bring up to 725 jobs to the area over five years. The jobs would pay an average annual wage of $99,848.

Fujifilm Diosynth received local incentives worth more than $90 million for the expansion.

The facility is expected to be operational by 2025.

Description: DHIC Inc., a local affordable housing developer, has begun work on Broadstone Walk, a 164-unit affordable housing complex on a 14-acre parcel along South Hughes Street in Apex.

Details: DHIC said the total cost of the project is $47 million.

The complex will include eight buildings providing one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for households making 40% to 70% of the area’s median income — roughly $34,000 to $62,300, based on Wake County’s household median income of $88,471.

DHIC received close to $7 million in financing from Wake County and the town of Apex. It also received equity from the sale of roughly $14 million in low-income housing tax credits.

It’s expected to be complete by May 2024.

This story was originally published March 9, 2023, 8:00 AM.

For owners Matt and Christy Griffith, years of dreams and planning went into Pimiento Tea Room, an eclectic tea house and restaurant that is anything but ordinary.

Matt and Christy met years ago at North Carolina State University, where they talked about how fun it would be to open a business of their own.

"For years, Matt and I had always talked about opening a place up to host people ... doing something different that nobody else was doing," Christy said.

After graduation, Matt worked for decades in the corporate world. Christy, who was always creative, made the daring decision to attend culinary school at Wake Technical Community College.

One day at work, Matt got an email from Christy that said "I made up my mind. I'm ready to open a restaurant."

Pimiento Tea Room opened in 2020 at 200 N. Main St. The house was built in the 1840s, and the owners have kept features from the past, like wood paneling, wallpaper and a giant fireplace while adding their own quirky flourishes.

The Griffiths didn't hire a designer to decorate Pimiento Tea Room. They simply incorporated features that made them smile and pieces they found by chance, like a neon STEAK HOUSE sign auctioned off by a shuttered steakhouse.

Matt recalled the couple's surprise when they won the sign for $50 in an online auction. They had to drive to the steakhouse Dunn and climb up in the attic to get the power boxes and remove the sign themselves from the side of the building.

"It was part of the adventure," said Matt, who feels the unusual decorations -- fun wallpaper, neon walls and patterns everywhere -- are just a glimpse inside Christy's creative mind.

"It's just a peek inside the mind of the chef," he said. "This is just another creative expression of Christy."

Matt and Christy have three kids -- 15, 16 and 17 -- and everyone helps in the kitchen. Their oldest daughter makes homemade scones and opens the restaurant on weekend mornings while their son does dishes and cooks brunch. Their youngest is a host and server and spends a lot of time helping Christy in the kitchen.

"It's a really great time when we're all here together," Christy said.

The inspiration behind Pimiento Tea Room

Matt and Christy wanted to bring something new to Holly Springs, creating a more accessible, relaxed version of the tea time experience.

"I've always loved the idea of high tea, but I'm not somebody who likes to get dressed up," Christy laughed. "I'm very clumsy and I would break the china ... but I love that experience of sharing food with people, because after all, a high tea experience is really a shared plate experience."

With that in mind, Pimiento Tea Room's scones, desserts, sandwiches, salads and plates are meant to be shared so all the flavors can be sampled.

Homemade scones are made in the kitchen each morning and served with flavored butters like honey scallion, cinnamon brown sugar, vanilla, butterscotch, lemonade and unicorn.

There's always a rotating, fun selection of hot teas with flavors ranging from earthy to fruity on the menu. The teas are also are worked into desserts and craft cocktails.

"That's one of my rules when we're coming up with a new dessert -- it has to incorporate the flavor one of our teas," Christy said.

The ingredients used to make everything on the menu -- all the desserts, baked goods, breads for sandwiches, jams and jellies -- are all made in house.

"We don't buy anything premade except for Duke's mayonnaise," Christy laughed. "We go through a lot of mayonnaise and we only use the best."

The menu at Pimiento Tea Room changes every week as Christy and her staff dream up new ideas. Last week's lunch menu included a vegan BBQ hummus sandwich with chow chow, corn chips and candied jalapeno and a ham and strawberry butter sandwich. On the dinner menu was a buttermilk biscuit served with pork and strawberry BBQ sauce and salmon crepes with whipped feta and lemon curd.

Inspired by southern hospitality, the tea room serves lunch, supper and brunch. There are three sandwiches at lunch and three meals to choose from at dinner. Whether you're craving something sweet, savory or both, there's always a vegan and gluten-free option on the menu.

Sunday brunch is served at 11 a.m. and features a weekly "Sunday sundae" of homemade buttermilk icecream topped with a sweet treat. In the evenings, there is live music and a secret dessert menu, which includes a twist on bread pudding and other indulgences. The bread pudding is a Pimiento Tea Room customer favorite along with the black-eyed pea hummus and Brunswick stew.

"We joke that it's three different restaurants -- the menu changes and the crowd changes" depending on what time you're there, Matt said. "Everyone should experience all three."

Reservations are only taken for special events, like Mother's Day, and for the Pimiento Tea Room's supper club, a monthly 7-course tasting menu and wine pairing that donates over 50% of proceeds to children's cancer research.

The monthly supper club raised $30,000 for cancer research in its first year and is on track to beat that record this year. It's a special event for the Griffiths, whose youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer at age two but recovered fully to live a happy childhood.

It was actually the support they received from the community during their daughter's treatments that led Matt and Christy to open their business in Holly Springs.

Visit Pimiento Tea Room on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the know about special events.