John,

I often ate at the Raleigh Sandwich Shop back in the early ’70s when I lived in Boylan Heights. It was inexpensive and they served plain good food. I usually got pinto beans with grilled onions, cheese and a dash of Tobasco! I liked the grilled cheese sandwich too. I remember well Mr. Capetanos standing behind the U-shaped counter in his white apron and paper hat.

–Raleigh Boy

The N&O profiled Christ Capetanos, former owner of the Raleigh Sandwich Shop, in Sunday’s paper. A very interesting story; here’s the link:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/life_stories/story/1051652.html

I included a few excerpts below:

“When [Capetanos] got out [of the army], he went to work for his brother [John] at the Raleigh Sandwich Shop, a hot dogs, pork chops, cuppa-joe kind of place a block from the State Capitol. At its core, the business was, of course, about food. But there were opportunities for moral stands as well. The restaurant was a de facto meeting place for working-class whites and blacks at a time when the two races didn’t mix in public. There was a partition with blacks and whites on either side, but they shared a jukebox.
‘The cafe was, historically, the only place I know of where blacks and whites ate together in Raleigh,’ said Leon Capetanos, Christ Capetanos’ nephew and John Capetanos’ son.”