A top Raleigh bakery joins the downtown lunch scene. Here’s your first look inside
One of the Triangle’s top bakeries is set to open a new corner cafe in downtown Raleigh.
Union Special Bread, led by baker Andrew Ullom, will open its new Fayetteville Street location this week, aiming to start selling pastries by the end of September.
“As soon as we have a permit, we’re ready to go,” Ulom said. “I’m hopeful we’ll serve something here (this week.)”
Quickly beloved for pastries, breads and burger buns all over town, Union Special launched in 2019 in Raleigh’s Gateway Plaza, following a series of pop-ups around town. Ullom, the former executive pastry chef for AC restaurants, has built a breakfast and brunch following with blue corn cookies, sourdough bread and croissants filled with soft serve.
The new downtown Union Special opens in the former Tama Tea space on Fayetteville Street. The Wilmington-based tea and coffee shop was one of the numerous restaurant closings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The allure of downtown
But that closing led Ullom to something he imagined was always out of reach, a Union Special location in downtown Raleigh.
“The allure has always been there, but the pricing was never something we could approach,” Ullom said earlier this spring in announcing the new location.
In the 1,200 square foot space, the downtown Union Special aims to fuel the morning for downtown workers with an espresso machine and pastries.
For lunch the cafe will offer cold grab-and-go sandwiches and pressed paninis for those with a couple minutes to spare for melted cheese and griddled bread. Like the Gateway location, expect a flowing soft serve machine.
Over the last few months, the Gateway Union Special has previewed some of the sandwiches to expect downtown, including a muffaletta; a turkey, bacon and ranch sandwich; an Italian and a hot ham and cheese.
There are no deep fryers in the downtown spot, so duplicating the cult favorite breakfast sandwich from the original location, with its fried McDonald’s-esque hashbrown, is out of the question. But Ullom promises a different kind of egg sandwich, plus room for the new location to develop its own identity.
“At Gateway it’s all egg sandwiches, here I think it’ll be turkey, bacon, Ranch,” Ullom said.
Downtown coming back
The downtown cafe is fronted by large windows looking out onto Fayetteville Street. Inside, the walls feature a mural by Raleigh artist Taylor White, showing two kids eating soft, squishy white bread. There are also colorful pinstripes and logos painted by Spcl Signs owner Joseph Giampino.
Ullom announced the new cafe in April and renovations ran through the summer. In that time, with the rise of vaccinations, some downtown workers have returned to offices, though the streets remain mostly sparse compared to the pre-pandemic days. Ullom said he’s watched downtown begin to come back and expects greater things in the future.
“I’ve seen more people walking around this week than I have in a long time,” Ullom said last week. “It’s awesome and I’m hopeful people are taking our current situation seriously, but I understand this (pandemic) is something that evolves constantly. That being said, I’m very excited to eat a panini here.”
The downtown Union Special will open alongside the return of the World of Bluegrass festival, which is downtown Raleigh’s largest event. Ullom says the shop may take it slow for the festival, selling pastries and coffee from a window, but said the energy is beginning to return to the city’s center.
“I think that sense of community is coming back downtown,” Ullom said. “I don’t think it was ever lost, but it’s much less somber than when we started construction a few months ago. Folks are jovial for the most part.”
Fine Folk at Union Special
Meanwhile at the original Union Special location, it turns into the dinner service residency of Fine Folk, the new restaurant evolution from the guys behind Gov’t Cheeseburger. Fine Folk takes over the Union Special dining room and patio from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Owners Chris Lopez and John Kleinert are building Fine Folk next door to Union Special in Gateway Plaza, moving into the former BREW coffee shop. For a while, the Fine Folk popup continued serving Gov’t Cheeseburger dishes, like the famous burger, falafel corn dogs and a kale Caesar with dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.
Now Fine Folk has shifted its menu closer to what diners can expect when it opens. Currently that means trout and grits, pork steak and sweet potato fries with a collard green chimichurri, plus the smash burger.
Fine Folk recently hired Sorena Dagnar as its general manager, who has started building an eclectic wine menu. Lopez said there’s still a lot of fun on the menu, including dishes like a pork cassoulet with tater tots, but that the dining experience is growing more elevated.
“We’re calling ourselves a high end hole in the wall,” Lopez said.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "A top Raleigh bakery joins the downtown lunch scene. Here’s your first look inside."
