Crook’s Corner, a Landmark North Carolina Restaurant, Has Closed

It led the modern revival of Southern cuisine nearly 40 years ago, and remained a seedbed for talented chefs and new ideas.

Crook’s Corner, the restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., that helped spark a renaissance in Southern cuisine starting in the 1980s, has permanently closed, Shannon Healy, an owner, said Wednesday. Mr. Healy said the business, which shut down in the spring of 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic, struggled to regain its footing after reopening last fall. It served its final meals on Sunday night. “The pandemic kind of crushed us,” he said. “We were trying to reorganize some debt, and we just couldn’t get it done.”