Triangle Eats: Carrburritos in Carrboro, NC

Who doesn't like a Burrito place next to a Buddhist Center? This is all very Carrboro.

A port in the storm to many a touring band, Carrburritos in Carrboro, NC is a rare find: a 100% local, unfranchised burrito restaurant.  For those unfamiliar, Carrboro is the small, hipster enclave of a town adjacent (practically inside) Chapel Hill, where many a good music venue, record store, unique bar or cheap restaurant can be frequented.  Carrburritos, a Carrboro institution, is the kind of order-at-the-counter place where the guys give you attitude if your order is too slow or too customized but you kind of like them for it.  Like many a burrito place, they also have quesadillas and tacos but also less common menu items like ceviche, a variety of homemade salsas, homemade chips and goooood margaritas, which are best enjoyed on their verdant and shady veranda.

A vegan or part-time vegan typically enters a burrito place resigned to order the tofu burrito, but at Carrburritos, not one but FOUR burrito offerings can be prepared meat and dairy-free and none of them involve tofu.  My husband tried the sweet potato-stuffed Pure de Papas burrito and I had the tomatoes & rice burrito, but there is also one with grilled vegetables and a guacamole burrito.  All come with your choice of black or pinto beans.  We both added guacamole to ours and left off the cheese and sour cream--voila vegan.  As a workweek or part-time vegan, I follow the author of The China Study, T. Colin Campbell's approach to vegan eating, which is that if I'm eating black beans, I don't sweat whether or not they were cooked with a little meat or meat-based stock or broth as long as there are not visible hunks of meat.  If you are 100% vegan or vegetarian, you would want to check with the counter guys re: how they cook their beans.

In the age of national franchised burrito chains, it is nice to give your business to a local institution, which was there long before burritos were cash cows.  But mainly, Carrburritos is just damn good chow.

The Tomatoes & Rice Burrito at Carrburritos in Carrboro, NC.