"Thank you for all of your support over the past 12 years!"
That line was on a sign taped to the front door of the Panera at 4421 Six Forks Road. The café closed on Sept. 15, and the sign pointed customers to the chain's locations at 6201 Glenwood Avenue and 2410 Landmark Drive. The Panera closing was the last of four. Between June and mid-September, North Hills lost a pan-Asian dinner spot, a fast-casual lunch counter, a wine bar and its Chick-fil-A, at least for now. No restaurant announced a replacement on its way out. Every confirmed food and drink opening over the same stretch went to the North Hills Innovation District instead.
Put the departures and arrivals on one map and the pattern shows. For now, the daily routine in North Hills has moved east to St. Albans Drive, Hardimont Road and Church at North Hills Street. The spaces that emptied in the older core are waiting on a slower schedule, mostly 2027.
Four Exits, in Order
The closings came out one at a time over four months, which made them easy to miss as a group:
- June: CO, 101 Park at North Hills Street, on the ground floor of the AC Hotel building. It closed after nearly eight years. Kane Realty confirmed the closure, and the restaurant made no formal announcement.
- July 30, 3 p.m.: Chick-fil-A, 4154 Main at North Hills Street. It closed for a remodel and told customers to "stay tuned for updates and our grand reopening date."
- Sept. 5: Foxcroft Food & Wine, 4421 Six Forks Road. The closing was announced Aug. 31 and followed by a final sale with wine bottles at 50% off.
- Sept. 15: Panera, 4421 Six Forks Road, after 12 years.
None of the three permanent closings came with a reason. CO left without a farewell post. Foxcroft called it "the difficult decision to close the doors." Panera's sign said "This cafe is closing its doors." Reading a single cause into that is guesswork. What they do share is location. All four sit in the original North Hills footprint along Six Forks, Park at North Hills and Main at North Hills, not in the newer blocks to the east.
Each one also served a different habit. CO opened in 2018 as the Charleston-based group's first Raleigh restaurant, in a 3,680-square-foot space. Its menu of banh mi, pho, ramen, sushi and curry laksa earned three stars from critic Greg Cox that year. Foxcroft was a sit-down wine bar with lunch, dinner and brunch, plus private wine dinners starting at $145 per person. It still runs three Charlotte locations and one in Huntersville. After the North Hills closing, Panera has 27 Triangle locations, so its regulars have the most fallback options of the group.
July 30, Twice
The clearest picture of the shift fits inside a single day. Chick-fil-A on Main at North Hills Street closed at 3 p.m. on Thursday, July 30. That same Thursday, Benchwarmers Bagels opened at 511 Hardimont Road in NHID, serving wood-fired bagels, bagel sandwiches and Jubala coffee, with a focaccia-style pizza on weekends.
The rest of the summer's openings landed nearby. Standard Beer + Food opened at 560 St. Albans Drive on Tuesday, July 14. Its menu goes past the smashburgers it's known for, with steak frites, oysters and raw-bar dishes, mussels, and frozen cocktails. Axios reported on Aug. 26 that Intown Golf Club was open at 541 Church at North Hills Street, Suite 200. It's a private golf and social club with simulator bays, food and drink service, a cocktail lounge and a patio.
That makes three confirmed openings, all in NHID, all between mid-July and late August. The one exception on Six Forks is Tifa Chocolate & Gelato at 4208 Six Forks Road, Suite 130, in the Captrust Tower. It serves gelato, chocolates, pastries and espresso drinks. A Triangle dining roundup put it on early October's list of new openings, but the business's own page suggests it was serving customers before then, so its exact start date is unclear.
Habit by Habit
The table below matches each lost stop to the closest new or confirmed option. These aren't one-for-one swaps. They show where each kind of visit can go next, as of early October 2026.
| What closed | Address | The habit it served | Where that habit can go now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panera, closed Sept. 15 | 4421 Six Forks Rd. | Quick café lunch, coffee, a casual meeting spot | Benchwarmers Bagels, 511 Hardimont Rd., for bagel sandwiches and Jubala coffee. Panera's sign lists 6201 Glenwood Ave. and 2410 Landmark Dr. |
| Foxcroft Food & Wine, closed Sept. 5 | 4421 Six Forks Rd. | Wine bar, brunch, an evening glass at the bar | Standard Beer + Food, 560 St. Albans Dr., for raw bar, mussels and cocktails. Little Saint, a cocktail bar, is due in 2027. |
| CO, closed June | 101 Park at North Hills St. | Sit-down dinner with pho, ramen, sushi and laksa | No direct counterpart has opened or been announced |
| Chick-fil-A, temporarily closed since July 30 | 4154 Main at North Hills St. | Fast lunch | Still listed as "temporarily closed" as of Oct. 5, with no reopening date |
CO's row matters most. Benchwarmers covers part of what Panera did. Standard and the coming Little Saint cover part of what Foxcroft did. Nothing opened or announced in North Hills this year fills the pan-Asian dinner slot CO held for eight years. Hoodline reported on Aug. 11 that no tenant had been named for the AC Hotel space and that neither Kane nor CO had said publicly what would happen to it.
The Older Core Refills on a Later Clock
Several openings are scheduled for the original district, but none of them will open this fall.
Jubala Coffee is building a second North Hills shop at the base of 4114 Center at North Hills, in the Main District between Alo Yoga and Gorjana. As of WRAL's Sept. 18 report, there was still no set opening day. The News & Observer reported in April that the shop would open in late 2026. The March announcement described house-roasted coffee, baked goods and Boulted Bread sandwiches. That lineup is the nearest thing in the pipeline to the café lunch Panera used to serve on Six Forks.
South Block, an acai bowl, smoothie and juice concept, plans to open next to bartaco in the Main District in early 2027. Little Saint, a standalone cocktail bar with a patio, is scheduled for 2027 in a 3,800-square-foot ground-floor space in the St. Albans building, across from Standard. Little Saint is in NHID, so even the evening option that comes closest to Foxcroft is going to the newer blocks.
That leaves three permanent vacancies with no named successors. Neither the Foxcroft nor the Panera closing story named anything coming into 4421 Six Forks Road. Hoodline found no tenant named for CO's space under the AC Hotel. Kane's next big project is the May 2026 plan for 28 acres along Navaho Drive, with housing, a hotel, offices, trails and retail. The reporting on that plan doesn't connect it to any of these storefronts.
For the next few months, the North Hills calendar looks like this. The Innovation District has a full set of new places to eat, drink and socialize that opened over one summer. Main District is waiting on a coffee shop "late 2026" and a smoothie bar in early 2027. Chick-fil-A's reopening date is still unannounced, and no successors have been reported for 4421 Six Forks Road or 101 Park at North Hills Street.
Storefront turnover affects what a North Hills address is worth, because buyers judge walkability by what's open today, not what's on next year's schedule. If you own near the Six Forks frontage or close to NHID and want to know how this year's changes affect your home's value, Eric Mikus will put together a valuation that accounts for what is open on your block now and what has been announced. Request a Luxury Home Valuation.
