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A popular Triangle sandwich shop has expanded to a second location, so get ready for more BLTs.
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Merritt’s Grill is now serving customers at the Finley Golf Course clubhouse. The 18-hole course, owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is open to the public.
“It’s a different feel, but same service, same food,” restaurant co-owner John Toogood told The News & Observer in a Monday, Aug. 3 phone interview. “And hopefully it’ll be some place where people can go with a little bit more air conditioning, more inside seating, more covered seating, that kind of thing — and maybe not have to go across town to get to it.”
Here’s what we know about the new Merritt’s Grill and what you can eat there.
The new Merritt’s Grill opened to the public in late July. While the restaurant previously has served sandwiches near UNC football games and at the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst, the new location is a permanent space just over a mile from the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
Here are key details:
“The professionalism and quality that Merritt’s brings to Finley — plus the super cool localization of it and the taste of Chapel Hill — was something we were excited about,” Rick Barakat, deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer for UNC athletics, told The N&O in a Thursday, Aug. 6 phone interview.
The golf course’s clubhouse isn’t far from the restaurant’s original location at 1009 S. Columbia St. in Chapel Hill. The business started serving customers in the 1920s, first as a gas station and more recently as a beloved spot for lunchtime staples, The N&O previously reported.
“We wanted to open a second location for a while, and this is a good opportunity because it’s only about five minutes away,” Toogood said. “It was a fully equipped kitchen, so we could kind of come in and get moving fairly quickly.”
The original Merritt’s Grill has indoor seating for about 20 people and 50 covered seats out front. Meanwhile, UNC said the clubhouse can comfortably fit roughly 60 people inside, with additional seating on a patio and in other outdoor areas.
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“I think it’ll be a nice new opportunity for folks to be able to sit inside, whether it’s because of the winter or if it’s very hot in the summer,” Rob Jeske, general manager of the golf club, told The N&O in a Thursday, Aug. 6 phone interview.
Merritt’s Grill serves breakfast sandwiches, salads and burgers. For its signature BLTs, restaurant staff “take the simple and sublime tomato sandwich and do something devilish. They add more bacon than good sense should allow and enough lettuce to bring things back into balance,” The N&O previously reported.
The restaurant started becoming known for its sandwiches more than three decades ago, and it’s still making its mark. This year, Merritt’s Grill was named an honorable mention in the N&O’s Triangle Top 50 restaurant list. And in a reader poll, it ranked among the top 20 local places to eat a sandwich.
The Columbia Street location is open for breakfast and lunch. But now, the clubhouse will allow the restaurant to experiment with dinner service and Sunday hours.
The menu is expected to remain the same, with one exception. While hot dogs on the original location’s menu are topped with chili and other ingredients, a new version at the golf course is designed to be more portable.
“We’re giving an option of a second type of hot dog, which is more just a regular hot dog you would find at a ballpark,” Toogood said, adding that it will come with mustard for golfers on the move.
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This story was originally published August 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM.