A Thousand Words
By Jock Lauterer
Long before A Southern Season was a gleam in their eyes, my college chums Michael and Stephen Barefoot were just two handsome and talented Carolina kids, fresh off the family farm in rural Four Oaks. But seven years later, in 1975, Michael (left) launched A Southern Season in a tiny store just down from Mariakakis in Eastgate – and Chapel Hill’s foodie community would never be the same. Not long after, Stephen joined his brother as marketing director. Stephen recalls their humble start-up, “… during the store’s second Christmas season … we ended up renting a room at the Tar Heel Motel as our storage ‘warehouse’ … we sat in that little room and put spices and teas into little ziplock bags … I would actually sit in the bathtub to bag all that stuff for hours.†In 1981, Stephen moved on, opening the visionary jazz supper club Stephen’s, After All, which had a glorious three-year run in Village Plaza on Elliott Road. These days, Stephen splits his time between Durham and Wilmington, running his own company, goingbarefoot inc., an arts project-management services and customized entertainment planning, design and production company.
A THOUSAND WORDS
Do you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.
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