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.
The owners have continued looking toward the coast as well. StarNews reports that Kesler and Farris are now working to add another Al's Burger Shack in Wilmington, with details being finalized for a space at the new Center Point mixed-use development at the intersection of Eastwood and Military Cutoff roads. They told the outlet they would like to open that location at the beginning of next year.
That timeline traces back further than it might appear. Back in December 2022, Farris told the News & Observer that any new openings were at least a year away, with Wilmington the most likely destination at the time. The chain's expansion history hasn't always gone smoothly, either — plans for a fourth Al's location at Durham's Rockwood Shopping Center were announced just days before the company's 2020 bankruptcy filing, according to the News & Observer.
Whether the Oakdale Drive permit in Hillsborough ultimately translates into a finished restaurant remains to be seen, but the filing offers the clearest sign yet that the beloved burger brand is looking to put down roots in Orange County beyond its original Chapel Hill home.
