Charlotte Magazine June 2021 by Morris Media Network

Travel: Retreat to Historic Jekyll Island p. 23

A Local Writer’s Shot on Jeopardy! p. 28

Does the Promised Supperland Deliver? p. 41

You don’t have to be Olympian Evy Leibfarth to find adventure here

This N.C. teenager is headed to the Tokyo games p. 58

JUNE 2021

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Sand a little softer. Laughs a little louder. The

a little sweeter.

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CONTENTS CHARLOTTE / JUNE 2021 / VOL. 26, NUMBER 6

Features THE OUTDOORS ISSUE

52 58

30 OUTDOOR ESCAPES A curated list of trusted destinations and outdoor groups RAPID RISE Whitewater kayaker Evy Leibfarth competes on sports’ biggest stage BY ALLISON BRADEN

FRESH AIR Keith Cradle’s camping group invites city kids to North Carolina’s state parks BY ANDY SMITH

HOOKED A wave of new, young fishing enthusiasts could outlast the pandemic BY TAYLOR BOWLER

WILD IN THE CITY The only state wildlife enforcement officer in Mecklenburg County makes sure we follow the rules on the water and in the woods BY GREG LACOUR

ON THE COVER: Kayaker Evy Leibfarth at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Photograph by Rusty Williams. ON THIS PAGE: Ruby Ganci, 4, selects a fishing bobber from her tackle box. Photograph by Adam Whitlow. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

06 21 CONTENTS

PETER TAYLOR (2); COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY; COURTESY KIM BRAND

IN EVERY ISSUE 10 From the Editor 12

Connect

You Are Here

THE GUIDE 89 Restaurants The city’s savviest restaurant listings

THE BUZZ 15 Life Lessons Longtime Observer reporter Jim Morrill on retirement, loss, and the altered states of politics and journalism 18

Community Pastor and community advocate Darryl Gaston devoted himself to Druid Hills

THE GOOD LIFE 23 Travel Jekyll Island’s majestic resort 28

Culture A Charlottean recalls his Jeopardy! appearance 21 years ago

Style Boardroom Socks CEO Nathan James

Room We Love A modern, very green breakfast nook

Building History How Ben Douglas transformed Charlotte’s built environment

Hot Listings High-end townhomes, low-maintenance living

Playlist The best things to do and see this month

Seen The city’s best party pics

FOOD + DRINK 41 Now Open Supperland shines in an old place of worship 44

Local Flavor Camp North End’s thriving food scene

Beer Asheville’s Burial Beer comes to Plaza Midwood

On the Line Brian Stockholm and Shelley Odom

The Story Behind Harriet’s Hamburgers’ Jucy Lucy

Bite-Sized News Foodie tidbits on a small plate JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Volume 26, Number 6

JUNE 2021

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F RO M T H E E D I TO R

OPEN WORLD

How a video game brought me to the great outdoors

www.charlottemagazine.com PUBLISHER Allison Hollins ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Gail Dougherty ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jessica Santee

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR Andy Smith SENIOR EDITOR Greg Lacour LIFESTYLE EDITOR Taylor Bowler COPY EDITOR/FACT-CHECKER Allison Braden CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tamiya Anderson, Cristina Bolling, Gavin Edwards, Tom Hanchett ART & PHOTOGRAPHY ART DIRECTOR Jane Fields CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jonathan Cooper, Daniel Coston, Logan Cyrus, Rick Hovis, Andy McMillan, Peter Taylor, Adam Whitlow, Rusty Williams CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Maribeth Kiser, Shaw Nielsen DIGITAL DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER Alyssa Ruane CONTENT COORDINATOR Kendra Kuhar

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THE ARRIVAL OF THREE PRODUCTS to the Smith home in spring 2020 mitigated a challenging season. Legion Brewing released Juicy Jay IPA cans just before lockdown. Then Tiger King, a Netflix docuseries with zero likable subjects, entranced the world when it dropped on March 20. The same day, Animal Crossing: New Horizons debuted on Nintendo Switch. I bought Animal Crossing, the fifth in a series of life-simulation video games, for my older daughter. Somehow, both of us became enthralled with its primary mission: to build and maintain an island for her character and Andy Smith andrew.smith@charlottemagazine.com anthropomorphic animal friends. We took different approaches to improving the island. By day, my 6-year-old made wild and irresponsible choices with her in-game currency—like putting one bridge across a river right next to another, perfectly functional bridge. She also purchased dozens of dresses of slightly different hues before she upgraded her tent to a house. At night, I would make up for her financial negligence by generating money the Animal Crossing way: outdoor activities like fishing, hunting, gardening, and woodand metalworking. We found that fishing was the most lucrative activity. Every day, we’d buy gear at the Nook’s Cranny store, operated by a pair of shrewd raccoons named Timmy and Tommy, and head to the game’s ponds, rivers, and ocean. Fish here come in both common and rare varieties, with different awards for each species. Because the game faithfully recreates actual animals, each conquest became a new opportunity to teach my daughter about the natural world from our living room. She couldn’t fathom an oarfish, for example. YouTube offered proof via educational videos on the 26-foot-long monster, and we promised each other we’d search for one on our next beach vacation. The biggest joy came in relating the game’s wilds to Charlotte-area ecosystems, from the critters of Lake Norman State Park to the urban forests of Freedom Park. National reporting from the Los Angeles Times and Vogue emphasized Animal Crossing’s special place in video game history: During a time when the outside world seemed most frightening, Animal Crossing ignited a generation of young gamers’ passion for it. I hope this issue offers another unlikely gateway to the outdoors for Charlotte’s perpetual “indoor kids” like me. Starting on page 52, we took care to craft a lineup of stories that appeal to those folks and locals with an existing love of adventure. Novices and hobbyists alike can find so many activities within minutes of the city (see our handy map on page 54). Of the many lessons of the past year, our June 2021 edition underscores that none of us should take the outside world for granted.

ADVERTISING SERVICE COORDINATOR Sharonda Howard

MEET OUR TOP AGENT ADVISORY BOARD Congratulations to our top agents who earned their place on our advisory board in 2020. Although 2020 was more challenging, these agents overcame the obstacles of the pandemic and were still able to serve their clients in new and innovative ways. This included showings and inspections over Facetime & Zoom, parking lot closings, and more. Our advisory board is tasked with finding new ways to help our clients in finding their perfect home. The group below were also instrumental in kicking off the Homeowners Impact Fund in 2020. These agents donated over $16,000 to the foundation that was started to end homelessness in the Charlotte, NC community. Over $52,500 was donated to A Roof Above, Charlotte Family Housing, and Safe Alliance last year to help our neighbors have a roof over their head. To learn more about this initiative started by the real estate community please visit homeownersimpactfund.org. Dickens Mitchener has seen a tremendous start to 2021 and we look forward to continuing to serve our clients, old and new the rest of the year.

Pictured (left to right): Michael Nester, Sherry George, Kelly Catanese, Kathy Lancaster, Jennifer Saarbach, Celeste Horton, Andi Morgan, Ducie Stark, Jimmy Rountree, Missy Stewart, Ashley McMillan, Stevee Baskerville, Sarah Craft Curme, Vicky Mitchener, Suzanne Coddington, Jeff Murdock, Ellen Gibson, Meghan Lluberas, Sharon Rountree, Catharine Pappas, Andrea Roether & Sarah Szczodrowski. Not pictured: Amanda Blackburn, Aubrey Grier, Joan Goode, Liz Lea, Sherry Molella, Isabel Roberts, Shelly Rydell, Winnie Simmons & Lisa Whetstone. 2330 Randolph Road | Charlotte, NC 28207 704.661.2402 | dickensmitchener.com

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Responses to the April issue of Charlotte magazine

Lake Norman Instagram comment by @classic_hill.ltd We love us some Lake Norman time Instagram comment by @skatellscharlotte How do I get this from Virginia? Instagram comment by @zakwenning To: “‘Don’t Forget,’” p. 13 Tryon CEO Dr. Dale Owen talks 1 year of pandemic, our response strategy and how it’s not over yet. Tweet from @TryonMedical To: “A Worthy Statement,” p. 22 Les go sista … im proud of you Facebook comment by Calvin Sheppard To: “The Foundation Builder,” p. 26 When I started in the electrical trade 20 years ago there was always one or two older white haired masons amongst the masons. I always held these Dudes in such high esteem without realizing why. To read this article is to read a glimpse into the history of a time honored tradition with many buildings still standing to this very day built by time weathered hands and faces. Facebook comment by Bill Fiesser

When my family moved to Charlotte in 1953, they worked at JCSU and actually lived in Carter Hall as « house parents » and worked in Biddle Hall. Later we joined the 7th Street Presbyterian Church, all 3 buildings are pictured in this article. Interestingly, when I worked for the NW Corridor CDC, my office was also in Biddle Hall. Facebook comment by Ike Heard Brickmasonry was a path to the middle class for many Black families in segregation-era NC. My ex grandfather-in-law built almost all the municipal buildings in Elizabeth City. I’m glad you are telling these stories, Tom! Facebook comment by Emiene Wright I got yesterday my Charlotte Magazine and I started a few weeks ago a collection of a collection of all your articles. Facebook comment by Nadine Herygers Dixon I just subscribed to their email. Let me know when your Dilworth article runs. I also am interested in this article, particularly with the brick at our house, although much earlier. Facebook comment by Pam Everhardt Bloom

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

To: “¡Sabroso!,” p. 35 Our sister restaurant getting the props they deserve!! Love it! Instagram comment by @juanloconc Yum!!! Instagram comment by @shadiecopelandinteriors To: “Vegan Soul,” p. 38 Soul food isn’t meant to be healthy ...? Tweet from @widar01

ON THE WEB Want more to read? Check out these popular stories on charlottemagazine.com. 1.

Salud Beer Shop Wins ‘Best Beer Bar’ in the U.S. for 3rd Straight Year The Batchmaker Returning With New Batch House Location in West End Asheville’s Burial Beer Expanding to Charlotte

This looks amazing, (Executive Editor) Andy Smith Can we check this out next time I visit? Facebook comment by Mandee Whitmore To: “One-Track Mind,” p. 66 The end result is pretty impressive. Tweet from @Cara My father would have loved to see this Facebook comment by Julie Marr Very cool Facebook comment by Isa Bertelli Beautiful set up! Tweet from @bait1022 omg Facebook comment by Yolanda Ramirez

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INSIDE: LIFE LESSONS / COMMUNITY

BUZZ

THE

WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY

LI F E L E SS O N S

JIM MORRILL

The longtime Observer reporter on retirement, the altered states of politics and journalism, and how he’s weathered a devastating personal loss BY GREG LACOUR | PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK HOVIS

LAST YEAR, nearly four decades after The Charlotte Observer had hired him as a reporter in its Rock Hill, South Carolina, bureau—and after 11 national conventions, 10 Presidential elections, and too many campaigns and interviews to even try to count—Jim Morrill decided that, at 70, it was time to retire. Morrill had been the paper’s primary political reporter since 1987, chronicling the Tar Heel State’s emergence as one of the most

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE BUZZ important swing states in America and the assorted missteps and peccadillos of the politically prominent. The native of Aurora, Illinois, graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 1972 and moved south in 1979 to work for The Herald in Rock Hill, then landed his first Observer job two years later. Morrill covered Charlotte city government, then state and national politics, as the city grew and, in his last decade or so, his industry withered. Toward the end, he and wife Kathy Haight, a fellow Observer reporter, suffered a monumental personal loss: Their younger son, Will, was killed in a late-night car accident. Morrill had thought about retiring before then. But he kept going for another two years, in part to cover one more presidential campaign and a national political convention but also because, in his grief, he decided work would be good for him. We spoke with him in February, a little more than a month into retirement. His comments are edited for space and clarity. DIFFERENT REPORTERS have different styles, and some reporters are pretty out there, you know, dogs on a leash, ready to go—and that’s just not my personality, for better or worse. But if I’m on a good story, I can stick to it, and I go after the story. THERE ARE A LOT of memorable people I’ve had the chance to cover. But when you’re covering (the late U.S. Senator) Jesse Helms or (former Governor) Jim Hunt, you’re aware that these guys are part of history, that they’re historical players, not only in North Carolina but in the country. I didn’t get along with Jesse Helms, particularly. After he had left office and he was kind of in his later years, I went to interview him, and he was complimentary and friendly and not the guy who had yelled at me a couple of times before that, you know. But you see history sort of unfold, and you become aware of that later. I WAS JUST LOOKING THIS UP, actually. When I came here in 1980, the population of Charlotte was just over 300,000, and now it’s three times that. The Observer was at the end of a real dead street, in a dead zone in downtown Charlotte. There were a couple of greasy spoons a block or two up the street on Tryon, but getting something to eat at noon was a challenge.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Will Morrill (far right in photo), the younger son of Jim Morrill and his wife, fellow journalist Kathy Haight, was killed in a car crash near Black Mountain in 2018. He was 23. Their older son, Max, is a Navy officer.

When I first covered the City Council, that was the year (1983) that Harvey Gantt won election for the first time (as mayor), and it was the year that Richard Vinroot won for the first time, too, to be on the City Council. The City Council was pretty evenly divided at the time, and for years, that kind of went back and forth depending on who won the at-large seats. as to which party controlled the council. ... It was always a kind of a balanced city. AND I REMEMBER LOOKING at the 2004 presidential results for North Carolina and for Mecklenburg County, and that was the first year, I think, that Mecklenburg County had gone blue in a presidential race, and I went, “Oh, my God.” You know, John Kerry and John Edwards—OK, Edwards was a local guy, but Mecklenburg County had been red before that. So to see the Charlotte that we have today, both economically but also politically, is just so, so different. NORTH CAROLINA’S SO DIFFERENT, too. It’s about twice the size that it was in 1980, ’81. Back then, it was all Democrats up there; Republicans were an afterthought. ... And in Presidential races, North Carolina was flyover country for a long, long time. Presidential candidates, if they came to North Carolina, would come to raise money—the ATM analogy—and, of course, that changed in 2008. So we’ve gone from a real statewide Democratic state to a real purple state. … Demographics is destiny, right? And North Carolina cities keep growing. Look at Charlotte, the growth in the Triangle. They get bluer and bluer, and the red counties keep getting older and

whiter. So I guess the battle is going to be the suburban counties looking forward. IT’S BEEN SAD (to watch the decline of newspapers). ... The people who are still there are doing a great job under difficult circumstances, frankly. I mean, you have a pandemic, you have a lot of young reporters who are very, very good and do a lot of work. There was one the other day (Alison Kuznitz) who wrote every story on the front page. ... And the pandemic has really cut off opportunities for her to see people in person and get to know people and start building the relationships that we relied on and that you take for granted. But it made me feel like my job was more important, if that makes sense, because I thought I could do something that there weren’t a lot of other people doing—not because I was better, but because a lot of them had left for whatever reason. (The most important lesson he learned in his career) BE FAIR TO PEOPLE. There are oftentimes two sides to stories—not always, but sometimes. You know, just give people the benefit of the doubt and treat people fairly. YOU’VE GOT TO TRUTH-SQUAD everything. We used to do these TV ad watches during campaigns and truth-squad things, and then it became like truth-squadding stuff in every story, almost. Stuff like QAnon—I mean, it’s just ridiculous and crazy, but I think you just keep writing the truth and not get sucked into the noise machine. ... People try to control the message a lot more on both sides. They don’t want independent reporters telling the story. They want to control it.

(Ed.: Will Morrill, 23, was killed when his SUV ran off Interstate 40 near Black Mountain and hit a tree. He was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.) IT WAS THE MORNING of Nov. 30, 2018. I had just gotten up, and there was a knock on the door, and there were two Highway Patrol officers there. It’s the kind of knock you never want to get, and it’s been tough. It’s tough. It was tough then. It’s been tough ever since. You know, it’s like ripping your heart out every day when you think about it, and about all the things that might have been. MY WAY OF DEALING WITH IT is by doing things. There’s a lot to do after an accident like that, involving probate and all that stuff. But we also set up a scholarship for him at Appalachian*, and people have been very, very generous in contributing money. And then his fraternity at App State started the Morrill Mile. We had a couple of hundred people one Saturday at Sanford Mall, which is like their quad, and a band, and people walked around. It was a fundraiser, and it raised about $10,000 for the scholarship. They gave their first scholarship out this past year, which was good, and it’s an annual thing. ... So we’re trying to make sure that his memory stays alive.

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I THINK IT KEPT ME WORKING for a couple of more years, frankly. I’d thought about retiring maybe earlier. In 2018, I was 68. I guess I wasn’t really ready to retire, either, and when that happened, I think I kind of needed a place to go, something to do. So that kept me working. … And that (2020 Republican National) convention just sort of fizzled out, thank God. … But I was glad we got a chance to do one (in 2012). That was another illustration of how Charlotte has changed: You go from being flyover country to hosting a damn convention. I never thought we’d see that. *Will Morrill graduated from Appalachian State University in May 2018.

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GREG LACOUR is senior editor of this magazine. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE BUZZ

CO M M U N I T Y

THE MAYOR OF NORTH END Darryl Gaston, a pastor and community advocate who died in February, devoted himself to Druid Hills BY TAMIYA ANDERSON

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

to buy land cheap, rebuild, and resell—in the process hiking land values and forcing longtime residents out. That year, Gaston and leaders in seven other historically Black neighborhoods—including Graham Heights, The Park at Oaklawn, Greenville, and Genesis Park—founded an organization rare in a city high on its own growth: the North End Community Coalition, a partnership with a mission to “preserve, protect, and persevere.” The area’s surge toward gentrification really picked up two years later, when the real estate development company ATCO bought a 76-acre former industrial site off Graham and began to plan the Camp North End mixed-use complex. When Gaston died unexpectedly on Feb. 20, he left behind a legacy of community leadership that helped balance the developers’ expansion plans against the needs and desires of North End residents whose roots, like Gaston’s, went back generations. “Though he had a good relationship with my predecessor, who I was running

Darryl Gaston spent all of his 59 years in the Druid Hills neighborhood and helped found the North End Community Coalition. (Above) Gaston at the Birds, Nature, and Community Festival at Druid Hills Park in 2019; (left) Gaston at a recent coalition workshop.

against, he was still very welcoming and warm to me,” says City Council member Larken Egleston, whose District 1 includes the North End, and who considered Gaston a friend. Two days after his death, Mayor Vi Lyles signed a city proclamation in Gaston’s honor, and Egleston read it aloud from the dais. “You could not have an interaction with Darryl and not leave in a better mood.” Darryl and Melissa met when both were planning a community event and married in 2014; their advocacy led North End residents to affectionately refer to them as “Team Gaston.” (As of this writing, Continued on page 20

COURTESY KIM BRAND; KENN SHRADER

DARRYL GASTON SMILED at the crowd as he made his way from a blue canopy tent to the center of a crowd of volunteers. It was a sunny Saturday in May 2019 at Druid Hills Neighborhood Park, and the occasion was the Birds, Nature, and Community Festival—the first-ever festival in the historically Black neighborhood off North Graham Street northeast of uptown, organized by Gaston and the Mecklenburg Audubon Society. Gaston, a pastor and community advocate, paused now and then to marvel at the beauty of the park and the people. When visitors thanked and complimented him for his work, he had a standard response, says his widow, Melissa: “To God be the glory.” Druid Hills is one of a cluster of predominantly Black neighborhoods north of uptown along the Graham and Statesville Avenue corridors, and Gaston lived there, in a house on Edison Street that his grandparents had bought, for all of his 59 years. He eventually came to lead the neighborhood association—a position that by 2014 gave him a clear understanding that Charlotte’s real estate market was primed to explode. Neighborhoods like Druid Hills were ripe for developers who wanted

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THE BUZZ

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

(Clockwise from above) Darryl Gaston’s older brother, William, holds Darryl as a young child; the house on Edison Street where Darryl lived; Darryl (center, in black T-shirt) at National Night Out 2019 in Druid Hills Park.

(Above) City Council member Larken Egleston with Darryl and his wife, Melissa; (left) Darryl and Melissa Gaston (in blue top) at a recent North End Community Coalition workshop.

mobile food market to sell fresh produce in an area short of grocery stores. Gaston fostered one-on-one connections, too. In addition to his community work and his pastorship at Smallwood Presbyterian Church, he worked for 23 years as an instructor at the now-closed Hairstyling Institute of Charlotte. Justin Markel was a regular client. “I was homeless for about four years, and while I was living at the Men’s Shelter, there was a barber school over on Kings Drive, and I was like a guinea pig for the students,” Markel says. “Darryl was one of the instructors there, and I always knew him

as Mr. G.” Once he found housing, Markel began attending neighborhood association meetings and eventually became its vice president. “I think Darryl has represented the city well, and I just want his work to continue,” Melissa says. “I want people to realize that they are visible, vital, and valuable, and to keep doing what they do to make Druid Hills a better place for everybody.”

TAMIYA ANDERSON is a writer in Concord. She has also written for Our State and QC Exclusive and worked at Blue Crow Publishing in Chapel Hill.

COURTESY WILLIAM GASTON; MELISSA GASTON; KENN SHRADER (2); LARKEN EGLESTON

Melissa Gaston had not made public his cause of death.) The two believed strongly in interaction with people and companies who eyed North End neighborhoods for development, and they didn’t hesitate when ATCO bought the Camp North End property in December 2016. “One of the first things we did was reach out to them to get to know them and their plans for the community,” Melissa says. “Darryl was big on relationship-building, and even with gentrification going on, gentrification was going to bring resources to the community that we don’t currently have, from a grocery store to a bank.” ATCO, a New York-based company that stresses community involvement in its plans, listened to North End residents’ concerns about affordable housing, which influenced the firm’s plans for apartments at the complex. “To the extent that we’ve been successful with community engagement, I really credit Darryl,” says Varian Shrum, Camp North End’s community manager. “We’re redeveloping buildings in a traditionally Black neighborhood, and so of course we are conscientious about that. We want to connect with the community genuinely, and he was a leader in the community wanting to reach out and connect with projects in his neighborhood genuinely so he could help shape the future of his neighborhood.” One of Gaston’s strengths was his ability to connect the various leaders of North End organizations—he wasn’t satisfied with advocacy just for his native Druid Hills. He understood the value of the North End coalition as a group that could wield more power than neighborhood associations would on their own. “He created more structure by bringing some stronger organizations to the neighborhoods and gave them more collective influence on the things that were taking place along the North End, whether it was redevelopment or government investment,” Egleston says. Gaston made sure North End residents knew about the city’s Aging in Place program, established in 2019 to help low-income seniors stay in their homes after a Mecklenburg County revaluation resulted in a steep increase to property tax bills. When COVID struck, Gaston helped lead North End Coalition efforts to provide computers and internet access and arrange for a

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INSIDE: TRAVEL / CULTURE / STYLE / ROOM WE LOVE / HISTORY / REAL ESTATE

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MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIVING HERE

Jekyll Island Club Resort’s signature Victorian turret.

COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY

T R AV E L

Where History Retreats Itself

At Jekyll Island’s majestic resort, visitors sense the history of its Gilded Age founders around every corner BY ANDY SMITH

ONE FEELS SOMEWHAT ANACHRONISTIC pulling into this particular Georgia driveway in a 2016 Honda Odyssey. The 133-year-old Jekyll Island Club Resort, with its signature Victorian turret, stands in majesty among southern live oaks entwined in Spanish moss. It was once lodging for the Jekyll Island Club, a hunting and recreational group whose members at one point controlled one-sixth of the world’s wealth. Its ledger carried names like Rockefeller,

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE

Other Jekyll Island attractions: STAY

Several original structures— some of which you can stay in, each with its own fascinating story—surround JEKYLL ISLAND CLUB RESORT. ISLAND CLUB COTTAGES offer more room and privacy, among other features: Sans Souci was one of the nation’s first condominiums, and the Italian Renaissancestyle CRANE COTTAGE has a sunken garden often used for weddings. Though you can’t stay there, the HOLLYBOURNE COTTAGE is worth touring: Founding club member Charles Stewart Maurice, one of the great American bridge designers, built the house like a bridge— it’s supported by a system of trusses with wings that float on piers in the basement.

The resort’s GRAND DINING ROOM and pier restaurant THE WHARF are both upscale options. But if you want to explore, I submit this concept for lunch: beach pizza. RED BUG MOTORS PIZZA (redbugmotorspizza.com), which has both traditional and thin-crust, serves a specialty pie popular with locals: the Red Bug Special, with pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, red onions, and black olives. The beach (and Jekyll Island Miniature Golf) is a short walk away, so bring a blanket when it’s ’za time. For dinner, head to TORTUGA JACK’S RESTAURANT (tortugajacks.com), a BajaMexican joint with live music and sizable burritos. Some visitors can’t resist a margarita inside a hand-hollowed souvenir coconut with a painted pirate face. (The author is “some visitors.” That thing now sits in his office.)

The Wharf is the island’s only restaurant on the water.

Vanderbilt, and Pulitzer. This is where club member J.P. Morgan arranged a secret meeting to formulate the Federal Reserve—a private session in 1910 that participants wouldn’t acknowledge for another two decades. As I climb the hotel’s grand, creaking staircase with my family’s duffel bags, I wonder what the club’s billionaire founders would think of the modest inhabitants of room 406. Class, though, is in the eye of the stakeholder. Morgan, the banker and co-founder of U.S. Steel and General Electric, died in 1913 with a net worth of $80 million, or $1.2 billion today. Fellow island visitor John D. Rockefeller remarked, “And to think, he wasn’t even a rich man.” He wasn’t being sarcastic; these people really talked like that. The Jekyll Island Club’s 60-year history is full of these tidbits, backroom deals and bitter rivalries among yesterday’s titans of industry. If you’re entranced by such details, it becomes a micro-obsession during your stay. During daytime activities, you make notes on which Wikipedia rabbit holes you’ll burrow into at night.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

The Italian Renaissancestyle Crane Cottage has a sunken garden often used for weddings.

The resort’s centralized lobby bar is our first stop. Though it looks period-specific, it’s actually left over from the 2000 film The Legend of Bagger Vance. The golf movie, set in the ’30s, used parts of the property as its backdrop, Continued on page 26

COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY

EAT

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THE GOOD LIFE DO

JEKYLL ISLAND’S GEORGIA SEA TURTLE CENTER (gstc.jekyllisland. com) is just 300 yards from the resort. The center protects, rehabilitates, and educates the public on these vulnerable species, found along the Atlantic coast from here to New England. (A guide tells us the Sea Turtle Center occupies what once was the power plant for the Jekyll Island Club.) Club members constructed the FAITH CHAPEL in 1904, and it contains one of only a few stained-glass windows in the world constructed and signed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. For history buffs, a broader suggestion: Take every tour you can. The island has several, and each offers a fascinating new detail about its complicated history.

Learn more about Jekyll Island’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center (above and left) or take a Gatorology tour (below) through Jekyll Island Authority (JIA).

and production created this bar for a few scenes. The resort owners liked the design so much, they kept it. I mention the convenience of having the bar close to the elevator, and the masked mixologist drops a factoid: In the early days of the club, wealthy visitors would bring down strapping lads from the north to run the site’s hand-operated elevator. They’d get free lodging in exchange for pulling Vanderbilts to and from their rooms throughout the day. On the morning after our arrival, my family embarks on a guided nature walk. Even here, we sense the presence of the now-defunct Jekyll Island Club. Ray Emerson, lead park ranger for the Jekyll Island Authority, describes how the club changed the ecology of the Golden Isles’ southernmost island: When the sportsmen ran out of pheasants or deer, they simply imported more. They also stocked and restocked non-indigenous game, which further upset the balance of these wilds. Georgia purchased Jekyll Island for use as a state park in 1947, after the Great Depression and World War II ravaged club membership. Since then, animal inhabit-

ants—from white-tailed deer to marsh hares—have led safer and longer lives. During our walk, a passerby tells Emerson that a tourist is “provoking a gator” a few yards down the path. “OK,” he replies. “Would hate for him to become lunch.”

just steps from the path. It appears the provoker has moved on. For the rest of our stay, we find that it checks the boxes of a coastal vacation, as we peruse the 10 miles of gorgeous shoreline and a trove of trinket shops. Its most Instagrammable area (and that’s saying something) is Driftwood Beach, where seawater has killed the trees of a former maritime forest as, over centuries, the island’s northern end eroded. The Atlantic has left an otherworldly landscape of dead trunks and gnarled clusters of branches. The quality (and range) of the dining measures up to the scenery: The resort’s AAA Four Diamond restaurant, Grand Dining Room, serves elegant seafood and Southern dishes, while offproperty spots (see sidebar) have casual options for visitors on the go. If you are interested enough, each ticked box unlocks new insight on the island’s former owners. Documentaries and biopics are one thing. When’s the last time you had the opportunity to inhabit history?

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

It turns out that the ranger knows the 6-foot American alligator and her mate, who frequents one of the island’s four golf courses. (Three of those are championship, 18-hole courses.) The JIA tracks several Alligator mississippiensis specimens. (JIA literature assures us that visitors who respect the island’s wildlife and remain a “generous distance” from gators will be safe.) When we pass the gator, she’s soaking up rays in the water

ANDY SMITH is executive editor of this magazine.

COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY

Georgia purchased Jekyll Island for use as a state park in 1947, after the Great Depression and World War II ravaged club membership. Since then, animal inhabitants—from white-tailed deer to marsh hares— have led safer and longer lives.

We may have all been in this together, but we’re getting out of it together, too. Every person — and family — we vaccinate is a reminder that we’re a part of a community. And we all have a part to play. The Montauti family was ready. Are you? Learn more at ThisIsMyShot.com

THE GOOD LIFE

CU LT U R E

I Lost On Jeopardy!

This Charlottean recollects his appearance on the beloved game show 21 years ago

IT IS A MONDAY MORNING in early 2000, and I am wearing my best suit, peering into the middle distance, and trying to ignore a jaunty piece of music written by Merv Griffin. I am playing in the Final Jeopardy round of Jeopardy!—and I don’t know the answer. (Or, if you prefer, the question.) I read the clue again: “Venetians called him ‘Il Milione,’ man of the million lies.” A politician, maybe? I riffle through the index cards of my mind: Mussolini? Machiavelli? Neither seem right. I know I’m playing a game, but I have only 30 seconds to come up with the right answer, and at this moment, nothing has ever seemed more important. Growing up, I was a bookworm—but I loved to miss school, because that meant a whole morning of game shows. As a kid, it seemed natural that most rewarded enthusiasm as much as intellectual ability. Many of my favorites went off the air as the years went by (R.I.P., The Joker’s Wild, with the category All Those Ologies), but Jeopardy! came back from the dead in 1984 and took over the world, like a

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

zombie movie where the walking dead ask, “What are brains?” Maybe it was the rigorous nature of the contest, with no gimmick beyond phrasing your answer in the form of a question. Maybe it was the unflappable presence of the late, great host Alex Trebek. Or maybe it was that damn theme music (called “Think!,” it turns out). But when I turned 30 and made a list of life goals, my top two unfulfilled dreams were visiting Australia and appearing on Jeopardy! So on a business trip to Los Angeles, I delayed my flight home so I could try out for the show. Auditions, to my surprise, took place in the Jeopardy! studio in Culver City: We sat in the audience’s seats and were given ballpoint pens emblazoned with the show’s logo. The crowd was culled with a written test: 50 mediumhard trivia questions. If you got at least 35 right, as roughly 12 out of 100 aspirants did that day, you were invited to stick around. Everyone else? The producers encouraged them to tell their friends that they missed the cutoff by exactly one question.

Those of us who stayed behind played a few sample rounds of trivia, but the producers didn’t care who won: They were judging us on camera-readiness and our ability to follow instructions. I decided that my competition, mostly men, fell into three categories. Some were definitely out: The guy who showed up in denim cutoff shorts and kept mumbling into his shoulder was treated politely but wasn’t going to end up on national TV. The two beautiful, confident brunette women, however, were definitely in. I pegged myself toward the top of the middle group: I had a good shot but not a guarantee. The producers sent us home with our ballpoint pens and told us that if we didn’t hear from them in 12 months, we could audition again. For the next year, I videotaped every episode of Jeopardy!, then watched it with a remote control and “buzzed in” by hitting the pause button. I learned about the gaps in my knowledge (geography, Canadian history) and tried to fill them in with a spackle of facts and flash cards. But as week after week passed, I assumed

LOGAN CYRUS

BY GAVIN EDWARDS

COURTESY

I hadn’t made the cut. After 11 months, on the day after I got home from vacation (Australia!), I got a call inviting me to return to Culver City to be a Jeopardy! contestant. I bought a plane ticket and reserved a hotel room—the show didn’t pay expenses—and, a few weeks later, showed up at the Sony studios with four changes of clothes. That was an optimistic wardrobe, brought just in case I was a five-time champion. Based on my practice at home, I figured I had a better-than-even chance of winning, but I knew I could get unlucky with the categories or get smoked by a superstar trivia maven. JEOPARDY! TAPED EVERY TWO WEEKS: five episodes on Monday before an audience of out-of-towners, then five episodes on Tuesday for the Californians. Backstage, the contestants milled awkwardly and made small talk about past champions and Babe the Blue Ox. Everyone snapped to attention when the producers picked the first two challengers of the day. I was one of them—I swigged an early-morning Diet Coke and went onstage. My opponents: Bobby, a friendly ER doctor, and the returning champion, Gregg, a bearded paralegal. The first clue, in the 1860s category: “In March 1867, Secretary of State Seward arranged to buy this ‘icebox’ for a total of $7.2 million.” I buzzed in and confidently asked, “What is Alaska?”—and got a “yes!” from Alex that felt like a fireworks show in my brain. Like most people, I could read the clues in less time than Alex Trebek would take to say them aloud. So my routine was to read the clue to myself, take a moment to formulate the answer, and then tune back in to Alex’s voice just as he finished— which was when a (literal) lightbulb went on and we were allowed to buzz in. If I buzzed in early, I’d be locked out for 0.4 seconds, a geological era in this setting. All three contestants in a Jeopardy! match are smart, or at least facile with trivia, and the show likes to make them look even smarter. For example, I got a $500 clue in the U.S.A. category: “At 306 feet high, the Bennington Battle Monument in this state was once the tallest battle monument in the world.” Answering it correctly gave me the veneer of expertise in battle monument trivia, but it meant only that I had a high school friend who went to Bennington College in Vermont.

The secret of the game: It comes down to hand-eye coordination. When all three contestants know the answer, as they often do, the winner is the one who has the quick-draw rhythm. If you’ve ever seen a contestant frantically hammering on the buzzer like a junkie with a morphine drip, it’s not that their buzzer’s busted—they’re just a few frustrating microseconds behind the pace. The writer Gavin Edwards (right) with Alex Trebek

GREGG, IT TURNED OUT, was a on Jeopardy! in 2000. monster on the buzzer. I scored with “What is broccoli?” and “What’s a dipstick?,” but he steadily pulled small talk for the cameras. (His chosen away. (Not that I had time to panic—every- topic: the Lakers.) thing was flying by incredibly quickly.) In the second round, Double Jeopardy, I MY EPISODE AIRED a few months later. chewed up the Grammys category, scoring I had friends over, even though I knew it big money with clues about Tejano and wouldn’t end with champagne. Coming in spoken-word albums, and I even landed second is a weird thing to brag about, and on a Daily Double: “Burning Spear won for any impulse I might have had to do so was best album in this musical category with vitiated when I got to know Ken Jennings, ‘Calling Rastafari.’” I overthought it and 74-time Jeopardy! champion. (He contribalmost blurted out “What is ‘Best Reggae uted an illustration to a book I edited, The Album by a Solo Artist’?” before realizing I Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses.) No matter how accomplished you are, there’s could just say, “What is reggae?” I had $5,500, only $1,600 behind always someone who did better. (Unless Gregg—but then he grabbed control of you’re Ken Jennings, I guess.) the board and ran away with the match. When I got home from my prize trip to When the round ended a few minutes Paris, something happened that I didn’t later, he had $15,300, I still had $5,500, and expect: I stopped watching Jeopardy! Bobby had $1,100. Before Final Jeopardy, I was genuinely happy for Gregg, who announcer Johnny Gilbert revealed the seemed like a good dude; the prize money prizes for the runners-up: second place was life-changing for him because it paid received a trip to France, while third place for graduate school. I didn’t feel bitter— got a pair of bicycles. Bobby turned to me except when I watched a Jeopardy! and said, “Hey, you’re going to France!” episode that I felt I could have won. So Barring insane wagers, our placement I found other ways to get my trivia fix: I was locked in, and somehow that made permanently altered the balance of power it feel essential for me to leave the stage in my in-laws’ marathon men-versuswith a correct answer. When Alex read women Trivial Pursuit games. I had the memory of my adventure, I the clue in the Historic People category, my plan to save face, however, ran up had the ballpoint pen, and I had a go-to against Il Milione. karaoke song, to the tune of Greg Kihn’s “Why Venice?” I wondered. Then, in “Jeopardy,” but with “Weird Al” Yankovic’s a game that rewarded knowledge that lyrics: “I was there to match my intellect ran an inch deep but a mile wide, I had on national TV,” I would belt out. “I lost on a genuine moment of mental synthesis. I Jeopardy, baby.” If I didn’t have the intelremembered that Marco Polo had died in lectual ability on that Monday morning in a Venetian debtor’s prison because, when 2000, at least I had the enthusiasm. In my the explorer returned from China with life, that turned out to be enough. tales of the Far East, many people thought he had made it all up. “Who is Marco Polo?” was correct, it turned out—so I GAVIN EDWARDS is the author of 12 books, most stood a little taller when we gathered with recently Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Alex while the credits rolled and made Matters Now More Than Ever. He lives in Charlotte. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE ST YL E

Socks Appeal

Nathan James and Boardroom Socks pull on a cozy piece of North Carolina’s past

“PRIOR TO GETTING INTO THIS BUSINESS, I would never have appreciated a well-made sock,” Nathan James says with a laugh. “Socks were very utilitarian, not really men’s fashion. Over the last decade, they’ve gone from being practical to more of a statement.” The 29-year-old CEO of Boardroom Socks, the Charlotte-based company his parents launched in 2010, sells more than 50 styles and colors of cotton and wool men’s dress socks. The classic ribbed sock is its bestseller, but it offers a range of colors and patterns in mid-calf and over-the-calf varieties. James plans to expand later this year with a line of no-show socks designed for loafers and boat shoes. “A sock sounds like such a basic thing, but it’s amazing how complex it is to make,” James says. The “raw material”—the yarn—goes through the industrial knitting machines in their Lexington factory. From there, it travels to a finishing plant in Granite Falls, outside Hickory, where the socks are cleaned, packaged, warehoused, and shipped. “One pair of socks has to go through so many pairs of hands,” he says. “It’s amazing how many jobs that one sock impacts.” James comes from a long line of textile titans who’ve supported the industry in North Carolina. “I’m seventh or eighth generation,” he says. “One of my greatgreat-grandfathers opened our family’s original textile mill in Alamance County.” His great-grandfather imported silk and manufactured women’s hose. His great-uncle ran a sweater mill, and his grandfather started a yarn brokerage business, where his father started working in the 1970s. Growing up in Greensboro, James and his older brother would go to their dad’s warehouse to help him package yarn and ship it to customers. “I remember there was a whole room of sewing machines where socks would be seamed,” he says. “It was always really loud, and one day we walked in and the building was dead quiet. There were wires dangling from the ceiling, and all the sewing machines were gone. To me, that was symbolic of things happening in the industry over the past 20 years. It was a way of life in North Carolina, and everything was moving overseas.” The decline inspired his parents, Mike and Carol, to continue the family tradition and launch Boardroom Socks from their attic 11 years ago. They chose “boardroom” because they wanted a name that implied dress socks. “My dad is affectionately known as a ‘yarnologist’ because he knows so much about yarn and where to find it,” James says. “He has a yarn broker, so he knows how to get it at the best prices.” Their socks, made

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

with pima cotton and merino wool, run between $12 and $18 a pair and sell through their website and a handful of independent retailers like Fairclough & Co. “A lot of socks now have polyester, acrylic, or other synthetic materials that are much lower in cost, but those materials will feel really hot or itchy and won’t wear as well.” James held various jobs in sales and digital marketing before he became CEO of Boardroom Socks in May 2018. People often ask if the family will expand to other men’s apparel, but he says it’s not in their plans. “Our family’s expertise has been predominantly in hosiery—it’s what we know best. We can keep adding new categories of socks. There’s still a lot of room for growth there.” When he’s not driving to the small towns where he sources Boardroom’s packaging material and supplies, James works from his home office in Charlotte. He still has no idea how many socks he owns but knows it’s a lot. “People are blown away by the towers of boxes in my office,” he says. “And everyone in my family still gives each other socks for Christmas. It’s a neverending cycle.” TAYLOR BOWLER is lifestyle editor of this magazine.

JONATHAN COOPER

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

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THE GOOD LIFE

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

RO O M W E LOV E

Green Light

Designer Traci Zeller creates a bright, modern breakfast nook inspired by nature

TRACI ZELLER, owner of Traci Zeller Interiors, loves a blank slate, and that’s what she got with this new build in Cotswold. The home, built by Pike Properties, is what the company calls “custom spec,” which means Pike and its subcontractors assume complete control of design and construction with no guidance from clients. Then the clients (or new buyers) move into a home with a clean, contemporary interior, high-end fixtures, and neutral finishes. Zeller’s clients were firsttime homebuyers who hired her to furnish and decorate the house, which included a dining area with three walls of windows that overlook a sea of green. —Taylor Bowler

COURTESY DUSTIN PECK

A MULTI-NOOK This room was the only dining area in the house, so Zeller designed it to function as both a breakfast nook and dining room. She found the 72-inch round table and six chairs from Fairfield Chair Company and positioned them on a Stanton rug. “It’s comfortable enough to eat your Cheerios,” she says, “but if you wanted to throw a dinner party, it can feel like a dining room, too.”

GREEN PARTY The room looks out into the wooded backyard, so Zeller carried that palette indoors. She dressed the windows with custom drapes made from a graphic, art decoinspired Thibaut pattern and chose a bold green velvet performance fabric to upholster the klismos dining chairs. “The good news is, all shades of greens go together,” she says.

A COLUMN OF COLOR Zeller used the two-tier Visual Comfort chandelier the Pike team had already installed as her focal point. “A round table with a fluted base draws your eye to the center of the room, creating a column of color, like in fashion,” she says. “(The homeowners) are young, so I went with a fresh, modern aesthetic, but they plan to start a family, so we chose pieces that could grow with them.”

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE

B U I L D I N G H I STO RY

Ben Douglas, Groundbreaker How a three-term mayor and the New Deal transformed Charlotte’s built environment BY TOM HANCHETT

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Federal funding for local projects was rare before the New Deal, but Mayor Ben Douglas (above) recognized that Charlotte could use it to improve and upgrade the city. Douglas formed a friendship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and film of FDR’s speech at the opening of Memorial Stadium on Sept. 10, 1936, is on view at the Levine Museum of the New South. (Right) A souvenir program from the rally.

The city also used federal money to reassemble Charlotte’s historic U.S. Mint—painstakingly deconstructed in 1931 to make way for expansion of the uptown post office—in the Eastover neighborhood, where it became the Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina’s first municipal art museum. Douglas presided over the 1936 opening. At the annual Conference of Mayors in 1935, Douglas had struck up a friendship with influential New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who admired the Southerner’s progressive plans for a New Deal innovation called “public housing.” Douglas later recalled La Guardia asking, “‘Will any of it be for blacks?’ ‘Sure,’ I told him. ‘Most of it.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if you have that much intestinal fortitude, I personally will see that you get the money.’” Fairview Homes, the city’s first Continued on page 36

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, ATKINS LIBRARY, UNC CHARLOTTE (2)

IF EVER A CHARLOTTE MAYOR deserved to be called “groundbreaking,” it’s Ben Douglas. As Memorial Stadium reopens this month after renovation, and expansion continues at his namesake Charlotte Douglas International Airport, it’s a good time to remember his lasting impact. Born in rural Iredell County, Ben Elbert Douglas Sr. earned leadership experience when he commanded a machine-gun battalion in France during World War I. After the war, he settled in Charlotte and opened a funeral parlor, then a dry cleaner, then other small businesses. Always eager for the next project and good at making friends, he gravitated naturally to politics. In 1935, just into his 40s, Douglas saw his chance. A new city charter had made the mayor an elected position instead of one filled by City Council appointment. “They say Ben Douglas will make a speech at the drop of a hat,” quipped The Charlotte Observer, “and if you don’t watch out, he’ll drop the hat.” He won three consecutive two-year terms. It was a tough time to step into elected office. The Great Depression had savaged municipal budgets. But good news was coming from Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal offered grants to local projects that hired the unemployed. A savvy mayor could use that federal infusion to create infrastructure for future growth. Laborers under the New Deal were building stone walls in Independence Park when Douglas took office. But the new mayor wanted a large, transformative project. He secured federal funds to construct Memorial Stadium, a big-time football arena that Roosevelt himself came to open in 1936. Since 2019, the stadium has undergone a $35 million rebuild to accommodate soccer—and it includes a carefully reconstructed New Deal-era stone wall around its playing field. Charlotte Memorial Hospital, now part of health care giant Atrium, was founded under Douglas’ watch. Doctors sought a modernization grant for St. Peter’s Hospital, which the Episcopal Church had established in the 1870s. But New Deal dollars aided only public projects. So the city bought what’s now the Atrium site and got into the hospital business.

THE GOOD LIFE R E AL E STAT E

Hot Listings

High-end townhomes, lowmaintenance living. —Taylor Bowler

subsidized affordable housing, would open for Black Charlotteans in 1940, during the segregated Jim Crow era. Piedmont Courts for whites would follow soon after. Air travel, then new, was a love of La Guardia’s. “So I came home and started campaigning for a municipal airport,” Douglas told the Observer. Despite the town’s small size, “I wanted Charlotte equal to the best.” By 1937, Eastern Air Lines planes were flying from an airfield built by Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration west of town off Wilkinson Boulevard. That didn’t satisfy Douglas. In 1940, he convinced what was then called the War Department to buy adjoining land for an air base, Morris Field, which the city would own after World War II. Ecstatic, Charlotte officials renamed the facility Douglas Municipal Airport—the nucleus of today’s Charlotte Douglas International. On

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

April 21, 1941, La Guardia flew in to join Douglas at the dedication. I could tell more stories if space allowed: How Douglas got part of what is now Camp North End built as a World War II Quartermaster Depot. How he became state highway commissioner and funded the construction of Independence Boulevard. How he launched Douglas Furs, a long-lasting family business, after Roosevelt mentioned that the military was having trouble cleaning the fur collars of pilots’ flight jackets. Looking back, Ben Douglas’ legacy still shines. With vision and adroit use of federal dollars, he gave Charlotte a big-city boost. BUILDING HISTORY is a monthly series that highlights Charlotte’s historic buildings. Tom Hanchett, a local historian in Charlotte since 1981, is the author of Sorting Out the New South City: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975 and former staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South. Follow him on Twitter at @historysouth.

1416 S. CHURCH ST., UNIT 4 $749,000 SOUTH END This three-story townhouse has a two-car rear-entry garage and a fenced courtyard. The formal dining area opens to a balcony with city views, and an oversized living room has space for a home office setup. 3 BD, 3 BA, 2,075 sq. ft., HM Properties, hmproperties.com 376 VIBURNUM WAY COURT $559,900 WESLEY HEIGHTS Enjoy upgrades like bamboo floors, remote solar shades, custom millwork, and designer wallpaper. Relax on a covered breakfast patio off the kitchen or access the community green space from the patio. 3 BD, 3.5 BA, 2,039 sq. ft., High Ground Investment Properties, highground.properties 370 WENDOVER HEIGHTS CIRCLE $629,000 COTSWOLD This French chateau-inspired end unit has a two-car garage and private courtyard. The kitchen has custom cabinetry, quartzite countertops, and a recessed wine fridge; the owner’s suite includes a study and dual-sided primary bath with a walk-through shower. 3 BD, 2.5 BA, 2,817 sq. ft., Southern Homes of the Carolinas, southernhomesrealty.net Homes available as of March 29, 2021.

ROBINSON-SPANGLER CAROLINA ROOM, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG LIBRARY; COURTESY LEW POWELL; TOM LINK; COURTESY

The city renamed Charlotte Municipal Airport (above, depicted on a 1938 postcard) in Mayor Douglas’ honor in 1941, and New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (at microphone in photo to left) joined Douglas at the ceremony. (Below) Commemorative tokens from the event.

116 COTTAGE PLACE $2,175,000 EASTOVER Designer chandeliers hang from 10-foot ceilings, and a custom-trimmed library opens to a private courtyard with outdoor fireplace. The finished two-car garage has a custom cabinetry system, epoxy floors, and a full-size Electrolux refrigerator and freezer. 4 BD, 3.5 BA, 3,415 sq. ft., Allen Tate, allentate.com

ART S + E V E NT S

The Playlist THE BEST THINGS TO DO AND SEE THIS MONTH BY ANDY SMITH

Hit the Lawn at PNC Music Pavilion Outdoor shows are back, Charlotte. PNC Music Pavilion has four shows scheduled for June, from a jam favorite to a blast from the boy band past: JUNE 11, 7:30 p.m.: Dave Matthews Band JUNE 25, 7:30 p.m.: Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour JUNE 29, 6:30 p.m.: An Evening with Chicago and Their Greatest Hits JUNE 30, 8 p.m.: The Black Crowes Present: Shake Your Money Maker Head to charlottemusicpavilion. com for prices and the summer’s complete lineup.

Bank of America Stadium Hosts a Night of Rock JUNE 24

Immersive Van Gogh: BY THE NUMBERS JUNE 18-SEPT. 12

COURTESY MICHAEL BROSILOW; SHUTTERSTOCK

This exhibit celebrates Vincent Van Gogh through projections of his paintings on walls and floors. Immersive Van Gogh (vangoghclt.com) is the work of Massimiliano Siccardi, a pioneer in digital art—with an absorbing soundtrack by Luca Longobardi. The show has gained popularity with its global touring and an appearance on the Netflix show Emily in Paris. Blumenthal Performing Arts presents the Charlotte incarnation at Camp North End. Numbers to know:

500,000+:

500,000:

cubic feet of projections, which include “The Starry Night,” “The Potato Eaters,” “Sunflowers,” and works from the Bedroom series.

number of tickets sold at sister exhibits throughout the world.

24.99$ 39.99:

ticket prices. The lowest price is for attendees aged 6-16.

90,000,000: pixels in the imagery, which offer a rare visual clarity and opportunity for close examination. Animated brushstrokes provide insight into the building and layers of each work.

The Panthers’ stadium reopens for concerts with this stacked show, rescheduled from last summer, which begins at 4:30 p.m.: Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Tickets run $75-$764.

EATBLKCLT Food & Brew Festival JUNE 12

From June 4-12, EATBLKCLT Week celebrates Black-owned restaurants in Charlotte. Organizers promise a week of prix fixe lunch and dinner menus that culminates with the EATBLKCLT Food & Brew Festival at Unknown Brewing Co. (1327 S. Mint St.). Several Black-owned food trucks will be on-site for a day of eating and drinking that starts at 11 a.m. Find more info at eatblkclt.com. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE

PART Y P I C S

Seen Upcoming Calendar of Events Submit your event online at charlottemagazine.com/ calendar, and look forward to seeing more from these: JUNE 6/5 Grace Fest benefiting local fine arts and crafts, sharecharlotte.org 6/7 Tees for Keys fundraiser for Charlotte Family Housing, Piper Glen

Thomas McNickle Opening

6/11-13 Taste of Charlotte 2021

Jerald Melberg Gallery March 12, 2021

6/26 Ballantyne Wine Festival at Blackfinn Ameripub

1. Dr. Tom Arkle and Dr. Stephanie Chen 2. Mike Wish and Michelle Wish 3. Fran McClurg and Janice McNichol 4. Jerald Melberg and Thomas McNickle 5. Ed Pickett and Norva Pickett

6/27 Girl Tribe Pop Up in the Garden at Alexander Homestead 7/9, 7/10 FabFest fabfestcharlotte.org

Art Exhibit Opening Shape Shifters Anne Neilson Fine Art Gallery March 11, 2021

1. Adele Yonchak, Velesa Baker, Michael Barringer 2. Cassandra Richardson, Logan Sutton, Anne Neilson, Jennifer Panaro

Linda Foard Roberts Media Preview Opening

1. Todd Herman and Linda Foard Roberts 2. Jen Edwards 3. Mary C. Curtis 4. Linda Foard Roberts with media

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

DANIEL COSTON

LAMENT, a song of sorrow for those not heard SOCO Gallery March 11, 2021

Blumenthal Salute To Women Spirit Square March 20, 2021

1. Ohavia Phillips 2. Jennifer Williams 3. Storm Watchers 4. ReeCee Raps 5. Felicia Fine and Elena Sepulveda

Fashion Breathes Life Gala (Virtual) benefiting Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Feb. 11, 2021 1. Debbie Hitzel, Ron Hitzel 2. Oliver 3. Palmer 4. Grahym 5. Cinnie 6. Woodburn family

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD DRINK

INSIDE: NOW OPEN / LOCAL FLAVOR / BEER / ON THE LINE / THE STORY BEHIND / BITE-SIZED NEWS

EXPLORE THE TASTES OF CHARLOTTE

The church annex houses The Bar at Supperland, where guests can order drinks from an absinthe fountain.

N OW O P E N

REVIVAL

TKTKTKTKTKtPart steakhouse, part garden

party, Supperland shines in an old place of worship BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR of construction delays and pandemicrelated setbacks, Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel’s anticipated restaurant, Supperland, finally opened in March. The spouses and business partners—who also own the NoDa establishments Haberdish, Crepe Cellar, Growler’s Pourhouse, and Reigning Doughnuts—transformed a 69-year-old former church in Plaza Midwood into a restaurant and cocktail bar. From the moment you pass through the wrought-iron double doors, it’s clear the couple used their year on hold to fine-tune every detail, from the mosaic

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

(Top left) A Gin & Tonic in the Spanish Style; owners Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown (above) in the main dining room; the Intergalactic Love Affair (left) garnished with a strawberry-orangeanise ice rosette; head mixologist Colleen Hughes displays a Honey Mint Julep (below); an individually sized strawberry pie (bottom).

SUPPERLAND 1212 The Plaza supper.land Hours: 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

bathroom tiles to the custom dinner plates embellished with birds, butterflies, and flowers. The nave functions as the main dining room. The sanctuary is now an open kitchen framed in marquee-like globe lights, like a grand stage. The nine-seat chef’s counter gives diners a view of the 14-foot fire grill, where the smell of North Carolina hickory wafts through the air. To retain the church’s character, they kept the walls raw and refinished the two-toned floors. Purple leather-upholstered pews run down both sides of the space to form booths with wooden dining tables that Tonidandel built himself. Downstairs, a private dining room accommodates up to 10 guests, and a wall-towall wine display holds more than 200 bottles. The church annex out back houses The Bar at Supperland, where lead mixologist Colleen Hughes makes cocktails garnished with edible flowers and served with gold metal straws on plant-based coasters. If you have to wait for a table—honestly, even if you don’t—have a seat and order a Highball ($12), a Midwood Manhattan ($14), or a drink from the absinthe fountain. Then take your beverage and meander back to the dining room or grab a table under the pergola in the courtyard. Chef Chris Rogienski’s menu starts with a mix of appetizers like Hot Onion Dip ($9) served with warm potato chips, Baked Brie Bites ($16), and NC Roasted Oysters ($16) delivered with a pot of coal-heated butter sauce. The SevenLayer Salad ($14) is served in a glass pedestal bowl brimming with collards, black-eyed peas, carrots, goat cheese, and edible flowers. Entrées and sides are all served family-style. The Pork Can Can ($46) is fire-grilled, bone-in

The Seven-Layer Salad (left) is served in a glass pedestal bowl; the Flanken (below) is beef short ribs topped with horseradish gremolata.

Miso Mac and Cheese (above) is topped with miso-infused whipped cream. Popular starters include the Baked Brie Bites (upper left) and the North Carolina Oysters with a pot of coal-heated butter sauce (left).

pork with a cherry-mustard compote that’s both tangy and savory. The Flanken ($19) is beef short ribs topped with horseradish gremolata, an herby condiment with a punch of citrus. The Wagyu Pot Roast ($32) is a slowcooked wagyu roast in savory vegetable gravy; get it with an order of Porridge Bread ($7) to soak up all the drippings. Sides include grilled vegetables like the Bone Marrow Broccoli ($13), charred florets sprinkled with crunchy benne seeds, and Blackened Onions ($9), roasted sweet onions with extravirgin olive oil. For something unexpected, order the Franks & Beans ($13), a hearty bowl of red field peas and chopped wagyu hot dog. For something you won’t want to share, get the Miso Mac & Cheese ($14), bite-sized shells topped with miso cream.

The dessert menu includes a rotation of pastry chef Liana Sinclair’s handmade, individually sized pies in flavors like Chocolate Peanut Butter ($15), Citrus ($14), and Sweet Potato ($13). If you’d rather take your treat home, order a box of four Chocolate Chunk Cookies ($16) with pecans and benne seeds from the Sweets To-Go menu. Supperland has so many thoughtful touches and tempting eats that one visit isn’t enough. Come back for a date night, birthday dinner, or Seafood Saturday. Order something new, have a cocktail on the patio, and don’t forget to check out the yellow floral floor tile in the bathroom on your way out.

TAYLOR BOWLER is lifestyle editor of this magazine.

Don’t leave without trying: The Miso Mac and Cheese topped with miso-infused whipped cream is a grown-up spin on a childhood staple. BRING THE DINING EXPERIENCE HOME: If you’re still thinking about those custom Villeroy & Boch dinner plates after you leave, you can order a set for your own collection through Supperland’s website. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

LO C AL F L AVO R

CAMP FARE

In a tough year for restaurants, Camp North End’s planning and progressive community allowed its dining scene to thrive BY ALLISON BRADEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

Food stall La Caseta (top) serves homestyle Latin dishes like tacos and empanadas (above).

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

IN LATE NOVEMBER 2019, Nourish chef and founder Julia Simon co-organized VegFest Jr., a small vegan food festival, at Camp North End. More than 14 vendors were scheduled to set up in the Ford building, an industrial behemoth where the company manufactured Model T’s in the late 1920s. But the space wasn’t heated, and on the morning of the festival, local forecasters predicted that evening temperatures would dip toward freezing. Simon was worried, she says, but Camp North End team members rented massive industrial heaters and did everything they could to make the vendors and guests comfortable. The experience helped solidify her decision to open Plant Joy, a vegan food stall, on the property a year later. “They’re really interested in not only creating a really awesome, viable campus,” she says, “but also making sure that small businesses receive the support that they need to thrive, even in strange times.” Despite COVID-19’s blow to the restaurant industry, Camp North End’s food scene has expanded—and flourished—this past

year, thanks to deliberate planning and an inclusive, supportive business community. (It also didn’t hurt that the spacious campus lends itself to outdoor dining, a trend likely to outlast the pandemic.) New York-based developer ATCO Properties is now six years into a 20-year plan for the property, and food figures heavily in its long-term vision. Varian Shrum, Camp North End’s community manager, explains that the team looks for variety, both in menu items—for the office workers who may lunch there daily—and prices. Food lures families, couples, and tourists to the development, which also houses offices, galleries, and retail, so the leadership has prioritized unique, “destination” concepts. “We don’t want a chicken restaurant where, from your house to Camp North End, you might pass by three others,” Shrum says. “We want it to be special.” So far, those attractions include food stalls La Caseta, Bleu Barn Bistro, Plant Joy, Continued on page 46

Chef Greg Collier (top) was attracted to Camp North End’s inclusive approach. His restaurant Leah & Louise serves juke joint-inspired cuisine, including Mojo Hash (above).

Plant Joy’s executive chef, Allison Hunt (top), showcases grains and vegetables in vegan entrées such as Rainbow Toast, Socca and Salad, and the Falafel Tower (above).

Bleu Barn Bistro’s Barn Burger (left) is topped with applewoodsmoked bacon and a freerange egg. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

SARU’s Anthony Hamilton serves up Nagahamastyle noodles and Japanese snacks.

Camp North End’s leadership believes “destination” concepts like Samantha Allen’s bakery, Wentworth & Fenn, can attract far-flung visitors and satisfy repeat customers.

Babe & Butcher, one of Camp North End’s newest additions, offers custom charcuterie boards, and visitors can watch the process through a window into the catering kitchen.

and SARU, bakery Wentworth & Fenn, charcuterie business Babe & Butcher, and more. But the site’s highest-profile destination is Leah & Louise, Greg and Subrina Collier’s modern juke joint, which has earned coverage in Esquire and The New York Times. Before they settled on their corner spot, the Colliers spoke with artist Dammit Wesley of Blk Mrkt and Dion and

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Davita Galloway of Dupp & Swat to learn about their experiences as Black business owners there. They concluded that the property could be a force for growth, not gentrification, in the predominantly Black neighborhoods that surround it. Residents have little access to groceries and fresh produce, but Subrina Collier hopes the development can help the area

shed its food-desert status. “There’s a social responsibility,” she says. “We wanted to be a part of that.” Simon, too, was attracted to Camp North End’s inclusive ethos. “People are just very awake and aware of progressive ideologies and trying to make everybody—no matter what kind of person or where you come from—feel comfortable and at home,” she says. “I think it’s a little bit of the future.” As the property leaves COVID behind and builds out over the next decade, Shrum says, several new concepts will open each year. Part of Camp North End’s approach is to introduce businesses gradually so each has its moment. In the meantime, the complex will continue to host festivals that celebrate global food heritages. Subrina Collier is confident that as it grows, the campus will continue to reflect the city’s diversity. “They’re already setting the stage for a melting pot of people,” she says. “They’ll have a complete mix, and that’s what Charlotte needs to look like.” ALLISON BRADEN is a contributing editor to this magazine.

HONORED TO BE CHARLOTTE’S BEST BURGER (TWO YEARS IN A ROW!)

Belmont Village | Concord Mills | Myers Park

FOOD+DRINK BEER

SHOVEL READY

The coming of Asheville’s celebrated Burial Beer Co. adds a fresh layer to Plaza Midwood

THE CHARACTER of Charlotte’s arts-andentertainment neighborhoods and the craft brewery rosters they support is, unlike much of the beer, growing clearer. South End/LoSo has everyone beat in sheer volume. NoDa harbors a pleasant mix of pioneers (NoDa Brewing, Birdsong) and newer arrivals. Plaza Midwood can’t match either in quantity. But the announcement in March that Burial Beer Co. of Asheville—one of the fastestexpanding craft brewers in the state and most celebrated in the country—planned to open a taproom and bottle shop on Thomas Avenue, in the commercial heart of the neighborhood, seemed to add a layer of definition to Plaza Midwood. You might not be able to hop all day from brewery to brewery there. But the Burial site is within trotting distance of a pair (Top) Burial Beer co-founders Doug and Jess Reiser and Tim Gormley wanted their planned of popular and critically praised establishCharlotte location to occupy a neighborhood with both homes and businesses—and they ments, Legion Brewing on Commonwealth found it in the old Boris+Natasha and Stash Pad spaces in Plaza Midwood. (Above, left to right) Deathstalker, an IPA; The River to Hell Runs Red, a barrel-aged dark sour ale; and Avenue and Resident Culture Brewing Co. on Mythologies of Realism, a double IPA. Central Avenue. Why would you want to? “I think—and I’m probably biased—that even though we have only three breweries, they’re three of just be in a residential or commercial district but in a combinathe best,” says Wes Turner, a Plaza Midwood Neighborhood tion of the two.” Association board member and past president. “Adding Burial Those are ideal locations for craft brewers everywhere. In to that list will just make Plaza Midwood one of the brewery North Carolina, state law allows breweries to operate as many as destinations in Charlotte.” (He includes the nanobrewery Pilot three retail outlets in addition to their primary production sites, Brewing, which opened in 2018, in his count.) Turner adds that and some have capitalized on the provision to stake out territory he’s visited Burial only once but enjoyed what he drank: “I enjoy far from their home bases, says Rich Greene, the executive director of the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild. For example, Burial’s fellow a good IPA.” Burial has plenty of those, along with a growing number of Asheville brewer Hi-Wire Brewing and Catawba Brewing Co., a imperial stouts, farmhouse ales, and table sours to match the Morganton-based company that operates a taproom just outrustic lagers that co-founder and COO Doug Reiser says was the side Plaza Midwood, recently opened locations in Wilmington. brewery’s cornerstone style when it opened in 2013. Since then, It’s a slight contradiction—a statewide mini-empire of Burial has expanded from South Slope, a brewery hub in a former hyperlocal neighborhood pubs—but it’s central to the evolving industrial area just south of downtown Asheville: The Reisers and craft beer culture, which emphasizes sense of place and camapartner Tim Gormley opened a 20-barrel production brewery, raderie with the neighborhoods they choose to occupy. “What restaurant, and winery in Asheville’s Biltmore Village in 2016 and was really, really important to us,” Reiser says, “was to get a space that was historic, that was in a neighborhood, and that had that a taproom and bottle shop in Raleigh in 2019. Reiser says he and his team had eyed Charlotte for years. funky Asheville feel that’s so important to our brand.” South The opportunity to help preserve part of a 62-year-old shop- Slope and Plaza Midwood are unique neighborhoods whose ping center in a thriving neighborhood helped sell them on residents might not relish the comparison. But it’s hard to deny the site, last occupied by a pair of now-relocated boutiques, that the brand fits. Boris+Natasha and the Stash Pad. “We were very intentional about going to the people,” he says. “It’s important for us to not GREG LACOUR is senior editor of this magazine.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

COURTESY

BY GREG LACOUR

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FOOD+DRINK O N T H E LI N E W I T H

BRIAN STOCKHOLM AND SHELLEY ODOM

Papi Queso’s founding couple finds a spot to anchor their comfort food standby—and their new foray into Harriet’s no-frills burgers BY TAYLOR BOWLER

Age: 50 Hometown: Great Bend, Pennsylvania Job description: Maker of cheesy goodness and high-five giver Currently bingeing: Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Where does your love of cooking come from? My grandmother. She was the big cook in our family, and I loved cooking side by side with her, making sticky buns and cinnamon rolls. How do you split your time between Harriet’s Hamburgers and Papi Queso? If I’m at Harriet’s, Shelley’s at Papi Queso, or vice versa. I spend most of my time coaching our cooks in the kitchen. What do you like most about a street food concept? These are our passion projects. When we first started with the truck, I’d say, “Let’s go out and make people happy today.” That’s become our hospitality ethos—making people happy. Why are grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers such universally loved foods? It’s food memories. Everyone has a memory of eating grilled cheese as a child or sitting at a lunch counter having a burger for the first time. Tell me about the process of perfecting your burger. We played with everything—the type of bun, the creaminess of the cheese, the different ratios of pickles … even the placement of onions. Do they go on top of the burger or the bottom? Should they

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

be cooked or raw? Each ingredient has to stand alone, but together they have to make something grander than they are. What do you think is an underappreciated flavor? Acid. Everyone concentrates on sweet or salty, but a splash of lemon juice or a little vinegar really brings food to life. What’s your favorite handheld food? Pizza. It’s the other bread and cheese. What’s your favorite adult beverage? Tequila. What do you like to do outside of work? I’m really into music, my other love. I have a huge record collection. Any rules to live by in a kitchen? Lead, train, and motivate. If you can do those three things, that covers the board.

SHELLEY ODOM Age: 43 Hometown: Las Cruces, New Mexico Job description: The idea person Currently bingeing: Your Honor on Showtime

How did you and Brian meet? In 1998—Brian was a chef at Cosmos Café, and I waited tables there. What’s the craziest business idea you’ve ever had? To open a grilled cheese food truck 10 years ago (laughs). I’m like a shotgun; I just spray ideas everywhere, and Brian will pick out the one gem.

What made you push for a grilled cheese concept? It’s a go-to comfort food. We did a ton of research and knew we wanted to do one very specific food really well. We come from a fine dining background, so everyone thought we were crazy. We had no website and barely knew anything about social media. But our lines were 100-deep within the first six months. What’s your role at Papi Queso and Harriet’s Hamburgers today? I do all the books, like accounting and payroll. I’m more customer service-oriented. What’s been the biggest challenge of running the business during the pandemic? Takeout wasn’t part of our business model, and suddenly we were takeout-only. We had no online ordering presence. We just posted our phone number to the social universe, and it started ringing. How much taste-testing does this job require? A lot (laughs). We try all the different sauces, beefs, and buns. I have a grilled cheese at least three times a week—I never get tired of grilled cheese sandwiches. What’s your favorite handheld food? Tacos. I’m a New Mexico girl. What’s your favorite adult beverage? Champagne. What’s your favorite restaurant in Charlotte other than your own? Pio Pio is completely underrated. What’s next for your restaurant portfolio? We’re in the process of opening more Harriet’s locations; it looks like Myers Park will be the first.

PETER TAYLOR

BRIAN STOCKHOLM

BITE-SIZED STO R I E S

Foodie Tidbits on a Small Plate T H E STO RY B E H I N D. . .

Harriet’s Jucy Lucy WE FIRST NOTICED this “signature secret item” on Harriet’s Hamburgers’ online menu: a cheesestuffed hamburger “hailing from the great 612.” That’s Minneapolis’ area code, if you didn’t know, and this entrée is the source of a decades long tradition (and rivalry) there. The Juicy Lucy debuted in the 1950s, with two dive bars claiming to be its creator: The 5-8 Club and Matt’s Bar. In a 2017 Star Tribune story, Matt’s Bar’s grillmaster says they make more than 400 of these burgers a day. Traditionally, the burger is made by placing cheese between two patties and then sealing the sides of it to make one heavy (and tasty) monstrosity. The result is surprisingly distinct from an everyday cheeseburger in texture—the separation between cheese and bun making all the difference. The spelling of the Jucy Lucy (or Juicy Lucy) varies between the two Minneapolis joints: Harriet’s in Charlotte uses the same as Matt’s Bar, which drops the “i.” The reason this regional item is here: Harriet’s is a HARRIET’S Optimist Hall partnership between Brian Stockholm, owner of Papi Queso, and 1115 N. Brevard St., #6 The Plaid Penguin, which was founded by Minnesota native Joe harrietshamburgers.com Haubenhofer. —Andy Smith

Best Bites Our favorite dish this month, chosen by Charlotte magazine staff

PETER TAYLOR; COURTESY

LOBSTER MAC AND CHEESE FRIES, $18 WHAT THE FRIES

JAMIE BARNES’ AND GREG WILLIAMS’ loaded gourmet fries, burgers, and fried bread pudding tots are all worth standing in line for. Six years after they launched their wildly popular food truck, the What The Fries chefs and co-owners opened a permanent location in south Charlotte, where you can order food truck favorites like Lobster Mac and Cheese Fries. “Everyone in town does a lobster mac,” Barnes says, “but no one does it this excessive.” As if a pile of warm, salty, deep-fried potato slices weren’t satisfying enough, they top theirs with a mound of pasta shells bathed in asiago, gouda, and boursin cheeses; red cabbage; parsley; and huge hunks of lobster. The only thing better than an oversized heap of comfort food is an even bigger heap of two of them. —Taylor Bowler

Chris Coleman and the team at The Goodyear House will open a new concept called OLD TOWN KITCHEN & COCKTAILS in Rock Hill this summer. Look for casual American fare, including smoked meats and sides, sandwiches, flatbreads, and salads. PRIME FISH, an Asian raw bar, is now open in Ballantyne. Chef Robin Anthony’s menu includes traditional Edomae (Tokyo-style) sushi, sashimi, and tapas with suggested sake pairings. Cristina Rojas-Agurcia, a.k.a. “The Batchmaker,” will reopen THE BATCH HOUSE in Station West, a mixed-use space at 901 Berryhill Road, in August. Expect signature treats like Snickers Cheesecake, Dirty Oreo Truffles, and Oatmeal Creme Pies, plus a coffee bar that serves drip coffee and a rotation of draft flavors like her popular Tres Leches. RESIDENT CULTURE BREWING CO., a success on Central Avenue in Plaza Midwood since 2017, will open a second location this fall at 332 W. Bland St. in South End. The popular breakfast taco pop-up CHILITO TACOS will have its first permanent location inside the 17,000-square-foot multilevel space. —Taylor Bowler

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

COURTESY APPALACHIAN EXPOSURES

Kids fish at Springmaid Mountain Resort in Spruce Pine as part of the Anne Springs Close Greenway Summer Camps.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

After a year of restriction, Charlotteans are primed to jump into the great outdoors this summer. In these pages, you’ll find adventurous folks, pros and hobbyists alike, who embrace the natural wonders that surround our city—and several ways to join them By TAYLOR BOWLER, ALLISON BRADEN, GREG LACOUR, and ANDY SMITH

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

AROUND THE CORNER (less than an hour from Charlotte) DAY TRIP (less than 3 hours from Charlotte) WEEKENDER (more than 3 hours from Charlotte)

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

CHARLOTTE URBANIZES more each day, yet the skyline’s shadow still falls on pockets of nature. A true escape isn’t far away, either: Lakes, state and national parks, and natural wonders encircle the city. Above, we’ve compiled 30 destinations ripe for exploration and divided them into three groups: Around the Corner, Day Trip, and Weekender. That first category is especially handy for those of us traveling with little explorers. Use the key on the next page for distance from Charlotte and the activities there. —Andy Smith

MARIBETH KISER

30 Outdoor Escapes

Know Before You Go

Our curated list is full of both trusted destinations for Charlotteans and surprises. Just remember: The hill

FISHING

may look daunting at first, but you’ll get over it.

AROUND THE CORNER (less than an hour from Charlotte) DESTINATION

FISH

KAYAK

HIKE

CLIMB

Crowders Mountain State Park (Kings Mountain)

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South Fork River Park (Gastonia)

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Lake Norman State Park (Troutman)

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Latta Nature Preserve

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RibbonWalk Nature Preserve

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Freedom Park

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Anne Springs Close Greenway (Fort Mill, S.C.)

■

McDowell Nature Preserve

■

Goat Island Park (Cramerton)

■

U.S. National Whitewater Center

■

FISH

KAYAK

HIKE

CLIMB

■

1 2

KAYAKING

DAY TRIP (less than 3 hours from Charlotte) DESTINATION 1

Walnut Island River Park (Alexander)

Linville Falls

■

Price Lake (Blowing Rock)

■

Laws change state to state, so we’re going to focus on North Carolina. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission sells short-term (10-day), annual, and lifetime fishing licenses via its website, ncwildlife.org. Short-term licenses cost $6 for coastal fishing and $9 for inland fishing; annual runs $16 for coastal, $25 for inland, and $41 for combined. Lifetime licenses cost $16 to $477 depending on age and type of fishing. Kids under 16 don’t need a license.

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Stone Mountain State Park

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Hanging Rock State Park (Danbury)

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Falls Lake State Recreation Area (Wake Forest)

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Uwharrie National Forest (Recreation Trail in Troy)

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Rocky River Blueway (Midland)

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Lake Wylie (S.C.)

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Reedy River Blueway (S.C.)

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FISH

KAYAK

HIKE

CLIMB

■

A Coast Guard-approved life vest must be available for each occupant, and anyone under 13 has to wear one at all times. You don’t need a license to use an unmotorized kayak or canoe. If yours does have a motor, you have to register it with the state and complete a boating safety education course. (More info: ncwildlife.org.)

CLIMBING AND HIKING In state parks, rock climbers have to register at park offices or at access points for climbing and rappelling permits. All climbers under 18 need parents or guardians to sign their permits. The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation doesn’t offer instruction or supervision for climbers, so equipment and training is your responsibility.

WEEKENDER (more than 3 hours from Charlotte) DESTINATION 1

Lake Rabun (GA)

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Lake Jocassee

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Whiteside Mountain

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Cheoah River

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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Rocky Fork State Park (TN)

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Johnson City (TN)

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Abingdon (VA)

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Grayson Highlands State Park (VA)

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Roanoke River (VA)

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STATE PARKS The State Parks system includes 34 parks, four recreational areas, and three natural areas, each of which has its own specific rules for fishing, kayaking, and climbing. But a few rules apply at all 41 locations: camping in designated areas only; vehicles on-site after park hours must be registered; no alcohol; and pets on leashes at all times.

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Yanira Castro, communications director for the nonprofit Outdoor Afro, hikes along Catawba Falls.

GENERAL OUTDOOR INTERESTS

The Charlotte Outdoor Parents

This group holds family-friendly meetups, with slower walks and hikes for those bringing kids along. It’s one of several in the area that use Meetup to connect to potential members. meetup.com/CLTParents

Exercise and Excursion with Blue Blaze Brewing This brewery-sponsored group hosts regular yoga sessions, hikes, backpacking workshops, and guest speakers. Oh, and they drink beer, too. blueblazebrewing.com

Explorer Chicks of Charlotte Explorer Chick Adventure Co. is a national adventure travel company focused on empowering women. The Charlotte group connects locals to day trips, small group adventures, workshops, and more. explorerchick.com

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Ready to get your hands dirty? Several outdoors groups in Charlotte are looking for new members. Here’s a sampling, broken down by interest:

Goombay-Charlotte

McDowell Outdoor Adventures

Founded in 1988 in Washington, D.C., this group connects Black communities to outdoor adventure and team sports. Over the past decade, it’s expanded to Charlotte, Baltimore, and Anderson, South Carolina, among other cities. goombaycharlotte.leagueapps.com

McDowell Nature Preserve, on the banks of Lake Wylie, hosts family-friendly events like “Astronomy Night Hike,” “Lake Wylie Sunrise Kayak Tour,” and “McDowell Campfire.” meetup.com/McDowell-Outdoor-Adventures

Lake Norman Adventures With more than 8,000 members on Meetup, Lake Norman Adventures encompasses backpacking, hiking and walking, camping, kayaking, mountain biking, canoeing, and general social events. meetup.com/ Lake-Norman-Adventures

Latta Outdoor Adventures This Huntersville-based program centers on activities at Latta Nature Preserve: hiking, trail running, gardening, paddling, and more. meetup.com/Latta-Outdoor-Adventures

Outdoor Afro Charlotte Billed as “Where Black People and Nature Meet,” this is another group with branches throughout the United States. Recent trips: South Mountains State Park, Crowders Mountain, and Hammock Beach. outdoorafro.com

CLIMBING

SheClimbs Charlotte The group specifies that it’s “not an instructional group or a guide service.” It organizes meetups for independent female climbers and promotes environmental stewardship. meetup.com/SheClimbs-Charlotte

COURTESY DAMIEN ORTIZ

SPLINTER GROUPS

FISHING

HIKING

Catawba Bass Club

Charlotte Piedmont Hiking Club

Catawba Bass Club is one of several area fishing clubs that host ongoing tournaments. Yearly dues run $80, and tournament fees are $30. catawbabassclub.com

This group says it welcomes anyone from “beginners to experienced trailblazers.” Members recently hiked at Looking Glass Rock near Asheville and Frank Liske Park in Concord. meetup.com/Hiking-Charlotte

United Bassmasters

Mecklenburg Regional Paddlers This Facebook enthusiast group regularly plans meetups in North Carolina and on rivers and creeks in neighboring Tennessee, Georgia, and West Virginia. facebook.com/ groups/251033568375337/

OTHER

United Bassmasters is affiliated with Fishing League Worldwide and hosts regular tournaments. New members either pay $100 to join the N.C. Bass Federation or go nonfederation for $120. unitedbassmasters.org

GetHiking! Charlotte

Lake Norman Rod and Gun Club

With thousands of members on Meetup, this group works with Great Outdoor Provision Co., which gives them space for ongoing meetings and clinics. greatoutdoorprovision.com

Women on the Fly

Hike for Beer

This group, geared toward women interested in fly-fishing, is based in Davidson. Recent day trips took the group to Helton Creek in Ashe County and Watauga River in Banner Elk. meetup.com/WomenOnTheFly

Members of this national group’s Charlotte chapter bond over craft beers after group hikes and events. hikeforbeer.org

Founded in 1994, this group focuses on hunting, sport-shooting, and fishing. Annual memberships run $425, which includes access to multiple fields in the Iredell County town of Harmony, guided and unguided fishing trips, free or discounted access to local shooting facilities, and more. lnrgc.com

GEMS

The Charlotte Gem & Mineral Club This group holds monthly public meetings where members discuss the hobby and one topic each session. It also hosts jewelrymaking workshops and member field trips. charlottegem.org

KAYAKING/PADDLING

Lake Norman Pre-Dawn Weekend Kayakers

This Cornelius meetup organizes predawn kayaking trips. “Then you’ll have the rest of the day to do errands and all that land-lover stuff that weekends are made of,” its page says. meetup.com/ Lake-Norman-PreDawn-Weekend-Kayakers/

The Charlotte Ski & Snowboard Club This year-round group, founded as the Charlotte Ski Bees in 1963, celebrates snow sports. Adult memberships start at $30 per year. charlotteskiandsnowboardclub.com

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JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Evy Leibfarth has been called the “future of American canoe/ kayak,” and the U.S. National Whitewater Center has helped catapult her to the biggest stages in sports By ALLISON BRADEN Photographs by RUSTY WILLIAMS

RAPID RISE

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

In April, Evy Leibfarth qualified to represent the U.S. in the women’s solo canoe and kayak slalom events at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

In early April 2016, whitewater kayaker Evy Leibfarth woke up on the morning of a competition and ate pretzels and hummus for breakfast. “I’d never do that again,” she says, adding that she now opts for pre-run meals like yogurt with fruit. “I was just so nervous that I was trying to eat something.” Later that day, at the U.S. National Whitewater Center, she would compete in her first team trials, which happened to be the Olympics selection. She’d share the water with—and face off against—her idols. She was 12. A section of the whitewater course called Big Drop loomed near the end of her run, and she flipped over. “Obviously very, very bad,” she says. “There were people packed along the shore, watching, and everyone was cheering for me and kind of willing me to keep going. And I just remember feeling so motivated in that moment.” After her run, she ran around with a T-shirt and Sharpie, collecting autographs from athletes she’d looked up to since she was 7. Now, just a few years later, they’re watching her edge them off the podium. The Bryson City native’s stunning rise has grabbed attention in the paddle sports community and beyond. In April, five years after her team trials debut at the USNWC, she ran the same course for a chance to represent the United States in both the kayak and canoe slalom events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. This is the first year ever that women will be able to compete in the individual canoe slalom—and Evy, now 17, earned the sole spot to represent the U.S. in both events.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

At the Olympic Team Trials in Charlotte in April, Evy dominated her canoe slalom runs for a spot on Team USA. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

This year, for the first time, women will compete in the solo canoe slalom, in which athletes kneel and use singlebladed paddles (above). In previous Summer Olympics, that’s been considered harder than the kayak slalom, which allows competitors to sit with their legs extended and use double-bladed paddles (below). Evy will make history as the first American woman to compete in both events.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

In kayak events, the paddler sits in the boat with her legs extended and uses a paddle with blades at both ends. In canoe events, she kneels and uses a single-bladed paddle. Evy does both.

Evy’s spray skirt (right) keeps water from entering her canoe and kayak (left) and allows her to roll the boat upright if she capsizes in the USNWC’s tricky rapids.

In kayak events, the paddler sits in the boat with her legs extended and uses a paddle with blades at both ends. In canoe events, she kneels and uses a single-bladed paddle. Evy does both. In 2019, at her first International Canoe Federation World Cup, she finished seventh in the women’s individual canoe slalom and 10th in the individual kayak slalom. (In slalom events, competitors paddle through hanging gates, which must be approached from upstream or downstream, depending on their color.) Just a week later, she became the first woman from the United States to medal in canoe slalom at a world cup competition. She took bronze and joined a couple of world champs, Australian

Jessica Fox and Austrian Viktoria Wolffhardt, on the podium. Don’t cry, Evy remembers thinking. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. When I ask Evy what’s allowed her to achieve this much this fast, she doesn’t talk about her determination or fearlessness. She talks about her parents. Her mom, Jean Folger, led whitewater rafting trips on the Chattooga and Nantahala rivers—she even plied the Nantahala when she was pregnant—so Evy knew the jostle and flow of river rapids before she was born. Her dad, Lee Leibfarth, was a competitive paddler himself and coached the U.S. junior national team for four years, beginning in 1998. Now he coaches his daughter. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Evy trains with national canoe slalom teammates Casey Eichfeld (left) and Zachary “Bug” Lokken.

Coach (and dad) Lee Leibfarth offers pointers to Evy as they scout the course during the Olympic trials (below) and before a training session (above).

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Evy trains for much of the year at the USNWC, when the artificial river is turned on—and not only because it’s just three hours from her home in Bryson City. The center has become a hub for whitewater athletes across the country, and Evy says it’s not unusual to run into top-level competitors, not least because the center offered generous water time to Olympic hopefuls before the national team selection in April. (Since the USNWC hosted the team trials, the athletes who train there enjoyed a home-court advantage.) “It’s one of my favorite courses in the world,” Evy says, not just because it’s some of the fastest water out there but also because visitors unfamiliar with her sports can learn and participate. When she’s not at the USNWC, Evy usually trains on the nearby Nantahala. On cold, rainy mornings, Lee jokes that heading out in crummy weather isn’t written into his coaching contract. Evy reminds him that it’s written into his “dad contract.” “Evy makes it extremely easy to coach,” Lee says. The pair communicate their limits and laugh a lot, which helps ease the tension that may arise from having a dad who doubles as a coach. During a recent workout, Evy and Lee alternated her weightlifting sets with quick rounds of charades. His coaching experience means he knows how to push for results, but, he says, “there are other times when you realize, Gosh, I need to back off a little bit and just be a dad.” As he juggles the dual roles, he also helps Evy find balance between her intense competition schedule and a normal teenage life. “I definitely feel like I missed out on the high school experience,” Evy reflects. She graduated from an online high school in December, and while she’ll never get to go to a prom, she says traveling and making friends with paddlers all over the world more than make up for it. She plans to pursue a premed degree in biology and wants to eventually apply her interest in science to sports. While the pandemic didn’t upset her school routine, it brought global competitions to a standstill and postponed the 2020 Summer Olympics. In the unexpected time at home, where that signed T-shirt still hangs on her bedroom wall, Evy’s training didn’t let up. But she found more time to draw and paint, which she does in part to relieve stress. (New Zealand artist Kristina Webb’s hyperrealistic drawings were an early inspiration.) She also

Evy Leibfarth with mom Jean Folger and dad Lee Leibfarth at the USNWC.

On cold, rainy mornings, Lee jokes that heading out in crummy weather isn’t written into his coaching contract. Evy reminds him that it’s written into his “dad contract.” honed her skills in the kitchen, where she regularly whips up “a whole myriad of things” for her mom and dad—falafel, wonton soup, poke bowls, and Thai coconut curry, to name a few. The pandemic gave the young phenom a chance to reflect at a heady moment in her career. She’s already proven herself on canoe and kayak runs around the world. But competing in the Tokyo Olympics will write her name in history and could vault her into stardom beyond paddle sports. Before, her hectic travel schedule didn’t allow Evy much time to reflect on the path her life has taken. But as she trained alone last year, on the eve of adulthood and a chance to compete on sports’ biggest stage, Evy Leibfarth paused: “I definitely had a chance to realize just how grateful I am for all the experiences I’ve had.” Before every event, Evy scouts the water. Her runs, which typically last about 100 seconds, don’t offer much time to think. So Evy walks the course, notes how the gates are staggered, and makes a mental map. She pays attention to the water features, too. A couple of big rapids at the whitewater center require her to strategize. “Once I have a good grasp on the gates,” she says, “I’ll step off to the side, close my eyes, and go through the entire course in my head to make sure I’ve memorized it.” In the minutes before her event, she floats in still water, closes her eyes again, and runs through her plan one more time. Then she’s off.

ALLISON BRADEN is a contributing editor to this magazine. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Keith Cradle’s camping group invites city kids into North Carolina’s state parks

KEITH CRADLE is a busy guy. The 46-year-old serves as director of youth and juvenile programs for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. He's also on the boards of directors for the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Charlotte Trail of History— along with seats on the Mint Museum Contemporary Art Board and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. It’s no wonder Cradle unplugs from Zoom and escapes on weekends, when the avid hiker and camper heads to one of the several state parks that surround Charlotte. Recently, Cradle merged his work life and outdoor hobbies to create Camping With Cradle, a mentoring program that brings Charlotte kids to the mountains. He launched the group last year, and the nonprofit’s efforts will continue this summer as COVID restrictions loosen. Charlotte magazine spoke with Cradle about why he founded the group and what he’s working against.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

COURTESY KEITH CRADLE

BY ANDY SMITH

Keith Cradle’s recently formed nonprofit brings Charlotte kids to the outdoors.

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Charlotte magazine: When did your interest in the outdoors begin? Keith Cradle: I've always enjoyed being outside. I was a certified lifeguard in high school and did summer camps. But I really started camping and hiking around 10 years ago. CM: You’re someone who already works with young people every day. What needs does Camping With Cradle meet? KC: Well, we do have plenty of groups who do something like this in Charlotte, in terms of getting kids outside. But when we talk about access and inclusion for segmented groups of kids—particularly underserved kids—inside some of our communities, we know they're not getting outside of the city. They're not spending the money to do some

“The mental benefits come even with learning to survive a bit, along with the physical benefits—how to put up a tent, how to start a fire, how to cook food, how to sleep throughout the night and realize the trees aren’t going to kill you.”

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

CM: Obviously, being free from digital distractions has its advantages. What else is it doing for these kids? KC: Number one, you start with the health benefits, the physical (activity), their mental health, and psychosocial development. The outdoors gives all of that to adults and kids alike. But we know that most kids don't get outside like we used to. I’m 46. My mom used to throw us out of the house in the summer and say, "Don't come back.” Even in my (north Charlotte) neighborhood, I don’t see a lot of children outside play en masse like we used to. So you have to work against that and make it fun. You have this idea that it’s all bugs, and it’s too hard and unenjoyable. So you have to get through that red tape first. The mental benefits come even with learning to survive a bit, along with the physical

COURTESY KEITH CRADLE

(Above) Cradle takes a break at the Jacob Fork River Gorge overlook at South Mountains State Park. (This photo) Cradle sets up camp at Upper Falls.

of these larger summer programs. This was an opportunity for me to go ahead and reach those kids. There's room for all of it: those bigger, mainstream groups and those in the smaller segments like myself.

benefits—how to put up a tent, how to start a fire, how to cook food, how to sleep throughout the night and realize the trees aren’t going to kill you. You’re also working against the intimidation factor: You also look at where the parks are. Some of these state parks opened in the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s. Black families were not driving through some of those rural towns and cities. These were sundown towns. (Ed.: “Sundown towns” were all-white communities during Jim Crow where Black people could work during the day but had to leave by dark.) Even today, as I’m driving through some of these areas, you see stuff like Confederate flags everywhere. So a kid may be like, “Oh, hell, no, I’m not going through there.” You see why most Black folks have stayed away out of habit. It’s healthy for us to have these open conversations and get new context to open these spaces up for folk who traditionally didn’t go there.

CM: You said you picked up camping about a decade ago. Was there ever a time when you didn’t feel safe? KC: No, but I think I’ve always had an adventurous spirit. I think there have been people who are just more intrigued, than anything, to see some Black guy wandering around. They may feel like they have to impart some wisdom to you sometimes. They may suggest you do or buy certain things to make it easier. And then they get a little closer and see your gear, and they realize you’ve done your homework (laughs). CM: Once you’ve convinced kids to head out with you, what can they expect? KC: Any state park within our reach. Really, just two or three hours out of Charlotte, especially for an overnight trip, gets kids outside of the comfort zone. You lose a bit of cell coverage, so they’re not depending on that as much.

For a lot of kids, it’s when you lose sight of that skyline that changes your whole dynamic and outlook. CM: What kind of lasting impact have you found so far? KC: If you have, say, 10 kids that go out with me and a leader, six of them will probably say, “You know, that was fun, but I’m good now.” But that’s still four saying, “When are we going again?” And at least those six kids still had the opportunity. They know what exists out there, and they expanded their vocabulary in this area, hopefully. What they do with this experience afterward is up to them. But they can never say, “No, I’ve never done that before,” again. That’s what we’re getting rid of. Find out more about Cradle’s mentoring program at campingwithcradle.org. ANDY SMITH is executive editor of this magazine

FIVE STAR PROFESSIONAL

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JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Seven-year-old Nash Ganci shows off his tackle box.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

A wave of new, young fishing enthusiasts could outlast the pandemic BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADAM WHITLOW

H O O K E D

his used to be a typical Saturday for Ashley and Keith Ganci: Get Nash, 7, into his baseball jersey and cleats. Dress 4-year-old Ruby in her leotard and tutu. Strap 2-year-old Willow into her car seat and pack the family Tahoe with baseball bats, water bottles, coolers, and orange slices. Beeline to the baseball field to deposit not only Nash but also assistant coach Keith. Watch; play; coach; cheer. Exchange high fives and see-you-nextweeks; reload the car. Then, ballet class, soccer practice, or BounceU for a classmate’s birthday party. After all that, point the car toward their home in Myers Park and pray for nothing but green lights to make it to their neighborhood cookout. In March 2020, everything stopped. The COVID lockdown put the family’s activities on ice. But they had their weekends back. With the warmth of spring, the Gancis began to venture to nearby Briar Creek with fishing poles and a tackle box. “We discovered outdoor activities that hadn’t been on our radar before,” Ashley says. “We’d go hiking and exploring, and every weekend we tried out new greenways and trails.” And the extra time allowed Keith, a neuropsychologist, to rediscover a favorite pastime from his childhood on Long Island: fishing. A few weeks into the stay-at-home order, Ashley bought $40 rods for Nash and Ruby on Amazon so they could fish in their backyard, which backs up to Briar Creek. Individuals and families across the country have taken up the same hobby. Nationwide sales of fishing licenses increased 11% from 2019 to 2020, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, a national nonprofit, reported in March. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the state agency authorized to sell fishing licenses, sold 13% more resident licenses and 4% more non resident licenses in 2020 than in 2019, says foundation spokeswoman Stephanie Vatalaro. Fishing has natural advantages under COVID guidelines. With the exception of big charter boats, fishing is a solitary or small-group activity. Anglers tend to skip crowded stretches of shoreline, so those 6-foot social distances happen automatically. Compared to youth sports, dance, or gymnastics, fishing is relatively inexpensive, too. A basic North Carolina fishing license costs $9 for 10 days or $25 per year. (Those prices double for nonresidents.)

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

(Above) Ruby and Nash Ganci fish in the creek behind their home. Ashley shows 2-year-old Willow some fishing lures (below, left), while 4-year-old Ruby learns to work her reel (below, right). (Opposite) Keith shows Nash how to cast a line.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

t Jesse Brown’s Outdoors in SouthPark, general manager Wes Lawson and his staff would normally outfit families for spring break trips to the Bahamas or Belize. But since last March, they’ve had trouble keeping up with the demand for fishing gear. “The business definitely took a hit, but fly-fishing carried the ball further down the field for us,” he says. “We’d sell out of waders a week after we'd get them in. It brought new energy into the store.” They also saw a surge in guided fishing trips to nearby destinations like Davidson River and Mitchell River. The full-day trips, designed for one or two anglers, meet streamside for a day of casting instruction, water reading, entomology, and hook setting. The cost is $300 for one angler, $375 for two, and includes lunch and all gear for the day. Lawson says customers rarely flinch at the expense of the trip or splurging on a $250 pair of waders if the cheaper ones were out of stock. “When we realized we'd be in this for a while, people started committing, buying waders, rods, and more gear,” he says. “Now they identify as anglers.” Besides basic water safety skills and a North Carolina fishing license, Lawson says young anglers just need to come with an ability to listen and ask questions. And unlike outdoor activities like hiking and mountain biking, “you're highly unlikely to get a concussion or tear your ACL,” he says. “Just make sure you're wearing sunscreen and protective clothing. That's it.” Fishing trips have also opened an outdoor classroom for kids who’ve spent months trapped indoors in front of their devices. The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation’s online portal, Angler Academy, saw more traffic in 2020 than in any other year, Vatalaro says. Visitors downloaded ice-fishing experiments and picture books and viewed video tutorials on how to hook live bait. “Parents were looking for ways to lean into the science,” she says, “and this helped them teach their children about the language, conservation, and aquatic habitats.” According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North Carolina is home to 234 freshwater fish species like spotted bass, blue catfish, bluegills, and rainbow trout. In fly-fishing, there’s an order and pattern to the aquatic insects’ emergence. Lawson says all of that is a science lesson. “Kids become more in tune with what makes this place better,” he says. “Where does that storm drain run off to? Does my shampoo cause problems for aquatic culture? If I take a tree out of this environment, how does it affect the fisheries? They learn cause and effect.”

Where to fish in and around Charlotte FREEDOM LAKE AT FREEDOM PARK 1908 East Blvd. PARK ROAD LAKE AT PARK ROAD PARK 6220 Park Road MCALPINE LAKE AT MCALPINE CREEK PARK 8711 Monroe Road

nother valuable life skill many kids have lost in the digital age? Patience. “A lot of kids expect to go out and catch, catch, catch,” Vatalaro says. “But sometimes it’s a success if you can get them out on the dock, playing with bait. It doesn’t have to be a perfect experience. They can work on casting, bringing the bobber in, putting bait in a bucket. Success is getting them out there and having a memorable experience.” While Ashley juggled her children’s homeschooling with her full-time job as vice president of legal at American City Business Journals, she spent many afternoons on her back porch with her laptop while the kids fished in the creek. “They’d collect worms and bugs and learn how to work their rods and reels,” she says. “It was really nice to get back to those outdoor simplicities.” As the world reopens and social activities resume, the Gancis’ weekends will inevitably fill up with sporting events, barbecues, and birthday parties. But they hope fishing remains a regular family pastime, too. They say the unscheduled outdoor time has taught their children to entertain themselves instead of interrupting Mom or Dad to set up an inflatable pool or a painting station every time they get bored. It’s been a sweet spot in an otherwise turbulent year. Lawson, who also fishes with his 11-year-old son, says it’s an activity that doesn’t require you to keep score or have any great skill. “It’s easier than you think it will be … you can be a hero with your kids,” he says. “You don’t sit around the dinner table talking about who got the highest score at pinball. It's a lot more exciting to tell that story about the time you caught the big one.”

BEATTY LAKE AT COLONEL FRANCIS BEATTY PARK 4330 Weddington Road, Matthews LATTA PLANTATION NATURE PRESERVE 6211 Sample Road, Huntersville MCDOWELL NATURE PRESERVE 15222 York Road REEDY CREEK PARK AND NATURE PRESERVE 2900 Rocky River Road JETTON PARK 19000 Jetton Road, Cornelius RAMSEY CREEK PARK 18441 Nantz Road, Cornelius LAKE NORMAN STATE PARK 759 State Park Road, Troutman COLONEL FRANCIS BEATTY PARK 4330 Weddington Road, Matthews CANE CREEK PARK 5213 Harkey Road, Waxhaw

TAYLOR BOWLER is lifestyle editor of this magazine. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Wild IN THE CITY Sampson Parker Jr., the only state wildlife enforcement officer in Mecklenburg

County, watches a growing population on the water and in the woods to make sure it’s following the rules By GREG

LACOUR

Photographs by ANDY

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

McMILLAN

Sampson Parker Jr. is the only state wildlife enforcement officer stationed in Mecklenburg County. Part of his job involves watching people, as he does here at Latta Nature Preserve, for any sign that they don’t have valid fishing licenses.

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

Parker, 32, grew up SAMPSON PARKER JR. drives hunting and fishing in slowly down the access road toward Camden, South Carolina, Nance Cove and a group with fishand Cabarrus County ing rods and lines in the water. This and applied to the N.C. Wildlife Resources is a lakeside spot where Parker likes Commission after he to park his N.C. Wildlife Resources realized construction Commission F-150, behind high grass was “not for me.” just before the bend that leads to the parking area. Folks eye the murky, greenish-brown water for catfish or spotted bass, or they try to conceal the beer they shouldn’t have out here. They’re too tied up in what they’re doing to notice the truck or the young man in the khaki shirt and olive drab pants who peers at them through binoculars from the cab. We get out and walk around the bend toward the lot, filled with cars and trucks on a gorgeous, made-for-fishin’ Easter Sunday afternoon on Mountain Island Lake at Latta Nature Preserve. The 10 or so people at the water’s edge still don’t notice us, and Parker spots one of them, a man at the far end of the access area who holds a cast net. That’s not a violation, but it’s often a sign of one. “If you’re using a cast net, you can’t keep anything but nongame fish,” he mutters. “And a lot of times, if they’re using the cast net, and they catch a crappie or a bass, something that’s a game fish, they’ll keep it.”

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Parker doesn’t catch the man using the net, but he does catch him with an expired license. Parker writes him up. He explains that the commission, the state agency that regulates North Carolina’s fishing and hunting areas, isn’t out to punish anybody. They just want compliance. The ticket would cost the man $35, plus another $180 in court costs. But Parker explains that if he obtains a valid license and shows up with it in court on Aug. 18, the district attorney will drop the case. The man, who lives just down Beatties Ford Road, feels sheepish. “Well, we had one but, you know, we just didn’t get it renewed,” he says. “We just didn’t pay any attention to getting it. We come out here because it’s a nice day to do some fishin’.” Parker tells him to have a good day, and we start walking back toward the truck. “If you noticed,” he says, keeping his voice low, “as soon as I got here, they started packing up—and that is a telltale sign that they knew they didn’t have their license.” He chuckles. “That’s exactly why we sit back here.” The Wildlife Resources Commission employs about 200 enforcement officers, who roam North Carolina’s shorelines, water, and woods to make sure people observe the law when they hunt, fish, and boat. They ensure, for example, that adults understand they need licenses to fish creeks and rivers, which the state regulates, even if their backyards bump up against them. In fall, they inform deer hunters that they can’t use spotlights to flush their quarry from a forest at night. These are primarily rural concerns. In Mecklenburg County, with its 1.1 million people and the largest city in the Carolinas, the commission employs one enforcement officer: Sampson Parker Jr. Parker, 32, grew up hunting and fishing in Camden, South Carolina, and Cabarrus County, then graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2011 with a degree in geography and a minor in criminal justice. He went to work for Blythe Construction, where his

father was a project supervisor. Children can fish stateregulated waters like “We were working six, seven days Mountain Island Lake a week,” he says, “and I said, ‘This without licenses, but they is not for me.’” Parker wanted have to obtain them at age 16. Even with a license, you to be back near the water and can’t use a cast net to catch woods. He applied for a wildlife game fish like spotted bass enforcement officer’s job and was (below)—although you can use a rod and reel. rejected in 2012, then accepted in 2013. Stints in Northampton, Robeson, and Lincoln counties followed until his assignment to Mecklenburg in 2017. When you work as a wildlife enforcement officer in an urban county as opposed to a rural one, you adjust to a few prominent differences. One is the sheer volume of people you encounter, the vast majority of whom you don’t know. A second is variety. In forested rural counties, deer hunting season in fall is usually the busy time of year.

In Mecklenburg, it’s in summer, when boaters take to Lakes Norman, Wylie, and Mountain Island. If there’s a bad boating accident, the Wildlife Commission is the lead agency, which means Parker. If people are motorboating while drunk—not that anyone in Mecklenburg County would do such a thing—Parker stops and cites them. Springtime brings out the fisherfolk and turkey hunters. Fall means deer hunters, even in Mecklenburg—mainly in the undeveloped Dixie-Berryhill area between the Catawba River and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. “That’s what’s cool about the job,” Parker says. “It changes.” Since March 2020, so have the people he comes across. When COVID settled over the nation, and outdoor activities presented themselves as solutions to boredom and saviors of sanity, more people began to seek refuge at Mecklenburg County’s nature preserves and waterways, Parker says. Last summer, he says, families piled into boats and used the water as their social distance from others. Before COVID, he’d usually find men hunting or fishing alone. Now, he says, they often bring their wives or children or both— and solo hunters head into the woods more frequently. “I’ll give you one instance,” he says. “One gentleman told me he was a trade show worker, and his trade shows got shut down in summer and fall. He told me he hunted almost every single day last year.” (Too much, apparently. Parker had to cite the man for going over his six-deer limit for the season.) Data supports Parker’s observations: In 2020, records show, the commission sold 10% more fishing licenses and 7.5% more hunting licenses statewide than in 2019—and 26% more of both in Mecklenburg County. Although, predictably, not everyone bothers to buy them. We’ve moved on from Nance Cove to another, larger lake access point down the road, this one with a long pier and a rack with nine aluminum canoes. An asphalt path leads to the water’s edge, and Parker approaches slowly, fixing his gaze on a family gathered around a picnic table. A woman prepares steak and sausages on a charcoal grill—and three men with rods stand by the water. They look ready to cast. Parker suspects they’re not licensed. Before he can catch them with lines in the water, they see him. He walks up, says hi, checks, and—yep. No licenses. Parker instructs two of the men on how to get them—through the commission website and at most Walmarts and Bass Pro Shops—then turns to the third man, who has quietly relocated behind the picnic table. “Hey, partner,” Parker says. “If you’re gonna fish, make sure you have a valid license, OK?” The man nods. “Y’all have a good one,” Parker says, then moves on down the shoreline. GREG LACOUR is the senior editor of this magazine. JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

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A SEASON FOR EXPLORING THE CAROLINA LOWCOUNTRY

or those seeking a true change of scenery this summer, the Lowcountry of South Carolina awaits. Situated in Bluffton, South Carolina, between Hilton Head and Savannah, Georgia is Montage Palmetto Bluff. Nestled within a 20,000-acre nature preserve and overlooking the majestic May River this wonder of outdoor delights is calling. Flowing with excitement as endless as the May River current, indulge in relaxing spa treatments, eight unique dining options, endless outdoor adventure and so much more. Whether kayaking and paddleboarding down inding ater ays or golfing holes on a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, watch as the native Lowcountry wildlife unfolds before you. Take advantage of the warmer weather and stay a little longer this summer with our Stay & Play package. Reserve a private Village ome or ontage esidence for a fi e or six-night stay and receive a $500 resort credit; stay se en or more nights and recei e a resort credit.

MONTAGE PALMETTO BLUFF Plan your trip at montagepalmettobluff.com or call 888-430-8672

DISCOVER NATURE’S PLAYGROUND 210600_MONTAGEPALMETTOBLUFF_00552526.indd 1

organton is the perfect hub for outdoor adventure in Western North Carolina. Located just an hour and a half from Charlotte, Burke County boasts 2 state parks, three waterfalls, many miles of trails, rock climbing, hang gliding, zip lining and multiple places for fishing and oating all ithin minutes of downtown Morganton. These outdoor opportunities mixed with shopping, amazing artists and fascinating history make this area the perfect place for your next getaway. Take time to visit High Shoals Falls, the closest waterfall to Charlotte, located in South Mountain tate ar his magnificent foot cascade is sure to give you chills. South Mountain State Park also allows horseback riding along a myriad of its trails and has campsites located throughout the park. The Jacob’s Fork River, which goes through the tate ar is also perfect for y fishing hich makes this area an outdoorsman’s paradise. The largest state park in North Carolina, it is an excellent place to visit when you need to breakaway from the congested areas in the Charlotte metro area. Take a break and reconnect with nature in Burke County.

4/30/21 4:24 PM

Discover Burke County Plan your trip at www.discoverburkecounty.com or call 828-433-6793

Cherished memories await discovery on Amelia island.

Enjoy more time spent creating treasured memories together along the dune-lined beaches of this secluded barrier island with our Stay Longer Package . Save up to 30% on ocean view accommodations and receive a $50 daily resort credit for dining, spa, or other adventures. For reservations, please visit ritzcarlton.com/ameliaisland Offer valid through September 30, 2021, subject to availability. Rate is per room/per night, based on single or double occupancy, exclusive of taxes, gratuities, fees and other charges; does not apply to groups; cannot be combined with any other offer and is not applicable for Marriott Bonvoy redemption. Advance reservations are required. No refund or credit for unused portion. ©2021 The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TIME TO GET OUT AND GET WILD!

he North Carolina Zoo is the largest natural habitat zoo in the world! There is plenty of room to roam for both animals and people ith large spacious ha itats and fi e miles of shaded walking trails. Located right in the heart of North Carolina, it is an easy and afforda le o ernight or day trip for the entire family n addition to the ama ing ad entures ith our ildlife the oo offers seasonal acti ities such as the iraffe eeding ec and the oofari us tours on the acre atani rasslands e for 2021 are the Rydables, themed animal electric-powered mobility carts to cruise through the Zoo at a safe speed. These wild experiences are guaranteed to delight kids of all ages. The North Carolina Zoo is excited to welcome guests with specific guidelines in place to ma e your isit safe and fun or the most up to date information on ho to isit the oo and seasonal attractions please isit nc oo org

WONDERS NEVER CEASE AT GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN 210600_NORTHCAROLINAZOO_00556129.indd 1

t more than a mile above sea level, Grandfather Mountain has been sharing the wonders of the natural world since 1952. Summer is one of the most ideal times to visit, as temperatures at the world-famous Mile High Swinging Bridge are typically 20 degrees cooler than in the atlands The suspension footbridge spans an 80-foot chasm at a mile in elevation, with panoramic views of the WNC High Country — and even the Charlotte skyline some 80 miles

away on a clear day. he nonprofit nature par also offers access to 12 miles of hiking trails, wildlife habitats (featuring rescued black bears, cougars, river otters, bald eagles and elk), a nature museum, restaurant, picnic sites, fudge shop, interactive programs, special events and more — all included with admission. Grandfather Mountain is located at 2050 Blowing Rock Highway in Linville, N.C., just a mile off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

ADVENTURE AWAITS IN THE OLDE ENGLISH DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA GRANDFATHERMOUNTAINS_00554669.indd 1

he Olde English District takes you off the Interstate and down the back roads, here family farms still ourish museums and historic sites revisit the past, and outdoor activities offer fun and adventure for all ages. Located between Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC, and accessible from interstates and major highways, the Olde English District is filled ith oodlands and aterways, state and national parks and campgrounds. Unique restaurants and accommodations ranging from Olde English_June.indd 1

budget-friendly to holiday splurge guarantee visitors will be well-fed and well-rested during their adventures! You don’t have to be a history buff to enjoy traveling through the region, but you’ll learn about some of America’s earliest events along the way. A number of Revolutionary War battles were fought in the area, and historical sites, markers and buildings offer hundreds of ways to enjoy and re-live history. Visit our website www.oldeenglishdistrict.com to discover more!

THE NORTH CAROLINA ZOO Plan your trip at nczoo.org

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GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN Plan your trip at grandfather.com

4/30/21 12:05 PM

THE OLDE ENGLISH DISTRICT Visit our website oldeenglishdistrict.com to discover more!

4/30/21 11:57 AM

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

PLAN YOUR VISIT TO THE FORT MILL HISTORY MUSEUM

he Fort Mill History Museum is a hidden treasure worth adding as a stop on your adventure to the Fort Mill area. The museum provides the history of the people that made, and continue to make, Fort Mill a unique place to live, work, and play. As the museum’s motto states, the Fort Mill History Museum is where “where the past comes to life” which provides visitors a glimpse of yesteryears and captures the charm of this community useum isitors can stroll through e hi its of the first people in this area, the Catawba Indians; the especially important textile industry, and the exceptional people who called Fort Mill home. We hope you will take the time to visit our museum and make a day of it, by taking in our nearby restaurants, shops, and breweries while enjoying the hospitality of Fort Mill.

FORT MILL HISTORY MUSEUM Plan your trip at fmhm.org or call 803-802-3646

GET ON THE ROAD TO NATURE ON AMELIA ISLAND Fort_Mill_History_1_3.indd 1

5/3/21 1:15 PM

aradise has an outdoorsy side on Amelia Island. It can be adventurous, sporty, or move at the leisurely pace of a kayak gliding through the salt marshes. This scenic barrier island off Florida’s northeast coast is just a short road trip away from harlotte so fill the car and you could e on the beaches of Amelia Island before sunset. You’ll marvel at how such a small and intimate island has so much wide-open space — and so many ways to enjoy it. Everyone loves the beaches, whether you’re hunting for shark’s teeth, horseback riding or jumping the waves. Once you park at your beach resort, vacation rental or historic Victorian B&B, rent a bicycle or hop on your own for some of Florida’s best biking, including Egans Creek Greenway Trail and downtown Fernandina Beach. Bring your clubs and discover 99 holes of golf at fi e courses e sure to oo a fishing charter, sightseeing river cruise or idyllic kayaking tour. Meanwhile, Fort Clinch State Park has it all including surf fishing nature trails and campgrounds.

Go from nature outings to the rewards of delicious dining and upscale accommodations on Amelia Island. Explore more ways to play and start planning now.

AMELIA ISLAND Plan your trip at ameliaisland.com or call the Amelia Island Welcome Center at 904-277-0717

Check out our ongoing area travel coverage on charlottemagazine.com/travel

Plan your visit to the Fort Mill History Museum While you’re here make a day of it and enjoy downtown Fort Mill’s restaurants, breweries and shops. Open Wed-Sat 10 am-4 pm For updated hours & more info. visit fmhm.org Free Admission

107 Clebourne St. | Fort Mill, SC 29715

803-802-3646 | fmhm.org | info@fmhm.org

FROM HOME Planning your next trip or a night out with your friends? Discover the area’s best restaurants and bars, current topics, travel destinations, and inspiring stories about Charlotteans in our monthly publication.

E S S AY S / F O O D A N D W I N E / T R A V E L / S H O P P I N G & M O R E

AVA I L A B L E I N P R I N T, D I G I TA L O R B O T H .

S U B S C R I B E O N L I N E AT CHARLOT TEMAGAZINE.COM/SUBSCRIBE

Restaurants YOUR GUIDE TO CHARLOTTE’S DINING SCENE

Dilworth 300 EAST

$-$$

NEW AMERICAN The interior of this old houseturned-restaurant is welcoming, as is the menu of familiar and surprising sandwiches, salads, and entrées. Save room for dessert by pastry chef Laney JahkelParrish. 300 East Blvd. (704-332-6507) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

BONTERRA

$$$$

NEW SOUTHERN Its setting may be a historic Southern church, but Bonterra serves up modern Southern flavors with top-notch service. Wine lovers will be impressed by the more than 200 wines by the glass. 1829 Cleveland Ave. (704-333-9463) D, BAR

CAPISHE

$-$$

ITALIAN The pasta dishes and pizza prepared by Chef David Cavalier, previously of Kindred, are impressive for a fast-casual restaurant. Arrive early for lunch to beat the long lines. 500 E. Morehead St., Ste. 100. (980-819-9494) L, D, BAR

COPPER

$$$

INDIAN Ease into Indian cuisine with standard dishes like chicken tikka masala, or be more adventurous with the spicy seafood medley “anjeeri.” 311 East Blvd. (704-333-0063) L, D, V, BAR

DOLCE OSTERIA

ITALIAN This classic, cozy, family-run neighborhood trattoria serves a mix of fresh, regional Italian cuisine and a tidy, all-Italian wine list. 1710 Kenilworth Ave. (704-332-7525) L (weekdays), D, B/W

FERN, FLAVORS FROM THE GARDEN

VEGETARIAN Fern moved from Plaza Midwood to Dilworth in mid-2016. It still has ferns on the wall, and the menu is still full of flavorful vegetarian cuisine. 1419 East Blvd., Ste. A. (704-377-1825) L, BR, D, V, BAR

FIAMMA RESTAURANT

$$-$$$

ITALIAN The open layout lends an air of conviviality to this slick eatery, which has house-made pastas, thin-crust pizzas, note-perfect risotto, and daring meat entrées. 2418 Park Rd. (704-333-3062) L, D, BAR NEW LISTING

FAT CAT BURGERS + BAKESHOP

respect of seasonal produce, with playful dishes such as “Asparagus—as many ways as we could think of,” and a more robust cocktail program. 1961 E. 7th St. (980-299-2741) D, BR (Sun), BAR

LEBOWSKI’S NEIGHBORHOOD GRILL

ZEN FUSION

BAKERY With locations in Dilworth, Harrisburg, and Ballantyne, Sunflour serves croissants, cinnamon buns, sandwiches, and soups. Regulars spend mornings here with a cup of coffee, letting them fade into afternoons. 2001 E. 7th St. (704-900-5268) B, L, D, V

AMERICAN Dishes at this neighborhood favorite include burgers, brats, and the popular “Beef on Weck.” 1524 East Blvd. (704-370-1177) L, D, BAR

FUSION Here, fusion means a sampling of dishes from the Far East and Spain. 1716 Kenilworth Ave. (704-358-9688) L (weekdays), D, BAR

Elizabeth/Cherry CAJUN QUEEN

$$$

CAJUN Nightly live jazz complements New Orleans creole favorites like shrimp étouffée and crawfish Diane in this century-old house. 1800 E. 7th St. (704-3779017) BR, D, BAR

CUSTOMSHOP

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Owner and executive chef Trey Wilson uses top-notch, seasonal ingredients to create fresh takes on American cuisine in a hip, rustic atmosphere. 1601 Elizabeth Ave. (704-333-3396) D, BAR

THE FIG TREE RESTAURANT

$$$$

NEW AMERICAN The No. 2 restaurant on our 2018 Best Restaurants list, the Fig Tree specializes in fresh and flavorful cuisine with an emphasis on wine pairing in a 1913 bungalow. 1601 E. 7th St. (704-332-3322) D, BAR

PIZZERIA OMAGGIO

$-$$

Huntersville/Lake Norman ALIÑO PIZZERIA

DRESSLER’S

$$$

PIZZA Enjoy your Neapolitan-style, wood-fired pizza at a community table with paper towels on hand to catch the drips from crust dipped in herbs and olive oil. A second location is at Concord Mills. 500 S. Main St., Ste. 401, Mooresville. (704-663-0010) L, D, B/W

NEW AMERICAN Part steak house, part upscale American cuisine, dishes are delivered with consistency and a smile, both here and at the Metropolitan Avenue location. 8630-1A Lindholm Dr. (704-987-1779) D, BAR

FLATIRON KITCHEN + TAPHOUSE

$$$

STEAK HOUSE High-quality steaks are a given here, but the seafood and vegetables are treated with the same respect. 215 S. Main St., Davidson. (704-2373246) BR, L, D, BAR

HAVANA 33

CUBAN Enjoy lake views and authentic Cuban dishes like picadillo and mojo chicken with Yuca fries and sweet plantains. 637 Williamson Rd., Ste. 100 (704799-0875) BR, L, D, BAR

$$$

NEW SOUTHERN Davidson’s sweethearts, Joe and Katy Kindred, opened this lakefront spot. Expect Carolina classics like fried catfish and seafood platters, as well as tiki drinks. 20210 Henderson Rd., Cornelius. (704-997-5365) BR, L, D, BAR

PIZZA Among a sea of by-the-slice joints, owner Daniel Siragusa sticks by his Italian roots with personal pizzas. Some think they can’t possibly eat the whole pie, but they do. And then they order dessert. 1055 Metropolitan Ave., Ste. 130. (704-370-0777) L, D, BAR

THE STANLEY

SUNFLOUR BAKING CO.

NEW SOUTHERN Chef Paul Verica’s menu reflects a

HELLO, SAILOR

$$-$$$

AMERICAN Owner Fran Scibelli reimagined the former Fran’s Filling Station to include burgers, fried chicken, and a walk-up window that serves handmade donuts. 2410 Park Rd. (704-372-2009) L, D, BAR

INIZIO PIZZA NAPOLETANA

KID CASHEW

MEDITERRANEAN This bright and rustic restaurant from the owner of Georges Brasserie serves meat family style from a wood-fired grill and a selection of small plates. 1608 East Blvd. (704-208-4148) L, D, BAR

$$-$$$

PIZZA Two words: pistachio pizza. Seriously, try it. Then grab a spot on the patio beneath the bistro lights and enjoy a bottle of wine with friends. There’s a second location in Providence Commons, too. 2230 Park Rd. (704-900-0929) L, D, BAR

$ $$ $$$ $$$$

Most entrées under $10 Most entrées $10-$17 Most entrées $18-$25 Most entrées $26 & up Best Restaurants

B BR L D V

Breakfast Weekend brunch Lunch Dinner Vegetarian friendly

B/W Beer and wine only BAR Full-service bar Patio seating available Reservations suggested

REVIEW POLICIES—The restaurants on these pages are recommendations of the editors of Charlotte magazine. They are not related to advertising in any way. Restaurant visits are anonymous, and all expenses are paid by the magazine. Reviews are written by members of the editorial staff. We regularly update these listings. New additions are denoted by “new listing” and revised reviews are indicated by “update.” JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GUIDE KINDRED

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Chef Joe Kindred, a James Beard Award semifinalist, serves homemade pasta dishes and creative small plates in historic downtown Davidson. 131 N. Main St., Davidson. (980-231-5000) BR, L, D, BAR

SABI ASIAN BISTRO

ASIAN Find Asian-inspired dishes, from sushi to stir fry to sweet-and-sour chicken, in a sleek interior. 130 Harbor Place Dr., Davidson. (704-895-5707) L, D, BAR

MIDDLE EASTERN With a second location in Stonecrest, this Mediterranean and Lebanese spot serves dishes like hummus shawarma and lamb kabobs. 2233 Matthews Township Pkwy., Ste. E. (704-8450707) L, D

NEW ZEALAND CAFÉ

$-$$

FUSION A wooden latticework ceiling and indoor trellis add charm to this neighborhood favorite, where sushi is fresh and affordable. 1717 Sardis Rd. N., Ste. 6A. (704-708-9888) L, D, B/W

SANTÉ

AMERICAN A Myers Park mainstay since the 1980s, Fenwick’s is a go-to for a comforting meal made with fresh ingredients, delivered with warm service. 511 Providence Rd. (704-333-2750) BR, L, D, BAR

SOUTHERN A casual eatery known for its fried chicken, Leroy Fox serves Southern classics and upscale pub grub, with an additional location in South End. 705 S. Sharon Amity Rd. (704-366-3232) BR, L, D, BAR

MAMA RICOTTA’S

ITALIAN Frank Scibelli’s (Midwood Smokehouse, Yafo, Paco’s) first restaurant does simple Italian dishes with stylish twists in a spot fit for couples, families, and everyone else. 601 S. Kings Dr. (704-343-0148) L, D, BAR

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

BENNY PENNELLO’S

CABO FISH TACO

$-$$

JACKBEAGLE’S

LEAH & LOUISE

PAPI QUESO

$-$$

ROOM AND BOARD

$-$$

AMERICAN Expect all the staples from the popular food truck, along with new grilled cheeses, mac and cheese, and melts from the brick-and-mortar location in Optimist Hall. 1115 N. Brevard St. (704-5791779) L, D, V

$-$$

CARIBBEAN Come for a fruity cocktail, but don’t expect a trip to Margaritaville—this is a relaxed neighborhood hangout with cornhole, ping-pong, and rotisserie chicken you can smell cooking down the street. 3112 N. Davidson St. (704-910-2031) BR (Sun), D, BAR

$-$$

MEXICAN The Mexican cantina and gaming venue in Optimist Hall serves creative tacos and cocktails with a side of duckpin bowling. 1115 N. Brevard St. (980-9497837) L, D, BAR

THE GOODYEAR HOUSE

HEIST BREWERY

AMERICAN This is bar food to the extreme. Beer is incorporated into several dishes at this brewpub. The beer cheese is made with Heist’s own beer and served alongside pretzels made with leftover mash. 2909 N. Davidson St., Ste. 200. (704-375-8260) BR, L, D, BAR

AMERICAN Inside a two-story Victorian home and former boarding house, have your choice of sandwiches, burgers, and wings, or come for Sunday brunch and get a “hangover pizza.” 3228 N. Davidson St. (980-4303136) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

ASIAN One of Charlotte’s most popular food trucks has a brick-and-mortar space in Optimist Hall. Order Zhang Qian’s authentic Sichuan dumplings, noodles, and dim sum, and brace for spice. 1115 N. Brevard St. (980-595-6174) L, D, V

EL THRIFTY

FRENCH The crêpes—both sweet and savory—are delicious, but the restaurant’s fare goes beyond its French roots with flavorful salads, entrées, and craft cocktails. 3116 N. Davidson St. (704-910-6543) BR, L, D, BAR

THE DUMPLING LADY

HARRIET’S HAMBURGERS

AMERICAN The burger joint with a pick-up window at Optimist Hall has a simple menu of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and fries, but they get everything right. 1115 N. Brevard St., Ste. 6 L, D

SOUTHERN A James Beard-nominated chef and Soul Food Sessions co-founder Greg Collier serves the dishes he grew up on, like hot fried quail and dirty grits, in a space modeled after a Memphis-style juke joint. 301 Camp Rd., Ste. 101 (980-309-0690) D, BAR

SEAFOOD This NoDa “Baja seagrill” serves up the title dish as well as quesadillas, burritos, and salads in a fun, surf-themed atmosphere. 3201 N. Davidson St. (704332-8868) L, D, BAR

CRÊPE CELLAR KITCHEN & PUB

$$-$$$

$-$$

NoDa/North Charlotte BAO + BROTH

HABERDISH

AMERICAN Southern appetizers, fried chicken, and apothecary cocktails from Colleen Hughes draw a hip crowd to this mill town Southern kitchen. 3106 N. Davidson St. (704-817-1084) BR, L, D, BAR

AMERICAN A mainstay for the locals, this place serves unconventional bar bites like mac-and-blue-cheese with bacon. 3213 N. Davidson St. (704-334-5140) BR, L, D, BAR

THAI This family-owned eatery offers takeout, but with its modern dining room and bright patio, you’ll want to settle into a table. 613 Providence Rd. (704333-7884) L (weekdays), D, BAR

LEROY FOX

$$$

ITALIAN Volo translates to “flight,” which is the Italian answer to a tasting menu. Let the chef choose a meat, vegetable, or seafood flight for you, or order off the dinner menu and enjoy a plate of gnocchi, risotto, or tortellini paired with a glass of chianti. 1039 Providence Rd. (704-919-1020) D, BAR

PIZZA A full Benny P’s pie is 28 inches, almost double the standard—but if you divide it into eight slices, one is the ideal-sized meal for one person. 2909 N. Davidson St., Ste. 100. (980-949-8398) L, D, B/W

Myers Park/Cotswold

FENWICK’S

$$$

$$$ - $$$$

JAPANESE The excellence of this spot’s ramen and sushi carry over to the to-go format, with Yume’s InHome Ramen and Gyoza Kit among its innovations. 1369 Chestnut Ln., Matthews. (704-821-0676) L, D

DEEJAI THAI

STAGIONI

ASIAN Follow the smell of ramen and steamed pork belly buns to this food stall, the fifth restaurant from chef Bruce Moffett, and have a seat among the other diners in Optimist Hall. 1115 N. Brevard St. (704-6252269) L, D

FRENCH The food is far from colloquial here, and the exposed brickwork and antiqued tin roof lend credence to the French name. 165 N. Trade St., Matthews. (704-845-1899) D, BAR

YUME BISTRO

$-$$

ITALIAN Meaning “seasons,” this concept from Bruce Moffett serves Italian standards. A must-visit for Chef Eric Ferguson’s delicious, handmade pastas, woodfired pizzas, and slow-roasted meats. 715 Providence Rd. (704-372-8110) D, BAR

VOLO RISTORANTE

Matthews/Mint Hill KABAB-JE ROTISSERIE & GRILLE

PROVIDENCE ROAD SUNDRIES

AMERICAN Classic bar food and friendly service have made this a neighborhood hangout for generations. 1522 Providence Rd. (704-366-4467) L, D, BAR

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Grab a table in the botanist room or the open patio on a warm night, and enjoy elevated comfort food like smoked cashew mac and cheese and guinea hen stew. 3032 N. Davidson St. (704-9100132) L, D, BAR

ROY’S KITCHEN & PATIO

NEW LISTING

XIAO BAO

$-$$

ASIAN The Charleston-based joint serves Asian comfort food like savory Japanese pancakes and fried mochi from its stall at Optimist Hall. 1115 N Brevard St., Ste. 14 (980-309-0670) L, D, V

Plaza Midwood/East Charlotte ACE NO. 3

AMERICAN The new counter-service burger joint from the team behind Sea Level and the Waterman offers a straightforward menu of burgers, fries, and shakes. 1001 Belmont Ave. (704-910-2200) L, D,

CILANTRO NOODLE

$-$$

VIETNAMESE Structured like Chipotle, build-yourown meals include a base starch (banh mi, vermicelli noodles, white rice, fried rice), one protein, and five toppings. 2001 Commonwealth Ave. (704-345-9490) L, D, V, B/W

COALTRANE’S

$-$$

AMERICAN Rotisserie chicken with South Americaninspired sides makes for a healthy and fast lunch or dinner. 1518 Central Ave. (980-265-1290) BR, L, D, BAR

to a time when you didn’t know what calories or gluten were. 3723 Monroe Rd. (980-219-7108) L, D, BAR

SOUL GASTROLOUNGE

NEW AMERICAN Expect to wait a while at this no-reservations spot, known for small plates like pork belly tacos with compressed watermelon, and a rotating list of craft cocktails. 1500-B Central Ave. (704-348-1848) D, BAR

SNOOZE: AN A.M. EATERY

DELI A neighborhood hangout with locations in South End and Oakwold, this market and deli serves quick and delicious sandwiches, local craft beers, snacks, sweets, and more. 2007 Commonwealth Ave. (704-334-6209) B, L, D, B/W

AMERICAN The Denver-based breakfast spot has a huge menu, but you’re free to mix and match. Choose any two benedicts with the Benny Duo, or get the Pancake Flight with three different flavors. There’s also a morning cocktail menu with mimosas, mojitos, and a dirty drunken chai. 1331-A Central Ave. (704-2435070) B, BR, L, BAR

DIAMOND RESTAURANT

$-$$

AMERICAN This 1950s-style diner features retro teal booths, a jukebox, and classic dishes like burgers, fried pork chops, and fried chicken. 1901 Commonwealth Ave. (704-375-8959) L, D, BAR

SUPPERLAND

SOUTHERN The vibe is southern steakhouse-meetspotluck picnic, and dishes like wagyu pot roast and miso mac & cheese are all served family style. 1212 The Plaza (704-817-7514). D, V, BAR

DISH

$-$$

THREE AMIGOS

COMMON MARKET

SOUTHERN A neighborhood joint with an eclectic clientele, good, down-home Southern food, and a funky wait staff. 1220 Thomas Ave. (704-344-0343) B, L, D, BAR

INTERMEZZO PIZZERIA & CAFÉ

LANG VAN

LUPIE’S CAFE

AMERICAN The building, interior, and menu have barely changed since owner Lupie Duran opened in 1987. It’s an ideal spot for cold days, specializing in handmade burgers, four kinds of chili, meatloaf, and “chicken n dumplins.” 2718 Monroe Rd., (704-3741232) L, D, B/W

MIDWOOD SMOKEHOUSE

BARBECUE With North Carolina pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken, and dry or sauced ribs, there’s a ’cue for everyone—and traditional sides to pair. The restaurant has a number of Charlotte locations including Ballantyne and Park Road Shopping Center, but the Plaza Midwood spot is its flagship post. 1401 Central Ave. (704-295-4227) L, D, BAR

MOO & BREW

AMERICAN A playful list of burgers, craft beers, and friendly servers make this spot an easy choice for a casual dinner out. The patio is packed on nice nights. 1300 Central Ave. (980-585-4148) L, D, BAR

SAL’S PIZZA FACTORY

PIZZA The New York slices at this east Charlotte joint have thick cheese and generous toppings—the classic style of pizza that fuels nostalgia and harkens back

$$-$$$

JAPANESE Enjoy true, labor-intensive ramen, complete with add-ons like corn and pork belly, as well as traditional Japanese small plates and a sushi menu. 1324 Central Ave. (704-910-6387) D, V, BAR

ZADA JANE’S CORNER CAFE

$-$$

SOUTHERN This funky neighborhood restaurant with shuffleboard courts, a large patio, and colorful walls serves breakfast and brunch all day. 1601 Central Ave. (704-332-3663) B, BR, L, BAR

THE EAGLE FOOD & BEER HALL

EIGHT + SAND KITCHEN

FUTO BUTA

JAPANESE This ramen house promises authenticity, irreverence, and delightful, salty bowls of the hot noodle soup. 222 E. Bland St. (704-376-8400) L, D, B/W

ILIOS CRAFTED GREEK

$-$$

MEDITERRANEAN Get authentic Greek fare from the team behind Ilios Noche in a fast casual setting. Build a dish with your choice of roasted chicken, lamb, or pork, and chose from a rotation of sides like chickpea salad, Aegean slaw, and zucchini fritters. 1514 S. Church St. (980-237-1949) L, D

INDACO

$$-$$$

ITALIAN Atherton Mill’s rustic Italian restaurant serves wood-fired pizzas and hand-crafted pastas, proving certain dishes are classics for a reason. 2046 South Blvd. (704-741-9004) L, D, BAR

LET’S MEAT KBBQ

$$$$

$$$

VEGETARIAN This vegan gem is known for its raw version of lasagna, made with zucchini noodles, sundried tomato sauce, mushrooms, and a cashew-basil cheese. Its juice bar is also a popular draw. 2000 South Blvd., Ste. 300. (704-333-0008) B, L, D, B/W, V

NEW AMERICAN Nosh on Spanish and Mediterraneaninspired tapas or a charcuterie board with meats from different regions in Europe. Choose from more than 400 wines, and don’t miss the olive oil cake. 101 W. Worthington Ave., Ste. 110. (704-741-0300) D, BAR

BARDO

$$$

KOREAN BBQ Marinated meats at this all-you-caneat hangout come with Korean sides like steamed egg soufflé. 1400 S. Church St., Ste. B. (980-299-4389) L, D, (weekdays) BAR

South End BARCELONA WINE BAR

THE DUNAVANT

STEAK HOUSE The signature steak and bottomless fries dinner, which includes bread, a choice of soup or salad, and the option of three sauces, tastes more expensive than its $25 fixed price. 2322 Dunavant St., Ste. 200. (980-335-0125) BR, D, BAR

AMERICAN Come here for breakfast, brunch, lunch, an afternoon snack, or an evening out. The made-fromscratch bakery has sandwiches, salads, and artisan breads, and the café serves drinks all day. 135 New Bern St. B, BR, L, B/W, D

YAMA IZAKAYA

IRISH Enjoy Irish classics like fish and chips and shepherd’s pie in this rustic dining room, or grab a pint at the custom-built walnut bar. 1531 Central Ave. (980224-8234) BR, L (Fri-Sun), D, BAR

VIETNAMESE Regulars love this no-fuss spot for its authentic cuisine, with loads of flavor and fresh ingredients. 3019 Shamrock Dr. (704-531-9525) BR, L, D, V, B/W

BREWERS AT 4001 YANCEY

AMERICAN In addition to craft beers, this LoSo brewery has Southern-inspired bar food like fries topped with jalapeño gravy and bacon crumbles. 4001-A Yancey Rd. (704-452-4001) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

AMERICAN Feast on fried chicken with a side of house made hot honey, plus comfort food sides like mac & cheese, collards, and hushpuppies. 2120 South Blvd., Ste. 1 (704-780-1570) D, BAR,

$-$$

THE WORKMAN’S FRIEND

$$$

$$$-$$$$

MEXICAN Three Amigos remains a constant on Central Avenue, specializing in enchiladas and other Mexican staples like tinga de pollo and carne asada tacos. It’s always fresh, too—they’ll never save rice, beans, or meat for use the next day. 2917A Central Ave., 704536-1851. L, D, BAR

FUSION Even the pickiest eater can find something to order here, with menu options ranging from burgers and pizzas to cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers. 1427 E. 10th St. (704-347-2626) L, D, V, BAR

BEEF ’N BOTTLE

STEAK HOUSE An old favorite, this steak house is just what you’d expect, serving up thick and juicy cuts in a dark interior. 4538 South Blvd. (704-523-9977) D, BAR

NEW AMERICAN This foodie destination serves seasonal small plates and creative cocktails. The dining room looks into a big, open kitchen where diners can watch the chefs at work. 1508 S. Mint St., Ste. B. (980585-2433) D, BAR

LUNA’S LIVING KITCHEN

MAC’S SPEED SHOP

$-$$

BARBECUE Solid barbecue and cold beer (150 choices) in a motorcycle-themed space draw fun-loving crowds, with additional locations in Matthews and Lake Norman. 2511 South Blvd. (704-522-6227) L, D, BAR JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

THE GUIDE MIDNIGHT DINER

MOCCO BISTRO

AMERICAN This 24-hour classic diner has everything you’d expect, including all-day breakfast, onion rings, milkshakes, burgers, and hand-cut fries, along with Southern fare. 115 E. Carson Blvd. (980-207-3641) B, L, D, B/W

GREEK Despite the sounds of South Boulevard, the Greek pastries and coffees here can transport you to the Aegean Sea in just one taste. 4004 South Blvd., Ste. E. (980-207-0508) B, L, D, B/W

NIKKO

$$-$$$

JAPANESE Artistic sushi, a moody interior, and thumping sound system bring in dinner and late-night crowds, but quick service makes it a great lunch spot. 325 Arlington Ave., Ste. 108. (704-370-0100) L (weekdays), D, BAR

NORTH ITALIA

$$-$$$

ITALIAN Head to the ground floor of the RailYard for a dressed-up entree like squid ink mafaldine, or get the basic spaghetti and meatballs, which is good every time. 1414 S. Tryon St., Ste. 140 (980-279-8900) BR, L, D, BAR

O-KU

$$-$$$

SUSHI This second location of the Charleston-based Indigo Road restaurant group’s Japanese spot has great service, a beautiful interior, and dishes full of flavor. 2000 South Blvd., Ste. 510. (704-594-1922) D, BAR

PRICE’S CHICKEN COOP

SOUTHERN Expect to eat your meal standing up—or sitting in your car—but rest assured it’s the best damn fried chicken in the country. 1614 Camden Rd. (704333-9866) L, D (until 6 p.m.), Cash only. No seating.

RAI LAY THAI CUISINE

THAI Upscale Thai food in a sleek interior with attentive service makes this a fitting spot for South End. 1520 South Blvd., Ste. 130. (980-207-0991) L (MonSat), D, BAR

SEOUL FOOD MEAT CO.

FUSION This hip spot fuses traditional American barbecue with Korean flavors all the way to the sides, which include ramen mac-and-cheese. 1400 S. Church St., Ste. A. (980-299-5143) L (weekends), D, BAR

SOUTHBOUND

$-$$

BAJA The breezy vibes and bright flavors at this taco joint call for a Pacifico or a margarita. 2433 South Blvd. (704-912-1889) BR, L, D, BAR

SUPERICA

$$-$$$

TEX-MEX Atlanta chef Ford Fry brings the newest location of his Tex-Mex concept, with tacos, fajitas, and enchiladas, to the Design Center. 101 W. Worthington Ave., Ste. 100 (980-321-9914) BR, L, D, BAR

THE WATERMAN FISH BAR

$$-$$$

SEAFOOD This oyster bar has all the staples: lobster rolls, clam chowder, and oysters four ways. At sunset, head to the rooftop terrace for a cocktail and views of uptown. 2729 South Blvd., Ste. D. (704-275-5558) L, D, BAR

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

VANA

$$$

NEW AMERICAN Chef Michael Noll serves a blend of tapas and shareable plates in this open kitchen spot with a wood-fired theme. Don’t miss the quail with Tandoori marinade, buttermilk, and chili oil. 1440 S. Tryon St., Ste. 100. (980-819-5913) BR, D, BAR

South Charlotte

$$-$$$

INDIAN The sister restaurant of Copper has contemporary decor and a sharply dressed wait staff delivering Indian dishes to each table. 14815 Ballantyne Village Way., Ste. 170. (704-369-5777) L, D, V, BAR

THE FLIPSIDE CAFÉ

$$-$$$

GERMAN Family-friendly Waldhorn offers authentic German dishes in a Bavarian-style setting. 12101 Lancaster Hwy., Pineville. (704-540-7047) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

ITALIAN This eatery in StoneCrest at Piper Glen has Italian-American dishes like snapper picatta, penne alla Civetta, and scallops risotto. Save room for a lasagnasized slice of tiramisu for dessert. 7828-E Rea Rd. (980335-2758) BR (Sun), L, D, V, BAR

THE BLUE TAJ

SPICE ASIAN KITCHEN

AMERICAN This spot serves up hearty portions of diner staples, such as meatloaf and fresh-roasted turkey clubs, all made in-house. 16637 Lancaster Hwy. (704544-0313) B, L, D, BAR

CIVETTA ITALIAN KITCHEN + BAR

$$-$$$

ASIAN The dumplings and Pad Thai are consistently good, but the bibimbap, bossam, and curry dishes are great for adventurous palates. During patio season, enjoy a cocktail or dessert at the rooftop terrace bar. 251 Textile Way, Fort Mill. (803-548-6868) L, D, V, BAR

(Arboretum, Ballantyne, Pineville, Fort Mill) BIG VIEW DINER

RED SAKE

JAPANESE This is sushi for true sushi aficionados. The Luke Lobster roll is a delectable mouthful of lobster meat, spicy tuna, avocado, and eel sauce topped with sweet potato strings. 8410 Rea Rd., Ste. 100 (980-4981578) L, D, BAR

WALDHORN

NEW LISTING

WHAT THE FRIES

$-$$

AMERICAN Order food truck favorites like Shrimp and Steak Hibachi Fries and Lobster Mac and Cheese Fries in the team’s first brick-and-mortar restaurant. 10707 Park Road, Ste. R. (704-774-7517) L, D

SouthPark/Park Road BAR MARCEL

$$-$$$

$$-$$

FUSION The menu features shareable plates of beef carpaccio or truffle and herb frittes—but order a flatbread pizza for yourself. 3920 Sharon Rd., Ste. 160. (980-237-1919) L, D, BAR

FLIPSIDE RESTAURANT

$$-$$$

JAPANESE Black and red decor, delicious sushi, techno beats, and a large pair of geisha eyes staring out at the crowd make for a dramatic setting in this shared-plates restaurant. 4515 Sharon Rd. (704-817-7173) D, BAR

GALLERY RESTAURANT

$$$-$$$$

NEW AMERICAN Bruce Moffett’s first restaurant is one of the best in town, with a classic menu and stellar service. 7822 Fairview Rd. (704-364-5755) D (MonSat), BAR

$$$

FRENCH Monte Smith has done a bang-up job recreating a classic French restaurant, and diners react enthusiastically at brunch, lunch, and dinner. 6700 Fairview Rd. (704-552-1116) B, L, D, BAR

$$$-$$$$

MEXICAN This easy, casual spot draws crowds for its fresh takes on Mexican cuisine and fine margarita list. 4271 Park Rd. (704-331-9222) L, D, V, BAR

NEW SOUTHERN Chefs Jon and Amy Fortes’ first restaurant makes you feel right at home, but the food lets you know it ain’t your mama in the kitchen. 3150 Hwy. 21 N., Fort Mill. (803-802-1711) B, BR, L, D, B/W

NEW SOUTHERN This sister restaurant of Flipside Café has a more formal and spacious dining room, which fits with its elevated menu. 129 Caldwell St., Rock Hill. (803324-3547) BR, L, D, V, BAR

NEW AMERICAN Inside the Ballantyne hotel, you’ll find Southern-inspired, white-tablecloth dining with dishes sourced from local farmers. 10000 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy. (704-248-4100) B, BR, L, D, BAR

OGGI RISTORANTE ITALIANO

ITALIAN Find comfort food like spaghetti and house meatballs and lasagna, or savor some squid ink linguini and a glass of pinot grigio on the patio. 16646 Hawfield Way Dr., Ste. 101 (704-716-9400) L, D, BAR

THE PORTER’S HOUSE

STEAK HOUSE The newest member of the Rare Roots Hospitality Group (Dressler’s, Dogwood) is known for thick-cut steaks, modern sides, and craft cocktails. 7417 Waverly Walk Ave. (704-930-7878) D, BAR

RED ROCKS CAFÉ

$$-$$$

AMERICAN Consistently good pasta, seafood, and steak make this restaurant a mainstay in the Strawberry Hill shopping center. Additional locations are in Indian Land and Birkdale Village. 4223 Providence Rd., Ste. 8 (704-364-0402) BR (Sun), L, D, V, BAR

BAKU

BARRINGTON’S

CAFÉ MONTE

CANTINA 1511

DOGWOOD SOUTHERN TABLE + BAR

$$-$$$

$$$-$$$$

$$-$$$

$$$

NEW SOUTHERN Ingredients are fresh and cocktails are innovative at this spot, a sister to Dressler’s. 4905 Ashley Park Ln., Ste. D. (704-910-4919) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

DOT DOT DOT

$$$

NEW AMERICAN Stefan Huebner’s creative cocktails may be the main attraction at this members-only

speakeasy, but chef Corey Dawson’s sweet seared scallops with roasted mushroom risotto will convince you to stay for dinner. 4237 Park Rd., Ste. B. (704-817-3710) D, BAR

EASY LIKE SUNDAY

AMERICAN The fried chicken and cornmeal pancakes are worth standing in line for, but if you’d rather skip the weekend rush, go in the evening and have a boozy brunch after dark. 1600 E. Woodlawn Rd., Ste. 100. (980-335-2428) B, BR, L, D, BAR

FLOUR SHOP

$$$

ITALIAN Watch your pasta get prepared in the open kitchen. Chef Trey Wilson’s shared plates are great for larger groups, but if you don’t want to share, get the lamb Bolognese. 530 Brandywine Rd. (980-299-3754) D, BAR

FINE & FETTLE

$$-$$$

AMERICAN Chef Daniel Wheeler makes culinary art at this homey restaurant inside the Canopy by Hilton. Feast on pork cheeks with edamame, a fried hen sandwich, or splurge on a fried PB&J with black pepper sorbet. 4905 Barclay Downs Dr. (704-552-1715) B, BR, L, D, BAR

GOOD FOOD ON MONTFORD

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Bruce Moffett’s small-plates bistro unites a variety of influences and flavors onto one menu, and each dish is worth ordering. 1701 Montford Dr. (704-525-0881) D, BAR

HARPER’S RESTAURANT

AMERICAN Jazzed-up American cuisine makes Harper’s a place to take out-of-town guests with varying palates. 6518 Fairview Rd. (704-366-6688) BR (Sun), L, D, BAR

HIBISCUS

$-$$

ASIAN Roger and Robert Kongham, the sons of Thai Taste’s owners, serve creamy curries, Thai classics, and sushi in a more formal dining room. 1600 E. Woodlawn Rd., Ste. 150. (980-256-4380) L, D, BAR

LEGION BREWING

$$-$$$

AMERICAN Unlike its flagship location in Plaza Midwood, the SouthPark brewery serves more than typical bar snacks. Chef Gene Briggs cooks pork belly gyros, duck fat chicken wings, and a full Sunday brunch. 5610 Carnegie Blvd. (980-256-4167) BR, L, D, BAR

LITTLE MAMA’S ITALIAN KITCHEN

$$-$$$

ITALIAN Think of this eatery as the prequel to Mama Ricotta’s, with family recipes and scratch-made pastas and mozzarella. Settle into one of the dining rooms with a plate of pappardelle or cozy up at the “Mozz Bar” and watch the chefs at work. 4521 Sharon Rd. (980-209-0323) D, BAR

OAK STEAKHOUSE

$$$$

STEAK HOUSE Chef Tyler Honeycutt aces steakhouse classics like ribeye or filet, and be sure to save room for some lemon olive oil cake for dessert. 4477 Sharon Rd., Ste 125. (704-954-8900) D, BAR

PACO’S TACOS & TEQUILA

MEXICAN Although you’ll find plenty of options on the menu, there are 10 varieties of tacos and more

than 60 kinds of tequila. 6401 Morrison Blvd., Ste. 8A. (704-716-8226) L, D, V, BAR

PEPPERVINE

$$$$

FUSION Chef Bill Greene serves a rotation of artistic small plates with unexpected pairings, like lamb belly with kimchi porridge and smoked butternut squash with miso. 4620 Piedmont Row Dr., Ste. 170B. (980283-2333) D, V, BAR

REID’S FINE FOODS

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Stellar service and a reliable menu have earned this market and restaurant a loyal following. 4331 Barclay Downs Dr. (704-377-7686) BR, L, D, BAR

RH ROOFTOP RESTAURANT

$$$-$$$$

AMERICAN The dining room has retractable glass walls, Japanese boxwood hedging, and a fountain. The menu is standard (but upscale) American fare like lobster rolls, truffled grilled cheese, and ribeye steak. 6903 Phillips Place Ct. (704-790-4970) BR, L, D, V

ROASTING COMPANY

AMERICAN Since adding a full bar, Roasting Company fits in more comfortably with the Montford Drive scene but still sets the standard for rotisserie chicken. 1521 Montford Dr. (704-521-8188) L, D, BAR

ROCKSALT

$$$-$$$$

TOSCANA

$$$

ITALIAN An authentic northern Italian menu is paired with an extensive wine list, while courtyard dining adds to the experience on a nice night. 6401 Morrison Blvd., Ste. 6B. (704-367-1808) L (weekdays), D, BAR

YAFO KITCHEN

YAMA ASIAN FUSION

MEDITERRANEAN With additional locations in Dilworth and Plaza Midwood, this fast-casual concept serves Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired fare in a wrap, salad, or grain bowl. 720 Governor Morrison St., Ste. 120. (704-365-7130) L, D, B/W

FUSION This upscale Japanese restaurant has sushi, hibachi, and Asian-inspired entrées. A second location opened in Waverly last year. 720 Governor Morrison St., Ste. 130. (70s4-295-0905) L (Mon-Sat), D, BAR

University Area AMALFI PASTA ’N PIZZA

ITALIAN The only other places where Italian food is this real, this good, and this cheap are called trattorias, and you have to take a plane to get to them. 8542 University City Blvd. (704-547-8651) L, D, B/W

FIREWATER

$$-$$$

SEAFOOD Head to RockSalt for the spacious patio and fresh seafood—from the raw bar, with several varieties of oysters on the half shell, or the daily catch. 512 Brandywine Rd. (704-503-9945) BR, L (weekends), D, BAR

AMERICAN The food here is primarily American bistro-style, but the owner’s family tuna business makes apps like the tuna tartare standouts. 8708 J. W. Clay Blvd. (704-549-0050) L (weekends), D, BAR

ROOSTER’S WOOD-FIRED KITCHEN

MEXICAN Expect typical Mexican fare in a high-energy dining room, with an additional location in Ballantyne. 8927 J.M. Keynes Dr., in University Place shopping center. (704-503-1979) L, D, BAR

$$-$$$

NEW SOUTHERN Chef Jim Noble’s menu offers gussied-up, Southern-tinged American and European peasant fare, like hand-tossed pizzas and roasted chicken. A second location is in uptown. 6601 Morrison Blvd. (704-366-8688) L, D, V, BAR

SIR EDMOND HALLEY’S

AMERICAN This pub, named for the astronomer and mathematician, serves its entire menu until closing at 2 a.m. 4151 Park Rd., Ste. A. (704-525-7775) L (weekdays), D, BAR

SOUTHERN PECAN

$$-$$$

SOUTHERN The team behind Café Monte serves Gulf Coast-inspired cuisine like pecan fried catfish, Louisianna barbecue shrimp, and oyster po’ boys. 6705-C Phillips Place Ct., Ste. C (704-749-2949) L, D, BAR

STEAK 48

$$$$

TAQUERIA MAL PAN

$$-$$

STEAK HOUSE Steak is the main attraction, but don’t miss the crispy shrimp deviled eggs, corn crème brulée, and seafood tower. 4425 Sharon Rd. (980-5804848) D, BAR

MEXICAN Pace yourself with the chips and guacamole because the California burrito is the best burrito you’ll have in Charlotte—spoiler alert: it has French fries inside. 4625 Piedmont Row Dr., Ste. 115-D (980298-6138) BR, L, D, BAR

ZAPATA’S CANTINA

Uptown 204 NORTH

$$$

NEW SOUTHERN This uptown spot with modern Southern food is best for cocktails and conversation at the bar. 204 N. Tryon St. (704-333-3747) BR, L, D, BAR

5CHURCH

$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Top Chef alum Jamie Lynch’s innovative, seasonal menu includes morel mushroom flatbread and mint crusted lamb loin. 127 N. Tryon St., Ste. 8. (704-919-1322) BR, L, D, BAR

ALEXANDER MICHAEL’S

$$ -$$$

AMERICAN The blackened catfish is cooked just right, the Cajun pasta is piping hot, and chatter fills the noreservations dining room. 401 W. 9th St. (704-3326789) L, D, BAR

ANGELINE’S

$$$

ITALIAN The Italian-inspired entreés at this uptown spot are all excellent, and the whipped ricotta with sourdough, lavender honey, and pistachio is the most imaginative appetizer on the menu. 303 S. Church St. (704-445-2540) B, BR, L, D, V, BAR JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

ARIA TUSCAN GRILL

$$$

THE ASBURY

$$$

ITALIAN This restaurant serves up an extensive Italian menu in an elegant, modern space. 100 N. Tryon St. (704-376-8880) L (weekdays), D, BAR

NEW SOUTHERN Chef Mike Long’s inventive menu mixes countryside favorites like biscuits and deviled eggs with bold flavors and contemporary techniques. 235 N. Tryon St. (704-342-1193) B, BR, L, D, BAR

BASIL THAI

$$-$$$

THAI Thai lovers can sate their cravings with tasty pad Thai, while the more daring can try dishes like crispy red curry duck, a rich, deep-fried half duck in a spicy red curry sauce. 210 N. Church St. (704-3327212) L (weekdays), D, V, BAR

THE CELLAR AT DUCKWORTH’S

SPANISH This sister restaurant to Luce serves authentic regional cuisine from Spain for lunch and dinner. 214 N. Tryon St. (704-344-8878) L (weekdays), D, BAR

McNINCH HOUSE

$$$$

$$-$$$

$$$-$$$$

$$-$$$

ITALIAN Chef Luca Annunziata serves lasagna just like his mom made it and carbonara as it’s served in Rome. 230 North College St. (704-602-2750) B, L, D, BAR

MALABAR SPANISH CUISINE

$$$

SOUTHERN James Bazzelle’s pride and joy serves down-home Southern cooking, with a dash of Lowcountry, in a downtown-feeling place. 214 N. College St. (704-342-4222) BR, L, D,B/W

NEW AMERICAN Located on the 21st floor of Skye Condos, chef Rocco Whalen’s restaurant is the place in Charlotte to eat a meal and see the city twinkle. 222 S. Caldwell St. (980-237-6718) BR, D, BAR

FORCHETTA

LUCE

GLOBAL Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences run through this menu. Order a few tapas and a bottle of wine, head out to the patio, and watch the activity at Trade and Tryon. 101 S. Tryon St., Ste. 14. (980-406-3857) L, D, BAR

FAHRENHEIT

$$-$$$

NEW SOUTHERN Guests order from a daily prix fixe menu (ranging from five to nine courses), choose their wine and entrées, and the staff takes care of the rest. 511 N. Church St. (704-332-6159) D, BAR

NEW AMERICAN On weekends, this Irish pub turns into one of uptown’s hottest nightlife spots. But during the day, come for a cozy meal with flickering candles and shared plates. 118 W. 5th St. (704333-7989) BR, L, D, BAR

ESSEX BAR & BISTRO

THE KING’S KITCHEN

AMERICAN This sister restaurant to Leroy Fox has a trendy, pop-culture vibe—and a roster of fancy burgers (including a foie gras-topped offering for $20). 201 N. Tryon St., Ste. 1010. (980-224-8674) L, D, BAR

DANDELION MARKET

$$$ - $$$$

ITALIAN Luce is a beautiful, intimate, luxurious restaurant with simple but innovative northern Italian cuisine. 214 N. Tryon St., Ste. J, in Hearst Plaza. (704344-9222) L (weekdays), D, BAR

AMERICAN Marriott introduced this coffee and sandwich shop for locals and hotel guests alike to have a comfortable, casual dining option. 100 W. Trade St. (704-353-6003) B, L, D, B/W

COWBELL BURGER & BAR

HAYMAKER

NEW SOUTHERN Enjoy locally and seasonally inspired dishes from North Carolina chef William Dissen in this bright, stylish space next to Romare Bearden Park. 225 S. Poplar St. (704-626-6116) BR, D, BAR

$$-$$$

AMERICAN Grab a seat on the rooftop patio, sip on a Queen City cocktail, and order the maple glazed bacon clothesline. The presentation is exactly as it sounds. 555 S. McDowell St. (980-2375356) D, BAR

COCO + THE DIRECTOR

$$$

SOUTHERN Chef Jim Noble’s restaurant, which serves traditional Southern fare, donates profits to faith-based feeding centers and employs troubled youth and people who have just come out of rehab or prison. 129 W. Trade St. (704-375-1990) L, (weekdays) D, B/W,

NEW AMERICAN The focus is on small plates, craft beer served in its proper glassware at proper temperature, and craft cocktails. 330 N. Tryon St. (980349-4078) D, BAR

CLOUD BAR BY DAVID BURKE

FIN & FINO

SEAFOOD Come for the raw bar, but stay for bartender Brittany Kellum’s drinks. Then splurge on a slice of cheesecake. 135 Levine Avenue of the Arts, Ste. 100. (704-800-5680) L, D, BAR

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

MERT’S HEART AND SOUL

MICO

$-$$

$$$-$$$$

ARGENTINEAN The South American-inspired menu is full of complex flavors and unexpected mash-ups like harissa creamed spinach and brown butter bread crumbs. Chef de Cuisine Whitney Thomas arranges each dish with edible flowers and vibrant vegetables that frame the plate. 201 W. Trade St. (980-999-5550) L, D, BAR

MIMOSA GRILL

$$$

NEW SOUTHERN This popular after-work spot has a seasonal menu, friendly service, tasty seafood dishes, and creative mixtures to top grits. 327 S. Tryon St. (704-343-0700) BR, L (weekdays), D, BAR

MOA KOREAN BBQ

$$-$$$

KOREAN BBQ You can order Korean tacos and kimchi bulgogi nachos a la carte, but the tabletop barbecue is the main attraction. Watch your server cook beef brisket and pork belly as you sip a craft cocktail. 128 S. Tryon St. (704-503-9412) L, D, V, BAR

SEA LEVEL NC

$$-$$$

SEAFOOD Concrete beams and rustic brick give an industrial feel to this seafood restaurant, which serves up dishes that are accessible, inventive, and sustainably sourced. 129 E. 5th St. (704-412-2616) L, D, BAR

SOHO BISTRO

STOKE

$$$

THE YOLK

$-$$

ASIAN Lightning-fast, friendly service complements hot, savory Chinese favorites such as Sha Cha Shrimp and Mongolian Chicken. 214 N. Tryon St., Ste. 110. (704-333-5189) L, D, B/W

NEW AMERICAN Hotel dining gets an upgrade with this wood-fired-grill, family style concept in Marriott City Center. 100 W. Trade St. (704-353-6005) B, BR, L, D, BAR

AMERICAN Greg and Subrina Collier’s breakfastfocused concept in 7th Street Public Market is open for breakfast and lunch, but shrimp and grits topped with Gouda cheese, jerk seasoning, and scallion pesto is delicious any time of day. 224 E. 7th St. (704230-4346) B, L

West/Northwest Charlotte COMMUNITY TABLE BISTRO

SOUTHERN At the Goodwill Opportunity Campus, a small, cafeteria-style restaurant sears, bakes, and fries comfort food on a daily rotation for an affordable price. 5301 Wilkinson Blvd. (980-636-1000) B, L (weekdays), V

ESTIA’S KOUZINA

$$-$$$

GREEK This upscale Mediterranean restaurant offers healthy and delicious dishes like gyro pitas, lamb burgers, and hearty salads. 609 N. Main St., Belmont. (704-825-7005) BR, L, D, V, BAR

HEIRLOOM RESTAURANT

$$-$$$

NEW AMERICAN Ingredients are sourced almost exclusively from North Carolina, and the tasting menu includes fried chicken and pork and beans. 8470 Bellhaven Rd. (704-595-7710) D, V, BAR

NOBLE SMOKE

$-$$

BARBECUE Feast on Carolina-style pork and Texas-style brisket, and grab a drink at the “Legends Counter” with custom plaques for Southern barbecue icons. 2216 Freedom Dr. (704-703-5252) L, D, BAR

BOSSY BEULAH’S

PINKY’S WESTSIDE GRILL

AMERICAN Think of Bossy Beulah’s as the kid sister—or sidekick—to Noble Smoke. Order your fried chicken sammie bunless or add American cheese, and pair it with a sweet tea or Cheerwine. 2200 Freedom Dr. (980-737-1400) L, D

AMERICAN Housed in an old auto shop, this funky spot serves great burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and salads, as well as tasty sides like waffle fries. 1600 W. Morehead St. (704-332-0402) L, D, BAR

Charlotte magazine (ISSN 1083-1444) is published monthly by Morris Communications at 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 303, Charlotte NC 28203-5161. Entire contents Copyright © 2021 by Morris Communications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Periodicals postage paid in Charlotte, NC and additional offices. To subscribe, renew, or change address, go to www.charlottemagazine.com or write to: Charlotte magazine, 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 302, Charlotte NC 28203-5161. Subscription rate $19.95 for one year (twelve issues). For renewal or change of address, include the address label from your most recent issue. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Charlotte, P.O. Box 433237, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9616. Unsolicited photographs, illustrations, or articles are submitted at the risk of the photographer/artist/author. Charlotte magazine assumes no liability for the return of unsolicited materials and may use them at its discretion.

THE GUIDE

New Breweries Here’s a directory of spots that have recently opened in the area East Charlotte EDGE CITY BREWERY 6209 Old Post Rd., Ste. 109 980-949-6199 edgecitybrewery.com VAULTED OAK BREWING 3726 Monroe Rd. vaultedoakbrewing.com

North Charlotte FREE RANGE CAMP NORTH END 301 Camp Rd., Ste. 100 980-201-9096 freerangebrewing.com PETTY THIEVES BREWING COMPANY 413 Dalton Ave., Ste. B pettythievesbrewing.com

South End PROTAGONIST LOSO 227 Southside Dr. 980-209-0735 protagonistbeer.com

Wesley Heights TRAUST BREWING COMPANY Only available via online store, bottle shops, and pop-ups right now traustbrewing.com

Belmont

Fort Mill 1873 BREWING 415 Tom Hall St,, Fort Mill 1873brewing.com LITTLE YORK BREWING 1029 Spratt St. B, Fort Mill 704-326-1344 littleyorkbrewing.com

Lake Norman LAKE NORMAN BREWERY 1753 Triangle Circle, Denver 980-525-5562 lknbrewery.com

Lake Wylie MODEL A BREWING 1177 Stonecrest Blvd. 803-547-8595 modelabrewing.com

LOST WORLDS BREWING 19700-D, One Norman Blvd., Cornelius 980-689-2467 lostworldsbeer.com

CROSSWORD OF THE MONTH

By Andy Smith

ANSWERS can be found online at charlottemagazine.com/ crossword.

BELMONT BREWING CO. 1500 River Dr., Belmont 980-483-3740 belmontbrewingcompany. net PRIMAL BREWERY BELMONT 52 Ervin St., Belmont 704-829-3816 primalbrewery.com

Denver ROYAL BLISS BREWING 7532 Waterside Peak Dr., Denver 704-951-8388 royalblissbrewing.com

Best Sips Our favorite brews this month, chosen by Charlotte magazine staff

COURTESY

Good As Helles Tropical Helles Lager, $10.00 (4-pack) BIRDSONG BREWING CO. A HELLES is a type of pale lager found mainly in Bavaria, particularly Munich—not exactly in the tropics. Yet Head Brewer Conor Robinson infuses the seasonal 5.4%-ABV Good As Helles with mango, passionfruit, and orange notes from Strata hops without sacrificing the lager’s essential dry, crisp lager-ness. (The taste buds of Birdsong regulars may recognize the beer as a renamed The Good Good Tropical Helles, a seasonal that Birdsong briefly sold early last year before COVID.) —Greg Lacour

JUNE 2021 // CHARLOTTE

YOU ARE HERE Each month, we’ll throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands. LOCATION: 5101 Monroe Road

nroe 5101 Mo

Road

Property Value

THE NAMESAKE OAKS in the Oakhurst neighborhood are just starting to bud on a spring morning. Cars zip to and from a long string of businesses on Monroe Road in southeast Charlotte, where tax preparers, hairstylists, counselors, and tattoo artists work. This is a commercial corridor. But unlike so many other business districts in a city obsessed with the shiny and new, these businesses occupy single-family homes that date back to the 1920s and ’30s. Their break rooms are family-style kitchens—some renovated, some not.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JUNE 2021

Office bathrooms are still outfitted with tubs. Holly Kimsey Evans and her wife considered South End and uptown three years ago when they hunted for a new headquarters for Evans’ real estate business. But a corporate setting just didn’t feel right. They pulled up to a 1928 Georgian fixerupper at 5101 Monroe, at Eaton Road. The pair looked past the wood rot, overgrown hedges, and half-buried swimming pool and instantly saw the possibilities. Now, it’s the stately, gleaming-white

headquarters of the Kimsey Evans Team, with refinished hardwoods, a secondfloor training room that holds 20 in non-COVID times, and a parking lot in the backyard where the swimming pool used to be. Evans says buyers and sellers are more relaxed during closings at her office than in a commercial office building. “When people walk into a commercial space, it just seems so serious. … You feel like you have to whisper,” she says. “Here, they usually walk in and they’re like, ‘This is so beautiful!’ And they talk and enjoy the moment.” —Cristina Bolling

SHAW NIELSEN; CRISTINA BOLLING

Realtor discovered her own rough gem among the old houses-turned-offices on Monroe Road

Charlotte Magazine June 2021

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