Eddy Pub & Restaurant

The Design—The Eddy Pub’s design pays homage to the mill village, a cornerstone of twentieth century North Carolina culture.  Its simple design leaves the original look of the mill intact, and its furnishings are made from artifacts of the place.  The atmosphere inside invites everyone in the village to gather and to feel welcome.  The pub’s sensibility remembers its working-class heritage while using innovations to protect the ecology of the Haw. When you visit, you’ll notice very little inside the pub is new.  The space retains its original red brick walls, sturdy wooden beams, and austere concrete floor.  Period furniture collected from antique stores and thrift shops furnishes the room,  and  reused glass bottles hang over the bar as lighting fixtures.  Reclaimed maple flooring has become table tops, and an old spring-loaded yarn storage bin forms a peninsular seating area off the bar.  Metal piping and wood spindles are the beer tap columns and handles, and Redwood slats from mill cooling towers line the walls to soften the sound. And the door, which features blue glass from the original window panes, uses as its handle a piece of rebar—an homage to North Carolina native Eddie Williams, the pub’s namesake, who spent his early career working as a “rodbuster” on projects in Chapel Hill and all over the East Coast. To honor the space outside the mill, we have equipped the whole building with geothermal wells for heating and cooling  of the spaces.  The kitchen’s water is heated with solar electricity, and much of its daytime lighting comes in naturally from a clerestory constructed in the center portion of its roof.  A series of ramps and stairs allows full access to the spaces without the use of an elevator.  New double paned windows in the fashion of the original windows add efficiency of heating and cooling. The Farm Table Room—The former site of the Mill’s Laboratory for concocting dye solutions will now be the site of our community farm suppers.  This room features long tables crafted by hand by Eamonn O’Brien of Red Oak planks from Alamance County, and oak bases that were milled, planed, and constructed in Chatham County.  The room features its original floor and steel support beams, and its warm simplicity invites guests to partake in a delightful family-style experience. The Patio—Overlooking the Haw River, the patio’s weathered steel drink rail is broad enough to hold a plate of Ploughman’s Lunch or Shepherd’s Pie along with a pint of one of our special brews.  We’ve been around the pub scene, and we think this is one of the most special spots to enjoy an evening you’ll ever find.  You’ll want to arrive here just in time for sunset. The Mezzanine—Perched at the top of the Haw River Ballroom, this spot opens from the pub to provide guests a peek at Saxapahaw’s beautiful center for music, film, and art.  Formerly the home of large drying vats in the old cotton mill, this room is an expansive celebration of its heritage.  The paint on the walls is original to the mill and one of the drying vats remains on its massive concrete stand.   Owners Heather and Tom LaGarde and Margaret Jemison have removed one floor of the space for a breath-taking forty-four feet high ceiling, and they’ve added floor to ceiling windows to honor the views to the outside.  The mezzanine allows special access on some evenings to the Ballroom, a space truly to celebrate.