Friends of Tabletop: Meet Chef Sera Cuni from Café Root Cellar

Friends of Tabletop is a place where we share who we love working with. This can range from a client, influencer/blogger, or special someone who simply means a lot to the Tabletop Team. Colleagues and friends who we’ve met throughout our journey with Tabletop Media Group make us a part of who we are.

For our July Friends of Tabletop, meet Chef Sera Cuni from Café Root Cellar!

Tell us about Café Root Cellar and your position there.

I am the chef and owner of Café Root Cellar in Pittsboro. My wife and I opened this restaurant in 2018 as the 2nd location of our Chapel Hill store, Root Cellar Café & Catering. Like the Chapel Hill location, we originally offered soups, salads and sandwiches, but the restaurant’s temporary closure during the global pandemic gave us an opportunity to reimagine the menu. After months of brainstorming new ideas and offering pop-up menus to gauge customer interest, we finally landed on a concept to move forward to rebrand the restaurant. Today, Café Root Cellar, re-explores American cuisine, specifically the flavorful dishes that reflect the vast diversity of foods across the Midwestern and Southern United States. My menu showcases the “go big or go home” locally sourced seasonal dishes I’ve always loved to create.

 Why did you start Café Root Cellar?

From the moment I landed in Pittsboro, NC, more than 20 years ago, I dreamed of opening my own restaurant here. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here that I love, and the idea of creating a space that would be an extension of my own kitchen and dining room – where friends and family would gather regularly – was really appealing. 

What is your favorite thing about owning Café Root Cellar?

That this business belongs to me and I get to do what I want. I also love the community the restaurant creates. I love seeing all the regulars who show up every single week. They challenge and inspire me. It’s so satisfying to hear that a dish you created made someone happy. We need more happiness in this world, and I’m here to serve it up as much as possible.

Do you have a favorite story about how you got to where you are in your career, or a fun story from working at Café Root Cellar?

Well, in another life, I was going to be a soccer star. I even earned a scholarship to play soccer in college but let’s just say I wasn’t very academically inclined. Growing up in a family with deep Italian and Czech roots, I was always surrounded by really good homemade food and people who loved to eat and who were always talking about food – really living and breathing it. But it was likely my late father’s influence that truly inspired me to become a chef. He’s the one who introduced me to Julia Child’s cooking show, which we watched religiously every Saturday morning. I was hooked and when the plan to play soccer fizzled, I knew what I wanted to do next.

What is your least favorite food?

That’s easy – squash! I absolutely hate the texture of it. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about it.

What about favorite food?

Uh, hotdogs – seriously the most underrated American dish out there. No forks are needed, simple ingredients and one bite conjures up summer cookouts, baseball and memories of my beloved New York Yankees.

Bar order? If you don't drink, what's your coffee order?

I love a refreshing sparkling wine but on any given day, it’s going to be a nitro cold brew.

What is one of your unpopular opinions? (i.e. opinion you have that goes against the norm)

That the so-called ACC Tobacco Road rivalry between Carolina and Duke is the greatest rivalry in sports. Hello… baseball fanatic here from Connecticut. It’s the Yankees/Red Sox! My wife grew up in North Carolina, so I can already hear the eye-roll on this one.

What's the most useful lesson you've learned from being a small business owner?

Learn to do the small stuff – know how to fix a leaky toilet or faucet. And don’t sweat the small stuff – ‘What, there’s a typo in my Instagram post?’ Eh, that’s authenticity. If you know me, then you know I never aim to be something that I’m not. Pretension isn’t in my vocabulary. Wait, is that spelled right? (: