Charlotte Magazine March 2022 by Morris Media Network

March Madness Memories p. 14

Design Trend: Maximalism p. 28

Brewery Bets on Tacos, Too p. 44

SUMME CAMP R GUIDE p. 7 9

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CONTENTS CHARLOTTE / MARCH 2022 / VOL. 27, NUMBER 3

Features 56 GET OUT OF TOWN! Four distant destinations you can reach with a nonstop flight from CLT

PARK CITY, UTAH A ski resort town with afterparties for miles BY GREG LACOUR

SAMANÁ, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC The latest direct flight: lush greenery and humpback whales BY ANDY SMITH

CANCÚN, MEXICO Dive into the drink BY ANDY SMITH

PHOENIX, ARIZONA Wilderness in the shadow of the nation’s fifth-largest city BY ALLISON BRADEN

Plus 84 ON THE COVER: A mountain biker on South Mountain in Phoenix. Photograph courtesy of Visit Phoenix/Jill Richards. ON THIS PAGE: Grooming the slopes in Park City, Utah. Photograph courtesy of Deer Valley Resort.

HAZARD PAY When people have made messes that require biohazard suits to clean up, they turn to the likes of John and Jen Symons of Bio-One Charlotte BY ALLISON FUTTERMAN

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Not all fine dining requires linen. The best meal you’ve ever enjoyed probably had as much to do with the place and the people as the food. Some of our grandest affairs have no crystal, silver or white gloves. But there are oyster knives, hot sauce and views like this. Here in the Lowcountry, luxury isn’t always defined by starched cotton and silver.

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03 22 CONTENTS IN EVERY ISSUE 6 From the Editor 9

Connect

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THE BUZZ 11 Life Lessons Longtime community organization leader Dianne English 14

JOEL LASSITER; PETER TAYLOR (2); HERMAN NICHOLSON

THE GUIDE 92 Seen The city’s best party pics

March Madness The top NCAA Tournament games ever played in Charlotte

THE GOOD LIFE 19 Neighborhoods The historic Black neighborhood Washington Heights, revived as a community gathering space 24

Style Gabrielle Rein designs projects for luxury fashion brands and rocket launches

Design Through the Decades A Raintree homeowner embraces 1980s maximalism Hot Listings Homes built in the ’80s Spring Arts Preview The best ways to celebrate the arts this season

FOOD + DRINK 41 Now Open El Puro brings a taste of old Cuba to Madison Park 44

On the Line The Waterman’s executive chef, Charles Landry

Bite-Sized News Foodie tidbits on a small plate

Restaurant Guide Where to eat in Plaza Midwood

Beer Something about craft brewing inspires cooperation more than competition among brewers

Local Flavor Resident Culture’s new South End digs aren’t just for beer drinkers MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

F RO M T H E E D I TO R

AWAY WITH YOU Time for some of us to get the heck out of Dodge while (if) we can

Volume 27, Number 3

MARCH 2022

morrismedianetwork.com

www.charlottemagazine.com

PUBLISHER Allison Hollins

THE SENSE OF “WHAT NOW?” extends to another realm precious to people throughout this city and state: college basketball. Nothing beats the NCAA Tournament, especially the all-you-can-watch buffet of that first Thursdaythrough-Sunday, when 64 gets whittled to 16. You can count on multiple buzzer-beaters stacked on GREG LACOUR greg.lacour@charlottemagazine.com top of “who beat who?” upsets. It’s glorious. It’s still on for this year (please, God), but with no games scheduled in Charlotte. That’s its own mild upset: I was pleasantly surprised to learn from Steve Goldberg’s story on p. 14 that only four other cities have hosted more tournament games. Steve wrote about some of the more notable ones—including the UMBC-Virginia shocker in 2018, the only time a No. 16 seed has beaten a No. 1 seed in the men’s tournament. The tradition survives, but parts of it, inevitably, slough away. This state has two flagship programs that battle in one of the greatest rivalries in sports, maybe the greatest. Roy Williams retired last year after 18 seasons as head coach at North Carolina. This year, Mike Krzyzewski will retire after an astounding 42 years as Duke’s coach. It’s an era when players hang around for one or two years instead of four, and teams played 2021 tournament contests in front of limited crowds, a step up from a year when they didn’t play at all. That uncertainty, the unease that makes us want to escape and prevents us from doing it, creeps into all of our pastimes. I don’t know how to handle it other than to hold tight and roll with it, however we can.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Gail Dougherty, David Hughes ADVERTISING SERVICE COORDINATOR Tonya Ray EDITORIAL EDITOR Greg Lacour LIFESTYLE EDITOR Taylor Bowler ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tess Allen COPY EDITOR/FACT-CHECKER Allison Braden CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cristina Bolling, Allison Braden, Allison Futterman, Steve Goldberg ART & PHOTOGRAPHY ART DIRECTOR Jane Fields CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Daniel Coston, Travis Dove, Rick Hovis, Joel Lassiter, Herman Nicholson, Peter Taylor CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Shaw Nielsen DIGITAL CONTENT COORDINATOR Kendra Kuhar

Charlotte magazine 214 W. Tremont Ave., Suite 303, Charlotte, NC 28203 CONTRIBUTORS Email editor@charlottemagazine.com for writer’s guidelines. 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. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

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LOGAN CYRUS

A MAN HAS BEEN ABDUCTED by aliens. As the saucer hurtles away from Earth, he tells his two E.T.-esque captors, “I really appreciate this, guys. I don’t know how much longer I could have taken being cooped up in my apartment.” That was a New Yorker cartoon last year, and I identified strongly with Mr. Abductee. It me, as the kids say. It all of us. Our travel package, which begins on p. 56, sprang from the idea that Charlotteans might want to purge that pent-up yearning this spring with a nonstop flight to somewhere farther flung than, oh, Myrtle Beach. And then circumstances swerved. Well, hello, omicron variant, make yourself at home! I’m writing this a couple of days after New Year’s, and I haven’t the slightest idea what kind of COVID restrictions you’ll encounter when you read this in late February, or how safe it’ll be to jump on a plane to Cancún or Arizona or Utah, three of our destinations. That absence of certainty, the mercurial slipperiness of our attempts to plan—it’s a nonnegotiable feature of our lives in 2022. What can I tell you? Plan your trips, get your shots, wear your masks, buy your tickets. Just understand that you may have to make a hard choice, and cabin fever is better than a literal one.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Andy Smith

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ONLINE EXTRAS, EVENTS, AND CONVERSATIONS

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Responses to the January issue of Charlotte magazine A cover like that belongs in a museum Instagram comment from @mariposaatthemint What a gorgeous cover! Instagram comment from @charlottethefiggy Can’t wait to read that Instagram comment from @cltchowhound Great issue!!! Instagram comment from @randiephotographer To: “University City’s Reboot,” p. 16 So proud of Tobe Holmes. This work is transforming our community. Facebook comment from Darlene Heater Sounds wonderful and much needed Facebook comment from Julie Hofmann To: “Kelly Aiken,” p. 21 So honored to be in the Jan 2022 issue of @CharlotteMag featuring art and bold walls, talking about mental health! #artist #localart #charlottemagazine #charlottenc Tweet from @CopeleyDesigns To: “The Protected Properties of 2021,” p. 28 Historic Preservation is so essential. I’m so glad someone is acknowledging this! Facebook comment from Caroline Hill

To: “An Adventurous Blend,” p. 31 This collaboration is strange to me. 1 coffee brand good, 2 coffee brands better together? Tweet from @jaredmckiernan To” Get to the Greek,” p. 34 Many thanks to @kathleenpurvis and @CharlotteMag for continuing to lift up the stories and businesses of Greek immigrants in Charlotte. … This used to feel like a story that everyone knew but with our tremendous growth, from population to the industry itself, it’s a story that feels long ago and far away. Tweets from @thelesak The Mad Greek for life! Only spot a brotha can get a gyro on a Sunday. And eat it while I listen to family yell at each other in the kitchen (that’s how u know its legit) Tweet from @BoxingWK Two of Monroe Road’s favorite restaurants, Gus’ Sir Beef and Ted’s Restaurant, are legacies of Greek families. @kathleenpurvis latest article for @CharlotteMag explores Greek immigrant history and influence in CLT’s food scene. Tweet from @MoRACLT Someday I’ll visit! Tweet from @WindyCityGreek Three York County spots made the list! Tweet from @visityorkcounty

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

To: “25 Best New Restaurants,” p. 79 @Botiwalla is the best stall at @optimisthallclt. Packed with incredible flavors & just named one of the best new restaurants in @CharlotteMag Tweet from @kenty_eats

ON THE WEB Want more to read? Check out these popular stories on charlottemagazine.com. 1. 2.

So completely in awe to be surrounded by so much talent thank y’all, seriously, for seeing us and supporting from day means so much to our one hardworkin’ team! Instagram comment from @plant_joy_clt

50 Best Restaurants in Charlotte: 2022 25 Best New Restaurants in Charlotte: 2022 Vote Now in the 2022 BOB Awards

Ok…let’s start making rezes and checking these off in 2022! Facebook comment from Sean Girard To: “An Appetite for South End,” p. 81 I can’t wait to try them! Tweet from @TamaraBruno5 To: “50 Best Restaurants,” p. 79 Alchemy is a place where vegetarians, omnivores and everyone else can sit at the same table & all have great choices on the menu! Congrats to Chef Ken & the Alchemy at @c3lab_charlotte team for recently being named of the 50 Best Restaurants in @CharlotteMag! Tweet from @WilsonsWorld Thanks @CharlotteMag for including @LaBelleHelenCLT Tweet from @alejandrotorio

Charlotte magazine’s tablet edition is available via the Apple Newsstand and at magzter.com.

A NOVEL PLACE

Chapter 2

Away We Go S

un-drenched days crossed paths with sapphire shores in the rearview.

What had forever been oﬀ-limits was now open range. On this epic coast, three bright-eyed and bushy-tailed explorers could cut loose along the breaks.

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INSIDE: COMMUNITY / MARCH MADNESS

BUZZ

THE

WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY

CO M M U N I T Y

DIANNE ENGLISH

Longtime community organization leader retires with work done and undone, and hard truths absorbed RICK HOVIS

BY GREG LACOUR

DIANNE ENGLISH announced her retirement as executive director of Community Building Initiative in November, effective at the end of 2021. She helped found the organization in 1997 after a series of police shootings of unarmed Black people, and it’s since established programs designed, CBI says, “to equip people and organizations with the knowledge, skills,

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

THE BUZZ and courage to fight bias, remove barriers to opportunity, and build a more equitable and just Charlotte-Mecklenburg.” Those are difficult things to measure, and English admits that the good CBI has done in Charlotte over the past 25 years has run up against a national backlash to social and racial progress. No city is an island, and continuing episodes of police violence against racial minorities, anti-immigrant policies, and resistance to basic COVID protections impair community relations work as surely here as anywhere else. “Something has cracked in this country that has bled out some really nasty, dangerous, toxic stuff,” English tells me in December, “and it’s deeper inside of people and areas than maybe we thought.” English, 78, grew up in Maryland, New York, and the Chicago area after her parents immigrated from outside Toronto in the early 1940s, and she moved to Charlotte with her first husband in 1973. She didn’t begin community relations work, though, until the late ’80s, when she attended the funeral of education activist Bruce Irons and realized he’d befriended people across racial and economic barriers. English vowed to do the same, and she committed to both her work and her husband Roger English, who died in 2015 after a long battle with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), a degenerative motor neuron disease. English led the interfaith community organization Mecklenburg Ministries from 1990 until she co-founded CBI, which as of this writing has appointed a committee to search for her successor. She says people should understand that she and the organization are not synonymous: “There’s real value in letting something go so that you’re not perceived as it.” Her words are her own and have been edited for length and clarity. IT’S TIME FOR ME (to retire), and I think it’s a great time for the organization. Frankly, I’m curious about if I have a third act, what it might be, and, well, my brain and my parts are still in place. CBI IS 24 YEARS OLD. It is, I think, stronger than it’s ever been, and I think the work is as relevant, or more relevant, than ever. It has become a trusted resource. I think we have defined a role of equipping people with information, knowledge,

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

skills, and courage. I also think it’s a good time for new energy, new legs, new brainpower, new ways of looking at things. (On whether Charlotte is more or less equitable than in 1997) I THINK IT’S JUST CHANGED. I think— how do I say this?—the last several years have been a blow in terms of when the lid was taken off the can with Trump, with that election. … From the get-go, this country was designed to advantage some and disadvantage others. It’s baked into our social structure, into our economic structure, everything. So our understanding of equity in CBI has evolved to say, “If you want to work for change, you acknowledge, you analyze, and you strategize to act. You don’t start by trying to fix it.”

“Some people have always known that; those of us who’ve had the privilege of not knowing or not acknowledging are slower to understand it.” —Dianne English

I THINK it was the accumulation of things, and then the pandemic just locks it in: OK, if you cannot work at home, why is the burden falling so disproportionately on certain people, on certain sectors? IT’S LIKE TOXIC WASTE. It’s not a problem until it’s stirred up again. People say, “Why are they so angry?” Then the other side is saying, “Why are they so clueless?” We want to believe we fixed it, or we papered it over, or it’s the past. But something else comes along, and it comes back up. It shouldn’t have surprised us that everything that was revealed through the pandemic was there. The idea of going back to normal is not a sufficient response. Normal wasn’t so hot for a whole lot of people.

WE CAN’T BURDEN our children with the stuff that we’re not willing to confront. MOST OF US UNDERSTAND that the philanthropic community or, for a while, we thought, the faith community should be handling this ... But nothing equates to the power of the public sector to invest in the things that need changing. So I think a lot of it depends on what you’re directing your philanthropy or your investment toward, and what I think we haven’t done a good job of— and I think we’ve got it on the table right now—is to look at the systems. If you’re looking at the evidence of disparity or discrimination by the needs people have, the systems are working exactly as they were designed to work and producing outcomes that are inevitable. IN-THE-GROUND INEQUITIES produce these outcomes that we try to mitigate through money and investment or, you know, blaming the people and not the systems, and trying to fix the people. That doesn’t mitigate personal responsibility, doesn’t mitigate bad choices. But there’s just too much evidence of inequity, and the people bear the burden. Now you can’t turn right or left without hearing the word “equity.” Using the word and understanding the word are two different things. ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO, we started looking at whether we were an organization focused on inclusion and equity. We were doing a fairly good job of working on the inclusion piece, and we were kind of leaning into equity a little bit, but nothing intentionally. So the idea was, either we take it out of the mission statement or we do something about it by learning. We took our board through an exploration, with the help of some really talented people, and really tried to educate ourselves so that we would have language for talking about equity, and then deepen our understanding. OF LATE, I’ve been made more aware of the through line of the disregard and the capacity we’ve had to abuse the Black body because we don’t think it’s worthy, or the culture has said, “This is not a full human being. It’s a disposable commodity.” I quite honestly don’t understand the courage it takes to occupy a Black body.

IT’S PART OF THE EVOLUTION of awareness and acknowledgement. Some people have always known that; those of us who’ve had the privilege of not knowing or not acknowledging are slower to understand it. I mean, it wasn’t until, I’d say, within the last five or 10 years that I’ve really understood that my father, coming here from Canada, had access to more capital, homeownership, the perks and benefits of this country, than a man of color who served in the Second World War. There’s something inherently wrong with that. AT THE END OF THE DAY, say we fed 400 hungry people, and people say, “That’s wonderful.” And I’ve done that. But who’s asking, “Why are they hungry?” Somebody has to be asking those questions. I MADE A COMMITMENT long ago that if I were to retire, I would lie fallow for six months. My husband had a motor neuron disease. So, you know, Charlotte has provided me with a space and place to honor the commitment I made to him

and to my family, and yet to find a space for myself to invest and be engaged. I am very grateful for that. I feel investment in that, and I have children here, and I don’t have a desire or need to be anyplace else right now. WHAT I HAVE APPRECIATED about CBI: How do you hold the collective as essential and then support people in their variety of ways of living it out? And so with Leaders Under 40 (a CBI program), at my last session with them today—people will say, “Well, what’s the outcome?” I don’t know what the outcome is. But I’ll bet on Troy Leo. I’ll bet on Spencer Merriweather. They’re going to do great things. And our responsibility is to equip and support them. I’VE HAD A GREAT RUN. I really have. It’s the relationships, the people, the capacity of people to be vulnerable, to be courageous, to be wrong. There are days when I’m very hopeful, because that’s my nature. I think it goes back to the Cornel West thing, you know, being a prisoner of

hope because you don’t know the rest of the story. I THINK I HAVE BEEN GIFTED with an innate curiosity, a creative streak, a willingness to take a chance. In our leadership development program, people will say, “Oh, I’m having the best time.” And I can honestly say, “Well, you’ll get over that,” and mean it for all the right reasons. Because you want to be at the edge of discomfort. So, you know, I think I’ve been helpful or willing to back some of that and take some chances. I HAVEN’T BEEN OUT on the median with the picket sign. But I think what I’ve been able to do is to create containers in which people can connect and hopefully be encouraged to wrestle with stuff. It is a collective responsibility, and we each need to find our space and place, and we need to assume that if we want to move forward together, we’ve got to each take a piece of this and, every day, focus on it. GREG LACOUR is the editor.

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MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Chamique Holdsclaw of Tennessee as a freshman in the 1996 national championship game against Georgia. The Lady Vols’ victory, in the old Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola Road, was the climax of the only women’s Final Four in Charlotte.

M ARC H M AD N E SS

CHARLOTTE MADNESS

Through more than six decades and three different arenas, this city has hosted a queen’s portion of NCAA Tournament contests BY STEVE GOLDBERG

NO STATE HAS HOSTED MORE NCAA Tournament basketball games than North Carolina, and only four other cities—Indianapolis, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and Dayton, Ohio—have hosted more tournament games than Charlotte. Teams played here beginning in 1958, long before the tournament was known as “March Madness,” and in an arena long before it was known as Bojangles Coliseum. At the time, what was then called the Charlotte Coliseum—not to be confused with the building of the same name that would open on Tyvola Road in 1988—was only three years old. Back in ’58, the tournament invited only 24 teams, and Temple emerged from a seven-team East Regional to advance to the Final Four in Louisville. The old arena hosted 50 tournament contests until 1987. Then the games moved to the Coliseum on Tyvola, the site of 27 more, followed by 21 at the uptown arena now called the Spectrum Center, which opened in 2005. Charlotte’s been the host city for the Final Four only twice: once for the 1994 men’s tournament and again for the 1996 women’s tournament. But the games played here rank among the most memorable in the event’s history, including a 2018 men’s tournament upset that remains the only game of its kind. So here are eight notable games (OK, nine; you’ll see what I mean) played over the years in Charlotte. The memories can tide us over until 2024, the next time the Spectrum Center hosts tournament rounds.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

BOJANGLES COLISEUM

(Original Charlotte Coliseum)

Wake Forest 78, St. Bonaventure 73 EAST REGIONAL SEMIFINAL

MARCH 17,

1961

IN THE EARLY 1960s, the Atlantic Coast Conference was one of only two leagues that played a conference tournament after the regular season, and the ACC tournament champion was the conference’s only representative in the NCAA Tournament. “In this part of the country, that postseason tournament was bigger than the NCAA,” says Billy Packer, a Charlotte resident who, for decades, was a prominent college basketball broadcaster for NBC, CBS, and others. In ’61, Packer played guard for an excellent Wake Forest team that beat Duke for the ACC tourney title, then traveled to New York to play (and beat) St. John’s, then hustled back to Charlotte to take on third-ranked St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies led 37-36 at halftime, but Wake took control in the second half behind the unexpected play of reserve center Bob Woollard, who scored 10 points. Demon Deacons star Len Chappell, a future NBA All-Star, scored 24. (Packer scored seven.) The Deacons would lose to St. Joseph’s in the East Regional final. Providence 103, Maryland 89 EAST REGIONAL FINAL

MARCH 17,

1973

COACH LEFTY DRIESELL’S Maryland team had current and future All-Americans Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, and John Lucas. Providence had Ernie DiGregorio and big, bad Marvin “Bad News” Barnes. (I was a young fan with a seat behind one basket, and I had never seen anyone throw a near-full-court, behind-the-back pass until Ernie came to town.) DiGregorio fouled out with 11 minutes left—four of the five fouls were charges—but the Friars still won big: DiGregorio scored 30 points, Barnes scored 19 with 15 rebounds, and shooting guard Kevin Stacom added 24. Providence would lose to Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) in a national semifinal in St. Louis. Duke 63, Rhode Island 62 EAST REGIONAL, FIRST ROUND

MARCH 12,

1978

BEFORE COACH K and the Cameron Crazies, Bill Foster coached the Blue Devils to the 1978 Final Four with stars Mike Gminski, Jim Spanarkel, and freshman Gene Banks. But they barely survived the first round when an attempted put-back by Rhode Island’s John Nelson just missed at the buzzer. “We played awfully tentative and slow,” Foster said afterward, “and we know we’re lucky to get out of here with a win.” Duke righted itself and made it all the way to the national championship game in St. Louis, where the Blue Devils lost to Kentucky, 94-88. Continued on page 16

PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED VIA GETTY IMAGES

THE BUZZ

EC TIO

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CAROLINA COLLECTION

EC TIO

CAROLINA COLLECTION

Introducing the

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THE BUZZ couldn’t even see the basket.” The Heels would fall 84-66 in the national semifinals to Kansas, the eventual champion and Coach Roy Williams’ former employer. North Carolina 86, Washington 83; Duke 73, Michigan 71 EAST AND WEST REGIONALS, THIRD ROUND

The Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola Road opened in 1988 and was demolished in 2007.

CHARLOTTE COLISEUM

(Tyvola Road)

Arkansas 76, Duke 72 NATIONAL FINAL

MARCH 20,

2011

THE TAR HEELS AND BLUE DEVILS played what amounted to a doubleheader, in the same arena but different regionals. (Just to add to the confusion, 2011 was the first year of the “first four” round, which turned these contests into third-round rather than second-round games.) Regardless, both North Carolina teams won close contests to advance to the Sweet 16. In the first game, dazzling defense over the final seven minutes brought UNC back from a five-point deficit. In the second, Charlotte Christian alumnus Seth Curry and current Hornet Mason Plumlee helped Duke survive the Wolverines. The defending national champions couldn’t make it past Arizona in the next game, though, and the Heels would fall to Kentucky in the East Regional final.

APRIL 4,

1994

THIS WAS THE ONLY TIME Charlotte hosted the men’s Final Four, and the city had to construct a temporary entertainment district on Tryon Street to accommodate the visiting fans of Arkansas, Duke, Florida, and Arizona. In the championship game, Arkansas’ “40 minutes of hell” defense forced 23 Duke turnovers. Late in the game, the score was tied at 70. Arkansas had the ball. With Duke’s 6-foot-8-inch Antonio Lang closing in, arms raised, the Razorbacks’ Scotty Thurman drilled a three-pointer as the shot clock expired with 51 seconds left. Arkansas fans still refer to it as “The Shot.” MARCH 31,

1996

TWO YEARS LATER, Charlotte hosted the women’s Final Four for the first and, to date, only time. The Tennessee Lady Vols won their fourth (of an eventual eight) national championship under Coach Pat Summitt, and a sellout crowd of 23,291 got to see four-time All-American and two-time Player of the Year Chamique Holdsclaw, who scored 16 points, as a freshman.

TIME WARNER CABLE ARENA/SPECTRUM CENTER North Carolina 83, Louisville 73 EAST REGIONAL FINAL

MARCH 29,

2008

THE TOP-RANKED TAR HEELS led by 12 at halftime, but Louisville drew even midway through the second half. Then Tyler Hansbrough took over. The four-time All-American and consensus national player of the year made eight out of nine shots in the second half and finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Louisville Coach Rick Pitino was amazed by several shots Hansbrough made under heavy pressure: “He

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

UMBC’s Jairus Lyles celebrates with fans at Spectrum Center after the Retrievers’ stunning 74-54 win over top-seeded Virginia in 2018.

UMBC 74, Virginia 54 SOUTH REGIONAL, FIRST ROUND

MARCH 16,

2018

IT HAD NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. It has not happened since. The NCAA Men’s Tournament expanded from 48 to 64 teams in 1985, and over the next 33 years, top-seeded teams played 135 games against teams seeded 16th—and never lost. Then the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers came to Charlotte to play Virginia, not just the number one seed in the South Regional, but the number one seed in the entire tournament. Jaws dropped when the teams finished the first half tied at 21. They descended beneath the floorboards as the Retrievers dominated the second half, led by guard Jairus Lyles’ 28 points. In the locker room afterward, UMBC players yelled, “All brackets gone! No perfect brackets! Put that in the news!” It was, by any measure, the greatest upset in men’s college basketball history, and it happened in Charlotte—on that day, as in days past, the center of the college basketball universe. STEVE GOLDBERG is a longtime journalist and sportswriter in Charlotte.

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GOOD LIFE

INSIDE: NEIGHBORHOODS / STYLE / DESIGN THROUGH THE DECADES / HOT LISTINGS / SPRING ARTS

THE

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIVING HERE

A mural of Booker T. Washington by Georgie Nakima adorns the Ritz at Washington Heights, a public gathering space on the site of the former Ritz Theater.

NEIGHBORHOODS

The Beginning of The End

Developers and community leaders in Washington Heights have an ambitious vision for the historically Black neighborhood—and the future looks familiar BY ALLISON BRADEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERMAN NICHOLSON

LIVE IN CHARLOTTE LONG and you’ll drive by Washington Heights, whether or not you know it’s there. In the 1970s, part of the neighborhood was demolished to build a ramp onto the Brookshire Freeway, where commuters now zip unimpeded between uptown and Interstate 85. The commute was slower in 1913, when Washington Heights was founded. Black professionals kissed partners and children goodbye and paid a nickel to crowd onto a trolley, which trundled out of the bucolic neighborhood toward town.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE

Washington Heights—named for Booker T., not George—was the first and only “streetcar suburb” built for Black families in North Carolina. In other neighborhoods along Charlotte’s nine trolley lines, from Plaza Midwood to Myers Park, racist deed restrictions made sure the only Black residents were servants. Members of a blossoming Black middle class found an idyllic alternative here, where ample lawns and tidy bungalows made good on the suburban promise of slow, peaceful living on the fringes of a fast city. In the century since, Charlotte has swallowed the suburb. History remains essential to its identity—original homes still line sloping streets named for Black leaders—but developers and neighborhood advocates want to make this area a modern haven. Last fall, the city of Charlotte, the Washington Heights Community Association, and Lowe’s Home Improvement collaborated to open The Ritz at Washington Heights, a colorful public gathering space on the site of the former Ritz Theater. Until it closed in 1971, the theater was one of the few movie houses in town that catered to an exclusively Black clientele. In its new iteration, the space will serve as a community gathering place and public

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

classroom with free Wi-Fi. Soon after its ribbon cutting in November, the new Ritz hosted an open-air movie night with hot cider and cocoa. Attendees could barely keep quiet to watch Black Nativity. They wanted to talk about plans and ideas. Mattie Marshall shushed her excited neighbors, but she was elated, too. She can’t tell you right away how many years she’s been president of the community association, it’s been so long. She took up the post soon after she moved to Washington Heights 31 years ago, and she’s relentlessly advocated for the neighborhood ever since. “I fell in love with the history of the neighborhood,” she says, “and the proximity to uptown.” It takes less than 10 minutes to drive the couple of miles south to the city center. On balmy days, under the decades-old tree canopy, Marshall sits on her porch and chats with her neighbors. Not far away, cars fly down the freeway. “People oftentimes from the outside,” Marshall says, “do not recognize or do not see the rich history, the culture of these particular neighborhoods that are located along Beatties Ford Road.” Early on, Washington Heights welcomed a range of residents, from doctors and lawyers to railway workers and

Mattie Marshall (top) has been president of the Washington Heights Community Association since soon after she moved to the neighborhood (above) 31 years ago.

employees at nearby Biddle University. “Colored Charlotte,” a 1915 pamphlet that celebrated 50 years of progress since slavery’s demise, lavished several pages on Washington Heights and its residents. Grocery stores, salons, and a photography studio sprung up along Beatties Ford Road. From its founding in 1944 until it closed in 2016, the elegant Excelsior Club, a social club and longtime hub for political leaders, anchored the commercial strip. Locals took to calling the retail area The End, near as it was to the trolley’s last stop. In January 2020, California-based Kenwood Investments bought the Continued on page 22

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THE GOOD LIFE Jimmie McKee purchased the property for the Excelsior Club (right) in 1944. McKee and wife Mattie celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in 1964 (below).

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS QUICK FACTS TOTAL SIZE: 276 acres POPULATION: 1,741 MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $31,222 RACIAL BREAKDOWN: 85% Black, 8% Hispanic or Latino, 4% white, 1% Asian, 2% percent other LIBRARY CARD HOLDERS: 31%, compared to 18% countywide FUN FACT: Jimmie McKee founded the Excelsior Club, Charlotte’s first Black nightclub, in 1944 after he’d served and tended bar at white establishments. He bought a two-story house in Washington Heights and, in 1952, remodeled it in the crisp art moderne style. Renowned across the southeast, the club hosted community meetings, political candidates, and musicians like Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, and Sam Cooke. Source: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer, Historic Landmarks Commission

Excelsior property. The next year, the company released plans that included a boutique hotel, indoor-outdoor concert space, and an upscale restaurant. The developer enlisted Neighboring Concepts, a firm based in Charlotte’s Historic West End, to design the complex, which will also display memorabilia to celebrate the club’s illustrious guests, from Louis Armstrong to Bill Clinton. In an update to the community, Kenwood’s founder and CEO, Darius Anderson, expressed his hope that the property would reclaim its reputation as a center for Black political and cultural life. “Colored Charlotte” boasted that 805 Black Charlotteans owned homes in 1915. Many of those resided in Washington Heights, where home prices starting at $600 put ownership within reach. But since the neighborhood’s founding, lots of residents have rented. Today, just 24% of the houses there are occupied by their owners, compared to 56% countywide. Home prices now average $100,111, less than a third of the Mecklenburg County average. Plans for the neighborhood originally included a green space, to be called Lincoln Park, along the creek at the heart of the residential area, but the plans never came to fruition. Instead, early residents picnicked under wooden pavilions at Watson Park, “the only Park around Charlotte for Colored People,” according to “Colored Charlotte.” The park eventually closed, likely prey to the Great Depression. The neighborhood went without a park for decades until the 2000s, when the county opened the 11-acre L.C. Coleman Neighborhood Park, home to a softball field and two full-size basketball courts. Today, a banner near the parking lot promises park improvements soon. These days, every Washington Heights resident lives within a halfmile of public green space. They all live within a half-mile of public transit, too. Where the trolley once ran, CATS bus Route 7 now extends north to I-485 and ferries

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

riders south toward uptown, past the university, renamed Johnson C. Smith in 1923. Marshall calls her neighborhood walkable—almost 60% of Washington Heights’ streets have sidewalks— but she wants more connections to greenways and public transportation. Though it doesn’t reach all the way to Washington Heights, today’s trolley ends near here, too; the Gold Line runs to French Street, just across Brookshire Freeway. The Washington Heights that Marshall and her neighbors work so tirelessly to build looks a lot like the suburb of yore, and that’s intentional. “We have a unique history,” she says, “and we need to preserve some of this rich history for future generations.” Once again, a streetcar carries commuters and students up Beatties Ford from uptown. Neighbors gather at The Ritz for movies and at the park to relax. If all goes to plan, luminaries will soon swap ideas and stories at the Excelsior, just as they did a halfcentury ago. This neighborhood at the end of the line, Marshall says, “will be a destination,” just like it used to be. ALLISON BRADEN is a contributing editor.

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In 1952, McKee renovated the Excelsior Club, shown here in 1984 (left), in the art moderne style. Shows at the club (above) were broadcast live on WGIV, the city’s first Black radio station.

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THE GOOD LIFE ST YL E

Gabrielle Rein

Viceroy Creative’s founder and chief creative officer manages design projects for luxury fashion brands, top-shelf liquors, and rocket launches

GABRIELLE REIN uses industry buzzwords like “brand strategy,” “product innovation,” and “creative solutions” when she discusses her work, but to someone not in her field, she explains it like this: “We’re like an external branding team for luxury brands. We go into a company, take it over, get things operating, then hand it back.” Rein launched Viceroy Creative, a New York-based marketing agency, at 24. A viceroy, she explains, is a monarch’s representative who runs a territory or province.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Over the last 13 years, she’s taken that approach with a roster of high-profile clients, including Marc Jacobs, David Yurman, Dom Perignon—and a group that wanted stylish space suits for a flight to the International Space Station. Seriously. Until two years ago, Rein worked out of her studio in Long Island City in Queens. Today, she manages a team of 15 from her home in Charlotte, where she moved at the start of the pandemic with her family. She makes frequent trips to New York, where most of her staff still live, but

plans to open a Viceroy Creative office in Charlotte. “It’s like running uphill,” she says with a laugh. “I generally have calls scheduled every hour of the day with design teams or clients. I travel constantly, not just to New York but to Art Basel in Miami or the Johnson Space Center in Houston. I travel every other week in a busy season.” When Patrón hired Viceroy to develop a way to sell more añejo tequila, Rein conContinued on page 26

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nected the tequila brand with a French crystal maker called Lalique. They collaborated on a crystal decanter with a floral agave pattern that sits in a leather and moonstone box. With a longtime client like jewelry designer David Yurman, Rein meets with the Yurman family and their chief marketing officer to plan events and strategies for the year. These multimillion-dollar campaigns include everything from a billboard over the George Washington Bridge to a limited edition, goldencrusted tequila bottle stopper for the holidays. In 2014, Rein added space travel to her portfolio when the Commercial Spaceflight Federation hired Viceroy to lead a rebranding initiative in collaboration with Virgin Galactic and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. “It was the first time SpaceX wanted to collaborate with anyone,” she says. “I had to learn all about human space flight, and rules and regulations of what NASA will and won’t allow. It was by far the most difficult as far as

A rendering of crew luggage that converts into a closet.

entering into a new state of learning.” The rebrand was meant to sell space travel to America; Viceroy’s mission was to help make it look glamorous to a civilian astronaut. Rein has consulted on various

projects like space suits, crew luggage, and a new website. Since 2017, she’s worked with French architect and designer Philippe Starck on astronaut modules for the Axiom Space Station. At press time, Rein was orchestrating a SpaceX launch scheduled for February 28. The civilian flight has four crew members who are set to take off from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Her role, she says, is to coordinate with SpaceX, NASA, and the crew to oversee the brand experience. This includes the launch party, events, and activation. Rein hopes to take on more big-name clients as she settles in Charlotte but says she’s never been concerned with the size of her company. “Compared to most New York agencies, we’re a very small boutique shop,” she says. “I work with a lot of luxury brands and celebrities, but at the end of the day, I’m a very casual person. When I’m not traveling, I’m at home in my athleisure like everyone else.” TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.

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D E S I G N T H RO U G H T H E D EC AD E S

1980s Maximalism BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL LASSITER

Camille Redfern with husband Jimmy Vasiliou and rescue Shih Tzu Chubby and Peach. Redfern purchased the Lucite barstools from Furnishings by Jensen and the globe pendant lights above the island at Sleepy Poet. Kailyn Downen of Boukai Flowers supplied the floral arrangement.

THE INSIDE of Camille Redfern’s home looks frozen in 1987, the year it was built. Each room is filled with chunky furniture, geometric patterns, needlepoint artwork, and pastel knickknacks right out of The Golden Girls. That’s not because she’s neglected her house for 30 years. The home’s intentionally cluttered, kaleidoscopic, more-is-more appearance reflects the reemerging trend of “maximalism.” Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

THE GOOD LIFE

Redfern, who likes to support local womenowned businesses whenever possible, commissioned Amber King Bounds of Little King Art to paint her dining room ceiling. Bounds also painted the Matisse-inspired black-and-white mural in the front hallway. The concrete planter (right) is by Shamila Varner of Queen City Crete.

Continued on page 32

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

ON VIEW NOW MINT MUSEUM UPTOWN A celebration of the reinstallation of the Mint’s Craft + Design permanent collection, Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things is the first installation in the Southeast to explore how craft artists meld science, technology, engineering, and math into their designs. Discover the technical ingenuity behind the beauty of more than 100 objects made of glass, wood, ceramics, metal, polymers, and other materials.

mintmuseum.org CRAFT IN THE LABORATORY: THE SCIENCE OF MAKING THINGS IS GENEROUSLY PRESENTED BY MÜLLER CORPORATION AND THE CRAFT & TRADE ACADEMY. GENEROUS INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY BETH AND DREW QUARTAPELLA, MARY ANNE (M.A.) ROGERS, ANN AND MICHAEL TARWATER, AND ROCKY AND CURTIS TRENKELBACH. CRAFT IN THE LABORATORY IS ALSO SUPPORTED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS. THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE IS SUPPORTED BY THE JOHN AND ROBYN HORN FOUNDATION. SPECIAL THANKS TO STARWORKS CERAMICS FOR HAND CRAFTING MATERIALS TO HELP ENHANCE THIS MINT MUSEUMORGANIZED EXHIBITION. IMAGE: PATRICK NORGUET (FRENCH, 1969– ), CAPPELLINI (ITALY, 1946– ). RAINBOW CHAIR, 2000, ACRYLIC, 31.5” X 15.125” X 19.5”. GIFT OF LARRY BRADY. 2019.92.3. PHOTO: BRANDON SCOTT

THE GOOD LIFE WHAT’S WHAT LOCATION » The Raintree neighborhood in south Charlotte APPROACH » Maximalist design with a variety of influences, from 1920s art deco to 1980s excess INSPIRATION » Mary Gilliatt, Claire Bingham, Nonie Nieswand, and Memphis Milano LOCAL SOURCES Furnishings by Jensen (by Nic and Gabe) @furnishingsbyjensen Re:New Home (by Holly d’Amico) @renewhomeclt Little King Art (by Amber King Bounds) @littlekingart FOS Restoration Co. @fosrestorationco Sleepy Poet Antique Mall @sleepypoetstuff Queen City Crete (by Shamila Varner) @queencitycrete Revival Furniture Co. (by Daniel Jordan) @revivalfurnitureco Plant Therapy CLT (by Alicia Martin) @planttherapyclt Boukai Flowers (by Kailyn Downen) (@boukaiflowers) Redfern isn’t an interior designer. The 31-year-old self-described “interiors enthusiast” works as an intellectual property paralegal for a nuclear operations company. Design is her hobby and an escape from a technical, demanding day job. “It’s totally right brain, left brain,” she says with a laugh. She and her husband moved into the 2,000-square-foot home in the Raintree neighborhood in late 2020. Their street is dotted with contemporary houses marked by diagonal wood siding, stone facades, and skylights that were popular in the 1980s and early ’90s. Redfern, who decorated the interior of their previous home in Plaza Shamrock in the Continued on page 34

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Vintage prints, plaques, and album covers hang above a console by Holly D’Amico of Re:New Home, which she painted with Farrow & Ball’s Sulking Room Pink.

Scalloped ceramic shell lamps top the Singer treadle sewing machine table, which was a gift from Redfern’s mother.

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Redfern’s favorite room in the home is outfitted in wallpaper she found on Etsy. The couch is from J.D. Salvager in Rural Hall, North Carolina, and she found the replica Eames-style lounge chair and ottoman on Facebook Marketplace.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

R E AL E STAT E

Hot Listings Totally tubular homes built in the ’80s. —Tess Allen

230 N. BRACKENBURY LANE $699,000 SARDIS WOODS This custom-built home may be tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac, but its ’80s charm is anything but muted. Windows of all sizes and shapes pepper the three-story, four-bedroom house, which has cathedral ceilings, an office, finished attic, and basement workshop. The primary bathroom’s step-up tub below a chandelier gives off a total The Witches of Eastwick vibe. 4 BD, 2.5 BA, 3,633 sq. ft., Keller Williams South Park, kw.com

Vasiliou stores his vinyl record collection in a midcentury modular wall unit from FOS Restoration Co. in Huntersville.

midcentury style, wanted to go full-on maximalist this time. “Some find it bold and off-putting,” she says, “but I love the colors and shapes and willingness to play with more free-form.” Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Redfern spent many weekends at auctions and flea markets with her parents, who loved to hunt for unique pieces for their home. These days, she finds a lot of her vintage furniture, like the carved swan console table with a beveled glass top, on Facebook Marketplace. She takes frequent trips to collect them, usually in the furniturerich Triad area. “The fun is in the hunt,” she says. “I like to buy things that are made by hand, not mass-produced.” She’s always adding to the excess. Redfern found the Lucite chairs for her dining room table at Chairish and the kitchen light fixtures at Sleepy Poet.

Along the hallway from the foyer to the kitchen, she had local artist Amber King paint a Matisse-inspired mural. It prompted Redfern to try her hand at a pastel mural with retro, geometric shapes on an adjacent wall that leads to the primary bedroom. “The space isn’t perfect,” she says. “It’s always in flux.” By the end of 2021, Redfern felt like she’d achieved the look she was after. A gallery wall in the living room is cluttered with vintage prints, paintings, and framed record covers; ceramic pastel seashells adorn a tessellated pedestal; and a travertine mirror hangs at the base of the staircase. There’s always room for more, of course. But every piece has a story—and Redfern can tell you every one.

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.

7037 ROCKY FALLS ROAD $513,000 STONEHAVEN The red-brick and darkwood accents on the exterior of this Tudor complement the interior wood floors, ceiling beams, built-in shelves, and oversized brick fireplace. Enjoy a cup of coffee on the primary bedroom’s private balcony or the recently remodeled deck, which overlooks a spacious fenced backyard. 3 BD, 2.5 BA, 2,450 sq. ft., Coldwell Banker Realty, coldwellbanker.com 601 BELLOWS LANE $375,000 SARDIS WOODS This updated two-story house is for those who like their ’80s elements a little more subdued. A small bar in the kitchen overlooks the living room, which has a painted brick fireplace and ceiling beams. The home has an attached two-car garage and sits on a halfacre of cultivated land. 4 BD, 2.5 BA, 1,997 sq. ft., Opendoor Brokerage, opendoor.com 4415 WOODS END LANE $463,200 RAINTREE The entry of this ranch opens to a living room with a wood-burning fireplace. Other features include a detached garage, formal dining room, laundry room, utility room, and a bonus living space in the garage. 4 BD, 2.5 BA, 2,129 sq. ft., Zillow Homes, zillow.com Homes available as of Jan. 12, 2022. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

pening 2024 in Charlotte’s SouthPark neighborhood, Generations at Shalom Park is designed to look and feel as exceptional as the people who will call it home. Inside and out, this Senior Living Community will offer a multitude of amenities for active seniors. Three distinct culinary destinations, rooftop dining, outdoor entertainment areas, a dog park, walking trails, on-site maintenance, and 24/7 security are just the beginning of what Generations will offer. Residents will also receive complimentary membership to the Levine Jewish Community Center, just steps outside their doors. The LJCC features a state-of-the-art fitness center, expansive athletic fields and courts, sports programs, indoor and outdoor pools, arts, and cultural activities offering a place to maintain a healthy lifestyle, build relationships, and engage in activities for all ages—it’s a true intergenerational experience. Families of all shapes, sizes, ages, beliefs, and creeds make the Shalom Park Campus an essential part of their lives. This, in part, gives Generations’ residents a plethora of opportunities to live, learn, volunteer, and be an active part of the neighborhood. Plus, with Uptown Charlotte mere minutes away, residents are never far

from off-campus fun, cultural events, and adventure. Generations was conceived through a collaboration between the partners at Shalom Park and Aldersgate Life Plan Services. Aldersgate will operate the community, bringing its 75 years of expertise in the aging services field. Now is the optimal time to “get in on the ground floor” by joining our Genesis Club. Members will enjoy an exceptional package of limited-time benefits—from discounted entrance fees and generous contract options to allowances for moving and customization. Inquire while this package of discounts and incentives, worth up to $250,000, is still available.

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THE GOOD LIFE

Spring Arts

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CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

A wide selection of entertainment and events, COVID permitting BY

TESS ALLEN

REMEMBER WHEN we all thought COVID shutdowns were going to last, like, two weeks? As of this month, it’s been two years, and we can hardly remember what it was like to attend a live event without fear that someone in the crowd might be a Typhoid Mary. But, with about 70% of adult North Carolinians fully vaccinated, live events are sneaking back. Finally, for the first time since March 2020, the calendar contains a full roster of live events in Charlotte—at least as of press time in mid-January. The continuing COVID threat means these events are subject to change or cancellation.

COURTESY

’22

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW

The Art of Banksy: “Without Limits” AvidXchange Music Factory (through April 10)

BANKSY IS COMING TO CHARLOTTE … well, sort of. Part of the allure of the famous and elusive British street artist is that his works appear—then sometimes disappear—out of the blue. Curated by Guillermo S. Quintana, The Art of Banksy: “Without Limits” is touring the world with 150 Banksy artworks—some original; many replicated—including murals, sculptures, prints, photos, and digital installations. For each city the exhibition visits, Quintana enlists local artists to recreate some of Banksy’s works—by stenciling or painting murals—specifically for that stop of the tour. The goal is to make the replicas look as much as possible like Banksy’s originals, down to the drips of paint. Tickets from $27.20. artofbanksy.com

Morisseau was the No. 5 most-produced playwright of the 2019-2020 theatre season, according to American Theatre magazine.

T H E A T R E

Timmons predicts that about

150 hours of rehearsal (not including tech week) will go into the production.

Goin’ Down to Motown: While the show is not a musical, Timmons says, music plays a pivotal role in Detroit ’67. While most scripts specify which songs to play when, Detroit ’67 makes only a few mandatory and allows producers to mix up the rest—as long as they’re Motown.

V I S U A L A R T

OTHER EXHIBITS TO POP INTO: Pathways to Contemplation by Larry Horowitz at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art (through March 12)

J. Louis: Solo Show at Shain Gallery (May 20-June 2) Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things at Mint Museum Uptown (ongoing)

Annemarie Schwarzenbach: Departure Without Destination at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art (April 2-June 19)

Detroit ’67

MAY 26-JUNE 5 CENTRAL PIEDMONT COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S NEW THEATER Tickets start at $14.;theatrecharlotte.org

THEATRE CHARLOTTE debuts its rendition of playwright Dominique Morisseau’s 2013 play. Directed by local actor Ron McClelland, the play tells the story of two Black siblings who run a private juke joint in their basement to make ends meet. They’re already at odds about the future of their business, but when one sibling brings home a mysterious white woman during the Detroit race riots, their relationship erupts. “With the Black Lives Matter movement and things that we experienced locally after George Floyd’s death, this show highlights a moment in time very much like what we are still experiencing today,” says Chris Timmons, Theatre Charlotte’s acting executive director. “It’s one of the things we talked about when we were selecting the show— it provides an opportunity for conversation.”

OTHER THEATRICAL SHOWS THIS SPRING: The Gift MARCH 12 BOOTH PLAYHOUSE Jesus Christ Superstar MARCH 22-27 BELK THEATER Pretty Woman: The Musical APRIL 12-17 BELK THEATER

COURTESY JOAN MARCUS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Hamilton APRIL 26-MAY 15 BELK THEATER Fiddler on the Roof MAY 31-JUNE 5 BELK THEATER

Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

’22

THE GOOD LIFE

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW

CHARLOTTE’S SPRING MIXTAPE

12. THE BAND CAMINO, “See Through” (April 21, The Fillmore)

M U S I C

1. KAT VON D, “Exorcism” (March 5, The Underground)

6. SLASH, “Sweet Child O’ Mine (acoustic)” (March 21, The Fillmore)

2. CELTIC WOMAN, “You Raise Me Up” (March 10, Ovens Auditorium)

7. BAD BUNNY, “Yonaguni” (March 26, Spectrum Center)

3. PATTI LABELLE, “On My Own” (March 13, Belk Theater) 4. TYLER, THE CREATOR, “See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis)” (March 16, Bojangles Coliseum) 5. CHELSEA CUTLER, “you were good to me” (March 17, The Fillmore)

F E S T I V A L S

8. KALEO, “Way Down We Go” (April 2, The Fillmore) 9. JOHN MAYER, “New Light” (April 11, Spectrum Center) 10. JOHNNYSWIM, “Touching Heaven” (April 12, The Fillmore) 11. SABA, “Photosynthesis” (April 21, The Underground)

Digital Gardens Music & Arts Celebration APRIL 22-23 DIGITAL GARDENS, 4100 RALEIGH ST. Digital Gardens Music & Arts Celebration is back for the third time for a two-day celebration of electronic dance and bass music. Get hyped for acts like CloZee, TroyBoi, 12th Planet, Ekali, and Froggy P on the main and silent disco stages, then check out the live mural artists and vendors. Tickets from $100. digitalgardensnc.com North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival MAY 7-8 HISTORIC RURAL HILL, 4431 NECK ROAD, HUNTERSVILLE The two-day North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival is all about the little guy. For more than a decade, it’s been celebrating independent microbrewers and musicians. Brewers will dole out samples of their brews while acts like Steep Canyon Rangers, Hayes Carll, and Acoustic Syndicate take the stage. Festivalgoers are also known to camp overnight on-site— probably wise given that it’s a festival dedicated to alcohol consumption. Tickets start at $8. ncbrewsmusic.com

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

13. JOURNEY, “Don’t Stop Believin’” (April 28, Spectrum Center)

Class It Up at the Orchestra

14. JIMMY BUFFETT, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” (April 30, PNC Music Pavilion)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert

15. KENNY CHESNEY, “American Kids” (April 30, Bank of America Stadium) 16. AJR, “Weak” (May 8, PNC Music Pavilion) 17. TIM MCGRAW, “Humble and Kind” (May 12, PNC Music Pavilion) 18. LEON BRIDGES, “River” (May 16, Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) 19. J BALVIN, “La Canción” (May 18, Spectrum Center) 20. FOO FIGHTERS, “Everlong” (May 24, PNC Music Pavilion)

Surrounded by the Sound Music & Arts Festival MAY 14 PINHOUSE, 2306 CENTRAL AVE. Surrounded by the Sound is a one-day reggae and rock music festival in Plaza Midwood. The Destinators, Sons of Paradise, and Sun-Dried Vibes will rock the main stage, with Bubba Love and The Dubber taking the side stage. When the music dies down outside, head into Pinhouse for an official afterparty. The fest also promises food, drink, duckpin bowling, disc golf, and art and craft vendors. Tickets from $25. @sbtsmusicfest on Instagram Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival MAY 21 BALLANTYNE’S BACKYARD, 11611 NORTH COMMUNITY HOUSE ROAD This 15th-annual, one-day festival is dedicated to three substances that keep Southern blood flowin’: beer, bourbon, and barbecue. Try more than 60 beers and 40 bourbons, and chow down on more smoked meats than you can tally. Attendees are promised a day of “beer sippin’, bourbon tastin’, music listenin’, cigar smokin’, and barbecue eatin’.” What more could anyone want? Tickets from $27. charlotte.beerandbourbon.com

MARCH 18-19 BELK THEATER The Force is strong with this one: Watch the movie on the big screen while Charlotte Symphony performs John Williams’ score, live.

On Tap @ NoDa Brewing Co. MARCH 22, APRIL 19, AND MAY 10 NODA BREWING CO. Beer and chill with the Charlotte Symphony at NoDa Brewing for classical and contemporary tunes in a laid-back, intimate environment.

Beethoven Meets ’90s Vibe APRIL 1 KNIGHT THEATER Charlotte Symphony and Atlanta’s Orchestra Noir, led by conductor Jason Ikeem Rodgers, play ’90s R&B and hip-hop from artists like TLC, Usher, Biggie Smalls, Ginuwine, and more.

Broadway’s Longest: Phantom, Chicago, Cats, & More MAY 13-14 KNIGHT THEATER Musical lovers rejoice: The Charlotte Symphony is playing songs from Broadway’s most enduring musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Chicago, Cats, The Lion King, Wicked, and more.

COURTESY, ELEKTRA MUSIC GROUP/JIMMY FONTAINE

THE CURRENT MOSTPLAYED songs on Spotify, from 20 musicians and bands coming to Charlotte this spring:

FOOD DRINK

INSIDE: NOW OPEN / LOCAL FLAVOR / ON THE LINE / BITE-SIZED NEWS / BEST BITES / RESTAURANTS

EXPLORE THE TASTES OF CHARLOTTE

Owners Dania, Manny, and Ana Pérez sip Cuban coffee in the red ’55 Ford Crown Victoria on El Puro’s patio.

N OW O P E N

EAT, DANCE, LOVE El Puro brings a taste of old Cuba to Madison Park BY TAYLOR BOWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

YOU’LL KNOW YOU’VE ARRIVED at El Puro when you spot the red ’55 Ford Crown Victoria out front. The Pérez family, who opened the Cuban restaurant on South Boulevard in November, owned a ’56 model in their native Cuba. They sold it seven years ago and used the money to come to the U.S., where they bought Havana Carolina Restaurant & Bar in Concord. This ’55 model represents the glamour and elegance of 1950s Cuba. It’s also a symbol of the family’s perseverance.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

The restaurant’s 150-seat dining room has a stage where guests can hear live music seven nights a week.

The restaurant’s name is a tribute to their patriarch, Idael, who died in 2017 at age 44. In Cuba, “El Puro” is a common nickname for father. Just two months after the Pérezes purchased Havana Carolina, Idael was hit by a truck whose driver fell asleep at the wheel on N.C. Highway 73 near the Lincoln County Airport. His son, Manny, 18 at the time, was a freshman at Gaston College. Along with his sister, Ana, then 16, and mother, Dania, he fought to keep the restaurant open when friends and family assumed it would close.

EL PURO CUBAN RESTAURANT 5033 South Blvd. elpurocubanrestaurant.com Hours: 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-12 a.m., Friday 11 a.m.-12 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: El Puro has live music every night of the week. Check their social media pages for the weekly lineup.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

But the Pérezes pressed on. Manny transferred to UNC Charlotte and worked at Havana Carolina on nights and weekends. Dania oversaw the kitchen, and Ana led their social media efforts. Business was steady, and in July 2020, they signed the lease on El Puro. Over the next 16 months, they transformed the former steakhouse into a restaurant right out of pre-revolutionary Havana, as it was before Castro stripped it of glamour. The 150-seat dining room has dark wood tables and leather booths, Tiffany-style lamps, and a neon sign above a stage that reads, “La vida es un carnaval,” from a song by Cuban musician Celia Cruz. The bar serves $14 mojitos, daiquiris, and piña coladas, which you can sip from a barstool while you listen to Latin jazz or at your table while you peruse the menu. Start with an order of Puriche ($20), Dania’s version of ceviche, with seasonal fish, onion, sweet ají cachucha peppers, and lime. For something a bit heartier but equally complex, try the Queso Frito ($18), four slabs of mild yet slightly tangy fried cheese topped with rum-soaked raisins. The entrées are reminiscent of Havana Carolina’s, with lots of slow-cooked meats and plenty of garlic, cumin, and cilantro. The Masitas de la Loma ($28) are a pile of fried pork chunks slathered in mojo sauce

that arrives on a smoking tabletop roasting oven called La Caja China. The Ropa Vieja ($30), “old clothes” in Spanish, is strands of shredded beef served with vegetables and baked potatoes. Most entrées are big enough to feed two people and come with a choice of two sides. We recommend the Maduros (sweet plantains) and Congrí (Cuban black beans and rice). The dessert menu has just three items, but El Puro gets each one right. The El Guayabero ($10) is a velvety guava cheesecake, and the Flan Kafe ($10) is a light caramel custard with a hint of coffee. If you order just one dessert, though, go with the Cimarrón ($10). The sweet Nutella mousse atop a layer of saltine crackers is a sublime yin-yang of flavor. If you like to end your evening with a caffeine buzz, enjoy your dessert with some Cuban coffee. But if you prefer to get your caffeine jolt in the morning, visit La Ventanita, a walk-up window in front of the restaurant that serves Cuban coffee and pastries from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can also find a limited “Bites” menu with Empanadas ($3), Croquetas ($6), and a classic Cuban Sandwich ($12). At press time, El Puro was open for lunch and dinner but planned to offer brunch in the coming months. Manny, who graduated from UNCC last year with a degree in finance, runs both of his family’s restaurants with the ease of

The Masitas de la Loma (above) are fried pork chunks that arrive on a smoking tabletop oven. Jainier Rojas greets customers at La Ventanita (left), the restaurant’s walk-up window, which serves Cuban coffee and pastries.

(Left) A classic mojito and the Ropa Vieja, served with vegetables and baked potatoes.

The Queso Frito (above) includes four slabs of fried cheese topped with rum-soaked raisins.

someone much older than 23. You can usually spot him circulating El Puro’s dining room, chatting with the musicians and clearing plates. Dania continues to supervise the kitchen, while Ana greets guests at the hostess stand or sits at the bar with her laptop, catching up on schoolwork or updating their social media pages. On your way out, you’ll see another phrase in neon beside the entrance. “Te quedarás porque te doy cariño” translates to “You will stay because I give you love.” It’s a lyric by Cuban singer Beny Moré— another tribute to Idael and his family’s resolve to bring his love of Cuban food and music to Charlotte.

(Left) The menu has traditional Cuban sides like Congrí (Cuban black beans and rice) and Maduros (sweet plantains). Don’t leave without trying: Tamal en Cazuela ($13), a tamal served in a petite Dutch oven instead of a corn husk, topped with crispy chicharrón (fried pork belly) crumbs.

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK LO C AL F L AVO R

IF YOU FEED THEM … Resident Culture Brewing Company’s new South End digs aren’t just for beer drinkers BY TESS ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

WHEN YOU ENTER the front door of Resident Culture Brewing Company’s new South End location, you immediately encounter the word “here” and an arrow in decades-old spray paint on the wall to the right. (Put what here?) The walls of the 102-year-old building were part of the appeal for the new owners when they found the space in 2020, after four years of searching. The 17,000 square feet of space didn’t hurt, either. Amanda and Phillip McLamb and Chris Tropeano opened Resident Culture’s flagship location in Plaza Midwood in 2017 and quickly established a distinct reputation for its focus on hop-forward brews. But the team knew it would take more than just good beer and a standard taproom to make it in a city that’s churned out approximately 20 new breweries in the last five years. So why set up in an old bus garage in South End, a district already jam-packed with places to eat; drink beer, cocktails, and coffee; listen to music; and gather? Resident Culture South End is banking on success in a crowded market by providing all those things in one space, anchored around something few taprooms can

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

afford to offer: craft food. “People have so many choices,” Amanda says, “and if we’re going to have the honor of having somebody’s time, we want to do our best to take care of them every way we know how.” RESIDENT CULTURE SOUTH END is the first brick-and-mortar kitchen for Chef Hector Gonzalez, a Los Angeles native whose former Charlotte pop-up, Chilito, consistently sold out of 500-plus breakfast tacos in well under an hour. “One of the things we got asked often at our original location was, ‘How are we going to eat while we’re here?’” Amanda says. After they met Gonzalez and indulged in his tacos at various events, the McLambs invited him to sell from their Plaza Midwood parking lot on weekends. When they launched plans for South End, they invited him to join them, and he says he had no reservations about accepting. “Amanda and Phillip and everyone at Resident Culture have inspired me to feel confident in what we as individual people add to our city’s flavor,” he says. His new kitchen, El Toro Bruto, occupies the back of the main room and resembles a food-hall booth, with a small counter

Chef Hector Gonzalez (bottom) carves al pastor for tacos (below). His new restaurant, El Toro Bruto, is in the back of the main room at Resident Culture South End. The menu includes loaded nachos (above) and All-Day Tacos (bottom left).

Artist Jeff Hamrick’s sculpture, inspired by the brewery’s flagship beer Lightning Drops, hangs in the main room (below). The main bar serves draft cocktails (left).

in front of a window into the kitchen. Customers can order from the table or counter. Served on plastic, oval plates in pastel hues, his expanded menu includes traditional All-Day Tacos; Tacos Brutos, with crispy griddled cheese, beans, and a choice of protein; quesadillas; and platters of loaded nachos. Protein options for each include carne asada, carnitas, lengua, barbacoa, al pastor, and nopales. (Pro tip: order something, anything, with the droolinducing al pastor, which Gonzalez roasts on a vertical, rotating broiler with chunks of pineapple.) His famed breakfast tacos aren’t on the menu yet, but Gonzalez says it won’t be long. “Given that we are all learning how to exist in this new space and neighborhood, we’re taking our time,” he says, “but we definitely won’t

wait too long to wake up early and start cracking eggs.” THE BUILDING, at 332 W. Bland St., was leased by a pair of local bankers to a car, truck, and bus manufacturer named White Company, according to a 1923 Charlotte Observer article. White Company used the building until it moved to West Morehead Street in 1941, when the building was leased to Atlantic Greyhound Lines, which used it as a bus garage until around 1958. When the McLambs and Tropeano first saw it in 2020, they were immediately struck by the building’s age, history, capacity, and overall feel. “It was the first place we walked into where all three of us looked at each other and said, ‘We can’t not be here,’” Amanda says. The team spent most of 2021 renovating the space as they worked to retain the building’s original brick walls, wooden beams, and expansive ceilings—tall enough to accommodate buses in a past life and, today, a suspended sculpture of a motorcycle-straddlin’ Skeletor-type creature,

constructed from a real bison skeleton by artist Jeff Hamrick. Staff artist Maryssa Pickett worked alongside Cluck Design Collaborative to design the space. A DJ booth sits atop a walk-in fridge behind the main bar, a disco ball hangs outside the bathrooms, and curtains made from gold and bright red chains hang throughout the space. The brewery isn’t just for beer drinkers, either. The main bar serves draft cocktails as well. A coffee bar takes up the back left corner of the main floor, and it’s the only one in the Carolinas that exclusively serves Mostra Coffee, a roastery in San Diego that Roast magazine named “Roaster of the Year” in 2020. The Resident Culture team expects to open the final addition this spring: a 6,800-square-foot space in the basement, rentable for live music and private events, or for Resident Culture’s own. “It’s perfect,” Amanda says with a laugh, “for the DJ battle of my dreams.”

TESS ALLEN is the associate editor. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

O N T H E LI N E W I T H

CHARLES LANDRY BY TAYLOR BOWLER

Age: 32 Family status: Three kids, ages 12, 7, and 1 Hometown: New Orleans Currently lives: Northlake Currently reading: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey Currently watching: The Wheel of Time on Amazon Favorite sports team: New Orleans Saints

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Chocolate or cheese? Chocolate Where does your love of cooking come from? It’s kind of cliché, but I was born and raised in New Orleans, so watching my mom and grandma cook a massive array of food at every holiday—that sparked it. It just comes naturally. How did you get started in the hospitality industry? My first job was at Long John Silver’s after (Hurricane) Katrina in 2005, and I helped some of my older siblings working at DoubleTree hotels for a while. Then I progressed to Texas Roadhouse. What brought you to Charlotte? I have a sister in Harrisburg, so after Katrina, we evacuated here. A lot of my family stayed here and made this home. I went home to New Orleans but came back in 2016 to advance my career. I started at Sea Level as a sous chef, then became executive chef. I was there for seven months, then opened The Waterman, so it was a quick transition.

Beer or wine? Beer Coffee or tea? Coffee Cake or pie? Pie Hot dog or taco? Taco Tuna or trout? Trout Hush puppies or french fries? Fries Lobster roll or lobster mac and cheese? Lobster mac Comedy or drama? Comedy Street eats or sit-down? Street eats More money or more free time? More money

COURTESY JAMEY PRICE

The New Orleans native merges low country and Creole flavors at The Waterman Fish Bar

THE TOUGH STUFF

BITE-SIZED NEWS

Tell me about developing a seafood-focused menu. My approach to cooking is 100% Creole, so I was trying to bridge the gap between that and what people like when you come up north a bit. I had to find that balance between what they’d be happy with and putting my spin on it. How much taste testing does your job require? It’s endless (laughs). I probably taste one thing about 15 times. We have a Key lime tart on the menu now, and the filling is pretty spot-on, but I did the crust about 20 different times to get it right with that punch level of the lime. I learn best by experience, so I might mess up a million times before I get it right. What do you think is an underappreciated flavor? Cayenne. What’s your favorite meal to cook? A crawfish boil. When I go back home, if they’re selling live crawfish, we’ll get 50 pounds. I could eat that every day. Is there one recipe you’d still love to master? Yakamein. It’s a Vietnamese dish, kind of like pho, that we eat in New Orleans all the time. It’s a beef noodle soup but with Creole influence. What do you eat at home? I eat snacky foods. I try to shut my brain off at home, so I’ll eat stuff like frozen burritos. What’s your favorite adult beverage? Aged tequila.

Foodie Tidbits on a Small Plate Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel, the husband-and-wife business partners behind Supperland, purchased the historic Dilworth church that houses Bonterra. JD Duncan, who owned Bonterra, will open BONTERRA COFFEE AND WINE BAR in Phillips Place; Brown and Tonidandel announced in December that they planned to buy the old Bonterra building and establish their sixth restaurant there. As of early January, they hadn’t made details public. A fast-casual Indian restaurant called INDIGRILLE opens this month in the former Hibiscus space in ParkTowne Village. Expect traditional Indian favorites like chicken tikka masala, naan, lamb kebabs, and palak paneer. THE WATERMAN FISH BAR’S second location is now open at 9615 Bailey Road in Cornelius. Look for fried shrimp, lobster rolls, build-your-own burgers, and a raw bar. ELZ RESTAURANT GROUP, the team behind Bardo and VANA, will expand to Lake Norman with VANA LKN later this year. Chef Michael Noll’s menu will focus on wood-fired cuisine and craft cocktails. —Taylor Bowler

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

Any foods you won’t touch? Pork. What’s one restaurant chain you’re not ashamed to admit you love? Church’s. My diet fluctuates. I was a raw vegan for three years, and sometimes, I quit all meat or seafood. But I always love Church’s Chicken. What do you like to do outside of work? Spend time with my kids. I’m a huge gym rat, and I enjoy the gun range. What’s your favorite restaurant in Charlotte other than your own? Sea Level (laughs). I’m biased.

COURTESY

What’s your guiltiest pleasure? I like corny movies and rom-coms. Any rules to live by in the kitchen? I’m 100% about discipline and standards. I preach that in the kitchen all day. Never sell anything you wouldn’t eat.

WHIPPED RICOTTA, $13 ANGELINE’S

I’M A PISTACHIO FIEND. If a dish has pistachios in any form, I cannot stop myself from ordering it. When I saw that the first item on Angeline’s menu was Whipped Ricotta with lavender honey, lemon oil, and pistachios served with house bread, I ordered it before our drinks arrived. Much to my surprise, the pistachios turned out to be B-list players compared to the harmony of the other ingredients. Even for a whipped spread, the cooled ricotta was airy and delicate in both texture and flavor, no matter how much I slathered atop the warm bread (trust me, I was not shy about heaping it on). The lavender honey provided a chef’s-kiss touch of sweetness, balanced by the acidity of the lemon oil. When we ran out of bread, I may or may not have finished the ricotta off with a fork. —Tess Allen MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK

R E STAU R ANT S

Plaza Midwood

From ceviche to shepherd’s pie, this pedestrianfriendly neighborhood offers a snapshot of Charlotte’s international food scene PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR

PLAZA MIDWOOD is a quirky, laid-back neighborhood known for its consignment shops, tattoo parlors, and dive bars. You’ll also find a vibrant restaurant culture with barbecue, bánh mì, and down-home Southern food. Ditch your car and walk the streets of this former streetcar suburb while you work up an appetite. —Taylor Bowler SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR A FULL DIRECTORY OF RESTAURANT LISTINGS.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Calle Sol (top left) serves Aji Amarillo Ceviche (above) with sweet potatoes, corn, and canchas. Supperland's SevenLayer Salad (below); and Three Amigos' Tacos de Carne Asada (below left).

F E AT U R E D R E STAU R ANT

ABUGIDA ETHIOPIAN CAFÉ & RESTAURANT 3007 Central Ave. 980-237-2760

YODITE TESAFYE opened this restaurant in 2017 with her brother Zemaf, who runs the kitchen and serves the city’s best injera, a spongy flatbread made from teff flour. The menu has two “feast” options—one with meat, one without—that come with sides like seasoned collard greens and split red lentils. Feel free to ditch the silverware and use injera as your utensil, and savor a cup of Ethiopian coffee poured from an ornate clay pot called a jebena.

The Abugida feast includes Ethiopian coffee and a basket of injera.

SOUL GASTROLOUNGE 1500-B Central Ave. 704-348-1848 The servers are hip, the sound system is bumping, and the menu is all over the place, with sushi rolls, daily hummus features, and shared plates.

BISTRO LA BON

1322 Central Ave. 704-333-4646 Dinner favorites include the Lamb Meatballs, Lavender Chicken, and other tapas-style selections.

MIDWOOD SMOKEHOUSE

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

INTERMEZZO PIZZERIA

1427 E. 10th St. 704-347-2626 This Serbian and Italian restaurant has exposed brick walls, small dining areas, and a menu that ranges from pizza to cabbage rolls.

CALLE SOL LATIN CAFÉ & CEVICHERIA

1205 Thomas Ave. 704-565-8291 Charlotte’s first cevichería has the warmth and decor you’d find at a neighborhood joint in Tampa’s Ybor City. Dishes use plantains, tropical fruits, and ají amarillo peppers, sourced from sous chef Alfredo Galarza’s native Peru.

DISH

1220 Thomas Ave. 704-344-0343 This no-frills neighborhood joint serves down-home Southern food like chicken and dumplings, country fried steak, and pot roast.

THREE AMIGOS MEXICAN KITCHEN & CANTINA

2917 Central Ave., Ste. A 704-536-1851 Three Amigos specializes 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.

THE WORKMAN'S FRIEND

1531 Central Ave. 980-224-8234 Enjoy Irish classics like fish and chips and shepherd’s pie in the rustic dining room, or grab a pint at the custombuilt walnut bar.

SUPPERLAND

1212 The Plaza 704-817-7514 Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel— the spouses and business partners who also own Haberdish, Growlers Pourhouse, and Reigning Doughnuts—transformed a 69-year-old former church into a restaurant and cocktail bar. Think Southern-steakhouse-meets-church-potluck.

EMMY SQUARED PIZZA

1508 Central Ave. 704-672-0993 The Detroit-style pizza menu is split between Reds (topped with sauce and mozzarella) and Whites (topped with just mozzarella), with the latter’s Hot Chicken pie being a major hit. Look for an additional location in South End.

CILANTRO NOODLE

2001 Commonwealth Ave. 704-345-9490 Structured like Chipotle, build-yourown meals include a base starch (fresh rolls, vermicelli or egg noodles, white or fried rice), one protein, five toppings, and two sauces.

ZADA JANE’S CORNER CAFÉ

1601 Central Ave. 704-332-3663 This funky neighborhood restaurant with shuffleboard courts, a large patio, and colorful walls serves breakfast and brunch all day.

THE WARMACK

1226 Central Ave., Ste. A 704-503-9539 This intimate, 1,100-square-foot restaurant serves Asian comfort food like rice bowls, bao buns, and sushi.

MOO & BREW

1300 Central Ave. 980-585-4148 Burgers have playful names like Peter Piper, Farmer’s Daughter, and Moo Melt, and friendly servers make this spot an easy choice for a casual dinner out.

COALTRANE’S CHAR GRILL

1518 Central Ave. 980-265-1290 Rotisserie chicken with South American-inspired sides makes for a healthy and fast lunch or dinner.

DIAMOND RESTAURANT

1901 Commonwealth Ave. 704-375-8959 This 1950s-style diner features retro teal booths, a jukebox, and classic dishes like burgers, fried pork chops, and fried chicken. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

FOOD+DRINK Last year, more than 40 Charlotte breweries sold versions of Court Shoes Only, a double IPA, to benefit the nonprofit ACEing Autism.

BEER

Stiff Collaboration Something about craft brewing inspires would-be competitors, in Charlotte and elsewhere, to share the wealth BY GREG LACOUR

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Henderson quickly realized the benefits. The two breweries collaborated on a drinkable nonaggression pact of sorts, a kettle sour they called “26th Street Collab.” To celebrate their 10th anniversaries last year, they collaborated on a similar beer, a Berliner Weisse they named “Hey Neighbor.” Over the years, Henderson has discovered something that small, independent brewers have come to learn and love about their blossoming subindustry: Participants cooperate more than compete. Brewers collaborate not just on beers but in business and life in general. They trade recipes, ingredients, equipment, and advice, among breweries, neighborhoods, and cities. They applaud (and drink) each others’ successes. They do it in Charlotte, and Richmond, and Austin, and Denver, and Portland. In market after market, the collaborative spirit is a fundamental aspect of craft brewing, difficult to quantify but universal; it runs counter to the cutthroat, zero-sum ethos of many industries, in which rivals can view each other as blood enemies. “When you take out the competition side of it, and you all work as a community, the community feels that,” Henderson says. “And whether or not your business is the one that (customers are) going to go to all the time, everyone’s going to feel

more positive … knowing that we’re not out there trying to stab each other in the back or cut each other’s throats or kick our legs out from underneath each other. We all actually want us, as a group, as an industry, to do well.” THE REASONS spring from independent brewing’s attachments to specific places and people. Since the movement’s beginnings in the 1980s, homebrewers have turned their hobbies into livelihoods, says Neil Reid, a professor of geography and planning at the University of Toledo and an authority on the beer industry. (Reid is known as “The Beer Professor.”) So it’s natural for small groups of homebrewers in a specific city or neighborhood to maintain their connections even if members open separate breweries. That sense of tribe extends to craft brewers from different cities when they gather at events like the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver. (Henderson still talks about an event early in his brewing career at which Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware, one of craft brewing’s founding fathers, took several minutes to talk with Henderson as 75 or so people waited in line behind him.) Collegiality is part of it—but also a broader conception of who the competition really is. Scholars have written

COURTESY, NODA BREWING COMPANY

SUZIE AND TODD FORD and brewer Chad Henderson opened NoDa Brewing Company just before Halloween 2011, in an old textile processing shop at North Davidson and East 26th streets. Less than two months later, in a similar space close enough to strike with a flicked growler cap, Chris and Tara Goulet established Birdsong Brewing Co. as NoDa’s second flagship craft brewery. Henderson had foregone a career in health care to join the craft beer revolution, and he was initially aghast at the thought of a direct competitor in the building next door. “We were just getting started,” he says. “And now we had another brewery opening up across the alley?” It’s a little more than a decade later, and Henderson and I chat in the expanse of NoDa Brewing’s main taproom on North Tryon Street, which opened in 2015. It’s triple the size of the original. NoDa Brewing is one of North Carolina’s most heralded breweries, as is Birdsong, which moved its operations to a larger building up North Davidson the same year. Neither suffered from its initial proximity to the other. Just the opposite: Until the breweries moved into their new spaces, drinkers hopped between the two, and that corner of NoDa became a party alley, with food trucks, cornhole matches, and double the beer options.

academic papers on the subject, including one Reid cites as a landmark in the study of craft brewing culture and economics. Written by University of Washington law professor Zahr Said and published in the Lewis & Clark Law Review in 2019, the 69-page paper examines the collaborative nature of craft brewing in Seattle and identifies “collective oppositional identity” as one of its hallmarks. It’s the brewing version of what you might call the artisanal manifesto: Small, distinctive, and place-based is cooler than big, homogenized, and global. “Collectively, they’re the small guy, right? And the craft brewery down the street is not the enemy. The enemy is the big guy—Anheuser-Busch, the big multinationals,” Reid says. “I don’t want to call it a siege mentality, because I think that’s not quite what it is. But there’s this idea that, working together, they can promote the industry as a whole.” COLLABORATION can help people outside their circle, too. Last year, COVID prevented Nils Weldy, who founded the

annual Queen City Brewers Festival in 2012, from organizing the 10th anniversary event. Weldy, the executive director of the Charlotte Independent Brewers Alliance, contacted Henderson and Chris Tropeano, founder of Resident Culture Brewing Company, who together created the recipe for a double IPA that Weldy, an avid tennis player, named “Court Shoes Only.” Then he reached out to as many Charlotte-area breweries as he could. More than 40 agreed to put their own spins on the basic recipe, can the result, sell it, and direct the proceeds—more than $23,000, raised between late January and the end of March 2021—to ACEing Autism, a national nonprofit. ACEing Autism helps autistic children make friends and stay fit through tennis, and Weldy is the southeast regional program director. The Brewers Alliance plans to repeat the benefit beginning in April. “That speaks to how special the brewery community is in Charlotte,” Weldy says. “When they get behind something and do so as a group, its impact can be tremendous. It truly is a force. That’s exactly

what the Charlotte Independent Brewers Alliance is striving to achieve, to make these guys as successful as possible.” Henderson says four of every five NoDa Brewing collaborations with other breweries these days raise money for charitable causes. It’s something relatively new to him, and to Charlotte—carbonated philanthropy, with varying alcohol content—but it matches the idea, often cited by craft brewers, that a rising tide lifts all boats, and cans, and growlers. “That’s a common thread that’s been going on in craft beer for as long as I’ve been involved with it,” he says. “What gravitated me to the industry is genuine people trying to do something that they love to do and want to share with you. That fosters an idea of community and respect and collaboration. It doesn’t foster, you know, ‘I’ve got my money scheme, and screw these other guys who are trying to do the same thing.’ It’s the complete opposite.”

GREG LACOUR is the editor.

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MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

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Finally, spring is here and summer is coming. Time to get away for a while! The destinations on the following pages will provide the perfect escape.

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THE CRYSTAL COAST

ead southeast from the Charlotte area, stop just before you plunge into the rippling waves of the tlantic and you’ll find yourself on 85 miles of shoreline along the Southern Outer Banks known as North Carolina’s Crystal Coast. Here, where wild horses still roam the pristine landscape and trophy fish patrol the waters offshore, you’ll discover a vacation destination with plenty of stories to tell and, even more importantly, where families can write chapters of their own. “A Novel Place” is more than a clever advertising line here, where uniquely story-worthy moments wait around the bend of every winding tributary or scenic coastal drive. Families, couples and groups of friends are invited to hang their hats in charming hotels and sprawling rental homes before embarking on a day of adventure on land and sea. No plans are needed here, so it’s easy to see why some prefer to simply stroll the beaches, hike the trails and browse the shops until inspiration strikes. For others, booking tee times, charter boats and surfboard lessons are more the order of the day. But regardless of where a trip to North Carolina’s Crystal Coast takes them, they’ll be fueled by local fare prepared in OBX style by those who know the cuisine and culture of the area best. Lighthouses that once warned ships of the approaching shore now call to countless folks in search of spectacular views of a pristine place with a charm all its own. To write oneself into the ever-evolving history of this majestic place, all a traveler needs to do is put one in the center of the windshield, let the wind blow through their hair and drive until the scent of salt air washes all of the world’s stresses away.

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A VACATION THAT FEELS LIKE HOME

THE CRYSTAL COAST See special deals on lodgings at bookthecoast.com

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ocated between Hilton Head, SC and Savannah, GA, (under a 4-hour drive from harlotte you’ll find ontage Palmetto Bluff. With 20,000 acres of pristine Lowcountry terrain, Palmetto Bluff encompasses walking trails, two vibrant villages, an array of shops and eight delectable restaurants. pon arrival, most guests surrender their cars and leisurely make their way around the property on the main mode of transportation, bicycle. This unparalleled coastal setting adorned with 100-year-old oak trees and 32 miles of waterfront has an abundance of space to relax and en oy the great outdoors. iles of serene fresh waterways allow for kayaking, electric boats and fishing. The surrounding tidal estuary of the ay iver provides ample room for boating, kayaking and fishing amongst the resident population of Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. n land there are no shortage of activities, ack icklaus ignature olf, tennis, cro uet, pickleball, 1 station sporting clays course, archery, air ri e and a world class pa ontage are ust the beginning.

ith this bounty of activity there are also a variety of accommodations to choose from, guest rooms to cottages to illage omes allow for varying degrees of privacy and space. rapped in the warmth of southern hospitality, a getaway to ontage almetto luff will leave you with a lifetime of memories.

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FUN AROUND THE CLOCK. JUST AROUND THE CORNER. The Charlotte region’s new favorite stop is Catawba Two Kings Casino. Enjoy 1,000 of your favorite slot machines, and our newly-added electronic table games. Like our jackpots, the excitement at Two Kings is only growing. Slot some time in your day for real casino thrills.

Open 24 hours a day | TwoKingsCasino.com 538 Kings Mountain Blvd. Kings Mountain, NC 28086

Exit 5 on I-85

Must be 21+ to play. Please play responsibly and within your limits. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, assistance is available by calling or texting the National Council on Problem Gambling at 1-800-522-4700.

Playing in Park City’s renowned powder at ski-only Deer Valley Resort, one of the most luxurious in the country.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

LET’S BLOW THIS JOINT 4 Faraway Destinations With Nonstop Service

For public health and possibly other reasons, it’s been a while since you got out of town—not road-trip out of town but wheels-up, complimentary-beverageservice out of town. Maybe it’s time for a (masked, distanced, boosted) spring excursion to one of these destinations, all accessible via CLT, none marred by a mad sprint to catch a connecting flight

COURTESY, DEER VALLEY RESORT

By ALLISON BRADEN, GREG LACOUR, and ANDY SMITH

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

GRAND OLE APRÈS Welcome to Park City, where skiing is just an on-ramp for the afterparty

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

COURTESY, HIGH WEST DISTILLERY (2)

The High West Saloon (right) is a warm spot on Main Street that serves its namesake whiskey. You can also drive 25 minutes to the High West Distillery and tasting room (below) in nearby Wanship.

NONSTOP // CLT-SLC

Park City, Utah FLIGHT TIME: 4:45

IT’S A FRIGID NIGHTMARE of a day. Nonstop snow whips onto and alongside the roads. It’s noon, but the sunlight barely penetrates the shroud of grayish-white that hangs over the mountains. The wind chill has dropped into the low single digits. Any sane person would curl up with a blanket, book, coffee, and pet, and not dream of venturing outside. Instead, on a Friday two weeks before Christmas, I’m at a traffic signal on Utah Highway 224, the main route into Park City, where I witness two solid columns of Subaru Outbacks and Jeep Grand Cherokees inbound from Interstate 80. Their occupants are stoked beyond all

reason to don their gear and schuss their happy asses off, and the man in whose snow tire-equipped Jaguar I ride is just as thrilled to see them. “Look, see the oncoming? They’re all coming to ski,” says Dan Howard, the vice president of communications for Visit Park City, the town’s tourism agency and chamber of commerce. The winter ski season has just begun, and we’re driving through its first genuine slope-worthy snowfall. “It’s so fun to see everybody come back into town on a powder day. We’ve been waiting for them since Thanksgiving.” Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

“It’s so fun to see everybody come back into town on a powder day.” —DAN HOWARD vice president of communications for Visit Park City

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Ski, dummy. The nearby Great Salt Lake’s salinity leaches moisture from cold air, which produces a dry, fine snow that makes skiers salivate. Park City’s three resorts: PARK CITY MOUNTAIN is huge and accessible to skiers and snowboarders, with 7,300 skiable acres and more than 300 trails. DEER VALLEY, one of the top luxury ski resorts in the United States, is a more exclusive, skiersonly establishment, with 2,026 acres and 101 different runs on six mountains. WOODWARD PARK CITY is great for kids; they (and you) can ski, snowboard, and snow tube, or explore a 66,000-square-foot “Indoor Action Sports Hub,” which opened in December 2019. It includes a concrete park, foam pits, a parkour zone, and Olympic-grade trampolines—and it’s open year-round.

NONSTOP // CLT-SLC

Park City, Utah FLIGHT TIME: 4:45

COURTESY DEER VALLEY RESORT (3); VISIT PARK CITY (1)

Snow tubers at Woodward Park City (top left) head back up the hill on the resort’s “magic carpet.” After a day on the slopes, Fireside Dining at Deer Valley Resort (above) is a good place to get toasty and full on delicacies that include raclette cheese.

Park City lives for powder days. This city of about 8,400 permanent residents has been two things in its 138-year history: a silver mining town and, beginning in the 1930s, a ski resort town. It’s now home to three—including 7,300acre Park City Mountain, the nation’s largest lift-served ski resort—which, along with the mass of out-of-towners that clogs streets during the annual Sundance Film Festival, helped Summit County absorb nearly 13% of tourism spending in Utah in 2019.

Park City’s layout reflects the twin blades of its history, and it takes a day or two to orient yourself. The downtown, which spreads out from bar- and restaurant-packed Main Street, is a cluster of renovated 19th-century miner shacks. A series of modern urban villages, anchored by luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, and retail outlets, winds around the city center. There’s no dodging Park City’s extravagance—as of late December, the room where I stayed at the Hyatt Centric Park City costs $879 per night. But one of the town’s advantages, especially compared to its ski-resort counterparts in Colorado, is accessibility: Park City is about a half-hour’s drive from Salt Lake City, which means saved time and, if you’re just coming in to ski for the day and bivouac in SLC for the night, saved money. Then again, if you’re adequately capitalized, you’re in a better position to join the après-ski shenanigans. “Après” is French for “after,” and to skiers, it connotes all the fun things you do after you’ve stashed the skis for the day. It typically involves fireplaces, food, alcohol, ogling, perhaps live music, and earnest slope talk about this run or that muscle cramp. Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

STAY

Every recreation has some version of this. But skiers around the world have turned après into a distinct subculture, and you needn’t be an avid skier to partake (although it helps). The Zimmerman Agency, a Florida-based marketing firm, has organized this “winter FAM” (short for “familiarization tour”) for travel journalists. That Friday night, our group of seven caps dinner in a heated yurt with an impromptu crawl down Main Street: whiskey drinks at High West Saloon, which occupies a former horse livery; more drinks plus live music at The Spur Bar & Grill, where we collectively down a tequila “shotski” (Google it) as a local band chugs through a cover of “Santeria”; then more drinks still at The Cabin, a twin-level club where I hang downstairs and catch a set by Badfeather, a very good SLC

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

band, while the rest of the crew heads upstairs to shake their money-spenders to a DJ. A good après is had by all. A note on the next day: Technically, and under a very generous definition, I manage to “ski.” I’ve never done it before. (The slopes of my native New Orleans are somewhat lacking.) Instructor Tim teaches me to stand properly as I, out of shape and unused to existence at 7,000 feet, gasp for breath like a beached carp. I finally manage to slide down the mildest of inclines for about 10 feet and stop without falling. I count this as a personal victory. Flush with post-après tiredness and something like exhilaration, I tap out, then galumph through the snow toward beer. —Greg Lacour

COURTESY ZIMMERMAN AGENCY/DON RIDDLE; PARK CITY CHAMBER/ BUREAU

The lobby at the Hyatt Centric Park City (above). The Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley, named after the famous Norwegian alpine racer and Olympic gold medalist (left).

You can generally find big-chain hotel and motel rooms at relatively reasonable prices—although, of course, winter ski season, which extends until mid-April, brings the highest prices and lowest availability. But if you can afford luxury, check out a pair of hotels with spectacular views of the surrounding Wasatch Range and ski-in, ski-out access to the slopes: HYATT CENTRIC PARK CITY, a pet-friendly hotel with heated pool, 24-hour fitness center, charging stations for electric vehicles, and an on-site restaurant and bar; and STEIN ERIKSEN LODGE DEER VALLEY, which has similar amenities, plus a five-star spa. The latter is named for the renowned Norwegian alpine racer and Olympic gold medalist, who died in 2015.

NONSTOP // CLT-SLC

Park City, Utah FLIGHT TIME: 4:45

EAT + DRINK Main Street teems with places to eat. A good breakfast option: THE EATING ESTABLISHMENT, a diner beloved by locals since 1972. It’s now a bar, too, since actor and Utah resident Ty Burrell, who played the goofball dad on Modern Family, became a part owner in 2016. A father-son team opened HEARTH & HILL in early 2018 in a more recently developed part of town; it specializes in fresh takes on contemporary American cuisine, which out West means a significant number of Asian dishes. If you can, reserve a table at FIRESIDE DINING AT DEER VALLEY RESORT, a Swiss Alpine-style, fixed-price establishment that serves four courses—including raclette cheese, a ski resort delicacy—from stations near stone fireplaces.

COURTESY THE EATING ESTABLISHMENT; TREVOR HOOPER PHOTO (1); CARLA BOECKLIN (1)

(Top) The Eating Establishment on Main Street. (Above) A sampling from the winter menu at Hearth & Hill.

A Campfire Sazerac at High West Distillery.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Until recently, Samaná has been a destination for wealthy European and Canadian tourists.

STAY Rooms at BAHIA PRINCIPE GRAND EL PORTILLO are simplistic and spacious, in keeping with its familyfriendliness. (The hillside BAHIA PRINCIPE LUXURY SAMANÁ, with its seaside balconies, bathrobes and slippers, and 24-hour room service, is the more romantic, adults-only experience. That resort is about an hour away, on the southern side of Samaná.) Activities like beach yoga, dance classes, and arcade games maintain the familial vibe throughout the day; hoppin’ bars, live shows, and dancing give the night a more mature appeal. But don’t worry: The bars are open all day.

COURTESY BAHIA PRINCIPE HOTELS & RESORTS

The teen lounge (below) and waterpark (left) are just a couple of the features for younger visitors at the family-friendly Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo (above).

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

NONSTOP // CLT-AZS

Samaná, Dominican Republic FLIGHT TIME: 3:45

JUNGLE JOY

CLT’s newest nonstop excursion lets families sample nature and piña coladas and, if they’re lucky, spot a movie star or two

The Bahia Principe Luxury Samaná (above), about an hour from Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo, is a more romantic, adults-only experience.

EN ROUTE along the winding, mountainous road from Samaná El Catey International Airport, a surprise rises out of the rain forest: a full Hollywood production, complete with towering lights and equipment trucks. It takes only 20 minutes to arrive at my destination, the all-inclusive resort Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo, where an attendant tells me Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock are on the Dominican peninsula for the jungle-set adventure film The Lost City. The film crew has taken up a few hundred rooms at the resort, along with a restaurant converted into a temporary production office. “Are the stars staying here, too?” I ask. “Oh, no,” she says with a laugh. “No one knows where they’re staying.” I briefly feel inclined to solve that mystery during my three-night stay at the Grand El Portillo. Then I remember I’m not here as a paparazzo. I’m an honest-to-God journalist here to discover Charlotte’s latest nonstop destination, Samaná, Dominican Republic. Plus, an honest-to-God cabana bar serves honest-to-God piña coladas just feet from my room. Airlines have offered nonstop flights from CLT to the Dominican cities of Santo Domingo and Punta Cana for years. Until recently, Samaná has been a destination for wealthy European and Canadian tourists. But it’s become popular for Americans, too; thousands of tourists flock to the shorelines in winter and spring to watch humpback whales during their prime breeding season. Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Dining al fresco at the Grand El Portillo.

EAT + DRINK

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

COURTESY (3); BAHIA PRINCIPE HOTELS & RESORTS (1)

Many of Samaná’s major resorts have opened just in the past few years, and the peninsula is gaining new nonstops from airports like CLT. (To quell any confusion in your Google searches: Samaná is the name of a peninsula, a province inside of that peninsula, and a town inside of that province. For clarity’s sake, I’ll refer to the entire peninsula.) Of the D.R.’s well-traversed locales, Samaná is known for its undeveloped jungle terrain. On his first trip to the Americas, Christopher Columbus described the lush, tropical landscape as “the fairest land on the face of the earth.” To this day, Samaná is the primary producer of coconuts in the D.R. When you stay at a resort, you typically get to know your bartender better than the country you’re in. Still, one of this resort’s best attributes is its evocation of what surrounds it. Flamboyant blooms, West Indian cedars, and the lush green of the region’s palms engulf the villas and walkways. Miniature huts, spaced for privacy, line the beach at the rear of the property; stand at its center and look in any direction, and you witness a cinematic, Instagram-worthy attraction. (Which, I guess, is why Pitt, Bullock, et al., are in town.) As you walk the paths, you might come across a Buddhist-style zen garden, a private wooden enclosure hidden by palm trees, or, most welcome, a hut with a full bar you hadn’t previously encountered. Grand El Portillo reopened in 2021 after an eight-figure upgrade during a COVID shutdown. Its “renovation concept” is called “Mirror of the Sea,” modeled after coastal towns scattered throughout the region. Bahia Principe has properties more suited for romantic getaways; this one is about pampering visitors of all ages and interests with six restaurants, two pools, a water park, spas, a sports bar, and separate, staff-monitored hangouts for kids and teens. The breakfast and lunch buffet, El Limón, reflects that blend of familiarity for U.S. visitors and local options for adventurous tourists, with mashed plantains alongside American-style waffles. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to see Samaná outside of a resort. The ratio of comfort to adventure is up to you. —Andy Smith

We’ve touched on the buffets, but Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo also has diverse non-buffet, dine-in restaurant options. The menus at THE GREEK and THE FISH MARKET offer different ocean flavors. BOAVISTA, a Brazilianstyle rodízio, serves grilled meat tableside. A personal favorite: PORTOFINO (not to be confused with Charlotte’s Italian restaurants) makes an especially addictive Bolognese pasta.

NONSTOP // CLT-AZS

Samaná, Dominican Republic FLIGHT TIME: 3:45

Runners Adventures guide Segundo de la Cruz (above) shows visitors native fruits on a farm tour. The Las Ballenas Cigars factory (left) is another stop via Runners Adventures.

DO Atop the mountainous Rancho Español region in Samaná, the LAS BALLENAS CIGARS factory produces hundreds of handcrafted cigars each day. Owner Roel Vosters, a native of Belgium, came to the Dominican Republic as an exchange student more than a decade ago before he decided to return and enter the industry. The D.R. produces three times as many cigars as Cuba, and several are among the highest rated in the world. Las Ballenas is one of several stops on tours by RUNNERS ADVENTURES, which takes visitors to a Dominican farm that produces native fruits, coffee, and chocolate; a rubber plantation; and into nearby towns. Other Runners Adventures tours: “Monkeyland,” a 5-acre attraction with monkeys and other native fauna; a zip-line outing; a waterfall survey; and a horseback riding tour.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

’SUP, PLAYA

JUST NORTH OF CANCÚN, gated resorts line the coast of a curved strip of land that extends into the Caribbean Sea. Here, the community of Playa Mujeres is packed with all-inclusives, which typically carry grandiose names like Excellence, Beloved, and Finest. We pass each before we arrive at ATELIER Playa Mujeres—which is, per marketing literature, “inspired by the Art and Design of Contemporary Mexico.” The 36-acre resort delivers on that promise, with murals throughout, a full-sized gallery, pop-up art projects, and luxury suites adorned with canvases. Even the bathrooms are Instagrammable: a freestanding tub is steps away from a rain shower with marble accents. My previous resort experience, in the Dominican Republic, was excursion-heavy and family-friendly. This

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

is the inverse. My wife and I, joined by two other couples with kids back home, planned an excursion-free stay with close proximity to the primary pool bar. The result? Well, “glorious” isn’t the word. “Paradisiacal,” maybe? We’re parents of young kids during a pandemic: The absence of tasks is unthinkable. To actually meander around the site, striking up cocktail conversations with Yucatán spinytailed iguanas, has value beyond the tempting list of area activities at the front desk. Maybe you’re more of the explorer type. When you go on vacation, you’ve got a list of ruins, zip-line trips, and hidden locales unknown to the average tourist. I’ve had a few trips like that, but sometimes it’s OK to let an allinclusive be all-inclusive.

COURTESY ATELIER DE HOTELES

A Mexican resort alive with art, personal service, and (hiccup) many, many drinks

NONSTOP // CLT-CUN

Cancún, Mexico FLIGHT TIME: 3:15

STAY

ATELIER Playa Mujeres is an art-themed, all-inclusive resort north of Cancún.

There is no correct way to stay at a resort like ATELIER Playa Mujeres, but we discover that the main pool has a gravitational pull that makes it difficult to exit. When we hanker for a snack, a gray empanada cart magically appears and circles swimmers like a friendly, oddly shaped great white. We get the (slight) itch for a workout, and the resort staff invites us to join a pool volleyball tournament. Its submerged format levels the playing field (pool). It’s the kind of decadence you should indulge only in weeklong spurts. Otherwise, I may have returned to the offices of Charlotte magazine as a modern-day Henry VIII. We make only one reservation that’s not at a restaurant: for a tequila tasting at a ground-floor bar, led by a knowledgeable staffer named Sergio. He enlightens us

The five-star ATELIER PLAYA MUJERES has 431 suites in a stunning, greenery-filled structure with stairstepped tiers that make the building resemble a ziggurat. A bottom row of swim-up suites might tempt some for the social media flex, but the lanes are not wholly private. We found plenty of water elsewhere, so we skipped that amenity. Marble and wood accents provide elegance and continuity throughout the site, and there’s always a visual-art surprise around the corner. One night, we happened upon a floor installation made up entirely of colored rice and beans, a vibrant, culturally relevant take on a sand mandala. Even if you don’t venture out to explore the local culture, this resort ensures that it comes to you.

on the beverage’s varieties and on how to down a shot of any type without gagging. The secret, Sergio says, is to breathe in and out before and after downing the tequila. The fumes that exit would otherwise irritate the inside of your mouth. That’s, at least, my understanding of the Sergio Way. Even today, my travel companions debate the mechanics we learned that night. Our group does agree that we might have a better recollection if we hadn’t practiced for the tasting during the prior hours. Again, I blame that damned, glorious pool—and its attentive staff. —A.S. Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Lizards are the brewery dogs of ATELIER Playa Mujeres (above). Play the 18-hole course (right) designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman.

ATELIER Playa Mujeres and its neighboring, family-friendly ESTUDIO Playa Mujeres are enveloped by an 18-HOLE GOLF COURSE designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman. After a game, you can relax in the threelevel NUUP SPA, which has individual and shared suites, hydrotherapy, a tea station, and a beauty salon. Oh, did I mention the beach at the Caribbean resort? Situated along exceptionally clear waters, it’s large enough to put some space between your cabana and the next. And yes, there’s a bar, too.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

COURTESY (5)

NONSTOP // CLT-CUN

Cancún, Mexico FLIGHT TIME: 3:15

The 36-acre resort has murals and sculptures throughout, including this piece by Leo Tezcucano (above). The swimup pool bar (right) is a highlight.

There is no correct way to stay at a resort like ATELIER Playa Mujeres, but we discover that the main pool has a gravitational pull that makes it difficult to exit. EAT + DRINK

A fresh fish lunch at El Suspiro, a resort restaurant.

The resort has eight restaurants and eight bars. On the gastronomical side, highlights include the Brazilianstyle, coal-cooked meats of LOS ABRAZOS; the “Mexiterranean” fusion of EL SUSPIRO; and sprawling Asian eatery TAKESHI, with its robust sushi and sashimi options. There’s also a cleaner, more health-conscious spot called ALBA, but I wouldn’t vacation with anyone who wants to go there. In terms of imbibing, the wide array of bars is impressive, but we found ourselves most often visiting the swim-up one at the main pool.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

COURTESY VISIT PHOENIX/ADAM RODRIGUEZ

Saguaro cacti take about a century to sprout a single arm. Learn about this protected species and other Sonoran flora at the Desert Botanical Garden.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

NONSTOP // CLT-PHX

Phoenix, Arizona FLIGHT TIME: 4:40

WILD AT HEART The shimmering, colossal oasis blends wilderness and luxury under the blistering sun

THE ARID HEART of the Sonoran Desert has defied settlers for as long as people have wandered there. The prehistoric Hohokam civilization made a respectable go of it, irrigating fields with an advanced canal system for a millennium and a half, until, historians suspect, a prolonged drought helped destroy the culture. In the 1860s, Confederate veteran Jack Swilling stumbled upon the canal remnants and figured he could restore them and do the Hohokam one better. The settlers bent water and land to their will. Today, home to more than 1.6 million people, that settlement, Phoenix, is the fifth-largest city in the United States. The place is miserable in the summer; consistent triple-digit temperatures mean much of the population is seasonal. Snowbirds and tourists descend with winter and stick around until spring training in March, when baseball fans snap up every last hotel room. Wedged in a middle seat on a crowded December flight from CLT, I tried to hide the indolent cowboy on the cover of Pam Houston’s acclaimed 1992 story collection, Cowboys Are My Weakness. I didn’t pick the book for the trip, but the heroines’ ardor for the American West couldn’t have come at a better time. I peered over my neighbor as the city took shape below, an improbable oasis sprung from sunburned sand. Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

As much as I wanted a chaps-clad cattleman to gallop down the arrivals lane to collect me, cosmopolitan Phoenix had other ideas. My Uber driver moved here from South Sudan more than a decade ago. He loves it, he tells me—the climate is just like home. Even for Phoenix, it’s unseasonably warm. My jacket feels silly as the temperature climbs past 80. Poolside at the newly renovated Arizona Biltmore, I indulge in the fantasy of an endless summer, the same fantasy that made this town—and this resort in particular—a favorite Hollywood hideaway. But just beneath the glitz, I found wilderness, a place still unpredictable in spite of all the air conditioning and irrigation. As I hiked up 2,612-foot Piestewa Peak—85 degrees in December! No shade! Punishing sun!—I passed signs in red and orange that warned against the real risk of heat exhaustion. I spotted an Arizona bark scorpion, the most venomous in North America, as it skittered

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

between shadows at dusk. The risk is part of the charm, but you have plenty of ways to explore safely: I caught sight of coyotes and jackrabbits from 3,000 feet in a hot air balloon and marveled at century-old saguaro cacti at the Desert Botanical Garden. But no matter what I did, I followed the sage advice of a friend who recently moved to the area: Drink lots of water—even when you don’t think you need to. Despite Phoenix’s recent efforts to conserve water—the Biltmore just switched to turf lawns, for example—the Southwest is still several years into another potentially cataclysmic drought. Average annual temperatures are on the rise, and it’s not clear whether our own civilization’s attempts to mastermind nature here will succeed in the long term. So go now. Phoenix caters to the outdoor Continued on page 76

NONSTOP // CLT-PHX

Phoenix, Arizona FLIGHT TIME: 4:40

STAY The ARIZONA BILTMORE used pandemic downtime to complete a $70 million revamp of the 93-year-old property. Designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright protégé, the sprawling art deco resort has a dazzling new courtyard bar, a sultry lobby bar—allegedly home of the original tequila sunrise—and two full-service restaurants. Find your endless summer at seven pools, cooled in summer and heated in winter. (One, the Catalina, ranked in Marilyn Monroe’s pantheon of favorite pools and is where Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas.”)

The Arizona Biltmore (left) has been among Phoenix’s premier resorts for 93 years. At the nearby Phoenix Mountain Preserve, a strenuous hike yields spectacular views from Piestewa Peak (below), where musician Ken Koshio (above, with taiko drum) performed daily in 2020.

COURTESY ARIZONA BILTMORE/GABRIELA USINGER; VISIT PHOENIX/WHITE TIE PRODUCTIONS; VISIT PHOENIX/JULIA HILL

But just beneath the glitz, I found wilderness, a place still unpredictable in spite of all the air conditioning and irrigation.

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

EAT + DRINK

Not far from the Arizona Biltmore, The Gladly serves swoon-worthy scallops (right). Ross Simon (below) mixes sophisticated cocktails at downtown bar Bitter & Twisted.

explorer who doesn’t want to give up chef-driven cuisine and lush amenities. The city has outgrown the Wild West of yore—mostly. On my last full day in town, I head to the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, a 40-square-mile reservation just half an hour northeast of the city, to experience the desert in traditional fashion: on horseback. Rocco, a border collie in

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

a spiffy red bandana, nuzzles a hello. The two guides are wearing, yes, fringed chaps. Is this for real? Turns out, the pair have ridden rodeo across the West since high school. Come summer, they’ll ranch 3,000 head of cattle up in Montana. One of them won the dog in a wrestling match. What more could I want? —Allison Braden

COURTESY THE GLADLY; MARK LIPCZYNSKI

Follow a dawn hike or hot air balloon ride with an al fresco lunch at POSTINO WINECAFE, a local staple known for vibrant bruschetta boards and offbeat wines. For a snazzy dinner, venture off-resort to THE GLADLY for swoon-worthy scallops and a roster of more than 285 whiskies (ask for a tableside ice ball, made in an anodized steel ice press, to complete your OldFashioned). If you can’t bear to leave the Biltmore’s embrace, visit RENATA’S HEARTH for elevated Latin cuisine with a focus on smoky flavors. But tear yourself away from the Paradise Pool’s swim-up bar to visit downtown’s BITTER & TWISTED. The “cocktail parlour” heralded a craft-cocktail renaissance when it opened in 2014, and it’s been turning out balanced, sophisticated drinks ever since.

NONSTOP // CLT-PHX

Phoenix, Arizona FLIGHT TIME: 4:40

COURTESY VISIT PHOENIX/@EMITOMS, VISIT PHOENIX/ WHITE TIE PRODUCTIONS; VISIT PHOENIX/JILL RICHARDS

Get a primer on Sonoran Desert ecology at the DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN, then take in a sky-high view of the city and its surroundings in one of RAINBOW RYDERS’ colorful hot air balloons. Walk like a Phoenician at one of the city’s several rugged parks; PAPAGO PARK, PHOENIX MOUNTAIN PRESERVE, and SOUTH MOUNTAIN PARK AND PRESERVE offer stunning vistas and hikes suitable for all levels. Discover Indigenous art and heritage at the HEARD MUSEUM, and don’t miss the heart-rending exhibit on the legacy of Indian schools. Shop local lit at CHANGING HANDS BOOKSTORE—the late Denis Johnson and Edward Abbey called Arizona home, and Barbara Kingsolver still does. Pick up a Western, then head to FORT MCDOWELL ADVENTURES to get in the saddle yourself.

Phoenix offers all sorts of adventures, from books to broncos: Hop in the saddle at Fort McDowell Adventures (above left), discover Indigenous art and heritage at the Heard Museum (above), or pick up local lit at Changing Hands Bookstore (left).

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Help him become who he will be.

((ffoorr ffrreeee!!))

“We tell [our son] that sending him to Rockmont is an investment in the man he will become... And it’s worth every single penny.”

“We tell [our son] that sending him to Rockmont is an investment in the man he will become… But it’s worth every single penny.”

-RACHEL, WINSTON SALEM, NC

- RACHEL, WINSTON SALEM, NC

Camp Rockmont and Charlotte Parent have teamed upup to to give Magazine have teamed give one parent thechance chanceto tosend sendtheir theirson sonto tocamp summer camp in family the in the N.C. the N.C. mountains mountains for FREE.for FREE.

To win a two-week session for your son at Camp Rockmont ($3,900 value): ($4,100 value):

Visit CharlotteParent.com/campcontest Charlottemagazine.com/campcontest Enter between February 2020. March 1 -1-29, 31, 2022

FEBRUARY 2020 | charlotteparent.com

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CAMP Spotlight PLAN NOW!

Explore the area’s summer camps on the following pages

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Queens Sports Camps Engage your child in a fun and exciting athletic experience at a premier institution with an outstanding coaching staff. Our camps emphasize learning and improve the fundamentals and skills of our sports in a safe environment. Camps are designed for all ages and different skill levels. We offer a full day and half day options and our full day camp includes lunch daily. Some sports offer team camps for varsity and junior varsity high school teams. SPORTS CAMPS OFFERED • Girls- soccer, volleyball, cross country and track and field, swimming, sports performance, field hockey, basketball, cheer, dance, lacrosse, softball, tennis, triathlon, and rugby • Boys- soccer, cross country and track and field, swimming, sports performance, basketball, cheer, dance, lacrosse, tennis, triathlon and rugby Ages: 4 – 18 Half and full day options Held at Queens athletic facilities

Visit queenssportscamps.com for more information on each camp/clinic and pricing.

Woodberry Forest School Summer Camps Queens University Mar22.indd 1

1900 Selwyn Avenue Charlotte, NC 28274 704-337-2509 queenssportscamps.com

1/14/22 2:11 PM

Woodberry Forest summer camps are designed to help boys have fun, grow as young men, and get to know Woodberry’s incredible campus, students, and faculty. Whether a boy comes for the camaraderie and competition of the Woodberry Forest Sports Camp, to grow as a leader and adventurer at Woodberry Compass, or to build his skills at our sport specific mini-camps, he’ll spend time with talented and caring Woodberry faculty, alumni, and students who serve as the camps’ directors and counselors. CAMPS - DATES - AGES • FATHER-SON WEEKEND June 10–12, 2022 • Boys ages 5–10 • WOODBERRY COMPASS June 18–25, 2022 • Boys ages 11-14 • WOODBERRY FOREST SPORTS CAMP June 29–July 8, 2022 • Boys ages 10–14 • BASKETBALL CAMP July 12–15, 2022 • Boys ages 9–16 • FOOTBALL CAMP July 16–19, 2022 • Boys ages 12–16

Visit woodberry.org/camps to learn more about each camp.

898 Woodberry Forest Rd, Woodberry Forest, VA 22989 540-672-6044 woodberry.org/camps

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Children’s Theatre of Charlotte Summer Camps Our award-winning Summer Camps offer experiences at ImaginOn and Charlotte Latin School for students ages 3 to 18 in fun, interactive environments. Professional Teaching Artists lead campers in acting, singing, and dancing. FIND YOUR FUN: • Early Childhood Camps (For Ages 3-5) 1-week, half day camps I Tuition $160 • Primary Camps (For rising K - 2nd Grade) 1-week camps I Tuition $290 • Musical Performance Camps (For rising 3rd - 6th Grade) 1-week and 2-week camps I Tuition $310-$595 • Teen Studios (For rising 7th -12th Grade) 1-week and 2-week studios I Tuition $310-$595

Visit ctcharlotte.org for more information about registration, payment plans, scholarships, and COVID-19 safety protocols.

Plan your summer camps with Charlotte Parent Children's Theater Mar22.indd 1

The right summer camp has the potential to support a child’s social and emotional development and provide opportunities for growth. Selecting the right camp from the sea of possibilities can be an overwhelming task: How big? Overnight or day camp? Full day or half day? Charlotteparent.com is a one-stop resource for your summer camp research. The site includes an extensive directory of day camps throughout the city as well as area overnight camps. Our team of editors and summer camp experts contribute helpful insights and tips to help find the right camp for your child. Our camp content is updated throughout camp season to keep you up-to-date on the latest programs and opportunities.

300 E 7th Street Charlotte, NC 28202 704-973-2828 ctcharlotte.org

1/14/22 2:18 PM

UNCW MarineQuest

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Discover the amazing world of modern marine science while exploring beautiful coastal habitats with MarineQuest’s summer camps onduct field based scientific investigations at the marsh, beach, fouling docks, and/or on a research vessel. Develop the tools to become a modern marine scientist while having fun kayaking, snorkeling, boogie boarding, or scuba diving. Develop your leadership potential while engaging in coastal service projects. MarineQuest is more than just another day at the beach, it’s the journey of a summer! CAMPER AGE RANGES + PRICE RANGE PER WEEK • amper ge anges 1 • rice ange 210 0 601 S. College Rd. Wilmington, NC 28403 910-962-2640 uncw.edu/marinequest/summerenrichment

Charlotte Latin School Summer Camp

UNCW MarineQuest Mar22.indd 57

1/26/22 11:46 AM

Charlotte Latin Summer Day Camps provide an environment that promotes a joy for learning. Our campers develop new hobbies and friendships while learning through growth-promoting experiences. Our programs foster a passion for lifelong learning by enhancing a child’s understanding of his or her capabilities and sense of independence. • CAMPER AGE RANGES: 31/2 - 18 • PRICE RANGE PER WEEK: $180 - $545 9502 Providence Road Charlotte, NC 28277 704-846-7277 charlottelatinsummer.com

The Speech Garden Summer Camp

Charlotte Latin School Mar22.indd 57

Join us for speech-language summer camp! Our program helps improve communication and social skills over the summer. Classroom instruction, speech and language remediation and summer camp fun are blended together for a unique summer camp experience. We can’t wait to see you this summer! CAMPER AGE RANGES + PRICE RANGE PER WEEK • Camp is for children ages 2 to rising second grade • 3-week session $975; 4-week session $1250 1235-E #140 East Blvd Charlotte, NC 28203 704-609-8255 speechgarden.org

1/21/22 2:53 PM

PLAN NOW FOR

SUMMER CAMP! FOR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, VISIT OUR CAMP DIRECTORY ONLINE AT charlotteparent.com/camps

John Symons, co-owner of Bio-One Charlotte, in one of the franchise’s biohazard suits.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Clutter is bad enough. But when people need help with the really bad messes—the ones that require biohazard suits—they call the likes of John and Jen Symons By ALLISON FUTTERMAN Photographs by TRAVIS DOVE

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Jen and John Symons bought the Bio-One Charlotte franchise in 2018. Some of their jobs involve hazardous materials, which require them to wear suits.

“W

e would consider this a level five,” says Jen Symons, “on a scale of one to five.” We’re in a south Charlotte bungalow in early November, and every room practically bursts with random items, many of them stuffed animals: a llama here, a panda and a lion there. The closets and shelves overflow with unopened boxes, clothes, and piles of things I can’t identify. Full plastic containers rise to the ceiling. In one room, I steady myself with my hand on the wall to squeeze between the piles. A glimpse of a bedpost provides the only real clue that we’re in a bedroom. Donald and Dora used to live here. (Not their real names; the family requested that we not identify them for this story.) Donald, 80, now lives next door, in a house they bought as his wife began to hoard after an estrangement from one of their adult daughters in 2010. After their disabled son, who lived with them, died in 2019 at age 51, her behavior worsened. “I’d ask her, ‘Who’s going to clean all this when you’re gone?’” says another of their daughters, Angel, who’s here today to help oversee the cleanup. “She’d get defensive.” Dora died at 69 in 2020, and Donald asked a friend from his church, Quail Hollow Presbyterian, to help clean out the house. She took one look and said, “We need help.” The friend told church leadership, which contributed $3,000 toward the job and hired Bio-One Charlotte to do it.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

Bio-One Charlotte is a franchise that Jen Symons and her husband, John, bought in October 2018. They were tired of working for others and thought they could handle both the pressure of business ownership and the nauseating, sometimes dangerous nature of this work. Bio-One offers decontamination and biohazard cleanup services. It handles hoarding cases like this one, which require only masks and gloves for protection. But the Symonses and their five employees also clean crime scenes and the aftermaths of unexpected deaths. They scour floors and walls after pest infestations. They wear biohazard suits on those jobs, which the industry refers to as— this is an actual term—“gross filth cleanup.” No gross filth here, thank goodness. Just a lot of stuff. (When Jen referred to it as a “level five,” she meant among hoarding jobs. Gross filth is off the scale.) Bio-One would ordinarily reserve a few days and charge about $9,000 for a cleanup like this. But the Symonses, who are open to these kinds of deals, have agreed to do what they can in a day in exchange for Quail Hollow Presbyterian’s $3,000. Jen, who used to work in marketing, talks with Angel and me as John and his crew of four—three men, one woman—collect boxes and loose items and carry them outside to sort. The family wants to keep or donate some. The rest go into the two enormous orange dumpsters on the lawn. John offers a quick hello on his way out the door with a load. They can’t waste time. When someone contacts the Symonses, things have gotten bad.

They wear biohazard suits on those jobs, which the industry refers to as—this is an actual term— “gross filth cleanup.”

Bio-One Charlotte started with only the Symonses but has taken on five employees. Here, a cleanup team prepares for a job in Matthews (above), then begins clearing debris outside the home (left).

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Cleanup of “gross filth,” as in this Matthews home, can be dangerous for the crew and humiliating for homeowners. By the time someone calls Bio-One Charlotte, things have usually gotten bad.

HE SYMONSES moved to Charlotte from the Flint, Michigan, area in 2007, when both were in their early 20s. Jen secured an internship at Ballantyne Country Club that turned into a marketing and event planning job. John worked in restoration cleanup, resurrecting homes and businesses damaged by flood or fire. Big messes don’t faze him. A decade in, both were ready to start a business of their own, and they tossed ideas around. John, with his years of work in restoration, suggested crime scene and biohazard cleanup. He could do the heavy lifting. She could network and market. “You’re nuts,” Jen responded. But she eventually accompanied John to Bio-One’s corporate headquarters outside Denver for a Discovery Day, the franchising industry’s version of a meet-andgreet. Bio-One, founded in 2006, began to sell franchises in 2010 and has since exploded into a nationwide system of 115 independently owned businesses and a secure spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s annual list of the top 500 American franchise systems. The Symonses sat at a conference table in Colorado with other potential franchisees and absorbed what the Bio-One executives had to show them.

She thought about Bio-One’s motto: “Help First, Business Second.” Bio-One didn’t hold back. The folks in the room viewed images of body outlines on floors, along with blood and other bodily fluids, where people had died and lain undiscovered for days. Jen recalls a particularly gruesome image of an eyeball, just lying on the floor. Sometimes, she tells me, “coroners take the body but not the other bits and pieces.” The Symonses looked around the room and saw some second thoughts on prospective franchisees’ faces. This clearly was not for everyone. But someone had to go into those homes and clean up, right? The more she thought about it, the less crazy it seemed. She thought about BioOne’s motto: “Help First, Business Second.” They could do this.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

“We found a company that wasn’t doing something very common,” Jen says. “You have to be unique to stand out, and this is a niche service that people will always need.” They secured loans to cover the franchise fee and six months’ worth of family expenses. It was tough, as it usually is for a new business owner. John and Jen did everything themselves in the first year and worked ridiculous hours for the first two. But after a year, they were doing well enough to hire two people. In the past two years, they’ve hired three more. That’s helped ease their schedules; John is 38, Jen 36, and they have two young daughters—9-year-old Lola and 7-year-old Lana. After four years, the Symonses, who now live in Rock Hill but work throughout the Charlotte area, can take a breath now and then.

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

And COVID, which derailed many an entrepreneur’s best efforts, only heightened the demand for cleanup services. In July 2020, using federal CARES Act money, the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services hired Bio-One Charlotte to disinfect the homes of residents 60 and older. The Symonses and their employees disinfected more than 1,000 homes over the next year, and the nationwide Bio-One system jumped from $25 million in systemwide sales in 2019 to nearly $80 million in 2020, founder Nick-Anthony Zamucen told the trade publication Franchise Times in May 2021. “I like to say we were doing infectious disease control before COVID,” Jen says. “So we had everything in place, and we were able to have a seamless transition.”

Jen Symons overcame her initial hesitation to buy the franchise when she realized they could stand the frequently unappealing aspects of the work.

HE WORK has often been as nasty as Bio-One promised on Discovery Day. At one Charlotte home, a woman hoarded cats along with other things, which left only enough space for her to shuffle down the hall with a walker, in bare feet and stepping on cat feces. The cats used the bathtub as a litter box. Even in a biohazard suit, John had to step outside to stop gagging. On another job, a cleanup of a tractor-trailer’s sleeper berth after the driver had died there, the cab showed no sign of a violent death. John and his crew wondered what had happened. The truck yard owner told them it was a case of autoerotic asphyxiation. They looked again, discovered the rope and porn, and decided this was not something the family needed to know. Discretion is important, and caution, too; Bio-One technicians have grown accustomed to taping shut the sleeve and pantsleg openings of their suits on pest decontamination calls. They don’t want to bring home any unwanted visitors. But the work makes room for compassion, as in Donald and Dora’s house in south Charlotte. When homeowners’ insurance policies cover cleanup, Bio-One works directly with insurers, and the Symonses waive their deductible fee for clients in law enforcement and for child deaths. “Many times, people see us as the enemy at first, but we’re not,” Jen says. “We’re there to help.” Those concessions, she adds, mean “one less thing for people to deal with on one of their worst days.”

“Many times, people see us as the enemy at first, but we’re not. We’re there to help.” —JEN SYMONS

HE SOUTH CHARLOTTE JOB takes all day. By 5 p.m., the two orange dumpsters on the front lawn are full. The job’s not finished— there’s still some clutter to clear—but the task is manageable now, and you can see the floor. “We’re the kind of people who like to get a job done. We’re those people who unpack the first hour when we get home from a trip,” Jen tells me later. “That type of personality works well for this industry. And we love getting homes back in order.” Angel has trouble containing her relief. “They were great and did a phenomenal job,” she says. “I’d love to have them back to do more.” That’s out of the question for now, unfortunately, but a family that had trouble seeing their way out from under the accumulation of years now has a clear path ahead. “The burden,” Angel says, “is lifted.” ALLISON FUTTERMAN is a writer in Charlotte. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

PART Y P I C S

Seen

Photographs by DANIEL COSTON

Upcoming Calendar of Events Submit your event online at charlottemagazine.com/things-to-do, and look forward to seeing more from these: MARCH 3/4 EpiPalooza III at Heist Brewery and Barrel Arts near Camp North End 3/5 43rd Annual Truist Corporate Cup 5K & Half Marathon at Truist Field 3/26 The Inaugural Scholarship Sneaker Ball Fundraiser by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture

TOSCO MUSIC HOLIDAY SHOW

Knight Theater 12/20/2021

1. Karla Davis 2. John Tosco 3. Damien Horne 4. Nyla Martin

3/31 2022 All-In to Fight Cancer Texas Hold’em Fundraiser at The Fillmore Charlotte

OPERA GUILD HOLIDAY PARTY

Private Home 12/10/2021

1. Gwen Reichback, Chaya Chetty, Karen Oldham 2. Luis Machicao, Nicole Melissaris, Carmen Hilton 3. Tatyana Thulien, Ethan Uslan 4. Ethan Uslan 5. Luis Machicao, Leslie Paliyenko 6. Pauline Chinnis, Penny Hewett 7. Christina Melissaris, Pat Farmer

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

THE DOVE’S NEST

Private Home 12/11/2021

1. Dr. Kim Blanding, Natalie Frazier-Allen 2. Michael Verano, Nelia Verano, Sharon Bremer, Emily Oliver, Bill Oliver 3. Nelia Verano greets guests 4. Hilary Burt, Peter Bove 5. Jennifer Jackson, Todd Ashworth

GOOD FRIENDS

Crown Ballroom at NASCAR Hall Of Fame 12/8/2021

COURTESY, BRANDON SCOTT (3)

1. Marinn Bengel 2. Anne McPhail 3. Mayor Vi Lyles

GOOD FELLOWS CLUB

Crown Ballroom at NASCAR Hall Of Fame 12/8/2021

1. Bill Barnhardt, Harriet Barnhardt 2. Stick Williams 3. Peter Pappas

Continued on next page MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

Quail Hollow Club 12/9/2021

1. Elizabeth Phillips, Rhyne Cannon, Marcy McKenney 2. Olivia Fortson, Nikki Wilson, Holly LeTourneau, Ellen Underwood 3. Tricia Jetton, Will Jetton 4. Tina Spencer

CHARLOTTE FOLK SOCIETY HOLIDAY PARTY

Park Road Baptist Church 12/11/2021

1. John Renwick 2. Sue Eldridge, Nancy Wielunski, Karen Singleton 3. David Fee 4. The Bathtub of the South 5. Marilyn Price, Pamela Price Garcia 6. Tracy Fee, Alan Davis

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

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 © 2022 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 303, 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.

CHARITY LEAGUE 100TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON

JAZZARTS HOLIDAY SHOW

Booth Playhouse 12/9/2021

1. Joseph Smith, Rebecka Nelli, Heidi Weatherspoon 2. Peg Povinelli, George Povinelli 3. Rita Miles, Rob McDowell

SOUND BARRIERS

BY PHILLIP WHITE

DANIEL COSTON (3); COURTESY

Sound Barriers By Phillip White ACROSS 1. Icon on an Irish passport 5. Claimant’s cry 9. Breakout game company 14. “Ick!” 15. In Uptown, it comes before the entre? 16. ___-It snack crackers 17. U.S. immigration policy 18. Canadian province that translates to “New Scotland” 20. A little hoarse 22. The state Capitol’s sits above a sculpture of George Washington 23. Goad 24. Swedish auto 26. Invite 27. Radio system used by truckers 31. Key for the far left 32. Swarm 33. Frequent issuer of DMCA takedown notices 36. A popular North Carolina getaway or contents of this puzzle’s circled letters 41. Something thrown up the night before Christmas 42. Bit of sunshine 43. “Gnarly!” 45. The top and bottom of the globe, for instance 50. Fat roll 53. Stark role for Maisie Williams 54. Clipper carrier

55. Kannapolis and beyond 58. “¡___ Caballeros!” (Truist field cheer) 59. Calista Flockhart vehicle 62. One face of a dreidel 64. What one who didn’t “measure twice” might have to do, in a way 65. “Livin’ la Vida ___” 66. Assistant 67. Utopias 68. Armored Cow Brewing logo letters (8821 J.W. Clay Blvd.) 69. Springfield tavern DOWN 1. Texter’s annual felicitation 2. Overexcitable types 3. “I’m not a robot” service 4. First steps 5. Rebuff 6. SEC Concern 7. Roy G. ___ 8. Egyptian beetle 9. Check no. 10. What you used to be? 11. Insurer owned by CVS 12. ___ Fine Foods (2823 Selwyn Ave.) 13. English biographer Walton 19. Noodle option at Ru-San’s (2440 Park Rd.) 21. SMS entreaty 23. Checkers game surface 24. Twerp 25. Governor Cooper’s middle name 28. It’ll never fly

18 20

53 56

32 36

58 60

29. Gun lobby org. 49. Opening line to Green Eggs 30. Ruckus and Ham 34. Birthplace of Stephen Curry 50. “___ ___ Farmers, Bum 35. “Incidentally...” badum bum bum bum bum” 37. 6th sense 51. Connected, as wheels 38. “So I see!” 52. Edible seaweed 39. Haitian Easter festival music 56. Panthers quarterbacks 40. “Adios!” coach Sean 44. Psychiatrists’ reference 57. X5 & i3 e.g. book, in brief 58. ___ the Impaler 46. Nonclerical 60. Lip balm brand 47. Fit for farming 61. One of two in Hamilton (at 48. Transcript info Belk Theater this spring) 63. ‘90s gaming platform ANSWERS can be found online at charlottemagazine.com/crossword. MARCH 2022 // CHARLOTTE

YOU ARE HERE Each month, we throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands. LOCATION: 330 Main St., Pineville

330 M A PINEVIIN ST., LLE

Popping Pineville KIT BURKHOLDER does the bar owner’s juggle on a weekday afternoon at Kit’s Trackside Crafts, in a cozy, brick-walled, historic building in downtown Pineville. He pours Jackie O’s Brewery’s Maple Barrel Dark Apparition for a regular customer as he signs for a delivery from Triple C Brewing Company and advises a patron that Burial Beer Co.’s new IPA is, indeed, tasty. People here and in south Charlotte know Burkholder from how he started in the city’s beer market, serving up brews and recommendations in a far different environment. In 2014, he helped open the first-ever Harris Teeter bar in the store on

CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // MARCH 2022

John J. Delaney Drive in Ballantyne. The then-foreign concept—a supermarket bar?—is now one of the most happening spots to grab a drink in the 28277. A year later, Burkholder earned his cicerone certification (like a sommelier certification, but for beer) and teamed up with his dad, Bill Burkholder, and another business partner, Le Ann Fenton, to open Kit’s in November 2016. Many of his loyal Harris Teeter customers followed him, and he picked up new ones. But as the pandemic bore down, Burkholder, 43, worried his bar was doomed. Then, something remarkable happened—business boomed. He

couldn’t serve patrons at the bar, but he could fill crowlers and boost his supply of bottles and cans. Customers who’d previously come in for a drink at the bar and left with four-packs suddenly showed up to buy cases. Business has stayed strong, Burkholder says, and the construction around him in downtown Pineville is encouraging. The upscale Margaux’s Wine, Pizza & Market opened a few doors down last year. Housing developments continue to spring up within walking distance, and the town is adding a municipal building one block away. “Pineville,” he says, “is popping.” —Cristina Bolling

SHAW NIELSEN; CRISTINA BOLLING

The tale of a cicerone who shifted from pouring beer for Harris Teeter shoppers to moving cases from his own shop

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4521 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211

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Ofﬁcial Jeweler of the Carolina Panthers

Charlotte Magazine March 2022

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