Two Italian restaurants are on their way to Pittsboro this fall, one beside the courthouse circle and one at MOSAIC at Chatham Park. Only the downtown one has opened so far, and it opened without its dining room finished. Each one has a schedule of stages, and those schedules have been moving. The menu at each place this month depends on the stage it has reached.
Downtown, the café portion is open and the kitchen is still being built. At MOSAIC, the restaurant is built around a wood-fired oven and has no confirmed opening day yet. If you know where each one stands, you'll know where to go for an espresso this week and when you can realistically book an Italian dinner.
The courthouse building got its coffee before its kitchen
The old Havoc Brewing building at 39 West St. was empty longer than many people expected. Havoc opened in 2023 in a renovated section of the former Justice Motor Company property. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2025 and closed on Dec. 14, 2025, after about two years in business. The building sits on the curved corner facing the courthouse traffic circle, and its patio had become the town's gathering spot for live music and weekend crowds. That made the vacancy hard to miss.
The size of the building is one reason the vacancy lasted. The commercial listing described about 8,494 square feet, renovated in 2023, with a custom bar, offices and indoor seating. Next to it is the SoCo patio, a 6,000-square-foot outdoor space that fills the block and includes a performance stage. The N.C. Main Street and Rural Planning Center gave the patio a 2023 Award of Merit for design. A small retailer can't easily fill a space that large. A restaurant tenant needs ventilation, grease management, refrigeration and health-department approval before it can serve its first plate.
Dana and Jim Rumbold, the new tenants, worked around that by opening the inexpensive part first. Broker Eric Andrews told the Chatham Journal that the building drew several applicants. The Rumbolds were chosen because their plan combined food with the site's existing social role and because they could start operating sooner than the others. In their plan, the front of the building serves coffee and pastries in the morning and moves toward wine in the afternoon and evening. The larger restaurant side is meant for Italian lunch and dinner.
That restaurant has a longer to-do list than the café. Before it can open, a commercial kitchen has to be designed, installed, inspected and permitted. Andrews gave the Journal a careful estimate:
The full-service operation could begin in the first quarter of 2027 "if all the stars align."
Since then the estimate has slipped a little. Chapelboro's roundup of local business news, published Oct. 1, puts the full opening of the restaurant, La Cucina della Nonna, at spring 2027.
What Nonna's Café is actually serving this month
Nonna's Café opened in mid-September as the first stage of the Rumbolds' plan. Reports give slightly different dates for the soft opening and the grand opening. Mornings are built around Italian coffee, including espresso, cappuccino and café-style pastries. The Raleigh Local describes the room switching to Italian wine later in the day.
Hours are the part to check before you go. Chapelboro lists 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Other coverage notes that soft-opening hours were still being worked out, so evening wine service isn't confirmed. The café's Instagram, @nonnascafe, is where the current schedule is posted. Treat Nonna's as a morning stop on the circle for now, and plan on an Italian dinner downtown once the kitchen is permitted.
Downtown has a second new place for morning coffee. Aromatic Roasters is now operating from a brick-and-mortar location inside the refreshed West End Emporium at 23 Rectory St., with the same coffee and the same hours.
Out at MOSAIC, a Tavolo has a month but no day
The second Italian restaurant comes from owners with a track record in Pittsboro. Greg and Maria Lewis already run The Sycamore, a farm-to-fork fine-dining steakhouse at Chatham Mills, 480 Hillsboro St., Suite 500, and 39 West Catering. Their new restaurant, a Tavolo Italian Eatery, is going into 367 Freedom Parkway, Suite 130, at MOSAIC. The planned menu centers on wood-fired pizza, house-made pasta, locally sourced ingredients and a full bar.
The target month has changed twice since summer.
- In late June, WRAL reported that a Tavolo would likely open in August.
- On Sept. 4, Chatham Magazine listed it as slated for September.
- The current MOSAIC listing and the restaurant's own homepage both say October 2026.
As of early October, no soft opening has been announced. The posted menu is labeled a sample and is subject to change before opening. It includes burrata, chicken meatballs, grilled octopus, Italian cheeses, antipasti, salads and wood-fired pizzas. The a Tavolo website doesn't offer online booking yet. For reservation questions, the contact page directs you to [email protected].
Where the two openings stand side by side
| Nonna's Café / La Cucina della Nonna | a Tavolo Italian Eatery | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | 39 West St., SoCo, across from the courthouse | 367 Freedom Parkway, Suite 130, MOSAIC |
| Owners | Dana and Jim Rumbold | Greg and Maria Lewis |
| Open now | Coffee, pastries; wine later in the day per some reports | Not yet |
| Still to come | Full Italian lunch and dinner after kitchen permitting | Wood-fired pizza, pasta, full bar |
| Current target | Restaurant in spring 2027 | October 2026 |
If a Tavolo opens on its current target, it will be the first of the two to serve a full Italian dinner, roughly a season before the kitchen downtown is expected to be ready.
The same week, a Chatham Park kitchen changed hands
On Sept. 18, the date Chapelboro gives for Nonna's opening, Café Root Cellar ended its restaurant service. According to Chapelboro, Chef Sera Cuni and co-owner Susan White didn't close because business was slow. They closed so they could focus on Feed-Well Fridges, their nonprofit that takes edible food from grocery and restaurant partners before it goes to waste and offers it as ingredients or meals in free fridges around Chatham County. Feed-Well Fridges will use the Café Root Cellar kitchen for a while, with plans to move to a new commissary kitchen.
That gives Chatham Park one fewer sit-down option at the moment a Tavolo is preparing to open nearby. More MOSAIC tenants are coming, but on longer schedules. Pecan Jacks Ice Cream · Candy Kitchen at 60 Mosaic Blvd. is still listed only as coming soon in 2026. The Flying Biscuit Café is now listed for fall 2027.
Oct. 16 brings a crowd to the SoCo patio
The Chatham Journal reported that the outdoor seating, the fire pit and live bands are expected to come back with the new tenants. No fall music lineup has been posted yet. The SoCo website still lists Havoc and its old music calendar, so it isn't a reliable guide to the current schedule.
One date is set. The Pittsboro Finally Fridays Arts Walk Downtown Mask Parade on Friday, Oct. 16, ends at the SoCo patio, and pets are welcome alongside people.
- 5 p.m. Sign-up at the Downtown Pop-Up Park, 50 West Salisbury St.
- 6 p.m. Parade through the Social District to the SoCo patio at 39 West St.
- 7 to 8 p.m. Costume judging, prizes and an ice cream eating contest on the patio
Because the parade starts at 5 p.m., the posted hours mean Nonna's may be closing just as the crowd starts gathering. Check the café's Instagram that afternoon for any extended hours. A Tavolo's opening day remains the open question for the rest of October. Its contact email and the MOSAIC tenant page are the places where a firm date is likely to show up first.
If following new openings like these has you weighing which part of Pittsboro fits your daily routine, from a coffee walk around the courthouse circle to dinner at MOSAIC, Erica Berry would be glad to compare notes on how each part of town lives day to day. Let's Connect.
