CURTAIN CALL BY RYAN PITKIN

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MUSIC FEATURE their name and address to shoot out an email to their respective representatives.

McCraw says he’s spent hours each day on the phone with venue owners in Charlotte and around the country, and Neighborhood Theatre is not alone in its grave concerns.

“We’re not the only ones in danger of not making it through this.” McCraw says. “Maybe we’re the first to raise the flag, but this is endemic to everyone in this business. We all have rents, we all have utilities, we all have insurance bills — all those things that are coming due every week, every month, every day, whether we open the doors or not. So the ability to pay all of those bills and stay alive to be able to reopen when we can do that safely is what’s in question here.”

McCraw says one of the most frustrating things about this crisis is that there’s no way of telling when the end might come. Neighborhood Theatre hasn’t hosted a show since March 7, and upon review of Gov. Cooper’s three-phase plan to reopen the state, McCraw has determined that they won’t be able to until June 26 at the earliest.

Even then, he says, it won’t be about the government allowing them to do so, but whether they can do it safely, and whether people will even show up.

“No matter what the government says, I don’t talk to anyone in the industry who is not concerned about doing this responsibly,” says McCraw. “Not just opening up the doors and getting back to business, but doing it so that our staff is safe, the musicians are safe and all of our patrons are safe. So that’s first and foremost, and then the reality of all this is, it doesn’t matter what Roy Cooper says, it doesn’t matter what Maxx Music or Neighborhood Theatre says. What matters is: Can we make music fans comfortable enough to come back out to an event? And that’s a wild card; none of us know the answer to that.”

Until then, the team at Neighborhood Theatre will rely on GoFundMe donations and sales of new merchandise, for which they partnered with two of their neighbors — Ink Floyd right down E. 36th Street; and Inkfinity Printing, located on The Plaza.

McCraw says the live music industry is already a low-margin business that he describes as “legalized gambling,” but with no one buying tickets or coming through the door, and no real timeline for when concerts can resume, independent venues now face a future more uncertain than perhaps any other industry.

“Not to disparage restaurants, I know they’re in a horrible position too, but we can’t do take-out music, there’s no drive-thru with us; it’s open or not open,” he says.

For Gregg McCraw, founder of Charlotte-based booking agency Maxx Music, which books shows for the Neighborhood Theatre, the journey of the genrebending Boston-based soul/pop/ jazz fusion band Lake Street Dive in Charlotte is indicative of how musical acts work their way up in a music economy.

In April 2013, the little-known group played at The Evening Muse for two paying customers. Their next stop in Charlotte 18 months later was across the street at Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte’s biggest independently owned music venue at 1,000 seats. They’ve played at the Live Nation venue Fillmore multiple times since then, and McCraw expects that whenever Lake Street Dive is able to perform again in Charlotte, they’ll be at the Uptown Amphitheatre, built for bigger Live Nation acts.

McCraw compares it to baseball’s farm system, in which players often spend many years climbing the ladder through the minor leagues before they make it to the majors. “Most bands spend time in the minors, and some of them make it to the big leagues, but without the minors, the whole system falls apart,” McCraw says.

Now as a result of COVID-19, McCraw is seeing that infrastructure begin to crumble, and it could start with Neighborhood Theatre. On Wednesday, the venue launched a GoFundMe campaign, stating that it’s facing its most difficult period in the venue’s 24- year existence. McCraw and others with the venue are hoping to raise $50,000 through the crowdfunding campaign, while also encouraging supporters to call on their representatives to help protect independent venues. On it’s website, the newly formed National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) provides an easy-to-use format in which they only have to enter NEIGHBORHOOD THEATRE PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN

CURTAIN CALL Neighborhood Theatre launches GoFundMe campaign with bills piling up

BY RYAN PITKIN

Based on what was already on the books, McCraw says he had expected 2020 to be the biggest year ever for live music in Charlotte, certainly in the 25 years that he’s been booking shows. Following the pandemic, however, if venues were to remain closed across the country, they’re expected to lose $8.9 billion in revenue.

Many independent venues in Charlotte wouldn’t make it through the crisis if that were to happen, joining the ranks of other independent venues that the city has lost in recent years such as Double Door Inn, Tremont Music Hall and Chop Shop.

And for those not concerned with the small and mid-sized venues in town, McCraw calls back to his original point about the music economy, and the stepping stones that independent venues provide for up-andcoming acts before they make it big. For example, before they became internationally known, The Avett Brothers out of Concord recorded their a 2005 live album in Neighborhood Theatre. And in 2009 shot the video for “I and You and Love” at the venue (below).

“The people who go to one concert a year at Spectrum Center or The Fillmore or one of the amphitheaters, the message that all of us would like those people to understand is that the band that you’re seeing at The Fillmore or the Spectrum Center or PNC [Pavilion] didn’t just show up one night there, they worked their way through a music economy … and Neighborhood Theatre is big in the music economy,” he says.

He references the recent news that Saudi Arabia invested $500 million into Live Nation.

“I’m not trying to poke fun at Live Nation, believe me, Maxx Music works with Live Nation, but Saudi Arabia is not infusing $500 million into any small music venues across the country,” he says. “We are the ones that are going to suffer.” RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

FOR THE FAMILY Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen adapts with online classes and family-style delivery

BY LIZ LOGAN

Alyssa completing recipes for which she’d heavily prepped, while participants asked questions and interacted in Zoom’s comment section. Andrew, who played the role of producer, stayed in the background toggling between three cameras, providing a recording of the session for participants to re-watch and allowing those who couldn’t watch live to access the contents.

The classes started off strong. People were really drawn to the homemade breads (like the rest of the world’s quarantine Instagrammers). The dumpling, enchilada, gnocchi and cast iron classes were all hits, has had her kitchen opened, she’s picked up various awards for “Best Cooking Class,” and been recognized as one of the city’s most influential women, among other accolades.

The online classes began taking off before the stay-at-home orders caused them to be the only option, a great alternative to the in-person class, which could only seat 24 and often had wait lists.

So why has it all come to a halt?

“People are just over it,” Alyssa said. “They’re Zoomed out.”

In March, Zoom, Google Hangout, Skype, together. Now, it’s really nice when people send photos of what they’ve made and can interact differently,” he continued. “There’s something to be said of cooking with someone for two hours when they’ve had selfdoubt. It’s something you can’t quite get online. We are fulfilled in different ways when people have their videos on and talk about how pleased they were but in-person is hard to replicate.”

We are weeks (months? years?) into the Charlotte shutdown. Parking lots are empty, I-77 has finally become a dream, and the airplanes flying overhead have dwindled down to next to nothing. For Alyssa and Andrew Wilen, the parking lot they share with Brewers at 4001 Yancey is occupied only with cars of the seven employees holding down Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen.

“Closing wasn’t really an option,” Andrew said. “Mid-March, 95% of our business stopped and we had to regroup and just thought, ‘What’s next?’”

“Closing down didn’t feel right,” Alyssa continued. “It was a hard decision to stay open but a lot of people rely on us to keep the cycle of business going. Farmers and vendors rely on us and so does our staff.”

And so they kept at it, and with a new home-delivery program and virtual cooking classes, they’ve been able to power through the stay-at-home order. Though it’s been far from easy.

For a business that is run on in-person cooking classes, the Wilens, like other small-business owners, had to get creative to figure out how to keep their family business afloat, all the while keeping their full-time staff members on the payroll.

In the beginning, there were a lot of virtual cooking classes. Alyssa would set attendees up with a rough idea of what they needed, teaching recipes that were easily substitutable and required primarily ingredients likely already lining folks’ pantries.

“I wanted to make this simple. We just did these kind of ‘one-pan dinners’. People really want to tackle what they enjoy eating so we started there,” Alyssa said. “I created classes with approachable, low-cost meals where people could simply tune in with what they have.”

These demo-style classes ran start-to-finish with too. The hour-long classes began taking place a few times weekly in mid-March but have now slowed, coming to an (at least temporary) halt as June nears.

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In-person classes are a huge hit — in fact, that’s how the business got its start in 2013 before evolving to include Family Table Meals, Saturday brunch and corporate catering. In these “normal” classes, Alyssa guides participants through four dishes made with fresh, local ingredients in a state-of-the-art kitchen on culinary-school-approved butcher block tables over the span of two-and-a-half hours.

During the relatively short time Chef Alyssa FaceTime, and any other video-conferencing tool took over, but that seems to be taking a toll on our collective experience. Google “Zoom Burnout” and you’ll find article after article on why we’re drained by virtual interaction. It’s happening everywhere.

When the staff of seven gets together in their now eerily quiet building, at least one staff member per day longingly says, “I miss our customers”.

“The challenge is that every day we are focusing

“Our goal when we first opened up was to create fun family classes from the moment participants walk in the door. We want to be there for people so the family kindness, unselfish attitude permeates throughout the whole room,” Andrew said.

“I enjoy seeing cooking-class guests and hope to create those feelings and positive memories all on something new, having to create something we haven’t really done before,” Andrew said. “We are working a lot longer and a lot harder to get to the goal we need to get to just because we want to stay open.”

And now the Wilens are once again coming up with new, creative business practices to keep the doors of their custom-designed, 3,300 square foot kitchen space open.

In the fall, Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen launched the Family Table Meals portion of their business that they’d been ramping up for. The Wilen’s whole vision has been centered around creating a family vibe, and CHEF ALYSSA’S KITCHEN — NO, LIKE, HER REAL KITCHEN — ALL SET UP FOR A VIRTUAL CLASS. PHOTO COURTESY OF C.A.K.

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE as a newly minted family-of-three (their 7-month-old daughter cooed cutely in the background during the couple’s interview with Queen City Nerve). The goal is to keep supporting and encouraging people to get around the family table, especially now, with meals delivered to your home.

Alyssa spent more than a year developing the Family Table based on what she would feed her family, she said — items like pan-roasted chicken and Nutella pie. And now she’s rolled it out just in time for the surge in food delivery.

“We had to think of food that would travel well. To-go food doesn’t always hold up well in a box but we just love the idea of family gathering around the table,” she said. “There aren’t minimums to what you can order and in what quantities; it’s just built around people eating together.”

There are meal pack options with wellsourced meats, vegetarian options, lots of side options — something for everyone. In the beginning stages of the business, when Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen occupied shared space at Atherton Mills, Alyssa began making connections with local farmers and merchants, many of whom started with them right there in the market. This helped set them up to consistently o er the freshest and local ingredients they can source.

“It’s all food you’d want to cook if you had the time,” Alyssa said. “For now, the biggest thing we’ve done is add delivery as an option and it looks like we ALYSSA’S PAELLA

got it  gured out right when we needed to have it.”

The couple found a way to use the catering portion of DoorDash to not only expand their reach (deliveries can reach a 17-mile radius of Charlotte to include Huntersville, Gastonia, Mint Hill, Matthews) but to also keep their prices consistent. Customers can order day-of through chefalyssaskitchen.com and they will organize delivery.

“We are trying our hardest to grow this portion of the business, which is challenging because we’re not fully a restaurant and not thought of as a dinner option. We’re still  ghting for that to happen and getting into the mix,” Alyssa said.

So now, with a high-end-classroom-turned-takeout-operation, the tables once covered with cutting boards and prepped class ingredients hold stacks of to-go containers, and a sta cut in half.

Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen, like the rest of the world, is  guring how to make it work in a way none of us planned for.

Charlotte does a great job with supporting local, Alyssa pointed out, and the camaraderie established during this time to show love and money to these businesses is a testament not only to patrons but to the businesses who have earned our trust and respect over the years when it was business as usual.

“At this point, it’s hard to imagine what a reallife scenario might look like,” Alyssa said. “The online classes and Family Table Meals aren’t just special events. We are really grateful for what we’ve been able to do with our customers who continue to support us and hope they’ll continue to think of that as things get back to normal.” INFO@QCNERVE.COM PHOTO COURTESY OF C.A.K.

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