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Each month, we’ll throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands. LOCATION: 4520 N. Tryon St.
Mall orner C n a i s A
Culture, After Shocks THE ACCESS ROAD to the Asian Corner Mall in northeast Charlotte is so pockmarked with potholes, you feel like you’re steering the Mars Rover as you search for a parking space. But your expedition over the rough terrain pays off because of what waits inside. On a summer Saturday, the shopping center bustles with customers, most of them Asian, who’ve come for foods from their native countries. At International Market, a large supermarket just to the right of the central pagoda, a large shrimp counter near the front door emits a distinctive briny smell that hits your nostrils as you walk in.
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Inside, shelves brim with fresh noodles for ramen; packages of crispy, dried seaweed snacks; stacks of cellophane-wrapped jian dui, Chinese sesame balls; and an aisle piled high with dozens of types of tea. Down the long central corridor, you find Le’s Sandwiches and Café, home to one of Charlotte’s best Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches, a baguette stuffed with fresh vegetables and savory meats. When it opened in 1967, Asian Corner Mall was called Tryon Mall, but it transformed during the ’90s into a center for a growing population of immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China, and Thailand. The hallways speak of a
CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // SEPTEMBER 2020
time when the North Tryon corridor was in its heyday: Sunken fountains ringed by ornate metal gates are now dry. The walls, painted a bright yellow, are smudged in spots. On this afternoon, a mom hands her facemasked toddler a package of coconut candies to crinkle in his shopping cart seat as she navigates the grocery aisles. An elderly couple gingerly loads a cart full of groceries—boxes of mangoes, bags overloaded with fresh produce and meats. A man rushes out of the mall with a sandwich in his hand, and your mouth waters in anticipation of the meal to come. —Cristina Bolling
SHAW NIELSEN; CRISTINA BOLLING
Once you’ve bounced through the parking lot, you’ll discover a unique corner of our city
