The 38 Best Restaurants in the South: Crook's Corner, Chapel Hill Posted Jul 9, 2017 WHAT: The birthplace of the modern Southern culinary movement, sparked by founding chef Bill Neal (who died in 1990) and carried on with heart and intelligence by longtime chef Bill Smith. WHY: If you eat shrimp and grits at only one restaurant in America, make it this one. Smith also has a roster of annual specials that loyalists anticipate with marked calendars. (Eater)