Michael's Bar and Grill (now known as Carolina Blue)

Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Carolina Blue (previously known as Michaels...any further reference to the place, will still be made as "Michaels") is a bar and grill located in Chapel Hill, NC. On Sunday mornings, they (used to...more on that shortly) open their doors bright and early at 9am, just for motorcycle riders. It's a pretty cool "biker" hangout from about 9am, til around noon.

On a good day, there's around 100 - 150 bikers that show up for breakfast, chit-chat, and to look at all the bikes. On a GREAT day, I've seen as many as about 200 or so bikes show up. Very cool. You can see pretty much ANY bike EVER made at this place...usually, just by going one time.

Now, before I go on about the food, let me say this. No one REALLY goes there for the food. On a good day, when the "cook" is doing a "good" job, the food is....ok. On a bad day, expect everything to be cold. Despite that, we still eat it. Why? Well, it's early sunday morning, we're hungry, and they serve "food". If you're looking for a awesome breakfast, don't bother coming. If you're looking for a place to hang out with some friends, talk to strangers about their bikes, show off your bike, look at other people showing off their bike, etc, this is the place to go. I don't think I've ever been there, and had anyone make any "out of the way" comments. Everyone always gets along fine!

Now, back to the "used to" thing. Since the new assholes (owners) bought the place, and re-named the place, I'm not a fan of it anymore. AT ALL. Prior to the new assholes, this place was open YEAR ROUND. Didn't matter if it was snowing, raining, 10 degree's outside, etc. Sunday morning, 9am, they were open. They've done it like this long before I was even riding (which has been over 6 years now). If you wanted to go to Michaels, you could go, they'd be open, and there would be bikers there. I've been there before when the temps never got higher than 35 degrees, and there was only 5 other people there. Did they close early? No. Did they stop opening on Sundays because they weren't "making any money"? Absolutely not.

Since the new assholes bought it, they changed that. They had exactly ONE SINGLE SUNDAY, in which business wasn't "booming". One slow Sunday where only about 15 people showed up. The sunday before and after (both cold days), the place was pretty busy. Based on that one single "bad" day, they decided they wouldn't open up on Sundays any more until March. This annoyed me, and several other of my friends, and I'm sure, all the other motorcyclists that come.

Carolina Blue my ass.

So, how do I even rate this place? I'll say 4 out 10. The food sucks and the place isn't open in the winter anymore, which means there's no "biker hangout" now. I rate them at a 4, only because they're still open in the summer....or they say they will be anyway. Had they still been open now, I'd probably rated them atleast a 7, just because it's a cool place. Now it's just like the rest of Chapel Hill...