Campus Calzones Franklin Street Review

If ever there were an idiom that describes Franklin Street at UNC-Chapel Hill, it would be this: Out with the old, in with the new. If you live in the area, you know that Franklin Street is somewhat of a revolving door as far as restaurants go. The business environment is never stagnant; instead, the face of Franklin is always in flux, which provides a constant duke’s mixture of different flavors and cultures to enjoy. After all, isn’t that what UNC is all about?

While this constantly evolving environment might scare off some business owners, others decide to see it as an opportunity to prove themselves. While there are new restaurants popping up all the time on Franklin Street, there are still several tried-and-true eateries that can call themselves a true UNC phenomenon. For example, Sutton’s Drug Store remains one of the hottest lunch spots on campus for students, athletes, and tourists alike, and has been since 1923. Top of the Hill is another restaurant that has become a right-of-passage for UNC students – is it really your 21st birthday without stopping by TOPO and picking up your birthday cake shot? The list goes on and on, but the point is this: while it certainly may not be easy to open up shop on Franklin Street, there will always be room in UNC students’ hearts for a new tradition or two – as long as that restaurant can fill the big shoes of those that came before it.

The most recent newcomer on the restaurant scene in Chapel Hill is Campus Calzones. It is located at what was once home to Pita Pit, yet another restaurant that recently went out of business, at 115 E Franklin St. Their location has a lot of heavy traffic and is at the heart of Franklin Street. As of right now, there doesn’t appear to be any date provided for when Campus Calzones will be open to the public. The only thing currently at the location is a colorful banner assuring passers-by that it is “Coming Soon”.

The Campus Calzones Menu

After doing some research, it appears that Campus Calzones opened its first location in Greenville, NC, near the East Carolina University campus. The Campus Calzones website (http://www.campus-calzones.com) is very sparsely filled out, but I was able to locate a full menu on Campus Calzones Greenville’s Facebook page.

From the full menu, you can see that Campus Calzones will offer a variety of calzones, including Italian, chicken, steak, vegetable, burger, and breakfast calzones. There is also an option to make your own calzone with five stuffings. Calzones are $6.99 plus tax. Wings, boneless wings, and salads are also on the menu. Sides include breadsticks, cheese bread, French fries, and potato chips. There are also three dessert options: cinnamon sticks, apple pie calzones, and cherry pie calzones. Campus Calzones also offers a Calzone of the Day (COD) for $5.50 plus tax – for example, the most recent COD on their Facebook page was the turkey club calzone, which includes turkey, American cheese, mozzarella cheese, tomato, and bacon. The Greenville location also offers late hours, which is always a plus on a college campus. They are open from 11 AM – 3 AM Monday through Wednesday, 11 AM – 4 AM Thursday through Saturday, and 11 AM – 2 AM on Sundays. Delivery is available, as well as the option to order online.

Now of course, there is no guarantee that the Chapel Hill location will offer the same hours, prices, and menu options that the Greenville location does. But if the Campus Calzone Greenville Facebook page can be used as an indicator of how popular the restaurant will be, it looks like a highly successful restaurant will be coming to Franklin Street. The Greenville location has an overall rating of 4 ½ stars on Facebook, with nothing but positive reviews from students, parents, and Greenville residents.

Campus Calzones isn’t the first restaurant that’s indigenous to Greenville to try and make it big in Chapel Hill. Sup Dogs, another Greenville-based restaurant, just opened its second location on Franklin Street last month. It has already become one of the most popular restaurants near the UNC campus, largely due to excellent social media marketing prior to opening day. More on the Sup Dogs social media campaign here: Sup Dogs Franklin Street Reviews. Even though Sup Dogs faced a delay in opening and spent several months renovating the location, they were still able to build up hype about the restaurant on campus by creating a Twitter account unique to the Chapel Hill location and reaching out to students daily.

It appears that Campus Calzones has a Twitter account (in addition to the aforementioned Facebook account), but no social media accounts that are unique to the Chapel Hill location. The Twitter account does not appear to be very active, with only a few tweets a month, though it does have almost 1,300 followers. While the Campus Calzones Greenville Facebook page has 2,257 likes, an active Twitter account is very beneficial when reaching out to college students. It’s much easier to have a Tweet go viral than it is for a Facebook post. It’s never too early to start marketing – a well-run Twitter account would be a great way to get students interested in the restaurant as soon as possible. Campus Calzones also does not have a Google+ account, which would be incredibly advantageous for receiving business from search. An ideal goal for Campus Calzones would be to have their website pop up on the first page of a Google search for “Pizza Restaurants on Franklin Street”. A social media manager would be able to help with all of these tasks.

Competition on Franklin Street

Regardless of how well Campus Calzones does on social media, they will still face a lot of competition on Franklin Street by similar restaurants. There are currently several pizza restaurants in the area, including Mellow Mushroom, I Love NY Pizza, Italian Pizzeria III (affectionately known as IP3), Artisan Pizza Kitchen, Toppers Pizza, Old Chicago, and Amante Gourmet Pizza. And that’s not to mention other specialty restaurants, like BSkis, that offer a similar menu to that of the all-calzone menu at Campus Calzones.

The pizza competition has been heated as of late – Gumby’s Pizza closed back in 2012 after 18 years, and Pepper’s Pizza, once a Chapel Hill staple, closed in 2013. Franklin Street Pizza & Pasta, a UNC favorite for 18 years, closed after being sold to Tomato Jake’s Pizzeria, which later closed as well.

As you can see, it’s not exactly going to be a walk in the park for Campus Calzones. While college students certainly love their pizza, they already don’t have to go far to find it – which means that Campus Calzones is going to have to provide a dining experience that outweighs that of its competitors.

If the menu is kept the same as the Greenville location, then the price point will definitely be a huge plus. There is also the fact that Campus Calzones offers a smaller portion size than most pizzerias in the area – instead of having to hunt down people that want to split a pizza, students will now be able to satisfy their craving by ordering an individually-sized entrée. The Calzone of the Day is another alluring option which will likely draw in students (and others) who are on a tight budget.

So as of right now, it’s too early to say whether or not Campus Calzones will be as big of a hit in Chapel Hill as it was at ECU. I would say that they definitely have a good shot based on their menu, prices, and success in Greenville. If they can create a large presence on social media and really reach out to UNC students, I think that they could become yet another long-lived Chapel Hill staple.

If you have dined at the Campus Calzones location in Greenville please feel free to leave a review. If you are one of the first to dine in Chapel Hill let us know how it went. How would you rate Campus Calzones?