Hillsborough may soon have a new place to grab a cheeseburger that critics have called the best in North Carolina. A building permit filed with the Town of Hillsborough points to Al’s Burger Shack planning a location at 115 Oakdale Drive Unit 1, in a corner space formerly occupied by Pizza Hut that had sat empty for months since that restaurant’s closing.
The filing, first reported by News of Orange, indicates the new location would be the corner unit of the building, which has an area that could be used for outdoor seating. Al’s Burger Shack is owned by Charlie Farris and Jason Kesler, who purchased the restaurant in 2022 from founder Al Bowers, the chain’s original owner since it opened in 2013. If it comes to pass, the Hillsborough spot would mark the restaurant’s sixth location overall.
A Burger Chain With Serious Bona Fides
Al’s Burger Shack has built a reputation well beyond a single Chapel Hill storefront. The chain currently has sites on Franklin Street and at the Southern Market in Chapel Hill, along with locations in Leland, Apex and Summerville, according to the same report. That growth has come with recognition: Fast Food Club awarded Al’s Burger Shack the title of best cheeseburger in North Carolina in May, and TripAdvisor had earlier crowned the restaurant’s Bobo Chili Cheeseburger the Best Burger in America back in 2018.
Farris and Kesler are no strangers to running multiple food brands at once. The pair are also franchise owners of Jersey Mike’s Subs, and notably, Farris is among the owners of the Jersey Mike’s already operating in Suite 5 at 115 Oakdale Drive — meaning the potential new burger joint would sit just two doors down from a sandwich shop the same ownership group already runs.
Part of a Broader Expansion Push
The possible Hillsborough move fits into a pattern of steady, sometimes slow-building expansion for the chain. Kesler and Farris opened their Brunswick County location at 3556 Leland Town Center Drive in 2024, according to StarNews Online — though a separate report from Port City Daily listed the address as 556 Leland Town Center Drive, a discrepancy that remains unresolved between the two accounts. That Leland location, which opened in November 2024, was the restaurant’s first spot outside Chapel Hill and included indoor booths alongside what StarNews described as a shacky outside patio…