The Standard

Eclectic place and probably not as well known since it’s not on Franklin. But a cool place for dinner– good thin crust pizza and salad. They have daily specials so I’d only try to come when there are deals going forward.

I’m new to town, and the Stadard was an incredibly welcoming bar to walk into as a newcomer. The owner Nick was extremely friendly and intoduced me to everyone, the drink specials were on point, the music was good and the atmosphere was what many bars strive for and never quite reach. I’ll definitely become a regular at this Chapel Hill staple.

This place is standard all right as far as the food. I have tried the veggie head which is a smoky portabello mushroom sandwich with green goddess sauce, sprouts (which I skipped) and spinach and tomato. This had the potential of being better had the mushroom not tasted smoky because the toppings were delicious.
The Basil and Lime chicken sandwich was also smoky and the toppings were underwhelming. The goat cheese was bland and I only tasted a bit of the other flavorings. It was pretty bland.
The tater tots, however, are off the hook!
I normally would give a place a 2 star review based on the food alone but it is a rather cool place to hang out at. I would use this place as a bar for the ambiance and interesting cocktail selection. I don’t know if the pizza is better but every place has pizza and I get a little tired of seeing that featured on just about every menu.

Cool place. The fried-​chicken pizza was delicious

We ducked here for a late dinner on a Wednesday night and we were pleasantly surprised! Wednesday night is buy one entrée, get another half price. We both got burgers (he one of the beef burgers, I the veggie burger). Both were great – both in the quality of the burger and the toppings/​sauces. The sweet potato fries also hit the spot, and I liked that you could pick a sauce to come with them instead of just getting ketchup. They also had some drinks specials – all in all our meal came to about $ 20 – including a good size burger for both of us and a drink. It’s hard to beat that these days! The service was good and it definitely had a laid back vibe. I didn’t feel like I was a few blocks from the hustle and bustle of Franklin Street.
Go in good weather if you can, because the outdoor seating is really nice for Chapel Hill!

I’m sorry I have to write this review.
The Standard that I remember was great: a nice, cool place where one could hang out, see friends, and simply kick back and relax on a nice evening. A nice, interesting bar, without pretension or worry.
What I found tonight was a crazy restaurant that had no sense of how to be a restaurant, and in general a confused, haphazard mess. I admit that part of the problem was that I haven’t been in awhile, so I didn’t know what it had become. We were trying to have a goodbye party for a friend, the sort of thing that one has when you want to just kick back and celebrate. What I found was craziness.
I arrived around 8:00 PM, and found that they were now doing service/​seating. Fine, that’s well and good. I didn’t know how many people I had, so I went outside to wait for friends. We came back in about 10 minutes later to see if we could find some sort of host. Instead, what we found were various people that may work there darting back and forth, with no one having any sense of waits or anything related to waits. So we waited by the sign, hoping that someone would come see us or at least stop long enough to check in. Nothing. Meanwhile, another large group came in (after we had waited around 7 – 10 minutes), and a waitress finally saw them and tried to help them. I put on my WTF face (and my wavy arms) while other members of my party put on their WTF faces, and was able to stop that from happening. Finally, we got some feedback that it was going to be awhile. After conferring, and generally feeling like the place was too crazy and too haphazard to be able to get our entire party seated, we left.
My sense is that more than anything else, that The Standard is trying to be a restaurant, but unable to figure out the main pieces of service. If you’re going to have «wait for a host» service, actually have a host there who can update people on how long the wait will be, or at least check in with guests. I know it was busy (it’s a Friday night, after all), but some level of service would be helpful. I don’t blame the staff at all: they generally seemed overwhelmed with what they had.
What I would say is that I can’t give this place 5 stars any more. I do have a OurLocalDeal voucher, so I’ll go back at some point to see how the food’s changed (hence why I move to 3 rather than lower), but it’s not the bar I remember, and it’s not a place I would necessarily hang out in anymore.

This place is one of the chillest places I’ve eaten at in Chapel Hill. I really enjoyed the caprese pizza and my husband’s mushroom swiss burger was extremely tasty. the fries are delicious too!
I left thinking:
A. How the heck have we been living around here this long and never gone to The Standard?
B. It’s epic that we can get good quality food late at night (I mean we love timeout and food trucks, but this is great).I can’t imagine actually leaving a bar and being able to eat something this tasty…
C. Trey (working at bar) was really cool and made us feel comfortable.
Only weird thing was when we got there nobody greeted us, but apparently this was during a shift change. We saw the waitress was on her cell phone in the back… which made it very awkward for us (since it was our first visit we didn’t know if we should seat ourselves). Fortunately, Trey came out to our rescue, and all was good after that.
Good beer list and loved that the prices are listed for everything !!!
Definitely found a new place for our dinner rotation.

it’s a really nice place to party, drinks are not pricy, it’s really casual and they have a nice dancefloor.
you can also go there to eat, they have excellent pizzas ! any of them are great. the place is cool and chill, overall. it’s very quiet because it’s a little far from downtown Chapel Hill but it’s totally fine. and Carrboro is just 5min away

Their chicken parm sandwich is the best! Plus an amazing atmosphere.

Delicious and cheap, local, awesome beer. Cheers!

Good cocktails. They also keep board games all around the bar so you can play while you drink. Cute atmosphere. Never eaten here, though.

Love it. After walking out of a «to remain nameless» restaurant after not being greeted/​served for 15 minutes we got to check out The Standard. I’d been hearing good things and I think its safe to say its going to become a standard for me. Things were pretty slow when we got there around 10 Saturday night, a few people at tables inside and out but mostly empty. It’s kind of awkward when you enter, not sure whether or not to seat yourself or wait or what. Even an inquiry to the waiter didn’t yield much of an answer so we just sat at the small bar.
They have about 4 – 5 beers on tap, last night they had Olde Hickory Death by Hops which is a fantastic brew. Big ups for having that on tap. There is also a very extensive bottle list. Most impressive of all were the prices — $ 3.75 for Unita Hop Notch…$ 2.00 Miller High Life is that’s your style…$ 4.50 for the Death By Hops…
The food was excellent as well. I had the standard burger which came slathered with garlic aioli, tomato and greens. The burger was perfectly cooked and very flavorful. The fries were great as well, crispy and seasoned, and come with your choice of dipping sauce; I went with the chipotle lime. You can also get a flight of the sauces for $ 2. My wife had the basil & lime grilled chicken sandwich (you could also get it fried.) The lime flavor was intensely perfect. We had three beers, two sandwiches, both with friends and walked out of there for $ 36 including tip.
There’s a great outdoor patio area with a projection TV as well for those spring/​summer/​fall evenings (or hell, even Winter at this rate…) Loved this place and look forward to going back to sample the extensive pizza menu.

They have a rather large beer list at this place, buuut, it’s the kind of place where they must just list all the beers they tend to order across the year because, yeah, we’re out of that right now, or, we put in an order and it hasn’t arrived yet. But do you want to try our pumpkin pie beer? Or double chocolate chip hops beer? Or strawberry sundae beer?
Huh? Eventually I settled in to a Two-​Hearted, but it took like 10 minutes to get a drink past my friends. What redeemed this place from two-​star blah is the fact that they will happily change the channels for you if you want to watch a particular sports game, and the cajun fries are insanely good. The beers aren’t priced to badly, either, IF THEY HAVE IT, that is.

This place is fabulous. We’ve been several times and had equally delicious meals. In particular, their garlic knots are top notch and every salad I’ve had here has been absolutely delectable. The one I tried tonight had a «water tomato vinaigrette» which sounds kinda weird but was an incredible salad! And we tried the special, which was steak and mashed potatoes and a corn goulash thingy (it sounded a lot better when the waiter was describing it) but it was awesome too! I’d try anything here, it really is unique and scrumptious! Also, I LOVE how late they’re open! Has made a great place for a late night dinner when getting in on delayed flights to RDU.

My boyfriend and I were looking for some nearby late-​night pizza and had been meaning to try The Standard since it opened.
We ordered a pizza to go, but I definitely want to stick around next time because the atmosphere was cozy and unique/​edgy – fit for the location.
The service was fast, staff was friendly, and the food was to die for (and very reasonably priced!). I don’t know if I’ll be able to order pizza anywhere else ever again.

The Standard, thank you for serving a full menu until 2am seven days a week. My stomach, and my often poor dinner planning, thanks you.
First off, this is one of the only post-​11 Sunday night food places open in Chapel Hill. The garlic knots are yummy; I thought they could be a little less doughy and a little more cheesy, but I do have a cheese bias. My friend thought they were fabulous. The pizza was also great. It took a really long time because the cook burned the first one, but the waitress/​bartender apologized AND comped the pie. Obviously, great service, Matty B is right.
Their bar is thorough, if not a bit small. They’ve got a great liquor selection, but could use some more beer choices. However, they have $ 3.50 Sierra Nevada bottles, so I won’t complain too much.
I stopped by late Saturday night for a few drinks. It was pretty empty, although we did manage to keep things interesting with a little late night 90s dancing. I hope it gets busy enough to stick around; The Standard’s got another fan. I’m glad I have another choice on Franklin to avoid the undergrads.

The Standard is indeed setting the bar for other local reasonably priced, casual dining spots in the area.
My whole experience here was fantastic from being warmly greeted the moment we walked into the door to getting a sincere «see y’all soon» from the bartender as we walked out. First off, the spot itself is pretty cool with a decently sized «lounge» area in the front showcasing some big, comfy couches to the booth and table seating in the main dining area. The bar is conveniently located near the entrance and between the loungy and main area, and the walls are adorned with some simple, yet appropriate photos. All in all, you definitely get a very cozy, laid back feel here. Plus as mentioned by others, The Standard is on Rosemary Street so it’s away from the undergrad hustle and bustle of Franklin Street. There was definitely a very hipster vibe to the crowd the night I visited, but I’m not sure if that’s always the case.
Now onto the food. Let’s just say it was fantastic! All the menu options are reasonably priced and seemingly delicious. We started with an order of the garlic knots, which were simply amazing. Priced at just under $ 4, you get three huge knots which I thought had just the right amount of garlic and melted cheese, and were piping hot and fresh. Yum. For an entrée, I went with the eggplant parmesan sandwich which featured thinly sliced eggplant perfectly fried on a rustic sort of bread. Not as big as the hoagie you will get at your standard Italian joint, but it was very well done. As a side, your entrée comes with fresh cut fries which were very tasty and come with your choice of dipping sauces (I went with the garlic aioli sauce and it was different than what I had expected, but still quite good). Clearly we had to get a pie to try as well, and we went with a vegetarian pie (I forget the name) which featured fresh tomatoes and garlic. It also heavily featured some awesomeness. The pie choices seem quite diverse, and you can of course build your own pie. Clearly, I will need to come back to dabble in some of the other pie choices…
One downside is the lack of an amazing beer selection (especially in the draft department), but there still are a decent number of beers (including some local microbrews). Oh, and they also serve their full menu until 2AM which is simply fantastic.
After introducing the items on the menu, our waitress would then remark «Oh, that’s actually really good too» about essentially every item. Clearly she’s biased and I typically do not trust wait staff when they say such things (yeah, I’m an untrusting jerk), but I think she may also actually be on to something. Do yourself a favor and check this place out to see if you can prove her wrong!

Goodbye Fuse, hello Standard! I live a stone’s throw away from the Standard and I was so excited to watch as the place went through renovations, re-​naming and finally opened in the fall. I have been twice so far — once for drinks and the other time for dinner and drinks and I think its a great place. The tricky part about the west corridor Rosemary Street is that there are several hidden gems and sometimes get less publicity than their West Franklin Street competitors. However, I must say this is the BEST pizza I have had in NC thus far and I am here on Unilocal to spread the good word about The Standard.
The service is great — went to Standard on a Tuesday night and we were the only people seated in the room whose windows face Rosemary Street. Our waitress was a sweetheart — even though we were her only customers for the first hour we were there she did not pester us and she made great recommendations. We decided on the Greek fries (delicious!) and build our own pizza. With 6 beers between the two of us our check was less than $ 50! This definitely put a smile on both our faces given our grad school budgets. We enjoyed our dinner and service so much we decided to stay another couple of hours and hang out at the bar. Our bartender was very nice young gentleman and was very attentive and fast.
Cute décor, very simple yet cozy and cute. Reminds me of a few of the rooms at ESL in DC.
By the way I love the new Standard sign! Keep up the good work and I will continue to recommend this place to all my friends and classmates in the Chapel Hill/​Durham area.

In all my years of dining out, I have never experienced such amazing sincerity in service. I shared my pistachio fritters with my friend, whom is lactose intolerant, absent-​mindedly forgetting the fact that she is lactose intolerant.
Her allergies were immediately triggered. I then questioned a nearby staff member as to what was in the sauce served with the fritters.
The response was parmesan cheese, which I should add is listed clearly on the menu.
We then asked the staff member if they had any benedryl. The staff member then stated he would go to the mart next door to pickup some benadryl for my friend.
We later found out that that staff member is the owner, Nick.
Highly recommended

The standard is a chill new place in town with legitimately tasty food and reasonably priced – yet kinda tiny – drinks. [Damn those tiny glasses some bars use around here.] Despite tiny-​drink syndrome, this place is awesome because it serves the ultimate late night drunken fare: good pizza, fries smothered in various toppings, and other delicious things like garlic knots and GUINNESS FLOATS (!)
Also: the location is great. It’s in the quieter and definitely less undergrad-​ridden part of downtown, which is always a plus.