Today we are publishing the first in a four-part series written by students at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism. They spent the past semester digging into one of Chapel Hill’s great mysteries: What happened to Que Chula’s chairs?
By: Regan Butler, Dylan Liu, May Proctor and Rachel Winfrey
The colorful plastic strands sat untamed in a manufacturer’s shop in the Mexican state of Guadalajara. They looked like nothing more than a spaghettified rainbow. That’s until they were hand-woven, one by one, into hexagonal plaits by experienced artisans. These intricate designs were carefully threaded around metal frames and placed into cardboard boxes, ready to be shipped to their new residence.
The resulting products were 94 vibrant chairs. Before their journey, it may have seemed farfetched to think the seats would face more danger on a family restaurant’s patio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, than on their 3,000-mile migration from Mexico.
After opening Que Chula Tacos in May 2020 with her husband José Ramirez, Laurena Ibarra knew she wanted the restaurant to be “a little bit different, colorful and a really inviting place.”
The handwoven chairs are integral to Que Chula Tacos’ marriage of modernity and Mexican culture in their decor, which creates a captivating atmosphere.
It’s no wonder everyone keeps stealing them.
Ibarra is a second-generation restauranteur. Her father Rigoberto Ibarra opened El Rodeo in 1989, Chapel Hill’s very first sit-down Mexican restaurant.
So, it was only natural that Ibarra and Ramirez continued the tradition, opening Que Chula on bustling Franklin Street in Ibarra’s hometown of Chapel Hill.
Laurena Ibarra (left) and José Ramirez (right) pose for a photo in Que Chula in 2020. Photo: Beth Mann, Image courtesy of Chapel Hill Magazine.
Before starting their restaurant, the young couple would come to Chapel Hill to visit Ibarra’s parents and always make side trips to Franklin Street. The trips left Ramirez wishing he could open a restaurant on the street and move to Chapel Hill permanently from Richmond, Virginia.
Eventually, this dream came to fruition. Que Chula opened during the COVID-19 pandemic, contending with increased safety regulations and the empty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.
“Nobody wanted to work in those days because of COVID,” Ramirez said. “So, me and my wife and my two kids had to work.…if we didn’t do it that way, we probably would have closed in the first two months.”
Friends had warned Ramirez about opening a restaurant on Franklin Street due to the fierce competition in the restaurant business. There are roughly 65 restaurants on Franklin Street and nearly 30 Mexican restaurants in the greater Chapel Hill and Carrboro area.
According to Jeri Lynn Schulke, the executive director of the Downtown Chapel Hill Partnership, the foot traffic on Franklin Street makes its storefronts highly sought-after. But, the street’s rent costs can be high. Students make up the majority of customers for the businesses, limiting revenue during the summer months.
Co-owners Ramirez and Ibarra departed from the Tex-Mex cuisine they had served at their previous restaurants in Virginia. Instead, they focused on the flavors from the Mexican state of Jalisco, where their families are from.
“We use a very different steak cut than other restaurants,” Ramirez said. “We use skirt steaks. So when you get a steak taco, you can taste the difference from other restaurants.”
One of their most popular menu items is the Lunch Chula Bowl, a quinoa dish created by Chef Miguel Cuevas that has black charro beans, corn kernels, and seasoned grilled chicken.
Ramirez credited the vision for Que Chula’s interior design and atmosphere to his wife. Ibarra used eclectic decor and furnishings to curate the restaurant’s warm, friendly atmosphere while staying true to its Mexican roots.
The donkey statue outside of an entrance to Que Chula Tacos. Photo: Dylan Liu.
“Every element of Que Chula’s decor is intentional and meaningful,” Ibarra said.
A donkey statue sits near the restaurant’s entrance, emblematic of the rural area of Jalisco where Ibarra’s grandmother is from. Hanging above the soda machine are colorful bird cages like those Ibarra recalls seeing when visiting her grandmother’s house as a child.
As guests venture further, they are met with a painted mural of cactuses and flowers native to Jalisco, which spans the wall next to the restaurant’s bar. A moss art installation in the shape of the restaurant’s name overlays it.
The cactus and flower mural and the moss installation inside of the Que Chula restaurant. Photo: Dylan Liu.
Ibarra also fondly mentioned the stout palm tree found on the outdoor patio, planted by Ramirez four years ago to commemorate the restaurant’s opening.
While most of the decor ties back to Mexican culture, Ibarra and Ramirez made sure to add some UNC-Chapel Hill touches to demonstrate their loyalty to the campus community. Custom-made Carolina Blue and white tiles decorate the floor under the bar seating, arranged in Ibarra’s original design.
One of the brick walls also features a mural of former NBA and UNC-CH basketball player Michael Jordan. The painting is titled “El MJ.”
“We have other landlords close to NC State or Duke come and they’re like, ‘Can
you open something close to us?’” Ramirez said. “I was like, ‘No, I think Que Chula is for UNC.’”
Que Chula’s mural of former UNC-CH basketball player Michael Jordan. Photo: Dylan Liu.
Que Chula’s indoor and outdoor dining areas are full of seating options for guests. This includes their—apparently, sought-after—custom handwoven chairs.
Ibarra said she traveled back to her parents’ home state of Jalisco to place a custom order of handcrafted woven chairs in 2019, one year before Que Chula opened.
“I was pregnant and we went to Mexico, knocking on doors, making phone calls. It took a lot of time and sacrifice,” she said. “I had a 2-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 15-year-old, so it was a lot of work.”
She placed a large order of 94 handcrafted chairs from an artisanal manufacturer, Ibarra said, in hopes that her vision would come to life. She customized everything from the dimensions to the colors of the woven cords, with the final price of the chairs coming to almost $7,000.
“I’m not a professional designer, but I did put all of my soul into the chairs and the design,” she said.
Traditionally, these intricate pieces are bought through small businesses where artisans can only be reached by a single name and phone number, Ibarra said. She said she spent hours researching until she found the right manufacturer.
Eduardo Douglas, an associate professor of art history at UNC-CH who specializes in Latin American art emphasized the importance of color and handwoven materials to Mexican culture, specifically in textiles.
Douglas also said the bright colors characteristic of Mexican folk art are also present in the vibrant hues of Que Chula’s chairs.
The colors of the chairs can be interpreted as embodying certain values of the culture. Some of the chairs feature turquoise, which can represent “health and plenty,” according to the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs website. Some feature what is dubbed “Mexican pink” by the Mexican Routes blog, a color known to symbolize passion.
One of Que Chula’s handwoven chairs. Photo: @quechula.tacos on Instagram.
Mexico, especially Jalisco’s capital city of Guadalajara, has a rich art history reaching back thousands of years. Weaving has proved important in preserving indigenous traditions and cultural identity.
“You see it [weaving] all over Mexico and all over museums, houses, craft stores,” Douglas said.
According to an article by Albion Gould, notable weaving techniques include “backstrap weaving, pedal loom weaving, waist loom weaving, and tapestry weaving.” Different patterns can symbolize one’s social status, religious beliefs, and ethnic identity.
“For us, the colors, the weaving, are very emblematic in Mexico,” Ibarra said. “So, I did want to bring that here to the U.S.”
She said it took about three months for the chairs to be crafted and then nearly two weeks to be shipped from Mexico to North Carolina.
The business’s prices were decent, Ibarra said, but importation costs (including those of some woven lamps and ceramic plates she had also ordered) added about $6,500 to the chairs’ total price.
As art pieces that have traveled thousands of miles, Laurena Ibarra emphasized how Que Chula’s woven chairs hold the memories of past generations and bring Mexican culture to life. They’re part of why the restaurant is not only a place that feeds appetites, but one that feeds souls with a homey feeling.
The first time one of the chairs vanished was in 2021. Three more incidents followed, including the most recent on Nov. 15, 2024. While some of the stolen chairs were later found or returned, a total of two chairs remain missing, Ibarra said.
And while the pattern of petty crime disheartens both Laurena Ibarra and José Ramirez, the Chapel Hill community’s supportive response, including positive messages posted on social media, has awed them.
“I was like, ‘Wow, people also appreciate the chairs and feel empathy for us,” Ibarra said. “We feel supported.”
The rest remain in their rightful home: the indoor and outdoor dining areas of Que Chula Tacos. There, the surviving chairs sit in their neon glory, eager to support hungry customers.
Tomorrow: A deep-dive into the initial chair-napping.