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FROM THE EDITOR
A
h, togetherness. Families with children at home have had plenty of that lately. Others, like my 88-year-old mom — who desperately misses her weekly card games, church events and dinners with friends — have had
CATHY MARTIN EDITOR
editor@southparkmagazine.com
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Also in this issue, we introduce Weddings by SouthPark, a special section we hope will inspire future brides and grooms preparing for their big day. Unfortunately, most couples who had planned to tie the knot in 2020 or early 2021 had to shuffle, downsize or postpone their plans. One of those brides-to-be was contributing editor Taylor Wanbaugh, which made her the perfect person to produce this section. Taylor and her fiancé, Patrick (pictured below) had planned to get married in the Queen City last spring, but the pandemic had other plans. “We had originally planned for a 150-person wedding ceremony in Charlotte for April of 2020,” Taylor says. “Obviously, it was impossible to predict the pandemic and how it would affect large-scale events such as weddings. At the time, we were absolutely devastated.” After rescheduling their wedding for the fall, then realizing that wasn’t going to be possible either, the couple changed plans yet again. “With the help of our family and friends, we scrapped our original plans out of an abundance of caution and opted for a small, intimate wedding in Blowing Rock — actually, at the very spot that Patrick had proposed nearly two years earlier. To be honest, I would not have changed a thing. The whole day exceeded my wildest expectations and allowed us to spend more time with our closest loved ones, and our friends and family were able to safely ‘virtually’ attend and celebrate our wedding, thanks to Zoom. Plus, you can’t beat the gorgeous natural backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.” Turn to page 92 to see how other engaged Charlotte couples navigated 2020 and discovered that small, intimate gatherings can be every bit as meaningful as big, blowout affairs. SP
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TIM SAYER AND VESIC PHOTOGRAPHY
too little. Among the former group, it’s been interesting to see those who have found ways to truly embrace the time together. Douglas and Kait Rose are a great example. Last spring, once the pandemic set in, the 30-something couple took an introspective look at their priorities. They’d always talked about working together, and by launching a home-based bread business they made their “someday” dream a reality, while also creating something their four young children can take part in (Page 60). Lisa and Jason Leake have embraced togetherness on visits to their custom (and quite stylish) tiny home in the North Carolina mountains (Page 80). The New York Times bestselling author of 100 Days of Real Food and her husband bought the land, where they eventually plan to build their “forever” home, a few years ago. Despite the close quarters of the 300-square-foot getaway, the couple has been surprised at how much they’ve enjoyed spending time with their two teen daughters. “The four of us will curl up on the couch and watch a movie together. That’s something I hadn’t expected with building this,” Lisa says.
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February
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DEPARTMENTS 21 | Blvd. Groovy glass; Meredith Dolhare breaks the mold for personal style; the Bechtler navigates its second decade; Communities In Schools CEO Men Tchaas Ari; Volo’s Mediterranean flavor; N.C. Creators: Belle Boggs explores a sense of place
49 | Simple life Let there be light
53 | Omnivorous reader
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Savoring the short fiction of Allan Gurganus
57 | Bookshelf This month's notable new releases
125 | Swirl Parties, fundraisers and events in the Queen City
128 | Snapshot Magnolia Coffee’s Jay Gestwicki talks coffee and community
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ABOUT THE COVER Plain and vanilla-glazed doughnuts and the Arthur Lou tart by Jasmine Macon, pastry chef at Leah & Louise. Once a month, Macon sells to-go “goodie boxes” via Instagram. Photograph by Justin Driscoll.
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additions renovations signature homes
Charlotte and Boone
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making it home since 1950
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FEATURES 60 | All rise by Michael J. Solender| photographs by Peter Taylor A Charlotte couple bakes core values into naturally leavened, artisan loaves. 68 | Sweet sensations by Michelle Boudin| photographs by Justin Driscoll
Queen City bakeshops offer delicious ways to satisfy your sweet tooth.
76 | | Everything in its place by Cathy Martin | photographs by Tiffany Ringwald Delphinium Design updates a Ballantyne home with a clean and classic look. 80 | Tiny house, big view by Blake Miller
A Charlotte family builds a small getaway that’s big on style.
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84 | Transformation in the Sea Islands by Nicole M. Sikora St. Helena Island’s historical past resonates today.
88 | Soulful sojourn by Cathy Martin Vintage vibes with a modern spirit at Charleston’s Hotel Emeline
92 | Weddings by Taylor Wanbaugh
Queen City couples give an inside look at their “I do” destinations; plus timeline tips and photo shoot inspiration
AWAKE EYE LIFT
6817 Fairview Rd. Charlotte, NC 28210 (704) 325-8062 CarolinaFacialPlastics.com
1230 West Morehead St., Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208 704-523-6987 southparkmagazine.com _______________ Ben Kinney Publisher publisher@southparkmagazine.com Cathy Martin Editor editor@southparkmagazine.com Andie Rose Art Director Lauren M. Coffey Graphic Designer Alyssa Rocherolle Graphic Designer Whitley Adkins Style Editor Sharon Smith Marketing Specialist
A TrAdiTion of Knowledge And TrusT
Contributing Editors David Mildenberg, Taylor Wanbaugh Contributing Writers Michelle Boudin, Wiley Cash, Jim Dodson, Page Leggett, D.G. Martin, Blake Miller, Nicole M. Sikora, Michael J. Solender
GAY DILLASHAW 704-564-9393 6700 Fairview Road, Charlotte, NC 28210
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The best of barre returns to Southpark.
Contributing Photographers Mallory Cash, Daniel Coston, Justin Driscoll, Kelsie Droppa, Amy Kolo, Tiffany Ringwald, Nicole M. Sikora, Peter Taylor Amanda Lea Proofreader _______________ ADVERTISING Jane Rodewald Account Executive 704-621-9198 jane@southparkmagazine.com Scott Leonard Audience Development Specialist/ Account Executive 704-996-6426 scott@southparkmagazine.com Brad Beard Graphic Designer
Letters to the editorial staff: editor@southparkmagazine.com
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Owners Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels Jr., Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff Published by Old North State Magazines LLC. ŠCopyright 2021. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Volume 25, Issue 2
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Your Best Life,
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People. Places. Things.
GROOVY GLASS
Jacob Pfeifer opened Hot Glass Alley in 2018 to share his passion for glassblowing through make-your-own workshops, demonstrations and a gallery filled with vases, candleholders, jewelry and other unique items, including works by national glass artists. Pfeifer and his fellow gaffers use a “ribbon” technique in making each of these hand-blown, multicolored tie-dyed hearts, along with a “gemstone” series available in more than a dozen colors, from cerulean blue to jade green to rose pink. The hearts — no two are exactly alike — are approximately 4-5 inches wide, weigh close to 2 pounds, and cost $70 each. 438 Atando Avenue, hotglassalley.com SP
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blvd. | style
CLOSET CRUSH:
Meredith Dolhare BY WHITLEY ADKINS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY KOLO
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harlotte philanthropist and style maven Meredith Dolhare founded the nonprofit RunningWorks in 2012 to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty with their physical, emotional and social needs. As an ultra-endurance athlete and high school cross-country coach at Charlotte Country Day School, the mother of two is also well-known among Charlotte’s running community. So, what’s all that got to do with fashion? Not a whole lot. But personal style? In Dolhare’s case, everything. In sports and in life, Dolhare breaks the mold with her one-of-a-kind style. Comments have been lightly edited. How do you describe your personal style? I do not follow any trends. I couldn’t care less what anyone else has on, and I do not care if anyone likes what I have on — I like what I like. I do like to mix patterns. I like to keep things for a long time, because I feel whatever you have always comes back. Where do you like to shop? Capitol has a great selection of clothes. [Personal shopper ] Roy [Planty] at Neiman Marcus finds things for me. I use The Outnet and Net-A-Porter quite a bit for online shopping, and sometimes I use Farfetch. Whose style do you admire? Robin Wright’s style on House of Cards is very classic. Also, Kerry Washington on Scandal. I always like what she has on — period, on a show or otherwise. I like your style because you don’t give a sh*t what anybody thinks. You wear whatever you like — I appreciate that. 22
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blvd. | style What is your best style tip? Buy things that are timeless, even if you think it is a splurge. If you think you are going to wear it a lot, it is worth it. If you buy good designers and invest in your wardrobe, you don’t have to worry about your clothes going out of style. If I splurge on something and I end up wearing it a ton of times, then it is worth it. If I splurge on something and I never wear it, I feel like an idiot. Do you have a uniform? I tend to wear a nice pair of skinny jeans, long boots or booties, and a sweater and long jacket. I have a Missoni sweater jacket I have worn like crazy for the last 10 years. I have a Chanel long jacket that I throw on with everything — that was a birthday present to myself when I turned 40. These are two of my favorite things, along with a Rick Owens cognac leather jacket that can go over any sweater. For my sporty everyday attire, I have about six pairs of Lululemon black joggers, three or four black sweatshirts, about five T-shirts, and a RunningWorks or Charlotte Country Day baseball cap. Do you have a closet-organization trick? There was no rhyme or reason to my closet, and then I let in Effie Loukas of Neat Freaks, who is one of my best friends. She weeded out all of the things that I did not need. Now I can just shop in my closet.
Know of someone with a swoonworthy closet we should feature here? Email whitley@whitleyadkins.com.
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DON’T JUST LIVE HERE ...
LOVE IT HERE.
© 2021 The Barclay at SouthPark
N OW O P E N
Residents of The Barclay love the living choices, abundant resort-like amenities and nearly endless social engagements available to them. Here, residents and their families will love the emphasis on nutritious dining options, whole-person wellness and the peace of mind that comes from having continuing care in place should they need it. Call 980.224.8540 to schedule a private visit and don’t just live here...LOVE IT HERE. 4801 Barclay Downs Drive, Charlotte, NC 28210 BarclayAtSouthPark.com A Life Plan Community (CCRC) offered by Liberty Senior Living
blvd. | style
THIS OR THAT Best splurge: my Hermes boots Go-to designers: Oscar de la Renta and Chanel, because they are timeless and wellmade. I love Alex Perry, Rick Owens, Safiyaa and Erdem. Jewelry: I like Balmain quite a bit — their stuff is random and flamboyant — and Gucci. Ben Simon at Windsor Jewelers helps me with my jewelry. Best thrift: Coclico boots — the best boots I have ever bought in my life. I have worn them 5,000 times. Favorite handbags: My Celine bags — I can put files and a bottle of water in them and take them to work. Also Prada. Pants or skirt? Pants Heels or boots? Boots Boots or sneakers? Depends on my mood. I’m a big hi-top girl. Clutch or handbag? At night, I always use a clutch. During the day, I always have a handbag that looks like luggage. Patterns or solids? Depends on my mood. I’m often patterned and solid, and sometimes I’ll mix it all together with stripes and cheetah and everything. But sometimes, I’m all black. Most interesting pieces? My Chanel coat and my Luis Machicao dress that was on the runway in Paris. It is really bad-ass — it’s low cut and has these crazy feather sleeves with a mermaid shape. SP
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blvd. | the arts
New view OF MODERN ART NAVIGATES INTO ITS SECOND DECADE AS CHARLOTTE’S TOUCHSTONE OF EUROPEAN MODERNISM. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER
Todd DeShields Smith and Anastasia James
I
n 2010 when Charlotte’s then-mayor Anthony Foxx welcomed the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art to the city, fans of European modernism were both delighted and intrigued. New and shiny are particularly valued in Crown Town, and the Bechtler’s opening represented both. The Mario Botta-designed, terra cotta-skinned jewel box itself was a stunning work of art, and the museum helped anchor Levine Center for the Arts, South Tryon Street’s cultural hub that also includes Mint Museum Uptown, the Gantt Center and Knight Theater. Legions of tourists (and locals) flocked to its front door for mandatory selfies with Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Le Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’Arche,” aka the Firebird. The museum displays works collected over 70 years by Hans and Bessie Bechtler of Zurich, Switzerland. Their son, Andreas Bechtler, inherited and then donated the works to establish the museum, adding pieces from his own collection. Germaine Richier, The Grasshopper
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As the Bechtler enters its second decade, a freshly installed leadership team looks to reintroduce the collection to a new legion of admirers and deepen the enthusiasm of its most ardent supporters. In the months ahead, audiences can expect immersive installations, a showcase of undercelebrated holdings, and thought-provoking vehicles to contrast modernist art of the recent past with social and political movements inspiring today’s creatives. “The Bechtler speaks to a part of history missing in Charlotte,” says Todd DeShields Smith, the museum’s executive director. Smith joined the Bechtler in late fall 2020. He arrived from southern California, where he was director and CEO of the Orange County Museum of Art. “European modernism starts to get at the core 20th-century identity of the art world, and to have our collection fill that gap is significant. Part of our strategic plan moving forward is looking to make connections between our collection, the creative process and what surrounds us today.” The collection lends relevance to the current situation with the pandemic, Smith notes. “At our present moment,” Smith says, “it’s not that unlike what happened at the beginning of WWI. The situation that unfolded was collectively experienced across the globe. This inspired artists in their creative process — how they looked at the world, inequities, horrors and how and what they created. If we understand the origins of modernism, we may better understand the visual arts perspective of today.” In reintroducing the works to Charlotte audiences, the curators plan to feature intimate explorations of the Bechtler family as collectors and evidence of their relationships with some of the 20th century’s most accomplished artists. “It’s rare for a museum collection to have such personal records illustrating deep personal relationships
PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB LEVERONE
THE BECHTLER MUSEUM
blvd. | the arts and connections with artists such as [Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto] Giacometti, [Spanish painter and sculptor Joan] Miró and other giants of modernism,” says Bechtler curator Anastasia James, referencing letters, cards, personalized drawings and sketches within the collection. “These help to shed more light on not just the artwork but also the personal nature of the collection.” James, who joined the Bechtler in December 2019, cited a letter French sculptor Germaine Richier sent to Hans and Bessie Bechtler, where she spoke of her work, “La Sauterelle” (The Grasshopper, a sculpture on display at the museum), and how it would look beautiful in the Bechtler’s yard. “I view these artifacts as significant as the art itself,” says James, who once worked in the archives at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum and was curator for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles before coming to Charlotte. “They lend a richness to what we have and take it to a new level.” Richier is one the artists whose work will be featured in the forthcoming exhibit, 20th Century Women (Feb. 13 – Sept. 26). Showcasing more than 100 pieces by 24 artists, the show looks to women who’ve made significant contributions to 20th-century modernism and its legacies. “We want to humanize the modern art in our collection and talk about the people who made the work — who they were, when then lived, why they made the work they did,” James says. “The work represented in this show has not been fully investigated — there are incredibly interesting stories to tell.” Works on display will include those by British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, Portuguese abstract painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, German-Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim, op-art painter Bridget Riley, Yanceyville painter Maud Gatewood and UNC Charlotte assistant professor of painting Maja Godlewska. “The Bechtlers were a Swiss family living in Europe when collecting these works,” James says. “We want to trace out legacies of modernism to the present day, show how it relates, so contemporary audiences can draw parallels and discover relevancies. Art is universal. It connects people.” SP Barbara Hepworth, Garden Sculpture
20th Century Women will be on view at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art from Feb. 13 – Sept. 26.
Bridget Riley, Wave
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blvd. | givers
Community builder WHEN STUDENTS HEAD BACK TO THE CLASSROOM, MEN TCHAAS ARI, CEO OF COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG, WILL WORK TO ENSURE THE NEEDIEST GET EXTRA ATTENTION TO SUCCEED.
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PHOTGRAPH BY KELSIE DROPPA
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rowing up in a small Connecticut town, Men Tchaas Ari was the kind of kid who got up two hours early so he could be among the first to enter his school. Hopefully, many students will have the same attitude once the pandemic breaks and Charlotte’s school hallways are again bustling with activity. But Ari, the new president and CEO of Communities In Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, knows there’s no way to sugarcoat that many students will need special attention after months of falling behind academically. That’s when Communities In Schools will step up and help students in 53 CharlotteMecklenburg Schools sites rebuild after an unprecedented crisis, says Ari, who joined the nonprofit in October. “We are seeing a trend where student engagement has dropped, so we are tweaking our entire strategy to make sure that this situation does not exaggerate the academic achievement gap.” Adults can relate to the challenges of K-12 online learning. “I find five or six Zoom meetings a day to be fatiguing,” says Ari, 50. “It can be horrible. Kids are feeling the same way.” CIS, which operates in 25 states and the District of Columbia, matches community mentors with students who need extra attention. The “secret sauce,” according to Ari, are the group’s in-school coordinators who work closely with teachers and administrators to match students with volunteers motivated to help them as lunch buddies, mentors, academic coaches and other roles. “CIS is intended to help Jimmy who is in the back of the class and isn’t as engaged as he needs to be.” More than 6,300 students were directly involved in the local program in the 2018-19 school year. In normal times, CIS programs open new horizons for students with field
BY DAVID MILDENBERG
blvd. | givers trips and other events. “Mentors help the students get all types of experiences and support to build on their education. I feel that is the solution to the social-mobility problem,” Ari says. During this school year, CIS staffers and volunteers have worked with teachers to help keep students involved. Projects have included finding desks for students in homes without adequate furniture and helping set up computers to facilitate virtual learning. “Every staff member has been focused on student engagement and getting kids to log on.” In Ari, the CIS board selected a veteran Charlottean with a devotion to helping low-income students overcome economic problems through education, says Natalie Alston, a Charlotte interior designer and board chair. He will oversee an annual budget of more than $7.5 million. “We felt very lucky to find him, and we felt his passions lined up with our mission,” she says. “We’re super excited with what he has in store for us.” Ari grew up in Bloomfield, Conn., then moved south to earn a bachelor’s degree in Spanish at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, a premier historically Black institution. He came to Charlotte in 1996 and has spent most of his career working for the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services. His government work was intersected by nine years at Crisis Assistance Ministry, where his last post was as chief program officer. Ari,
who has two adult children, returned to the county in 2014 and most recently led 700 people as the deputy director of adult and economic services. He’s also dived into community affairs, graduating from Leadership Charlotte in 2013 and serving as its current board chair. The group allows people from diverse industries to get to know each other, all committed to improving the city, he says. Since 2017, he’s been a board member of CIS, but there was no insider dealing in his hiring, says Alston, who co-chaired the search. “We had a very robust process, and we talked to some real rock stars. Men Tchaas (pronounced Men-Ch-Eye-Us) was chosen from an amazing pool of candidates.” His predecessor, Molly Shaw, led the organization for nine years. Ari entered “at a very challenging time that we never could have predicted” but quickly has formed strong relationships with the staff of 120, she says. “He’s already been thinking big and [about] how to address the current challenges for kids who frankly have had real pauses in their education.” The work of CIS has never been more essential, says Ari, who eventually hopes to raise money to expand CIS into another 30 CMS schools filled with mostly low-income students. “I think that every child in the community should have the education that they need to succeed.” SP Learn more about Communities In Schools at cischarlotte.org.
Human stories built of metal and stone On view February 24–July 25, 2021 Boundaries, both real and imagined, surround us. The Mint Museum presents a striking exhibition that explores artistic, social, political, and historical barriers central to human history. 132 photographs. 67 makers. 5 continents.
Photography Exhibition made possible by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, California. W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine at The Mint Museum is generously presented by PNC Financial Services, with support from the Mint Museum Auxiliary, Laura and Mike Grace, Leigh-Ann and Martin Sprock, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes. IMAGE: Ami Vitale. Ripple Effect (detail), 2009. Photographer @amivitale
mintmuseum.org
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Mediterranean flavor FIRST LOOK: VOLO RISTORANTE
housands of commuters drive down Providence Road daily, passing the small, well-kept shopping center adjacent to the Harris Teeter in Myers Park. If they slow down a bit, they might notice Volo Ristorante, the 60-seat restaurant that opened in late 2019 — just a few months before the pandemic forced restaurants to close, then reopen at reduced capacity. Volo’s debut might have gotten lost in the shuffle of the 2020 news cycle, but Myers Park residents took notice, and the restaurant quickly became a neighborhood favorite for a quiet night out away from the crowds. Amid a slew of Italian restaurants that recently opened in the city, Volo sets itself apart with a Sardinia-influenced menu — updated every couple of months — that’s heavy on fresh seafood and grilled specialties. The interior — reimagined after the previous occupant Lumiere closed in 2018 — is sleek and modern with black leather booths, a small bar and a glass-enclosed kitchen so diners can watch the chefs in action. Starters include mussels, served in a lightly seasoned broth of white wine and garlic; grilled octopus with fingerling potatoes; and bruschetta. The burrata prosciutto board, accompanied by grilled bread, olives and herb-infused oil, is ideal for sharing. 34
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You will find housemade pastas at Volo, but not the heavy, stickto-your-ribs variety prevalent at Italian-American establishments. The Nero — black squid-ink scialatielli (thick ribbon noodles) with shrimp and confit tomatoes — is simple, fresh and flavorful. For those avoiding carbs, the Painted Hills filet mignon comes with a hearty portion of perfectly grilled vegetables and a zesty salsa verde. For a healthy option with a unique presentation, order the branzino: A whole Mediterranean sea bass seasoned with lemon, garlic and white wine is fileted tableside and served with fresh vegetables. Like the pasta, bread at Volo is made in house, delicate little pockets served with tomato-infused olive oil. The cocktail menu includes Italian favorites like an Aperol spritz and the Volo negroni, and more creative choices like the refreshing and slightly spicy Engine 6 C.F.D. — Casamigos Blanco tequila, lime juice, triple sec and passion fruit — and the smoked old fashioned made with bacon-infused, barrel-aged George Dickel rye. Black-clad servers are friendly, attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. Owner Domenico Marsocci and his business partner Matthew Porillo wanted to create a place for Charlotteans to experience authentic Italian food. Marsocci’s father is from Italy,
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF VOLO RISTORANTE
T
BY CATHY MARTIN
Warm Up To Spring! along with several staff members. “When I would visit family in Italy, I thoroughly enjoyed the real authentic Italian food, the traditional way they lived, and how everyone can feel truly like family,” Marsocci says. “I looked for it in Charlotte and there were not many, if any, authentic Italian restaurants. We like to pride ourselves on that authenticity from the country with the best food in the world.” For a relaxing, elegant meal in a comfortable setting that’s a little off the beaten path, commuters on this busy stretch of road might give Volo more than just a passing glance. SP Volo Ristorante is open for dinner only Tuesday-Saturday, and takeout is available. Since Covid, the restaurant has expanded its outdoor seating, with heaters to keep diners comfortable. 1039 Providence Road, voloclt.com
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blvd. | authors
A thriller with Hart A DAVIDSON ALUM’S LATEST NOVEL, SET IN CHARLOTTE, FINDS WELL-DRAWN, SOMETIMES WELL-MEANING, CHARACTERS IN DEEP TROUBLE. BY PAGE LEGGETT
J
ohn Hart, the New York Times bestselling author of fastpaced, edge-of-your-seat thrillers, probably hated 2020’s glacial pacing. Hart’s latest novel, The Unwilling, was supposed to come out almost a year ago, with a reading and book signing scheduled at Queens University of Charlotte. The pandemic derailed those plans. The thriller will, at last, be available Feb. 2, and the author, a Salisbury native and Davidson College grad, can finally go on a publicity tour — albeit a virtual one. Hart’s novel is set in a 1972 version of Charlotte. “I made the city bigger, dirtier, scarier,” he says. “I created a nonexistent prison. North Carolina never used the electric chair, but I wanted one.” Told from several points of view, The Unwilling begins with Jason French’s return from three years in prison following a dishonorable discharge from the Marines during the Vietnam conflict. Jason’s a heroin addict prone to violence, and his folks aren’t thrilled about his homecoming. His younger brother, Gibby, 18 and possibly headed to Vietnam himself, wants to reestablish a relationship with Jason. They begin that journey at the lake on a carefree day that takes a scary turn when their group encounters a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Jason’s girlfriend taunts the prisoners, which leads to a riot on the bus. The girlfriend, who drunkenly stumbles her way into trouble, later turns up murdered. Jason is accused, but he isn’t the novel’s villain. That role belongs to a mysterious man known only as X. That intricate, fictional plot began with two seeds from real life. “First was the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and a brave soldier who stood down a murderous soldier intent on destroying a village,” Hart says. “He faced vilification. It was 30 years before he was recognized as a hero.” The second seed came from a moment that
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happened 30 years ago. Hart and his then-girlfriend were headed to Wrightsville Beach and ended up on a deserted road with a prison transfer bus. What if the girl in the convertible, he wondered years later, lifted her shirt? “Then, I wrapped those [ideas] up in a family story that takes place in a community split by war.” From lawyer to crime writer Hart came to the writing life the same way fellow bestselling authors Scott Turow and John Grisham did — by first being a lawyer. “I was a pretty unhappy law student and then a pretty unhappy lawyer,” he says. He had two unpublished books, a wife and a young child and realized he needed time and space to focus on writing. “With my wife’s blessing, I quit my law practice,” he says. “I wanted to try to write a book I would enjoy and that Katie, my wife, would respect. She loves character-driven books. I like propulsion and a breakneck pace.” His first two books were, he says, “unpublishable – all plot and no character.” On his third try, he did it differently: He wrote in the third
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blvd. | authors person. “I decided I’d build a plot to illuminate my characters,” Hart says. “That’s what Pat [Conroy] did so well.” Hart took up a carrel at the Salisbury library with a view of the courthouse and wrote the 2006 novel The King of Lies over the course of a year. Publishing success allowed him to leave lawyering for good. He left Salisbury, too. He’s now friends with Grisham, his neighbor in Virginia’s Hunt Country, and the two compare notes on the writing life. “I prefer character first, plot second,” Hart says. “John likes plot first, character second. We trash talk each other over that.”
know until page 150.’” The story may not be outlined, but Hart knows his characters before he creates them. He knows where he wants them at the end of the book. “They might be broken, healed, in prison or dead,” he says. “I know that much. I just have to figure out the plot points that get them there.” Even with Redemption Road, his 2016 novel, he was still tinkering with the process. “I spent 300 pages and a year of my life on Redemption Road and didn’t even know whose story I was telling,” he says. “I realized it was a minor character — a young, female detective who was troubled and dark but would walk through fire for the people she loves — who ought to be my main character. It should’ve been her story all along.” The lesson? Start with people. Hart’s thrillers do — and that’s a rarity in the genre. With The Unwilling, Hart proves again that it’s possible to write a crime thriller populated by characters readers care about. SP
“I prefer character first, plot second,” author John Hart says. “John [Grisham] likes plot first, character second. We trash talk each other over that.”
People first Hart maintains military-style discipline about his writing routine. When he’s working on a novel, he gets up before daylight and writes for two to four hours, with a goal of 1,000 words a day. Some days he’s up at 5 a.m. and finished by 7 a.m. After lunch, he edits those pages. A good day might include writing five pages in the morning and getting them to two-and-a-half good (or better) pages in the afternoon. “I don’t outline,” he says. “I’m part of the ‘School of Grope and Hope.’ I make the story up as I go. Readers will come up to me and say, ‘I knew who did it on page 50.’ And I say, ‘Really? I didn’t
Murder, he wrote: Follow @johnhartauthor on Instagram for information on his virtual book tour, including North Carolina dates on Feb. 1-3 and one in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 8.
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Iconic luxury SouthPark Mall has added a new name to its growing list of exclusive retailers: Gucci, the renowned Italian fashion house, recently opened a 5,000-square-foot boutique in the space previously occupied by St. John, which moved to a new location in the mall. Until now, the nearest Gucci store was three hours away in Charleston, S.C. The luxury boutique will sell men’s and women’s shoes, handbags, luggage, watches, jewelry and eyewear in an elegant yet relaxed space designed to create a sense of “understated drama.” Marble polychrome inlays in the herringbone wood floor create a striking 3-D effect, while vintage Oriental rugs and soft velvet upholstery add texture and warmth. The store is located in Circle Court, across from Tiffany & Co. and diagonal from Louis Vuitton. SouthPark Mall is located at 4400 Sharon Road. gucci.com
Steakhouse style Steak 48 opened with a bang in Apex SouthPark, the new mixed-use development on Sharon Road, with a five-day preview event that raised $46,000 for five local charities. The upscale steakhouse joins Steak 48 locations in Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia, and the owners spared no expense in the new venture, investing more than $9 million in the buildout. The 400-seat restaurant is a showstopper, with an upbeat, contemporary vibe and several distinct dining areas. For a unique experience, reserve one of the booths in the back with floor-to-ceiling views of the immaculate glass-enclosed kitchen. In addition to prime steaks, fresh seafood, including a raw bar, is flown in daily. Service is paramount: Quiet but attentive staff members anticipate your every need, creating a dining experience that will make you feel like royalty. For starters, don’t miss the chicken-fried lobster tails or crispy shrimp tossed in a sweet Thai chili sauce with garlic aioli. Custom-cut steaks are cooked in an 1,800-degree broiler, delivered to your table on a scorching hot plate with a gentle word of caution. Maryland-style lump crab cakes are available as an entrée or, if you’re feeling particularly indulgent, “Oscar” style on top of your steak, with asparagus and bearnaise sauce. Cocktails include well-crafted versions of the classics, and extensive whiskey, scotch and tequila lists are available. Oenophiles will appreciate the wine selection, housed in Steak 48’s 6,000-bottle vault. SP Steak 48 is open for dinner daily. 4525 Sharon Road. steak48.com 40
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blvd. | the creators of n.c.
A walk in the woods
IN WRITING AND IN LIFE, BELLE BOGGS EXPLORES A SENSE OF PLACE AND BELONGING. BY WILEY CASH | PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALLORY CASH
A
s they do most days, especially since the coronavirus pandemic began, writer Belle Boggs and her 7-year-old daughter, Bea, are walking through the woods near their home in Pittsboro to the banks of the Eno River. Boggs, whose most recent novel, The Gulf (2019), tells the humorous yet complicated story of a struggling writer and teacher, is a teacher herself. Her inclination to educate is evident as she pauses now and then to point out varieties of mushrooms, species of birds and the best places to ford the various creeks that crisscross the landscape on the way to the river. While Boggs is clearly not in the classroom at North Carolina State University, where she has taught Creative Writing since 2014, the classroom never seems very far from her mind. The names and stories of her students — both past and present — find their way into conversation easily, as does her interest in the broader implications of education in rural North Carolina, especially Alamance County, where she is at work on a book-length study of the public schools there. Boggs and her husband, Richard, settled in North Carolina after a stint in New York City, where Boggs taught first grade in Brooklyn while simultaneously earning an education degree from
Pace University. Before that, she lived in California, where she earned an M.F.A. from UC Irvine. She knew she wanted to come back to the South, and she and her husband chose North Carolina because they had friends here from his years as an undergraduate in Chapel Hill. But there was something else that brought her back: the sense of place and the benefits and challenges that come along with it. “I’m interested in the challenge of being an artist when you’re from the South,” she says. But while Belle Boggs has lived in North Carolina since 2005, one of the greatest challenges she faced was that of focusing her literary eye on her adopted state. “It took a long time for me to identify as a North Carolinian because I’d always identified as someone from a very particular place in Virginia,” she says. Her first book, the story collection Mattaponi Queen (2010), is set on the Mattaponi River in the tidewater region of Boggs’ youth and reflects her deep appreciation for place, which must have rung true to native Virginians as the book won the Library of Virginia Literary Award. It was also a finalist for the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, proving that the most powerful regional writing often resonates far outside the region of its birth. Although Tidewater Virginia certainly informed Boggs’ earlier southparkmagazine.com | 43
blvd. | the creators of n.c.
writing, rural Chatham County is clearly full of marvels for her, and she talks about them with an infectious sense of wonder. Across the river, she points to the spot where eagles are nesting in an impossibly tall tree; in the summer, she says that the waters of the Eno are often low enough that one can sit in a beach chair midstream and read a book; and she follows a path to an oak tree with a hole in its trunk that is large enough for young Bea to climb inside of and nearly disappear. But, for Belle Boggs, life outside of the woods is approached with these same investigatory powers. Along with the environment, other themes that have long held her interest — specifically race, class, education and motherhood — are rendered with the same precise detail that she uses to describe the world that she chronicles on these daily walks. These issues, instead of competing, have found a way of intertwining in Boggs’ recent work, especially once she became a mother. Her 2016 essay collection, The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Motherhood, and Medicine, chronicles her use of in vitro fertilization after years of confronting the possibility of being childless. And while IVF led to the birth to her daughter, Bea, followed a few years later with the surprise birth of her daughter, Harriet, the process was not without its financial burdens. “As I was waiting for the medication for my IVF cycle, which is like $3,000, our well failed,” she says, “and we had to drill a new one. Both of those things were big stretches for us to pay for, and there was so much uncertainty behind them both. They became a natural metaphor for one another.” This radical honesty, both the struggle to conceive a life and the struggle to keep her own afloat, is the kind of honesty that readers appreciate in Boggs’ writing, something which she finds surprising. “I think in general I’m a pretty reserved writer,” she says, “and I try to let the facts and the details speak for what I’m describing.” Never were the facts and details more important to undergirding the radical honesty of an experience than when Boggs recently 44
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published an essay about her and Bea and a group of people being pepper-sprayed during a peaceful march to the polls in Graham, on the last day of early voting. Boggs had taken her daughter to the march to give her an education in democracy, but what she got instead was a lesson in power: who has it, who does not and how it is used. These same issues of power are what led her to undertake her current project on public education in Alamance County, especially as it pertains to race, class and the issues of regional segregation. It is clear that Boggs’ time some years ago in the first-grade classroom fuels both her current work and her deep emotional connection to primary education. “I’m lucky to be teaching in a program like the one at N.C. State,” she says. “But sometimes I feel guilty that I’m not still a first-grade teacher, because I think that may be some of the most good you can do in the world.” While Boggs teaches undergraduates and graduate students, she has found a way to keep one foot in primary education. Over the course of the pandemic, she and Bea created a Zoom-based writing club for children in kindergarten through second grade, and, perhaps following Boggs’ lead, several of her graduate students have begun working on writing projects with school-age children. The day is ending. The woods are growing dark. Boggs and her daughter walk back uphill away from the river toward home, where 3-year-old Harriet and Boggs’ husband are waiting. Bea walks ahead of her mother on a trail toward the house, but Boggs stops, calls her daughter back. Boggs has spotted a mushroom, and while she cannot remember the name of it, she believes her daughter may know. The two of them kneel on the forest floor to get a better look. The light is fading, but there is still enough light to see, and there is still so much to learn. SP Wiley Cash is the writer-in-residence at UNC Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, will be released this year.
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blvd. | calendar
February H A P P E N I NG S
Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & the Machine at Discovery Place Science Explore the technology that’s quickly becoming part of our daily world through dozens of in-depth displays that look at how AI works, and the potential impact it will have on the future. The details: Through Aug. 22; science.discoveryplace.org
Cupid’s Cup “Walk Where You Are” 5K & 1-mile Walk This virtual event invites you to run or walk your favorite route to support Atrium Health’s cardiac rehabilitation programs. The details: Feb. 7-14; $35; raceroster.com/events/2021/37123/ cupids-cup-5k
20th Century Women at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art This event examines the groundbreaking achievements of diverse artists represented in collections of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Bechtler family. The exhibition features 100 works by 24 artists in various mediums. The details: Feb. 13-Sept. 26; bechtler.org
Inside Siloam School virtual tour by Charlotte Museum of History
Through Kaleidoscope Eyes at SOCO Gallery
Halsey Hathaway, Ceremony
W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine at Mint Museum Uptown
View nine large-scale paintings by New York-based artist Halsey Hathaway in this new exhibition. Hathaway’s abstract works, created through repeated and overlapping forms of interlocking color, are a nod to midcentury art and design. The details: Through March 5; socogallery.com
Take a deeper look at the historic use and artistic treatment of walls over the centuries — whether they are made of stone, steel, sand or wire. The exhibition brings together 67 makers from around the world and features 132 images. The details: Feb. 24-July 25; mintmuseum.org
Off the Plantation: Part 2 at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art
Ride and Seek MTB Adventure Race at U.S. National Whitewater Center
The second installment of this show is led and curated by six visionary Charlotte-based artists who buck the system and challenge art world norms. The details: Feb. 18-20; eldergalleryclt.com
Charlotte Symphony: Mozart Night Music In this live-streamed event, Resident Conductor Christopher James Lees leads a program that features Mozart's “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” juxtaposed with contemporary composer Leonardo Balada's “A Little Night Music in Harlem.” The details: Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m.; virtual tickets are $20 per household; charlottesymphony.org 46
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Dart through the trail system in teams of two on a mission to collect the most points. Expect competitive challenges, light-hearted games and serious mileage. The details: Feb. 27; registration costs vary by signup date; usnwc.org
— compiled by Amanda Lea NOTE: Given the unusual circumstances facing venues and event organizers during the pandemic, please check in advance to confirm details and hours of operation.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LANCE BREWER, COURTESY OF SOCO GALLERY
This weeklong virtual event highlights one of Charlotte’s last remaining Rosenwald-era schools. Explore the inside of the 1920s-era school, plus learn about the restoration process and the importance of preserving the school for the future. The details: Feb. 18-28; tickets start at $25; charlottemuseum.org
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|simple life
Let there be light
FROM PLANETS, PEOPLE AND ALL THAT GLITTERS IN THIS CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE BY JIM DODSON
S
hortly before sunset on the winter solstice, my wife and an old friend and I walked up a grassy hilltop west of town hoping to view a rare celestial event called the Great Conjunction, which last took place not long after the invention of the telescope in the 17th century. I was sure I’d found the perfect hilltop for viewing what some think is the astronomical origin of the Star of Bethlehem — a summit far away from madding crowds and city lights. Silly me. A crowd of upward of 30 turned out to bear witness as a pair of giant gassy planets — Saturn and Jupiter, the solar system’s twin heavyweights — verged so close they appeared to shine as one blazing star in the southwest sky just after sunset, intensifying their light as the darkness deepened. Before this evening, their closest alignment was July 16, 1623. Before that, the last viewing was March 6, 1226, the year Saint Francis of Assisi died. The 2020 light show was a pretty brief one, lasting just over an hour before the planets slipped below the horizon. But the unexpected pleasure for this starwatcher was witnessing the lovely effect this phenomenon of rare light had upon the assembly of earthlings on the hill. As they patiently waited, couples young and old stood arm-inarm like star-crossed lovers, silently silhouetted by the afterglow of the sunset. Old timers sat on lawn chairs with binoculars. A family with six kids spread out a large quilt and shared a
thermos of hot chocolate, chattering like excited starlings in the grass. One wee girl wrapped in a plaid Scottish blanket kept asking her mother where, exactly, the baby Jesus was sleeping. Dogs and their owners mingled joyfully in the dusk, while neighbors greeted neighbors they hadn’t seen in a small eternity. An amateur astronomer set up a large electronic telescope and drew a crowd of kids and parents eager to get a rare glimpse of the rings of Saturn and the four moons of Jupiter. We humans, it hit me, are like the planets that shine above us. The closer we come to each other, the more light we project, the brighter our shared humanity grows, enriching our collective orbit through a clockwork universe. This was no small solstice revelation during a year of viral darkness and enforced isolation that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. In the crowd, an older lady swaddled in a red Wolf Pack sweatshirt and a ball cap that simply urged Love Thy Neighbor Y’all, wondered out loud if the shining object might not be an omen of good news to come for 2021. Murmurs of agreement erupted. Light and hope, of course, go hand in hand, and have since the very beginning, whenever that was — Big Bang or Garden of Eden. A thousand years before the Bible said as much, the Upanishads advised that consciousness is the light of the divine. The third verse of Genesis 1 agreed: “God said Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light and it was good.” The Gospel of John called Jesus the light of the world. Matthew urged his followers to let their light shine before others and pointed southparkmagazine.com | 49
w r ig ht svi l l e
bea c h
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|simple life out the folly of keeping our light beneath a basket. Scriptures of every faith tradition, in fact, bear lavish witness to the power of celestial light. Buddha advised human beings to become a light unto themselves, while Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita notes that the Supreme Lord Krishna is the “light of all lights, the illuminator of even the sun and stars . . . By his light all creation is full of light.” In our darkest moments, Aristotle advised, we must focus to see the light — both outward and inward. With the dawning of the Age of Reason, science celebrated the power of light to illuminate vast unimagined worlds, to heal disease and grow the future. Light turned out to be the engine of photosynthesis and all life biological, confirming what gardeners and country folk have understood for millennia as they planted by the cycles of the seasons or danced by the light of the moon. A good idea is symbolized by a blazing light bulb — which only took Thomas Edison a thousand or so failed efforts to invent. To “lighten up” means to let things go. Whereas to “see the light” implies a sudden change in perception or awakened consciousness, to “enlighten” is to furnish knowledge and slowly deepen one’s spiritual insight, to see the truth of the matter and make one a fraction wiser. The rising sun may be a living metaphor for a new beginning, but however we find the light, it’s also bound to find us. There’s a crack in everything, reminds the late Leonard Cohen. That’s how the light gets in. Artists spend their lives chasing light for the simple reason that in light there is revelation, an unveiling and inspiration. Falling sunlight makes stained-glass windows come alive, Hudson River landscapes unforgettable, fields of sunflowers explode, butterflies dance, afternoons utterly peaceful. It is the distinctive light of a Rembrandt — “The Night Watch” or “The Return of the Prodigal Son” come to mind — which makes the figures appear so fragile and real, humans cloaked by the mystery of darkness, the hidden unknown. In the meantime, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness — or so advised everyone from Confucius to Eleanor Roosevelt. Every morning of my life, almost without exception, I light a lone candle on my desk in the darkest hour of morning, a small act of respect for the darkness. This little ritual of desktop fire-making may be far more symbolic than I fathomed, an ancestral memory of awakening to the possibilities of daily rebirth, a fresh start, a friendly summons to any thoughtful angels or muses who happen to be passing through the neighborhood. After a year that no one will ever forget, news of Covid vaccines coming our way has been hailed as “light at the end of the tunnel.” We can only hope — and pray — this is true. For as those souls who gathered like ancient shepherds on a starry solstice hilltop intuited, we all need more light in the darkness and delight in our lives. Wherever it comes from. SP
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|omnivorous reader
Waiting for Gurganus AND SAVORING HIS SHORT FICTION BY D.G. MARTIN
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ike two other important North Carolina authors’ debut novels, Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel in 1929 and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain in 1997, Allan Gurganus’ Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All in 1989 caught the nation’s attention and stayed at the top of the bestseller lists for months. It has sold over 4 million copies and become an American classic. Set in the 1980s, the book is narrated by 99-year-old Lucy Marsden, who married 50-year-old Col. William Marsden when she was 15. She tells of her marriage to the Confederate veteran, his wartime experiences, and the entertaining and poignant routine of her daily life in the fictional town of Falls, located somewhere near Rocky Mount. Widow was followed in 1997 by Plays Well with Others. Sandwiched between the two novels are a couple of collections of short fiction, White People and The Practical Heart, the last published in 1993. So, what had he been doing in the years afterward? “Writing, every day,” he says, “and getting up at 6 a.m. to do it.” Finally,
in 2013 Gurganus published Local Souls, taking us back to Falls, where Widow and many of his short stories are set. Local Souls is neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, but three separate novellas. All are set in Falls, but the characters and stories are independent and quite different. Susan, the main character in the first novella, “Fear Not,” is a 14-year-old all-American girl growing up in Falls when her father dies in a boating accident. Seduced and made pregnant by her godfather, she gives up her baby, pulls her life together, later marries, has two children, and leads a normal life until she is reunited with the child she gave up. Then her life is transformed in a surprising and puzzling way, one that only Gurganus could conjure up. In the second novella, “Saints Have Mothers,” a divorced woman, smart and ambitious enough to have published a poem in The Atlantic magazine, has two sons and a 17-year-old daughter. The daughter is more committed to serving those in need than she is to her mother, whose life is wrapped up in hopes for her daughter’s future. When the daughter announces that she plans to go to Africa on a service project, the mother objects. But the southparkmagazine.com | 53
|omnivorous reader daughter still goes. Communication with her daughter is spotty until a middle-ofthe-night phone call brings word of the daughter’s death. As the mother and the Falls community prepare for a memorial service, Gurganus brings the story to a shocking and touching conclusion. The third novella, “Decoy,” is the history of a relationship between two men. One is a beloved family doctor, part of an established Falls family. The other is a newcomer, who came from the poverty of struggling farm life, but has achieved modest financial success and near acceptance by Falls’ elite. When the doctor retires, their friendship is disturbed and then swept away by a “Fran-like” flood that destroys both men’s homes and much of Falls. With its complex characters and plot, “Decoy” deserved to be a separate book. In 2015 that happened, and it sold well as a stand-alone. In his latest book, The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus (January 2021),
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several stories take readers back to Falls. In one story, “The Deluxe $19.95 Walking Tour of Historic Falls (NC),” a tour guide narrates and takes a hard look at the town. She begins: “Moving along nicely. No stragglers, please. Incorporated in 1824, almost immediately made the county seat, Falls still boasts five thousand local souls. We’re down from our peak seven thousand during the commercial boom of ’98, 18 - 98. See that arched bridge? Some say that yonder River Lithium accounts for both our citizens’ soothed temperaments and for how hard we find leaving home. Few local students, matriculating up north, last long there.” Longtime fans of Gurganus will appreciate the inside look at his favorite town. Newcomers will find that the tour of Falls forms the basis for another engaging Gurganus tale. The new book includes one of my favorites. In “A Fool for Christmas,” Vernon Ricketts, a pet store manager in a mall near Falls, is the lead character
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and narrator. He is the fool for Christmas who cannot resist a call to take care of a homeless teenager, keep her warm, and help her hide from the security officer, who is dedicated to getting such undesirables out of the mall. The teenager is pregnant, and Gurganus’ story draws on the Biblical account of Christ’s birth in a way that brings out the same sort of deep feelings. Gurganus wrote this story for NPR’s All Things Considered in 2004 and read it on the program. He has rewritten it regularly. Last year it made its way into print in a limited edition that sold out quickly. The story’s inclusion assures that the new book will be a family treasure. Perhaps the book’s most timely story is “The Wish for a Good Young Country Doctor,” which was published first in The New Yorker in April last year. It is set in a rural village in the Midwest during a cholera epidemic in 1850, where a young doctor does his best to save its citizens. But when many die, the doctor is blamed. How did Gurganus manage to time his story to coincide with the current pandemic? He says he finished the story early in 2020, “on the day that coronavirus appeared for the first time in The New York Times. And the context was completely changed. I sent it to my agent, who sent it to The New Yorker, which bought it in a day, and it appeared two weeks later.” These stories and six more in the new book will remind us of the talented North Carolinian’s ability to make us laugh painfully at ourselves and our neighbors while we wait for his long-promised, long-delayed opus, An Erotic History of a Southern Baptist Church. When I pushed him to tell us when it would be finished, Gurganus smiled and said, “I’ve got a lot of material. Every time I think I’ve finished the book, somebody tells me another story about a corrupt preacher and the choir director. And I add another chapter. So I think it might be a trilogy instead of a single volume.” I am waiting hopefully. But I am not holding my breath. SP D.G. Martin hosts North Carolina Bookwatch Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and Tuesday at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.
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All townhomes include a security/smart home package. Sales conducted from our Shea Urban sales office 601 S. Kings Dr Suite EE Charlotte 28204 | Sun/Mon: 1 - 6: Tue - Sat: 11 - 6 sheaurban.com | 980.293.5886 Sales: Shea Group Services, LLC DBA Shea Realty (NC: C21630), (SC: 10424). Construction: Shea Builders, LLC, NC: 68875, SC: G116074. This is not an offer of real estate for sale, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, to residents of any state or province in which registration and other legal requirements have not been fulfilled. Pricing does not include options, elevation, or lot premiums, effective date of publication and subject to change without notice. All square footages and measurements are approximate and subject to change without notice. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Equal Housing Opportunity. Photos depict virtually staged furniture and accessories not available from Seller, and designer features, optional items and other upgrades that may be available from Seller at additional cost.
February books
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NOTABLE NEW RELEASES COMPILED BY SALLY BREWSTER
The Survivors, by Jane Harper It’s been 12 years since Kieran Elliott left his hometown under a dark cloud. Kieran has returned to the secluded beach town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania, with his partner, Mia, and their infant daughter to help his parents after his father was diagnosed with dementia. Old friends welcome him, but tensions linger since Kieran is blamed for a boating accident that killed his older brother and his best friend during a vicious storm. The day after they arrive, a body is found on the beach, and it seems like everyone has something to hide. As rumors spread and alarm mounts about the possibility of a killer in their midst, the town’s secrets are steadily unfurled, coalescing into a few unexpected revelations. Jane Harper is a master at creating atmospheric settings, and it’s easy to fall under her spell. Animal, Vegetable, Junk, by Mark Bittman The history of Homo sapiens is usually told as a story of technology or economics. But there is a more fundamental driver: food. How we hunted and gathered explains our emergence as a new species and our earliest technology; our first food systems, from fire to agriculture, tell where we settled and how civilizations expanded. The quest for food for growing populations drove exploration, colonialism, slavery — even capitalism. A century ago, food was industrialized. Since then, new styles of agriculture and food production have written a new chapter of human history, one that’s driving both climate change and global health crises. Bittman offers a panoramic view of the story and explains how we can rescue ourselves from a modern wrong turn. My Year Abroad, by Chang-Rae Lee Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly
creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé and pulled into a series of extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong and of himself. Rich with commentary on Western attitudes, Eastern stereotypes, capitalism, global trade, mental health, parenthood, mentorship and more, My Year Abroad is also an exploration of the surprising effects of cultural immersion — on a young American in Asia, on a Chinese man in America, and on an unlikely couple hiding out in the suburbs. This Close to Okay, by Leesa Cross-Smith Leesa Cross-Smith explores fragility, grief and the effects of mental illness in this wonderfully strange novel about new love between broken people. Tallie Clark is a divorced, childless therapist who sees a man about to jump from a bridge on her way home one night. She pulls over and talks him into joining her for a cup of coffee, then invites the man, who goes only by Emmett, to stay at her house. In the days that follow, they learn about each other’s divorces and the deaths, infidelities and heartaches that have shaped their lives. All the while, Cross-Smith builds suspense by gradually alluding to each character’s ulterior motives, as Tallie neglects to tell Emmett she’s a therapist, and Emmett emails Tallie’s ex-husband to get her the answers he thinks she needs. As dark and tense as it is flirty and humorous, this moving novel offers consistent surprises. SP Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, located at 4139 Park Road. parkroadbooks.com. southparkmagazine.com | 57
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All rise
THE CHARLOTTE COUPLE BEHIND TEAM ROSE BREAD BAKES CORE VALUES INTO NATURALLY LEAVENED, ARTISAN LOAVES. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER • PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR
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few blocks behind a busy stretch of Sharon Road, a midcentury modern ranch surrounded by century-old pin oaks sits on an oversized lot, one of only two homes framing the stubby cul-de-sac. Out front, the gnarled arm of a sprawling oak anchors a long rope swing that holds the promise of swooping, semicircular rides for the home’s youngest inhabitants and their tiny pals. Bicycles, scooters and other stray toys lay scattered across an otherwise well-manicured lawn. Since September, on each Tuesday and Friday afternoon, a steady flow of neighbors, friends of friends and cheery strangers amble down the long driveway, their visits dually rewarded by engaging conversation with homeowners Douglas and Kaitlin Rose and a takeaway purchase of fresh-baked, artisanal whole-grain breads. The unique loaves are so flavorful that internationally recognized bread guru Peter Reinhart, author of the James Beard Award-winning The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, deems the Roses’ sourdough country loaf — 25% whole grain with sprouted wheat and rye — “among the best sourdough bread in the city.” In just a few short months, the self-taught bakers have divined a nearly magical alchemist’s hand for the notoriously finicky and unforgiving craft.
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AN ANCIENT TRADITION Each week, the couple turns out nearly 250 crusty loaves from their tiny bread shop. Last summer, with the help of a friend, the Roses reconfigured a 450-square-foot carport in the home where they’ve lived since 2011 into a working bake kitchen. They market the bread, which sells for $8 to $16 a loaf, exclusively through Instagram (@teamrosebread) and word of mouth. Twice a month, the family of six sells loaves at Matthews Community Farmers’ Market, and, occasionally, they host Saturday pop-up events where they sell specialty baked goods — cinnamon rolls, sticky buns and vegan doughnuts are among their recent offerings. Challah, Struan, Abruzzi rye, spelt and sourdough bagels are just a few of the internally developed recipes that emerge from Team Rose Bread’s diminutive 12-loaf capacity oven. Eschewing most commercial baking techniques, the Roses lean heavily on traditional processes and ingredients such as ancient grains, used over generations by bakers across the globe. All their breads are naturally leavened — here, the use of commercial yeast is frowned upon.
At any given time, the couple has three or more versions of levain, a natural leavening starter made with flour, water and wild yeast, growing under refrigeration. “The pull for us toward the avenue of bread is simple,” says Douglas, 38. “The connection to ancient grains, and the story of what bread used to be and what it should be — a life-sustaining, nourishing form of food — offers a sense of rootedness and connection.” Connection is a cornerstone value for the Roses, who met when they were college students — Douglas at Davidson College and Kaitlin at Duke University, where she played lacrosse. The concept of rootedness helped drive the decision to create a home-based business, placing their young family at the center of a journey that’s just beginning to unfold. Like many young couples with small children, the 30-somethings became increasingly introspective during Covid’s earliest days and looked to capitalize on extra time at home, more deeply enjoy the closeness of their children, and fulfill a longtime dream of working together. Douglas, an entrepreneur who grew up in New York City, southparkmagazine.com | 63
was winding down an online men’s accessories and luxury-goods business, while Kaitlin, a Maryland native, was homeschooling their four children. Last spring’s Covid lockdown accelerated their decision to take the plunge and start Team Rose Bread. It is a business in which they can collaborate, involve the children, serve the community, and nourish their love for learning, all while preparing natural and healthy food for themselves and their neighbors. “We’ve always dreamed of doing some sort of business together,” says Kaitlin, 36. “Before the pandemic I’d been baking sourdough bread for several years with a dear friend of mine. We were baking six or so loaves at a time, and eventually I started selling a loaf here and a loaf there to friends. The seed for a business was planted probably a year or so before we made the decision to do this full time. We began construction on the bread shop on June 27, our anniversary.”
FAMILY AFFAIR While the couple held some concerns regarding the venture, its economic viability and a shifting family dynamic, the excitement surrounding the experience of learning a traditional trade, develop 64
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ing community relationships and engaging the entire family aligned in a way that felt right. “For us, we just have a desire and want to be a formative influence for [our kids],” Douglas says. “Our youngest is 4 and our oldest is 11. We see this as a great opportunity to be around our kids as much as possible and be fully present.” A visit to their bread shop — the couple avoids the term “bakery” as they don’t focus on pastries — typically finds each of the children actively contributing to the operation. Four-year-old Robinson loves to run the vacuum cleaner, tracking down stray crumbs. Six-year-old Samantha shows off her artistic side in elegantly braiding loaves of challah. Noa, 11, likes placing Team Rose Bread stickers neatly on each loaf bag, and Benzion, 8, is a “fulfillment” maven manning the Dutch door, greeting customers with their orders and making change. “Our view as a couple shapes every decision we make in life,” Kaitlin says. “Doug and I have just gotten to a place [of] evaluating what is important to us. I like him being here, and we love working together. The timing just made sense.” Though Kaitlin had experience as a home-based bread enthusi-
“It’s a face-toface exchange we enjoy,” Kaitlin Rose says. “People — especially right now — they want to see others and have human interaction with someone outside of their home.”
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ast, it’s Douglas’ zeal for bread history, culture and technique that fuels the “bread-lab” aspect and daily quest for knowledge of the craft. Early in the journey, Douglas heard Reinhart, a baking instructor at Johnson & Wales University, speaking about artisan bread on a radio show and reached out directly to invite him to dinner and “pick his brain.” “He politely turned me down,” Douglas says. “I think he gets many requests for his time and is understandably cautious.” Undeterred, Douglas went back to Reinhart with an offer he couldn’t refuse: He’d noted Reinhart’s social-media accounts could benefit from updating and offered help in exchange for baking advice. The friendship bloomed.
DEEP STUDY “Small-scale garage and cottage bakeries represent an increasing national trend in the artisan-bread arena,” Reinhart says. “Douglas and Kait approach the craft embracing tradition and heritage in ways that come through in the flavor and quality of their bread.” As an homage to Reinhart, the couple developed “Peter’s Struan,” a sturdy harvest bread that is one of Reinhart’s favorites, based on one of his classic recipes. The multigrain loaf incorporates cooked rice, polenta, oats and honey and is well-suited for toasting and sandwiches. Research led Douglas to reach out to heavyweights across the national artisan-bread community. Connecting with regional grain expert, miller and foodways historian Glenn Roberts, founder of South Carolina’s Anson Mills, has proven particularly beneficial. The grower and miller of organic heirloom grains serves as a primary flour source and recipe inspiration for Team Rose. “The best talent is usually driven by an artistic motive,” says Roberts, who has visited Team Rose’s at-home bake shop. “Doug and Kait are more interested in creating art first, profit second and taking care of their consumers somewhere in that mix, too. What drives them is the creative urge [of baking] as an artist endeavor. It’s the art of flavor that has meaning for them. Flavor equals nutrition — and that’s important to them.” Through visits with Roberts at Anson Mills, the Roses developed a deeper understanding of characteristics such as “terroir,” or environmental factors of the soil and conditions where the grain is grown and under which it is milled. After learning about the virtues of a rare Scots Bere barley from Roberts, Team Rose created a toasted oat porridge Scots Bere chocolate sourdough. The vegan loaves were a hit with a lucky few taste testers and now appear on Team Rose Bread’s rotating lineup.
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or the Roses, the personal relationships developed over the last few months have been as important and rewarding as creating flavorful and nutritional bread. “People just show up,” Kaitlin says. “They find us somehow, but I love that aspect. It’s a face-to-face exchange we enjoy. People — especially right now — they want to see others and have human interaction with someone outside of their home.” Scale and capacity are never far from the Roses’ thoughts, as expansion beyond their home bread shop is not in the plans. “We want to have sustainable income and provide for the family,” Douglas says. “But we don’t want to be baking every day and delivering bread to a commercial retailer where we don’t interact with our customer. It’s just not our plan.” Purchasing a larger oven to produce loaves more efficiently is in the plans, however, and the Roses also see an opportunity with UrbanPromise Charlotte. The local nonprofit provides spiritual, academic and social development for youth through camps and after-school programs. The Roses donate 10 loaves weekly to the organization. For the Roses, baking bread has just begun to open a world of possibilities. SP
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“The pull for us towards the avenue of bread is simple,” Douglas Rose says. “The connection to ancient grains, and the story of what bread used to be and what it should be — a life-sustaining, nourishing form of food — offers a sense of rootedness and connection.”
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From left: Jasmine Macon’s plain glazed doughnut; vanilla glazed doughnut with roasted beet powder and candied orange; and the Arthur Lou — oat pie crust with tang custard, fresh strawberries and floral meringue sprinkled with sangria powder.
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Sweet sensations FROM INSTAGRAM STARTUPS TO BRICK-AND-MORTAR FAVORITES, CHARLOTTE BAKERS OFFER PLENTY OF DELICIOUS WAYS TO SATISFY YOUR SWEET TOOTH. BY MICHELLE BOUDIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
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irst there was the cupcake trend, then came the doughnut shops. Now, there’s a collection of cookie-makers and pastry chefs delighting Queen City sweet-lovers with all kinds of creative dessert options. Some are found at old-school, brick-and-mortar bakeries, while others are sold through social media or at pop-up events — but all are worth the calories. There are goodie boxes that sell like hotcakes, pastry chefs combining unexpected flavors, and online cookie boutiques, all making for a delicious quandary … what to order where. While we couldn’t possibly cover every sweet shop across the city, here are a few to try.
Goodie boxes by Confections of a Martian Jasmine Macon knew she’d have some explaining to do when it came to her professional name. “Confections of Martian is a unique name for a pastry chef, and that’s what makes it perfect for me,” says Macon, a Johnson & Wales University graduate and pastry chef at Leah & Louise, the Camp North End restaurant that Esquire magazine named among the best new restaurants in the country. “The name [reflects] my alien persona, Marla the Martian, and is a parody of a popular Usher song called ‘Confessions.’” The goodie box is a monthly selection of unique pastries created from surplus seasonal ingredients from the restaurant, so nothing goes to waste. Past boxes have included a potato-chip ruby chocolate-chip cookie, roasted plum and lemongrass trifle, and a brown-butter sage doughnut. The boxes are available for pre-order only — they often sell out — and the menu is typically posted on Instagram a week or two before the pick-up date. Order on Instagram @confectionsofamartian.
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ONLINE BAKESHOPS Crumbled Nut Bakeshop Lauren Formoso says the Food Network, cookbooks and a whole lot of passion prompted her to officially start Crumbled Nut Bakeshop last year. Known for her unique flavor profiles and cookies with a distinctive ooey-gooey texture, Formoso sets up shop most Saturdays at South End Market at Atherton Mill. The peanut butter fluffernutter is her bestseller: A soft, chewy peanut-butter cookie is loaded with chocolate chips and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, stuffed with peanut-butter marshmallow creme, then topped with more Reese’s Cups. Hand-rolled cinnamon roll cookies and blueberry muffin-top cookies have a delicious, cake-like texture. Place custom orders at crumblednut.com; also available most Saturday mornings at the South End Market at Atherton Mill.
Sweet Girl Cookies It all started with a really good chocolate-chip cookie recipe. This family-run business knows how to keep things simple and sweet. Self-taught bakers Nancy and Alec Felder started the business in 2014 as a second career: Alec was a retired IT consultant, and Nancy had spent 30 years in the food service industry. While Sweet Girl is known for its award-winning original chocolate-chip cookies (which use both milk and semi-sweet chocolate), the couple says their oatmeal-raisin cookies are full of flavor. Everything is made from scratch and by hand daily. Order at sweetgirlcookies.com, or buy at Rhino Market & Deli, Laurel Market or Whole Foods.
Sugarrmann The name says it all: A former teacher at Johnson & Wales University, Sadruddin Abdullah earned the nickname “Sugarrmann” from one of his own culinary instructors years ago. He first fell in love with baking in his grandmother’s kitchen and went on to win two national bread and pastry championships. He and his wife, Mahmuda, have been selling baked goods for 20 years, but it was their version of the “kronut” that got them noticed in Charlotte. The donut and croissant hybrid has a cult following and is now available in a make-at-home kit. Abdullah also recently partnered with Amelie’s to offer something you won’t find many places: a vegan croissant. He and his wife make every pastry from scratch, including a kronut grilled cheese, which might be the ultimate comfort food. Order via email sugarrmann@gmail.com, or purchase at shops around Charlotte including Amelie’s, Oh My Soul and The Hobbyist. 70
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Honeybear Bake Shop Hannah Neville decided to start Honeybear Bakeshop last summer after she was furloughed from her job as pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Charlotte during the pandemic. Neville, who has a degree in pastry and baking from Culinary Institute of America and previously worked at the iconic Inn at Little Washington, was inspired by her mom, who ran her own cookie business. The online cookie boutique specializes in weekly cookie boxes that include flavors like brown sugar Pop Tart and s’mores — even a corn and pimento-cheese cookie. “It’s so, so good,” Neville says. “I make a corn cookie and add locally made pimento cheese, and then roll it in a jalapeno sugar and bake it.” Don’t miss the special-occasion cookie boxes with custom themes — recent selections include a Britney Spears box and another based on The Office TV show. Order online at honeybearbakeshop.com or through OTPST, a local coffee delivery service; or buy at The Wandering Cup coffee shop in Belmont. Follow @honeybearbakshop on Instagram for weekly updates.
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Sugar Rush Crumb Cakes Shannon Mauro started out making chocolate-chip cookies, but she decided last year to focus solely on her New York-style crumb cakes after demand for the homemade pastries skyrocketed. Made with a fluffy vanilla base and a ton of buttery crumb topping, Mauro says the crumb-to-cake ratio is what makes her cakes so good. While she’s been baking them since 2008, the pandemic accelerated the launch of Sugar Rush as a business. “2020 threw us all for a loop, and Sugar Rush gave us something to build as a family,” says Mauro, who lives in Waxhaw. While the classic is a bestseller, cinnamon, cookies and cream, and chocolate are other popular flavors. This spring, Mauro plans to offer lemon and strawberry crumb cakes. She hopes to start shipping nationwide later this year. Order at sugarrushcrumbcakes.com; follow on Instagram @charlottesugarrush for updates.
BRICK & MORTAR BAKERIES Amelie’s French Bakery & Cafe
Moonbox Bakery This retro style pop-up bakery serves up handcrafted nostalgia using all locally sourced ingredients. Owner Hannah Woociker remembers growing up baking lemon bars and buying chocolate babka at a Jewish bakery with her grandmother. She’s since earned degrees in culinary and pastry arts. “I really enjoy taking a familiar dessert and adding a seasonal flair to it,” Woociker says. “An example is my blueberry basil key lime pie. I add what grows around me during the seasons of North Carolina, and I use the inspiration of ingredients to create a new experience.” Woociker says her sourdough cinnamon rolls are always in high demand, but an unexpected hit was a chocolate beet custard pie she created last fall. Order via Instagram @moonboxbakes.
Hannah Woociker’s sourdough cinnamon rolls, left, and s’mores cake, above: layers of chocolate cake with fudge frosting, cinnamon sugar, graham crackers and toasted meringue.
Amelie’s created a big buzz in the Queen City when it opened in NoDa in 2008 as a French-inspired bakery that was open 24/7. Beloved as much for its salted caramel brownies as the Marie Antoinette-meets-Alice in Wonderland vibe, Amelie’s quickly became a favorite gathering spot for everyone from hipster college students to business leaders and retirees. While the pandemic put a damper on business, Amelie’s has stayed busy with curbside takeout and delivery options for its sweet treats. Handmade French macarons are usually available in 10 to 15 different flavors a day, with six new flavors added every season. (Bonus: You can now have them shipped anywhere in the country.) In addition to desserts, Amelie’s has an array of sandwiches and house-made quiche — order a slice with soup, or get a whole one to take home. 4321 Park Road; 7715 Pineville-Matthews Rd., #34b; 2424 N. Davidson St., #102; hours vary; ameliesfrenchbakery.com
Renaissance Pâtisserie Husband and wife duo Sylvain and Jo-Anne Rivet opened Renaissance Patisserie in 2013 hoping to bring a touch of France to the Queen City. In fact, the bakery and café is so authentic it’s become a local gathering spot for French expatriates and Francophiles. The Rivets focus on traditional French pastries and Viennoiserie (breakfast pastries known for their flakiness). Sylvian learned to bake from his aunt starting at the age of 4 southparkmagazine.com | 73
and ended up working in the kitchen of the prime minister of France. Don’t miss their croissants, which have been called the best croissant in Charlotte on more than one occasion. If you’re looking for a fun special occasion cake, try the traditional French wedding dessert Le Croquembouche, a cream-puff tower that is sure to wow guests. 6401 Morrison Blvd #4A, open Wednesday-Sunday, hours vary; renaissancepatisserie.com
Suárez Bakery Carlos Suárez opened his bakery in Park Road Shopping Center in 1992, making it one of Charlotte’s oldest bakeshops. A self-taught baker, Suárez was a pastry chef at uptown’s Adams Mark hotel when he started his own pastry business on the side before opening the bakery. The menu has morphed over the years, but the family-run operation still makes some of the original cookies (sugar and thumbprint) that were baked in the ovens in the 1950s, when Federal Bake Shop occupied the space. In recent years, Suárez introduced the wildly popular doughnut cake: Three huge “Texas” doughnuts are layered with vanilla cream and topped with a giant doughnut hole. Last year, the owners added a sister location, Suárez Bakery & Barra at Optimist Hall, where they also offer Cuban-inspired dishes like ropa vieja and croquetas and Cuban coffees. 4245 Park Road; open seven days a week; suarezbakery.com.
Sunflour Baking Company On almost any given weekend morning, there’s a line out the door at Sunflour’s East Boulevard shop, with people popping in for a breakfast sandwich or a box of desserts to go. The original Sunflour opened in Elizabeth in 2009, and when the Parrish family bought the business, they added Dilworth and Ballantyne locations. Each bakery and café sells baked goods, sandwiches and beverages. Known for its cheddar biscuits, croissants, cinnamon rolls and muffins, Sunflour also makes and sells cakes frosted with buttercream and has a selection of breakfast and lunch sandwiches and panini. Don’t miss their fleur de sel cookie — a perfect double-chocolate cookie sprinkled with sea salt. You can even send a slice of Sunflour goodness anywhere in the country: Their cake jars and baking mixes can be shipped nationwide. Locations in Elizabeth, Dilworth, Ballantyne and Harrisburg; open daily, 7a.m. -4 p.m. sunflourbakingcompany.com NOTE: Cristina Rojas Agurcia opened the Batch House in Wesley Heights in 2019 after attracting a huge online following selling her delicious cakes, cookies, s’mores brownies and more. Flooding in November caused severe damage to the bakery, forcing Agurcia to close. We had planned to include Batch House in our roundup, but at press time Agurcia had paused operations amid her search for a new location. Follow her on Instagram @ thebatchmaker for business updates. SP
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Wentworth & Fenn Sam Allen, the former executive pastry chef at The Fig Tree, opened Wentworth & Fenn at Camp North End last March focusing on small seasonal pastries, cakes and artisan bread. The Johnson & Wales graduate says her desserts have a taste of nostalgia, with an upscale appearance and unique flavor profiles. The lemon curd tart with black pepper cremeux is the most popular. “I wanted a light pastry with a little zing,” Allen says. “I also love integrating savory components into my pastries, so black pepper seemed to be the perfect ingredient to pair with the lemon.” The one thing she thinks is underrated? Her green olive and lemon ciabatta. Business is going so well, Allen hints that W&F could be expanding to Charleston. 270 Camp Road, Suite 103; open Thursday-Saturday, hours vary; order online at wentworthandfenn.com
Clockwise from top: Wentworth & Fenn’s traditional oatmeal creme pie is filled with bourbon butter and white chocolate cremeux; the honey & chevre tart is made with pate sablee topped with layers of honey and chevre mousse; buttery layers of dough are folded over roasted apples and finished with sea salt caramel in the caramel apple empanada.
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“A big part of my work is supporting local businesses,” says Jena Bula of Delphinium Design. Kitchen countertops were installed by Universal Stone, and cabinetry is from Eudy’s Cabinets. The antique light fixture over the dining table, opposite, is by Visual Comfort from Darnell & Co.
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Everything in its place JENA BULA OF DELPHINIUM DESIGN UPDATES A BALLANTYNE HOME WITH A CLEAN, CLASSIC LOOK — AND PLENTY OF STORAGE TO BOOT. BY CATHY MARTIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY TIFFANY RINGWALD
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hen Megan Beaver and her family moved to Charlotte from New Jersey almost three years ago, they knew their Ballantyne Country Club home needed renovating. The kitchen and living room had all the trappings of “Old World” design prevalent in the late 1990s and early 2000s: loads of decorative molding, distressed finishes, all-beige everything. “When we bought the house, we knew it was going to be a gut job,” Beaver says, but she and her husband wanted to settle in for a while before making any changes. They also needed to agree on a design style: While Megan prefers an ultra-modern look, her husband favors traditional furnishings. After two years, the homeowners began interviewing interior designers. Their search ended when they met Jena Bula of Delphinium Design. “We felt she was open to our ideas, not just hers,” Beaver says. Bula herself is a relative newcomer to Charlotte. A native of the
suburbs of New York City, she moved to the Queen City five years ago, launching an interior-design business after an early career in fashion that included positions at Ralph Lauren in New York City and Washington, D.C. “A big part of my work is supporting local businesses,” says Bula, noting that with all the rich talent in the area, she’s quickly been able to build a team of skilled craftsmen to help execute her designs. For the Beavers’ home, Bula partnered with general contractor Ekren Construction. With the family’s two young children and a menagerie of pets — including three dogs, a cat, a hedgehog and a gecko — the space needed to be not only beautiful but also functional and durable. Bula selected a timeless Shaker design for the kitchen cabinets, with heat-resistant dark quartzite countertops. A stainless backsplash behind the gas range makes for easy cleanup, which was a priority since the family does a lot of cooking. southparkmagazine.com | 77
Incorporating lots of storage was also on the wish list, so Bula suggested bringing the cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. She also added clever, out-of-sight features like a coffee station tucked behind roll-up doors and a paper-towel drawer near the kitchen sink. Beside the refrigerator, cabinet doors pop open to reveal mail slots, a charging station, a white board for jotting down grocery lists, and other handy features. “You can’t see it, but there’s so much organization going on that makes it super functional — but it looks modern and tucked away,” Bula says. A runner from Charlotte Rug Gallery and a painting by local artist Emily Williams add texture and subtle color. In the dining area, a custom black bar was designed to house the husband’s extensive bourbon collection. Rollout shelves keep bottles organized and accessible, with quartzite countertops matching those in the kitchen. An antique gold light fixture creates a focal point over the couple’s existing West Elm table and chairs. In the living room, more classic Shaker cabinets provide a place to display books and treasured objects, and Bula replaced the granite hearth and fireplace surround with sleek, honed Carrera marble. Semisheer roller shades filter direct sunlight in the living room and sunroom, where a vaulted paneled ceiling is painted in Sherwin Williams Elephant Ear, a taupe-like color that draws the eye up. With kids and pets constantly traipsing through the French doors leading to the backyard, Bula chose an indoor-outdoor rug in a herringbone design that, like the rest of the design, is both durable and beautiful. SP
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Semisheer roller shades from The Shade Store at SouthPark filter direct sunlight; an indoor-outdoor rug from Dash & Albert by Annie Selke provides durability.
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Tiny home,
big view
A CHARLOTTE FAMILY BUILDS A SMALL MOUNTAIN GETAWAY THAT’S BIG ON STYLE. BY BLAKE MILLER
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isa and Jason Leake’s goal was simple: Find a piece of land in the mountains where the couple and their two teenage daughters could escape the Carolina summer heat and go camping. “We love the mountains and outdoors and love to hike,” Lisa says. “But the summers in Charlotte are unbearably hot.” The land would eventually become the site for their forever home. But at this point, the Leakes weren’t exactly sure what they wanted their dream home to look like. It was about finding a lot they loved — and with great views — until they were ready to commit to building something permanent. They found the land with the view, but after a test run one weekend when windy weather just about tore their tent and campground down, the Leakes regrouped. For test run No. 2, the family rented an RV for several weeks in the summer of 2014 and toured several national parks. “Everything in an RV, though, is as cheap as it comes,” Lisa says. “We really appreciate quality and good craftsmanship and nice design. We weren’t going to get that out of an RV trailer.” It wasn’t until a friend mentioned that the couple should consider a tiny home that the Leakes began researching the possibility of building one themselves. “We liked that a tiny home would be like a trial period on our land,” Lisa explains. “It’s nothing permanent, but we can see how much we use it and like it. And it’s small enough that, within budget, we could really invest more in higher-end finishes, appliances and design. We felt like we could make it the quality we wanted and not have it be permanent. One day, the idea is we’ll wheel it off, sell it, and build a more permanent house when we have a better idea of what we want.” So, the couple began designing their tiny home with specs that fit their lifestyle. Lisa is the New York Times bestselling author of 100 Days of Real Food and runs a food blog by the same name, so the layout and functionality of the kitchen was of the utmost importance. “Our goals for the design were to focus on the kitchen, and [we] also wanted it to blend in with the natural environment,” says Jason, operations manager for the blog.
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“We wanted to maximize the views and have it feel much larger than what you’d expect for 300 square feet.” The couple enlisted Asheville’s Two Wilson Architects to design the façade of the home and Charlotte designer Kelley Vieregg to help with the interiors. Having previously designed the couple’s Charlotte home, Vieregg was tasked with helping the Leakes source finishes and lighting that aligned with the transitional-meets-modern aesthetic they wanted. “They loved the look of their home in Charlotte, which was monochromatic, and they wanted to carry over that same feel into the tiny home,” Vieregg explains. “It’s really all about the view, though.” A large, expansive window affords sweeping views of Grandfather Mountain and beyond. So as not to detract from that, the finishes and furnishings were intentionally kept simple, clean and streamlined. Hague Blue paint by Farrow & Ball was used throughout, along with simple, modern light fixtures by Schoolhouse Electric. “The whole goal was to create a space that’s timeless, easy and
comfortable,” Vieregg says. “It’s a vacation home. You don’t want it to be this complex, too fussy space.” Always the DIYers, Lisa made the privacy draperies on her daughters’ bunk beds, while Jason rigged the ottoman with a TV mounted to the underside for quick storage. With a view like this, the Leakes decided to expand their original outdoor living space so that the patio is nearly double the interior square footage. “We were very intentional about having our outdoor living larger than our indoor space,” Lisa says. “When we come up, it’s all about being outside and getting away. So we knew we’d spend the majority of our time on the patio versus indoors.” The Leakes hired landscape architect Wren’s Nest Landscape Design to enhance the property. Since completing the home in 2017, the Leakes know they made the right choice. “One of the biggest things I love about the tiny home is that we spend so much time with our daughters here,” Lisa says. “There’s nowhere else to go. The four of us will curl up on the couch and watch a movie together. That’s something I hadn’t expected with building this. But we absolutely love that part of it.” SP southparkmagazine.com | 83
Brick Baptist Church and cemetery
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|travel
Transformation in the
Sea Islands ST. HELENA ISLAND’S HISTORICAL PAST RESONATES TODAY.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICOLE M. SIKORA
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BY NICOLE M. SIKORA
ou won’t see billboards for the attractions on your way to St. Helena Island. Located about 15 minutes down the Sea Island Parkway from popular Beaufort, S.C. — a little under four hours from Charlotte — it isn’t sprinkled with hotels and beachy chain shops. Instead, St. Helena is the epicenter of some of the most significant moments shaping contemporary American history. And it is telling its story in new and newly relevant ways. St. Helena’s story took a major turn in 1861. As Union troops advanced on South Carolina’s Sea Islands in the Port Royal Sound, white residents and plantation owners fled, leaving behind property and approximately 10,000 enslaved people, primarily from West Africa. While the Civil War raged on, a social initiative known as the Port Royal Experiment began, setting the stage for hopes and progress still struggling to be fully realized. Today, Penn Center (formerly Penn School) lies at the geographic, narrative and cultural heart of St. Helena Island. The 50-acre site features sweeping lawns, a nature trail, a dock, the York W. Bailey Museum and other sights. History and Gullah culture lectures, community events, and celebrations are hosted throughout the year. Here lies the Gantt cottage, where the Martin Luther King Jr. frequently stayed to meet with other leaders, a safe haven for integrated brainstorming. Significant portions of his “I Have a Dream” speech are said to have been written in the cottage. It’s also a great place to bring a lunch and enjoy your own meditative walking tour among the low country’s massive live oak trees dripping in Spanish moss. The peaceful atmosphere enfolds a multifaceted and inspiring history. “I think Penn Center is one of the most significant African American institutions on the planet,” says Marion Burns, the center’s interim executive director and board chair. “It was central to two periods of history: Reconstruction and the civil rights movement.” Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War from 1865-77, was the first civil rights movement, notes Deloris Pringle, a retired educator and Penn Center board member. “This is a one-of-a-kind place,” Pringle says. Northern missionaries, philanthropists and U.S. military leaders cooperated to establish Penn School, one of the first American schools for freed slaves, as part of the Port Royal Experiment to help people transition to a life of freedom. The school opened at a time when it was illegal in many states to teach slaves how to read and write. Additionally, as part of the historic 1857 Dred Scott decision, all persons of African descent were considered noncitizens, whether slave or free. Educators
Above: Gantt cottage. Below: Darrah Hall
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Planning your trip St. Helena Island is alive with history, spirit and natural charm. What to do: Penn Center: Covid-19 has affected hours of operation; call ahead to schedule tours of the museum and visitor’s center. Access to the nature trail and self-guided walking tours of the grounds are free. penncenter.com
forged ahead, certain of the need to create a future together. Programs were first offered at a former plantation, then taught inside the island’s historic Brick Baptist Church. Freedmen and white citizens alike were able to buy land in St. Helena, Beaufort and other nearby places. One freedman, Hastings Gantt, donated land to create the larger Penn School campus. As time went on, students assembled buildings on the campus. Those buildings still stand today. Some freedmen in the region volunteered for military service during the remaining Civil War years. The education, land ownership, service and professional-development initiatives that started in St. Helena Island proved the Port Royal Experiment’s hypothesis: that freedmen and women could create thriving political, economic, intellectual and social systems when access was available, and that their American citizenship was both viable and desirable. It was to be the roadmap for early efforts in our nation’s Reconstruction Era initiative — and inspiration for the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution — until Jim Crow racial segregation took hold of the nation in the 1890s. “They were called slaves, then contraband, then freedmen and then scholars,” says a young ranger whose father attended Penn School, noting it was a life-changing experience. She introduces me to Darrah Hall, still part of the Penn Center campus and today part of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park. The site opened anew in 2019 as part of the multilocation park. The park announced the launch of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network in November 2020, which is expected to grow across the nation to include other partner sites similar to Darrah Hall and Brick Baptist Church, telling the stories of transformation, hope and accomplishment that were part of Reconstruction. As the Black Lives Matter movement and awareness of racial disparities continue to grow, St. Helena Island serves as a respite — and an important reminder of what can be lost and buried. “Reconstruction is not taught in schools,” Pringle says. “You only really get that history through places like Penn Center. Everything Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for, we already had at Reconstruction.” Knowledge is the foundation for progress, and Pringle notes the early students of Penn School flooded the campus because they wanted to “catch the learning.” “This is a measure of what freedom can do,” Pringle says. SP 86
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Other attractions: The term “Gullah” (or Gullah/ Geechee) refers to the culture, language and African American people of the Sea Islands. Check out the historical or storytelling tours in the region to learn more. You can visit the island’s local art galleries and many historic church ruins for visual inspiration. Nearby Hunting Island State Park offers a sizable beach, excellent hiking and a historic lighthouse. Horseback riding and paddling expeditions are available, too. What to eat: Gullah Grub restaurant features barbecue and low country African American cuisine. Frogmore Stew originated on St. Helena, named after a dish perfected in the island’s Frogmore neighborhood. Try some at The Foolish Frog or Boondocks Restaurant. Or, pick up fresh local fish through Gay Fish Company or Sea Eagle Market to make your own. Where to stay: Renting through Airbnb, VRBO or a similar service is highly advisable. Buildings on the Penn Center campus are available through Airbnb. Waterfront residences, such as the place I stayed at Coffin Point Plantation down the historic Avenue of Oaks, are also available for rent, though swimming is extremely dangerous due to oyster beds, wood and other underwater debris. Getting there: St. Helena Island is just under a four-hour drive south of Charlotte. Traveling to St. Helena from Beaufort requires crossing the Woods Memorial Bridge, one of the few remaining swing bridges in operation over a waterway in South Carolina.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PENN CENTER
The York W. Bailey Museum
Reconstruction Era National Historic Park: Darrah Hall is open during regularly scheduled hours. Later this year, the park will open another site at Camp Saxton on nearby Port Royal Island, where the Emancipation Proclamation was read to the black troops of the 1st South Carolina Infantry on January 1, 1863. nps.gov/reer
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Frannie & the Fox at Emeline, a new 212-room hotel in Charleston’s historic district.
Soulful sojourn
CHARLESTON’S HOTEL EMELINE HAS VINTAGE VIBES WITH A MODERN SPIRIT. BY CATHY MARTIN
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here are countless reasons why Charleston, S.C., is a favorite getaway for Charlotteans: The three-hour, all-interstate drive makes getting there a breeze. Once you’ve arrived, it’s a foodie’s paradise — around every corner, you’re bound to discover a great place to eat — and a hot spot for history buffs, shoppers and art lovers. And it’s a city that manages to blend old and new while maintaining the special allure that’s led to inclusion on countless “Best of” lists, claiming the top spot on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2020 readers’ choice for best small U.S. city. One enchanting newcomer to the Holy City is Emeline, a 212room hotel that opened in May in the heart of the historic district. The hotel is steps from the City Market (it’s right across the street) and a short walk to Waterfront Park and King Street, the city’s ultimate shopping district. In a town built on Southern aristocracy, Emeline — German for “peaceful home” — brings a modern, unpretentious vibe with a design that mixes traditional features like custom millwork with midcentury modern and vintage accents. It’s the newest hotel from the Makeready group, whose other properties include Noelle in Nashville, The Alida in Savannah, Ga., The Adolphus in Dallas and the Cliff House in Cape Neddick, Maine. Developer Rockbridge essentially gutted the former DoubleTree property, de
signing the interior from the ground up — the front door is the only remaining architectural detail. It’s not easy to “create” nostalgia, but the hotel’s designers come pretty close, with vintage lighting, stacks of art books and other curiosities around every corner. From the petite welcome cocktails upon arrival to Vivreau water dispensers on every floor, it’s clear that details matter at Emeline. One unique perk is the complimentary in-room coffee service: You won’t find the ubiquitous Keurig and Coffee mate here; simply ring guest services, and they’ll promptly deliver a clever little carafe of fresh-brewed java, cream and sugar to your room. Other thoughtful touches include plush Matouk towels, satin-trimmed linens and Crosley turntables — if the in-room vinyl selection isn’t to your liking, there’s a small library of records (and books) on each floor. Downstairs, a large outdoor courtyard anchored by a two-sided, oversized fireplace serves the dual purpose of providing seating for Frannie & the Fox, the hotel’s lively restaurant with an Italianinspired menu, and a spot to relax and unwind after a day of pounding the cobblestone pavement. Inside, you’ll find Clerks, a charming coffee shop with a retro feel serving breakfast and a small lunch menu, and Keep Shop, an elegant gift shop highlighting local and regional makers. No T-shirts and tourist tchotchkes here; instead, the shop boasts a curated collection of jewelry, handmade accessosouthparkmagazine.com | 89
Tempest
ries, soaps and lotions, teas and more. Probably the toughest decision when spending a few days in Charleston is choosing where to eat among the abundance of great restaurants. From Emeline, it’s an easy walk to local mainstays like FIG (lowcountry cuisine with a neighborhood vibe), Husk (modern plates with traditional Southern ingredients) and Peninsula Grill (fine dining), which is worth a visit if only for its legendary coconut cake. Kinston chef and PBS star Vivian Howard plans to debut her much anticipated new restaurant, Lenoir, in Charleston later this winter. But if you didn’t eat at least one meal at Frannie & the Fox, you’d be missing one of the best things Emeline has to offer. Frannie is the heartbeat of the hotel and appears to have already attracted a local following. First, the design is stunning: Loads of greenery, curved leather banquettes and comfortable vintage-inspired furnishings give the space a contemporary-but-cozy greenhouse vibe. Second, the food and cocktails on our visit were top-notch. On the menu, you’ll find woodfired vegetables, pizzas, pastas, a few seafood options (it is Charleston, after all) and more. Start with the crab fritters appetizer — a light, lemony pop of flavor with a spicy kick — then try the Taleggio pizza: Imported Taleggio is blended with mozzarella and glazed with a touch of honey on a crispy, slightly chewy crust. Order one of Frannie’s creative craft cocktails like the Top Sail, a tropical concoction of rum, pineapple, madeira and lime. Also new in Charleston and a two-block stroll from Emeline is Tempest, a seafood-driven spot from the team behind Charlotte’s 5Church and Sophia’s Lounge. In January, Tempest was named best new restaurant in the country by USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice. Appropriately situated in a former boarding house for merchant marines, Tempest is a more intimate spot than its noisier neighbor, 5Church Charleston. Dine on the front porch surrounded by ferns and hanging plants, in the upstairs dining room, or inside by the bar under a stunning 700-square-foot mural suspended from the ceiling. It’s estimated local artist Honey McCrary used more than 100,000 pieces of glass in creating the vivid mosaic, which depicts a menagerie of sea crea 90
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tures as a violent tempest is brewing. Start with a cocktail bearing a seafaring theme such as The Calm Before — a not-too-sweet blend of rum, blueberry, mint and rose water — while noshing on bread and butter whipped with sesame and nori. The chefs adapt the menu to incorporate seasonal ingredients, but no matter when you visit, you can expect almost every type of seafood imaginable, with a raw bar, an extensive selection of small plates and mains. Starters and shareables include local ceviche, Spanish octopus and umami tuna bombs with truffle and avocado. A standout was the crudo, complemented by butternut squash, chive oil, poblano peppers and a blood-orange vinaigrette. Order a main dish — selections might include flounder, confit swordfish, grouper or snapper — or sample a few small plates and build your own Tempest Tower of charcoal-roasted lobster, king crab legs, oysters or shrimp, served with charred lemon and green-garlic scallion butter. For non-seafood lovers, there are a handful of options including a prime New York strip. Dinner is capped with a complimentary cognac and cigar service, elegantly presented with a red rose to take with you. No trip to Charleston is complete without a visit to The Battery and a stroll down King Street — among the upscale mall brands and designer boutiques there are a few local gems. But to really see Charleston, it’s best to get off the beaten path: Take a walk down a side street and peek behind the wrought-iron gates of the stately homes and gardens. Drive out to West Ashley and grab a beer from a local brewery or a fried chicken sandwich at the original Boxcar Betty’s. One of the most memorable meals on my recent visit was the breakfast tacos picked up on the way out of town at Juan Luis, a semi-permanent food trailer in the side yard at Lewis Barbecue. Order at the window and dine at one of the picnic tables shaded by a large oak. No matter how often you visit this charming port city, there’s always something new to discover. SP
Umami tuna bombs at Tempest
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by SouthPark
HREE CHARLOTTE COUPLES GIVE AN INSIDE LOOK AT THEIR “I DO” DESTINATIONS, FROM RUSTIC ROMANCE IN THE ROLLING BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS TO AN INTIMATE QUEEN CITY GARDEN AFFAIR TO A POSH SEASIDE RETREAT. PLUS, HELPFUL TIPS AND TRICKS FROM A VETERAN WEDDING PLANNER AND INSPIRATION FOR THE PERFECT ENGAGEMENT PHOTO SHOOT. by Taylor Wanbaugh
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CEREMONY AND RECEPTION OCEAN FOREST GOLF CLUB, SEA ISLAND, GA. PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN CAIN PHOTOGRAPHY, DALLAS 94
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Though MARY AND TYLER first met in middle school, they didn’t catch each other’s eye until reconnecting at a wedding after college. But it was love at second sight — Tyler proposed on a trip to see the iconic New York City holiday lights in December 2019. The Charlotteans wed nearly a year later at the beautiful Ocean Forest Golf Club overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by close friends and family. Despite the early morning rain, the weather cleared for a gorgeous lawn ceremony. One of the perks to a small wedding? The couple was able to use the china from their wedding registry for the reception, complementing the vintage and bright table decor. Mary had a personal favorite: “The flowers were unreal.” The couple journeyed to the Caribbean island of St. Barts to celebrate their honeymoon.
THE DETAILS DRESS Mark Ingram Atelier (ceremony), Mestiza New York (reception), SHOES Miu Miu, BRIDESMAIDS’ DRESSES Sachin & Babi, GROOM AND GROOMSMEN’S SUITS Strong Suit, Taylor Richards & Conger, FLORIST Britt Wood Designs, Atlanta, RINGS Elizabeth Bruns, HAIR AND MAKEUP B. Lush Salon + Spa, St. Simons Island, Ga., CATERER Ocean Forest Golf Club, CAKE I do Cakes, Brunswick, Ga.
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CEREMONY AND RECEPTION VENUE OVERLOOK BARN, BEECH MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHER MEGAN SHEPPARD PHOTOGRAPHY, BOONE VIDEOGRAPHER BLUE RIDGE FILM PRODUCTIONS, NEWLAND 98
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PAULA, a 2020 Olympic Trials qualifier, and fellow running enthusiast FRANKLIN fell in love doing what they love: long-distance running. They met five years ago through Charlotte Running Club. The adventure enthusiasts got engaged on a hike at Asheville’s Graveyard Fields trail, so it was only appropriate that they return to western North Carolina to exchange their vows at the Overlook Barn in Beech Mountain. The couple got creative during the Covid crisis by splitting their reception at the rustic venue in two: one before the ceremony with family and one after the ceremony with mostly friends. One of Paula’s favorite memories of the day was dancing with their friends and family. “The bluegrass band was so fun, and we had some good laughs watching people out on the dance floor.” Afterward, the couple honeymooned in the U.S. Virgin Islands’ St. John.
THE DETAILS DRESSES Mikaella from Stillwhite (ceremony) and Needle & Thread from BHLDN (reception), SHOES Badgley Mischka (ceremony), Jeffrey Campbell for Anthropologie (reception), GROOM AND GROOMSMEN’S SUITS JoS. A. Bank, FLORIST Millefleurs, Valle Crucis, RINGS custom (hers) and Morrison Smith (his), HAIR AND MAKEUP Bella Bridal, CATERER Boonetown BBQ, Boone, CAKE Hallmark Cakes, Blowing Rock, FAVORS Pint glasses from DiscountMugs, SOMETHING BORROWED Paula’s Ippolita necklace was from her mom, SOMETHING BLUE Her mom also stitched Paula’s initials in blue onto an old family handkerchief and pinned it to the inside bottom of her dress, SOMETHING NEW Paula had new shoes and earrings, but her ceremony dress was recycled.
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photo by: ashley mcgrath
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CEREMONY THE MCGILL ROSE GARDEN RECEPTION RICHEL AND MELISSA’S HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER BRANDON GRATE PHOTOGRAPHY VIDEOGRAPHER LOYD VISUALS
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RICHEL AND MELISSA had a whirlwind romance, meeting at a friend’s New Year’s Eve party while ringing in 2018. A little more than two years later, Richel popped the question during a vacation in Hawaii. Due to Covid, Melissa says the wedding was anything but traditional, but it was extremely personal and intimate. Her favorite details were the vintage velvet sofa from Bee’s Vintage Rental and the flowers. Since Melissa is a sneaker stylist and lifestyle blogger, it only made sense for the couple to rock white Nike kicks on their big day. After the ceremony, the couple decided to host a home reception for their closest family and friends. The newlyweds spent their “mini moon” relaxing on Kiawah Island, S.C.
THE DETAILS DRESS Missguided, SHOES Nike, GROOM’S SUIT Indochino, FLORIST FiftyFlowers and Nectar, RINGS Cartier (his) and Helzberg Diamonds (hers), HAIR Ashley @ashdoesmyhair, MAKEUP VogaBeauty, NAILS TaLaya, Artisan Nail Studio, CAKE Suárez Bakery, SOMETHING BORROWED AND SOMETHING NEW The bride’s earrings and dress.
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T I M E L E SS , P E R S O N A L W E D D I N G P H OTO G R A P H S AS CO LO R F U L AS T H E T WO O F YO U. M E M O R I E S YO U ’ L L T R E AS U R E FO R E V E R
A M Y KO LO.CO M
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Full of timeless character, Southern charms and sophisticated comforts, Catawba Falls Events is considered a premier venue destination for weddings in the Carolinas. With a gorgeous lake, lush forests and beautiful views for sunsets and sunrises, the venue makes the perfect backdrop for a stunning wedding. The venue itself features cypress doors from the late 1600s, reclaimed red oak siding, and a massive floor to ceiling stone fireplace. The upscale bridal suite and groom’s room provide beautiful spaces for you to rela# as you prepare for your big day. Your wedding is fully customizable at Catawba Falls. Whether you choose to e#change vows indoors, on the terrace, or in the gorgeous new amphitheater with the breathtaking beauty of nature surrounding you, we'll help you craft the perfect ceremony and reception. Elegant. Southern. Timeless. We're ready to make your dreams come true.
www.catawbafallsevents.com
! p a T n o ss e
n i pp a H
Piaggio Ape Vintage Mobile Bar “Peaches” Free Standing Bar with Kegerator & 3 taps “Charlie”
Outdoor or indoor events - public or private
Perfect for any occasion…
Great for serving beer, wine, bubbly, cocktails, mocktails, Kombucha Piaggio Ape named “Peaches” has 7 taps and Free-standing bar with kegerator named “Charlie” has 3 taps. Both bars are customizable!
Weddings, birthdays, graduations, showers, anniversaries, company happy hour, business openings, luxury apartment resident events. The possibilities are ENDLESS!
Bubbles & Brews Charlotte | www.getcozybars.com | 336-253-2542 |
@bubblesandbrewsclt |
Get Cozy Vintage Mobile Bars
COMMERCIAL | WEDDINGS | PORTRAITS
www.timsouza.com | 703.868.0342
ONE OF THE FIRST STEPS IN PLANNING YOUR BIG DAY IS FINDING THE PERFECT PHOTOGRAPHER TO CAPTURE EVERY MOMENT — INCLUDING YOUR ENGAGEMENT. WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A BACKDROP THAT PAINTS A PASTORAL PICTURE, A ROMANTIC HISTORICAL SITE, AN UPSCALE METROPOLITAN SKYLINE OR AN EDGY URBAN FEEL, THE QUEEN CITY OFFERS AN ARRAY OF STUNNING LOCATIONS FOR A GORGEOUS ENGAGEMENT PHOTO SHOOT.
What says Charlotte more than the famous uptown skyline? The upscale metropolitan feel of the city makes for a dramatic backdrop while adding a chic personal taste of home. With dozens of historic buildings, beautiful architecture and urban parks with scenic views, there are plenty of sites to choose from. Pro tip: For a bird’s eye view of the city’s soaring towers, head to the top of a nearby parking garage or a rooftop bar for a quick photo session. Photo by Katheryn Jeanne Photography
Just across the state line in Lancaster, S.C., North Corner Haven is a rustic dream, with gorgeous photo shoot opportunities around every, well, corner. The 600-acre family-owned farm boasts a hardwood forest, pastures, ponds and a five-acre event venue including a farmhouse and event barn. If you’re planning on holding your wedding at North Corner Haven, a complimentary engagement photo session is included. All other photo shoots are booked by appointment and based on an hourly rate. For more information, contact Becky Knutson at becky@northcornerhaven.com. Photo by Kristin Byrum Photography
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Circle M Farm by Beau Monde is located outside of Charlotte, in quaint Lincolnton. The eight acre farm offers a homestead for you and your guests to immerse yourselves in, as well as a beautifully restored barn for your main event. The barn seats up to 200 guests with farm tables, chairs, and limited décor included. The farmhouse sleeps as many as ten guests and allows you to unplug, invest in your guests, and truly relax. Circle M Farm is the perfect location for your entire wedding celebration including, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners or engagement parties.
• Multiple ceremony sites
• 3,600 square feet of indoor space with additional outdoor space
• Full service includes • On site bridal suite catering, bar, and planner
(980) 598-9772 // Events@BeauMondeVenues.com // BeauMondeVenues.com // @CircleMFarmEvents
Just 2 miles from center city, the historic bed-and-breakfast’s nearly 5 acres of beautiful gardens and grounds is the perfect backdrop for a romantic engagement shoot. The 101-year-old property charges a sitting fee of $350 (not including photographer), which allows couples to take pictures in any available indoor or outdoor space for three hours on Sunday through Thursday. Booking fills up quickly, so be sure to set up your shoot at least a month in advance. Contact Kaitlyn Hutzel at khutzel@dukemansion.org for more information. Photo by Robyn Dawn Photos
A half-hour drive from the center city, Jetton Park in Cornelius offers 104 acres of prime scenic spots overlooking Lake Norman. With nature trails, public beaches, gazebos and more, the possibilities are endless. Head to the beach at sunset for jaw-dropping colorful photos with perfect lighting. (And don’t be afraid to get your feet a little wet!) Admission is free, and permits are not currently required for photo shoots at the public park. Photo by Dawn Marie Photography
Located near the NoDa neighborhood, the former Ford Motor assembly plant built in 1924 now boasts 76 acres of mixed-use space, including offices, retail, restaurants, breweries and an artsy, edgy backdrop for engagement sessions. For small-scale shoots, photographers are not required to call ahead, but with current pandemic restrictions, only outdoor photo shoots are permitted. Popular spots include under the iconic water tower, by the food stalls with a skyline view and in front of one of the dozens of colorful murals around the property. Photo by Kharis Photography
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The Collectors Room by Beau Monde is a place to entertain, celebrate, laugh and enjoy loved ones. Situated in Charlotte’s bustling South End neighborhood, adjacent to one of South End’s top contemporary art galleries. The Collector’s Room is a renovated warehouse ready for your personal touch, perfect for your entire wedding celebration including, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners or engagement parties. • 11,000 sq ft of private event space • Flexible, open layout • Can comfortably handle as few as 25 or as many as 300 people • Gold chiavari chairs and tables provided for up to 150 guests • In the heart of South End and just a short walk to the Bland St. Station
(980) 598-9772 // Events@BeauMondeVenues.com // BeauMondeVenues.com // @TheCollectorsRoomCLT
Let us be your perfect venue. Whether it’s just you and your spouse, the wedding couple and close friends and family, or a larger gathering, Bonterra has everything you need for a beautiful wedding.
THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES AT BONTERRA.
1829 CLEVELAND AVENUE • CHARLOTTE, NC 28203 | 704.333.9463 | BONTERRADINING.COM
LOOKING YOUR BEST WHEN IT MATTERS MOST. Charlotte’s Best Hair Extensions for that Special Moment. We specialize in hair extensions to add volume and length for brides on that special day.
STUDIO
A SALON
Andrea Pampillonio, Owner 6832 Morrison Blvd, Suite 200 Charlotte NC 28211 704-650-2626 studioasalon.net
KELSIE ELIZABETH PHOTOGRAPHY contact@kelsieelizabeth.com www.kelsieelizabeth.com instagram: @kelsieelizabethphotography
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Charlotte’s Formal Wear Headquarters Hickey Freeman ~ Samuelsohn Corneliani ~ Jack Victor ~ Paul Betenly Rentals by Jim’s Formal Wear
The Village at SouthPark ~ 4310 Sharon Road 704.366.4523 ~ www.PaulSimonCo.com
2104-PS Formal SP MagAd.indd 2
1/12/21 11:06 AM
Catering at Your Place or Ours
Celebrating 50 Years serving the Charlotte area! 1764 Norland Rd Charlotte, NC 28205 704-536-1500 www.smscatering.com
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GETTING ENGAGED TO THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE IS ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING TIMES OF YOUR LIFE — BUT IT CAN ALSO BE ONE OF THE MOST OVERWHELMING. IT’S DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHERE TO START WHEN IT COMES TO PLANNING A WEDDING, WITH WHAT FEELS LIKE A MILLION TASKS TO ACCOMPLISH IN A MATTER OF MONTHS. WE ASKED TARA SKINNER, WHO OWNS A LUXURY DESTINATION-WEDDING AND EVENT-PLANNING FIRM WITH OFFICES IN SAVANNAH, GA., CHARLESTON, S.C., AND CHARLOTTE, TO HELP US PUT TOGETHER THE PERFECT CHECKLIST FOR QUEEN CITY COUPLES PLANNING THEIR UPCOMING “I DOS.”
12 OR MORE MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING YOUR WEDDING • BOOK A WEDDING PLANNER • BOOK PHOTOGRAPHER • SET A BUDGET • BOOK YOUR FLORIST • DRAFT A GUEST LIST YOUR BRIDAL AND BOOK YOUR • DETERMINE • FIND PARTY CEREMONY LOCATION AND RECEPTION VENUE
Pro tip: Begin with gathering your inspiration pictures and determining your preferred style and what you are wanting to achieve on your wedding day. After setting your budget, determine the top three priorities for your wedding day (ex: florals, photography and food). Keep these top three priorities in mind when deciding how to allocate your budget. If your budget allows, hire a wedding planner. They can help steer you in the right direction with vendors, negotiate pricing and, most importantly, relieve wedding planning stress.
EIGHT TO 10 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING HOTEL ROOM • REGISTER FOR GIFTS • BOOK BLOCKS, IF APPLICABLE • CREATE WEDDING WEBSITE BOOK RENTAL COMPANY • FOR ITEMS SUCH AS A TENT, AND ORDER YOUR • FIND WEDDING DRESS LOUNGE FURNITURE, TABLES AND CHAIRS, AND LINENS BOOK YOUR CATERER • LIGHTING COMPANY, • BOOK YOUR BAND OR DJ • BOOK IF NEEDED • BOOK YOUR VIDEOGRAPHER • RESEARCH WEDDING INSURANCE POLICIES YOUR RENTAL/ • BOOK GETTING-READY LOCATION Pro tip: Once you have booked your wedding venue and have set the date, you will be able to research available vendors and continue building and securing your wedding team. Depending on the time of year you are getting married (busy season versus off season), it never hurts to book these vendors as soon as possible. When determining which vendors you need, make sure to have all the necessary details from your venue. Will you need to bring in additional power, lighting, restrooms, etc.? This is also the time to celebrate with your loved ones: Register for your gifts, enjoy your engagement party and build your wedding website to keep everyone up to date on the details.
What will your Mint event look like? Whether you want city-chic vibes or a lush landscape for your next event, the Mint has you covered. Connect with our Special Events team today. mintmuseum.org/rent-the-museum 704.337.2000
Kristin Byrum Photography Katrina Hutchins Events Florals by The Bloom Room
mintmuseum.org
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FINE JEWELRY BRIDAL REGISTRY FINE TABLEWARE & GIFTS Complimentary gift wrap and local delivery!
SIX TO NINE MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING
and reception details. Envision each moment of your wedding day and plan accordingly.
WEDDING • ORDER STATIONERY
TWO TO 4 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING
RECEPTION DETAILS • PLAN SUCH AS DINNER OPTIONS AND SEATING ARRANGEMENTS
• BOOK BAR SERVICES REHEARSAL DINNER HAIR AND MAKEUP • BOOK • BOOK LOCATION ARTISTS • HIRE YOUR OFFICIANT • BOOK CEREMONY MUSICIANS BRIDESMAIDS’ • ORDER DRESSES ENGAGEMENT • SCHEDULE PHOTOS • PLAN YOUR HONEYMOON WEDDING • SEND YOUR SAVE THE • HIRE TRANSPORTATION FOR THE DATES
FOOD AND • SCHEDULE CAKE TASTING
CEREMONY, RECEPTION, GETAWAY AFTER THE RECEPTION, AND FOR GUESTS, IF NEEDED
FOUR TO SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING DRESS • BEGIN ALTERATIONS
GROOM AND • ORDER GROOMSMEN ATTIRE
WEDDING DAY • FIND ACCESSORIES SUCH
A BAKER FOR YOUR • BOOK WEDDING CAKE
AS YOUR VEIL, SHOES, UNDERGARMENTS, JEWELRY AND GARTER
THINKING ABOUT • START THE FLOW OF EVENTS FOR RECEPTION
AND PURCHASE • FIND WEDDING BANDS Pro tip: Begin thinking about the details of the day: timing, flow of events, and ceremony
LIGHTING • MAIL INVITATIONS • CONFIRM OPTIONS CEREMONY SERVICE • PLAN ANY WITH OFFICIANT • PURCHASE NECESSARY WEDDING DAY ORDER FOR NEEDS SUCH AS WEDDING • CREATE BRIDESMAIDS AND GROOMSMEN TO WALK IN
SIGNS, PROGRAMS, FAVORS, WEDDING PARTY GIFTS, GUESTBOOK AND CHAMPAGNE FLUTES
• PLAN REHEARSAL TIME • FINALIZE FLORAL DESIGN • PLAN GRAND EXIT FOR RECEPTION THE MENU WITH • FINALIZE CATERER (UNLESS IT’S A START WRITING YOUR SIT DOWN DINNER, THEN • VOWS, IF APPLICABLE YOU MUST DO THIS PRIOR TO SENDING INVITATIONS)
• • CONFIRM CAKE DESIGN FINALIZE BAR PACKAGE SELECTIONS
HAIR AND • SCHEDULE MAKEUP TRIAL • CONFIRM RENTALS
Pro tip: You’re getting close! It’s time to send those invitations and confirm any details you can without the final guest count. Finalize all of your floral needs: Double check to make sure you don’t miss any family florals, ceremony florals, cocktail hour and bar arrangements, reception florals and cake flowers. Start gathering your wedding day details as well: everything from personal items to wedding day details (framed photos, garter, bridal accessories) to gifts for your bridal party, parents and each other.
Serving the Charlotte Area for over 18 Years One-on-One personal consultations Unique Inventory — not available in other stores!
Open 7 days a week | BedazzledBridal.com Two Locations:
605 S. New Hope Rd. Gastonia NC 28054
Valley Hills Mall 1960 HWY 70SE Hickory NC 28602
The gorgeous “Eternity” line by Jeena & Sasha is exclusive to Bedazzled! southparkmagazine.com | 119
ONE MONTH BEFORE WEDDING
• CREATE SEATING CHART • FINALIZE ALL PAYMENTS RSVP GUEST FOR YOUR MARRIAGE • CONFIRM • APPLY COUNT AND FINAL DETAILS LICENSE WITH ALL VENDORS
•
FINAL DRESS FITTING Your RSVPs should be returned (or on the way), and you can start finalizing the remaining details of the day. Don’t forget to apply for your marriage license. (Make sure to check any regulations and restrictions pertaining to this; is there a wait time, does the marriage license expire, etc.)
info@charlotteskylineterrace.com charlotteskylineterrace.com
TWO WEEKS BEFORE WEDDING “MUST HAVE” • CREATE SHOT LIST FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY
• MAKE SURE YOUR VENUE,
CATERER AND FLORIST HAVE A FINAL HEAD COUNT
ALL FINAL • RECONFIRM FINAL SONG LIST DETAILS AND TIMING WITH • CREATE FOR DJ OR BAND VENDORS
WEEK OF WEDDING YOUR DRESS • HAVE STEAMED, IF NEEDED
The Skyline Terrace is perfect for any formal affair – but it makes for one incredible spot to Get Married! Located just outside of uptown Charlotte, you’ll enjoy one of the best views overlooking the city, while being secluded enough to ensure your special day feels intimate.
AND PAMPER • RELAX YOURSELF!
EMERGENCY • REHEARSAL • PROVIDE CONTACT TO ALL VENDORS WEDDING DAY • GATHER DETAIL ITEMS TO GIVE TO PLANNER OR VENUE
Your wedding day is almost here, and all the details are confirmed and ready to go. Trust in the vendors you have chosen to create a magical day for you.
WANT TO SEE YOUR WEDDING FEATURED IN A FUTURE ISSUE? CONTACT WEDDINGS@SOUTHPARKMAGAZINE.COM.
#1 Best Small Town in the South! - Southern Living
Mention This Ad to Receive 10% Off 2 Rooms For Your Wedding Party
Located in the Heart of Historic Downtown Beaufort Multiple Indoor & Outdoor Venues & Onsite Accommodations 809 Port Republic Street, Beaufort SC | 843-379-4667 BeaufortInn.com | events@beaufortinn.com
Photography by: Hannah Alyssa Photography
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Designed to impress, this 1930s style building was restored back to its original luster as an elegant reception and special events venue located in the heart of the queen city.
Built in 1939, the Palmer Building’s original purpose was a fire school for Charlotte Firefighters until the mid-seventies when the firefighters moved to a new facility. Now on The National Register of Historic Places, the building and property is used to generate income for The Charlotte Firefighters Association.
2601 East Seventh Street Charlotte, NC 28204 Phone: 704-331-4737 Website: www.thepalmerbuilding.com Email: info@thepalmerbuilding.com
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OPEN
AT
P H I L LI P S
P L ACE
PHOTOS: CAREESE ROBINSON | MAKE UP: KYMM MCLEAN, WHO’S THE FAIREST?
Love
Fall in with Y u at Bellezza! Explore international apparel brought to you by Bellezza from all over the world! Come see our unique and exclusive selections. *We offer private styling appointments with champagne and gift cards. A great gift for your lady, or for yourself this Valentine’s Day!
Enjoy for our promotion for Valentine’s:
25% OFF A $200 PURCHASE 35% OFF A $500 PURCHASE Promotions good through 5 p.m. February 14th
6822-F PHILLIPS PL ACE CT. • PHILLIPS PL ACE, SOUTHPARK • CHARLOTTE NC 28210 • 980-819-6100
T
his Valentine’s Day, let Amélie’s help you give a little extra sweetness to those who matter most to you. Say “Je t’aime” the French way and send a gift box of Valentine’s Day inspired French Macarons including exclusive holiday flavors. Visit us in-store for personalized éclairs, fresh bouquets of roses, and more!
ROCK HILL • NODA • PARK ROAD • CARMEL COMMONS | AMELIESFRENCHBAKERY.COM
|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas
Good Friends
virtual broadcast at Queens University December 10
This year’s annual Good Friends gathering may have been virtual, but supporters met in homes across the city to watch the program and raise more than $500,000 for local charities.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Quinn Davidson, Mary Tinkey and Dawn Milgrom
Amy Scibelli
Marinn and Ala Bengel
Midge Barron and Sherrard Georgius
Carl McPhail, aka Santa, and Anne McPhail
Ashley Hewitt and Susan Firance
Tricia Norris and Tricia Hampton
Roline McGinnis and Gaither Deaton
xxx Van Allen Sally
Michelle Anderson, Sherrard Georgius and Cindy Markey
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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas
The Foundation for Tomorrow South of the Sahara virtual gala November 21
Meghann Gunderman Sehorn
Dan Lyles
Buffy Hawthorne, Barry Byrd and Meredith Tomascak
Andy Misiaveg, Adam Hawthorne and Kevin Haakenson
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Meredith Tomascak, Kautia Vaden, Buffy Hawthorne, Michelle Skipper, Kelli Haakenson and Shelley Misiaveg
Adam Hawthorne and Andy Misiaveg
Meghann Gunderman Sehorn led this year’s virtual gala while organizing viewing parties in several cities, including the nonprofit’s Charlotte home base. Sehorn founded Foundation for Tomorrow to help provide education for children in Tanzania.
Colonial Dames of America November 19
Peaches Rankin
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Jeff Drum
Susan Armistead and Leigh Bernhardt
Jeane Best and Woods Potts
Helen Potter and Deborah Hunter
Nan Bracy and Pardee Henderson
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
The Charlotte chapter of the Colonial Dames of America gathered at historic Rosedale, a 200-year-old home near NoDa.
|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas
A driveway pop-up concert benefiting Opera Carolina October 21
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Emily Jarrell Urbanek
Becky Hoover, Midge Barron and Luis Machicao
Julie Bernard, left
Opera Carolina and the Verdi Society brought music to the home of Natalie and John Scott, where neighbors gathered outside to enjoy an hourlong evening concert.
Jennifer Wiggins
Ashley Robertson and Clare Didier
Jennifer Bryson, Cat Long, Becky Hoover and Nicole Sodoma
A Night at Studio 54 sponsored by the Mannequin Group December 5, Studio 1212
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Charlotte’s Mannequin Group recalled the heydays of Studio 54 in New York City with a series of three socially distanced runway shows over one day.
Jamie Mitchell, Mary Walsh and Sylvia Credle
TyNia Brandon
Maurice Brown and Heloise Gerteiny
Berhan Nebioglu and Kina Costini
Irma Frockt, Maureen Biggs Royale and Colleen Richmond
Jason and Amanda Beebe
Melissa Davis
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|snapshot
Perking up
NOW ENTERING ITS SECOND DECADE, CHARLOTTE’S MAGNOLIA COFFEE BREWS COFFEE AND COMMUNITY. BY CATHY MARTIN
J
ay Gestwicki has worked around coffee for most of his adult life, first as a barista, then through his work with national and regional coffee chains. He started Magnolia Coffee in 2010 after witnessing the momentum of other artisan culinary trends. “The craft-beer industry was beginning to take off in Charlotte, and the culinary scene was growing, so I saw the market ripe for higher-quality coffees. I wanted to build a brand known for great quality but also known for helping build great community.” Magnolia’s small-batch coffee is sold at Whole Foods stores and specialty shops such as Common Market, Rhino Market and Mugs Coffee, and through its website. In May, Coffee Review listed its signature Magnolia Blend — a medium roast with dark chocolate and cherry notes — among the top 15 coffees to drink when you are stuck at home. Comments were edited for length and clarity.
Nitro Cold Brew rated among the best ready-to-drink cold coffees in the nation (Coffee Review, July 2020). I’m proud to say online sales were up almost 200% since before the pandemic. People are really responding to our quality and service.
How has business changed over the last year?
The challenge for any small business is brand awareness and getting the product to people conveniently. We’ve made it very convenient, so the focus is on getting consumers to try us for the first time. SP To learn more or to order, go to magnoliacoffeeco.com.
We had to adjust immediately since so many consumers are not leaving their homes regularly. So, we added new sizes, no-contract subscriptions, seven-day-a-week local delivery and same-day shipping, and [we] entered the retail bottled coffee market — our Jade 128
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What’s the delivery range? We offer home delivery within 10 miles of center city as well as nationwide shipping. I’m delivering daily to the SouthPark, Dilworth, NoDa and South End neighborhoods. There’s a growing population who want to buy local, artisan products for home delivery. People really want to support local small businesses, but it needs to be convenient. We’ve made it easy on them with delivery to their door. What’s ahead in 2021?
4521 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211
(704) 532-9041
OfďŹ cial Jeweler of the Carolina Panthers
www.diamondsdirect.com