Noodles & Company, a restaurant that serves Asian, Mediterranean and American noodle dishes, is coming to 214 W. Franklin St., the former site of the Wicked Burrito.

The Wicked Burrito Mexican restaurant closed in 2000, and the building, owned by Lone Star Steakhouse, remained empty for five years. In 2005, Lone Star allowed CarolinaPros, a nonprofit organization, to use the building rent-free on a month-to-month basis.

Renovation has been well under way, and Noodles & Company plans to open the restaurant later this year. The chain, based in Colorado, serves noodle dishes, soups and salads. It opened its first North Carolina restaurant last weekend in Durham, on the campus of the Duke Medical Center.

For information on Noodles & Company, see www.noodles.com.

Visitors Bureau guide wins award

The Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau won the Platinum Hermes Creative Award for its 2008 Official Visitors Guide and a Gold Hermes Creative Award for its recently redesigned and renamed Web site (www.visitchapelhill.org).

Hermes Creative Awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production and free-lance professionals. The organization began in 1995 as a means to honor outstanding achievement and service to the communication profession.

The 2008 competition received 4,000 entries from throughout the United States and several other countries.

Grand opening set in Hillsborough

Weaver Street Market will celebrate the grand opening of its new store in Hillsborough on Friday.

The store, in the Hillsborough’s Gateway Center at 228 S. Churton St., opened for business on Thursday. The grand-opening event will be part of the Last Fridays activities in downtown Hillsborough on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. with marimba music, face painting, Balloonman Bob and Henna tattoos.

The opening of the new store coincides with the 20th anniversary of the opening of the original Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. Birthday cake will be served with Maple View ice cream, souvenir T-shirts will be on sale, and a raffle will be held.

Weaver Street Market has a third location in Chapel Hill’s Southern Village. For information, visit www.weaverstreetmarket.com.

Hoops museum to open on Saturdays

The University of North Carolina Basketball Museum will be open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning July 12.

The museum, located on the first floor of the Ernie Williamson Athletics Center adjacent to the Dean E. Smith Center, has attracted nearly 25,000 visitors since it opened in January.

Starting the week of July 7, the museum will be open every Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday morning, except for University holidays. (The museum will also be closed on July 7.)

Museum hours on home football Saturdays and home basketball games will be announced later and posted on its Web site at www.tarheelblue.com. Admission remains free.

The museum chronicles the history of UNC basketball and includes nearly 500 authentic artifacts, hundreds of photographs and videos of various players, coaches, championships and historic moments.

Music and more downtown Friday

The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Town of Chapel Hill Parks & Recreation Department will present Locally Grown, a series of special events on the last Friday of the month.

This Friday’s event will feature The Backbeat, with opening acts Nikki Meets the Hibachi and The Graves of Fairmount, playing live on the top of the Wallace Deck on East Rosemary Street. Music starts at 7 p.m.

Also on the Wallace Deck will be children’s activities and an arts and crafts market from 7 to 9 p.m. Children’s activities hosted by Kidzu Children’s Museum, the Ackland Art Museum and Active Living by Design will include face painting, children’s activities and a misting tent.

Street performers will perform from 5 to 7 p.m. on West Franklin Street.

For information, visit www.downtownchapelhill.com.

Fundraising bocce tournament set

The Foundation for a Sustainable Community will hold its second annual charity bocce tournament Thursday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The Farm, the UNC Faculty-Staff Recreation Association. The Farm is at 1 Alice Ingram Circle in Chapel Hill.

Bocce originated in Italy and has become a popular game around the world. The relatively simple game is played by teams of two, tossing balls (about the size of a softball) toward a small target ball within a long grass or clay court.

Some 90 players are expected to join this year’s Bocce Tournament to raise more than $8,000 to benefit the Foundation’s community sustainability programs.

For information, see www.carolinachamber.org/events.

Carrboro tests new tire system

Chapel Hill Tire Car Care Center has been working with the Town of Carrboro to increase its vehicle fleet’s fuel efficiency through the use of NitroFill tire inflation technology, which is designed to reduce tire resistance.

Tested on 11 vehicles over a four-month period, the fleet on average received 3.98 percent greater mileage by using the system. The police department saw a 14 percent increase in fuel savings over the same period, with one vehicle reporting savings of 18.13 percent.

Eatery to benefit community radio

The Carolina Brewery will donate a portion of today’s sales to WCOM, Carrboro’s communty radio station. Customers who tell their servers they are there for WCOM will have a portion of their meal ticket donated to the radio station.

For information, call 942-1800.

Small business ‘boot camp’ offered

Local legal and financial professionals will hold the first in a series of complimentary quarterly “boot camps” to help small business owners, beginning Thursday from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce conference room.

The “boot camps” will cover a wide range of topics, beginning with “Six Big Mistakes Small Business Owners Make and How to Avoid Them,” and will address a number of planning strategies available to small business owners.

Through question and answer sessions following our presentations, the events will make for an interactive setting.

Seating is limited for this event and will be taken on a first come- first served basis, so participants should RSVP by Tuesday by e-maling information@seidelgamber.com.