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FROM THE EDITOR
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CATHY MARTIN EDITOR
editor@southparkmagazine.com
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t’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since the world as we know it turned upside down. One year ago, we had just wrapped up our cover photo shoot with Roxy Owens at Society Social’s new flagship store in South End. The future looked bright, and thanks to the pandemic-proof interior-design business and Society Social’s widespread social-media following, Owens’ furniture business was one of the relatively lucky ones. Many restaurants and small retailers haven’t fared as well. Each spring is full of anticipation, and as I sit down to write this column, we’re in the middle of what seems to be a never-ending stretch of rain and below 40-degree days. You’d better believe this Cancer child is ready to banish the Uggs in favor of sandals and trade oversized sweaters for T-shirts and sundresses. Being largely confined to home has made me more observant of my surroundings, and these days, I’m eagerly watching and waiting for my neighbor’s first daffodils and hyacinths to push their way through the earth. (Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the gardening bug like so many others during Covid — I’ll have to settle for admiring the work of others.) But our collective longing this spring is about much more than a change in the weather. We’re anticipating maskless coffee dates and dinners with friends, graduation parties and family reunions. We’re craving travel — did anyone else get a little teary-eyed watching the debut of Stanley Tucci’s new documentary, Searching for Italy? We want to visit busy hotels and lively cocktail bars, take in live concerts and shows, and go hug our parents and grandparents in Florida or Arizona or wherever, without fear. While we’re waiting, we’ve put together a spring home-design issue that’s chock full of ideas for infusing a little style and pizzazz into your living spaces. Cashion Hill Design helps a Myers Park family edit a miscellany of furnishings accumulated over the years while crafting a space where everything has meaning. Designer Rainy Westerman creates a color-filled home that’s not too fussy for a Rock Hill, S.C., family with three children. Cheryl Luckett of Dwell by Cheryl helps a couple heading into retirement transition from a formal, traditional home to one that’s light, bright and airy. Local homebuilder Trent Haston and his wife, Ragan, transform a 1,500-square-foot ranch into a modern farmhouse with plenty of room for their family of seven. And landscape designer Laurie Durden offers tips for adding spring-blooming bulbs to your garden. Whether you’re considering a whole-house makeover, adding a few new accessories or something in-between, we hope you can glean a few ideas from this issue. With any luck, we’re in the homestretch (pun intended) now. SP
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March DEPARTMENTS 25 | Blvd. Supper time at Plaza Midwood’s newest restaurant; inside Amy Korta’s fabulous closet; Cynthia Flaxman Frank’s evolution as a painter; Amarra Ghani becomes a guiding light for those in need
61 | Simple life A grande dame and other memory keepers
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65 | Bookshelf Notable new releases
68 | Gardening ‘Tulip testing’ brings joy to landscape designer Laurie Durden
125 | Swirl Parties, fundraisers and events in the Queen City
128 | My favorite things Fishing holes and Charlotte’s best banh mi
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ABOUT THE COVER Home design by Rainy Westerman Interior Design; photograph by Dustin Peck.
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additions renovations signature homes
Charlotte and Boone
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G E N E R A L C O N T R AC TO R
FEATURES 74 | Lovely layers by Cathy Martin | photographs by Dustin Peck Family heirlooms and newfound treasures create a Myers Park home with heart.
84 | Family style by Catherine Ruth Kelly | photographs by Dustin Peck
A Rock Hill designer strikes a balance between modern and traditional.
92 | Down South by Blake Miller | photographs by Cam Richards A couple moves back to the Carolinas to reconnect with family.
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100 | Putting down roots by Cathy Martin | photographs by David Ramsey
A Charlotte homebuilder and his family renovate their lakeside home.
114 | From tide to table by John Wolfe | photographs by Mallory Cash
Fisherwoman Ana Shellem harvests shellfish for chefs from Wilmington to Charlotte.
120 | Georgia on our minds by Jason Oliver Nixon The Madcap Cottage gents scamper off to Savannah.
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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 Contributing Editors David Mildenberg, Taylor Wanbaugh
A TRADITION OF KNOWLEDGE AND TRUST
Contributing Writers Wiley Cash, Jennings Cool, Jim Dodson, Laurie Durden, Vanessa Infanzon, Catherine Ruth Kelly, Blake Miller, Jason Oliver Nixon, Michael J. Solender, John Wolfe
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Contributing Photographers Mallory Cash, Daniel Coston, Justin Driscoll, Amy Kolo, Dustin Peck, David Ramsey, Cam Richards Amanda Lea Proofreader _______________ ADVERTISING Jane Rodewald Sales Manager 704-621-9198 jane@southparkmagazine.com Scott Leonard Account Executive/Audience Development Specialist 704-996-6426 scott@southparkmagazine.com Sharon Smith Marketing Specialist Brad Beard Graphic Designer _______________ Letters to the editorial staff: editor@southparkmagazine.com Instagram: southparkmagazine Facebook: facebook.com/southparkmagazine Twitter: twitter.com/SouthParkMag
Owners Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels Jr., Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff Published by Old North State Magazines LLC. ©Copyright 2021. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Volume 25, Issue 3
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A N T I Q U E S | L I G H T I N G | AC C E S S O R I E S 6815-A3 phillips place ct, charlotte, nc 28210 | 704.999.6976 | mon-sat 10am-5pm
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blvd. People. Places. Things.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
GARDEN PARTY
When Supperland opens on March 3, delectable food and innovative cocktails won’t be the only things on the menu. Guests of the long-awaited Plaza Midwood restaurant from husband-and-wife team Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel can also purchase Supperland’s custom vintage-inspired plates, bowls and tea sets depicting Southern birds and flowers. The dishwasher- and microwave-safe porcelain dishes were designed by London artist and illustrator Lou Rota and are manufactured by Villeroy & Boch. Plate sets are available in four designs: The Dogwood, Sweet Potato, Squash Blossom and Ramps & Palms; a set of four dinner plates and four bread plates is $399. Visit supper.land to view all items for sale, and turn the page to learn more about Supperland. SP
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blvd. | cuisine
Supperland owners Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown
Divine design NO DETAILS WERE SPARED AT SUPPERLAND, THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW RESTAURANT IN A FORMER CHURCH IN PLAZA MIDWOOD. BY CATHY MARTIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL
F
or foodies and craft cocktail lovers, the March 3 opening of Supperland has been a long time coming. If you’ve followed along on Instagram over the last two years, you’ve witnessed the enthusiasm and pure joy owners Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel and their team have poured into the project, a renovation of a 1950s church in the heart of Plaza Midwood. “It really isn’t just a restaurant. We’ve restored a space that has never been a restaurant before, and there are so many tricks to that, things you don’t figure out until you’re in the middle of it,” says Brown, who met Tonidandel when both were undergrads at Davidson College. Throw a pandemic into the mix, and the timeline becomes even less certain. Construction started in earnest about two years ago on the 5,250-square-foot building a block 26
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behind the Harris Teeter on The Plaza. Supperland is the couple’s fifth dining concept, joining NoDa mainstays Haberdish, Crepe Cellar, Growlers Pourhouse and Reigning Doughnuts. The owners describe Supperland as a Southern steakhouse with inspiration from church potluck picnics, but a preview in February reveals a myriad of influences, from English gardens to Southern sensibilities. Working with Peadon Finein Architecture, the couple tackled the majority of the design work themselves, from selecting tile and light fixtures to creating their own plates and handcrafting tables in their home garage. “We both have such passion for restoring old places,” Brown says. The church was built in 1956 by The Plaza Church of Christ, ac-
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blvd. | cuisine
The pot roast is one of several family-style dishes you'll find on the menu at Supperland, along with a variety of homemade pies, below, for dessert.
cording to Brown’s research. A 2,250-square-foot adjacent building that will serve as Supperland’s cocktail bar was built in 1948 and used by members while the church raised money for construction of the main building. The congregation eventually moved to a larger building on Providence Road, and the last sermon was delivered at the Plaza property in 1979. The building was home to various pursuits including a frame shop and an art gallery before plans for Supperland were unveiled. No detail was overlooked in designing the space, from the delicate etched glassware to the pretty patterned tile bathroom floors. Purple leather banquettes line walls adorned with vintage-inspired Luna Bella sconces. The rough cinder-block walls — intentionally left bare after drywall was removed — blend unexpectedly with the feminine botanical print wallpaper design by London artist Adrienne Kerr. Four oversized chandeliers suspended from the white-washed, open-truss ceilings lend an elegance to the space while allowing unobstructed views of the large open kitchen. Tables are fashioned from North Carolina hickory with brass inlays to mimic the look of table runners, and 120-year-old church pews from Colorado were refurbished with new seat cushions. As a nod to the building’s previous life as a church, the owners stained the floor where the center aisle ran between the pews of the sanctuary a
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slightly different color. “We wanted to keep the idea of leading people’s eye that way, because I’m a big believer in using a space as it was originally meant to be used,” Brown says. When it came time to choose dishes, the partners hit a stumbling block. Brown had seen some plates at Anthropologie designed by London artist and illustrator Lou Rota. She reached out and commissioned Rota to design four dinner plates, bread plates,
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blvd. | cuisine tea sets and serving pieces inspired by the birds and foliage of a Southern garden. The dishes are available for purchase through Supperland’s website. On the menu, guests can expect Southern steakhouse specialties cooked in Supperland’s custom open-fire kitchen served family style with shareable sides, along with daily specials and appetizers including caviar with homemade blinis. Supperland will also offer an afternoon tea service with sandwiches and pastries, inspired by the couple’s trips to London. “I think there are a lot of parallels between London and the South,” Brown says. “It’s just a special way to spend an afternoon.” While afternoon tea might conjure images of proper ladies with pinkies extended, don’t expect much stuffiness here. The dessert menu will feature a seasonal Jell-O, a dish made with Marshmallow Fluff and lots of homemade pies. “This being an old church, we wanted to pull in a lot of whimsy and fun and color into the dishes,” Brown says. “It will kind of take the steakhouse idea and freshen it up, brighten it up, root it here in the South — here in this church, here in this neighborhood.” SP
Chef Chris Rogienski, who was previously sous chef at Haberdish, heads the kitchen at Supperland
Supper time: Supperland opens for dinner March 3, with outdoor seating available. Weekend lunch and brunch service will be added later in the spring. The cocktail bar led by mixologist Colleen Hughes will open a later date, along with a downstairs private dining room that will seat 10-12 people with a view of the glass-enclosed prep kitchen. Reservations are available at supper.land.
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blvd. | style
CLOSET CRUSH:
Amy Korta BY WHITLEY ADKINS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY KOLO
A
my Korta’s love of fashion and style was largely impressed upon her by two things — her grandmother, and jewelry. Growing up in Chapel Hill, Amy often visited her favorite bead store, Original Ornaments, on Franklin Street. “I remember bringing beads home and having birthday parties around them, and as I got older, I always loved jewelry,” she says. “I think back to my grandmother and my mother getting dressed for occasions, and I remember more the jewelry that they wore than the outfit itself.” As an adult navigating a career in fashion, Korta, who works at Coplon’s, realized she missed the thing she loved so much as a child: working with her hands. “Once I started making my jewelry, I had a positive response to it, so I kept exploring it … I finally arrived at this aesthetic that I felt represented the things that inspire me: nature, travel and street style.” Her handmade jewelry consists of semi-precious stones, diamonds and oxidized metals she describes as “a mix of chunky and delicate — feminine with an edge.” Follow her on Instagram @AmyGordonJewelry. Comments have been lightly edited. How do you describe your personal style? Evolving. There’s an influence from the era that I picture my grandmother getting dressed up in the ’50s, but also this really free spirit, boho style and influence from the ’60s and ’70s. I want to feel beautiful for myself, because I think that projects the most confidence, but I also want my husband to see me as beautiful.
Amy Korta’s closet is so chic it’s hidden behind this bookshelf door. With designer details like Windy O’Connor wallpaper and Assouline travel books, we might never want to leave.
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blvd. | style
Do you have a style icon? My grandmother, who is 92. My great-grandmother and my grandmother had a women’s clothing store in downtown Statesville. She is fierce, witty, raw and honest, and she pushes me to wear the extra accessory or stand out. I like Carrie Bradshaw, and Arielle Charnas, the Something Navy blogger. Bradshaw’s style is not as approachable, but I think it’s important not to take yourself too seriously, which I can be guilty of. Are there any trends that you love? I think animal print is an ongoing thing, [along with] the strong shoulder and a puffy sleeve (that my husband hates). I think it’s important with trends to dress with what looks good for your body type, because there are a lot of trends that don’t work. What are your favorite items? My Raquel Allegra red dress that I wore on my first wedding anniversary — and I’ve worn it every anniversary since, for seven years. To me, it’s important to have things in my wardrobe that I not only want to own, but that I want to wear. I have made this mistake so many times, especially with shoes that just aren’t comfortable. Otherwise, you can have a closet full of clothes and still feel you have nothing to wear. Where do you like to shop? Coplon’s and Poole Shop in Charlotte; Shopbop online, as well as Zara and H&M; and I love Vermillion in Raleigh and Hampden in Charleston. 36
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blvd. | style Do you have a uniform? A boho-style dress and Golden Goose? An easy sneaker and a flowy dress? Yep, probably. Do you have a hero piece in your closet? I always feel cool when I put on this Michelle Farmer top. A friend of mine had one like it, so I called the store and ordered it. It’s a store out of The Hamptons and Palm Beach — this is their own label. Also, this white Oscar [de la Renta] top that I got from Coplon’s. You and your husband, Luke, love to travel. What are your packing essentials?
Easy dresses, and I love good sunglasses. Scarves are great — they are versatile, they keep you warm on the plane, cover your shoulders if it’s cold at night, wrap around your neck if it’s fall or winter. Your entire closet is amazing. Tell me about the design and those acrylic hangers. Chad Sheets with Linnane Homes spent hours with me configuring the shelves, hanging space, lighting, all of it. He really helped bring my vision to life. I found the hangers on the Something Navy website. I think it’s important, no matter what type of hangers you have, that they are uniform in order for your closet to feel uniform. SP
THIS OR THAT Skirts, pants or dresses? Dresses, but I love a good jeans-and-T-shirt moment. Boots or sneakers? Depends on the day. Heels or (scanning the shoe wall) ... clogs? Heels, but I love a good clog. Favorite handbag? My Chanel quilted jumbo classic bag. It’s art to me. The inside of the bag is maroon because Coco Chanel’s uniforms when she was young [living in a convent orphanage] were maroon. Also, my pink shearling Chanel bag and my brown leather Celine Big Bag — I can throw everything in it. Clutch or tote? Crossbody Favorite era for fashion? Maybe the ’70s. I love to be dressy and frilly, but I love to feel cool and effortless.
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Since 1984, Tri-Square has specialized in designing, remodeling, and building custom homes throughout South Charlotte, turning visions to reality for over 1,500 clients with varying goals, project sizes, and design styles. Our unified team and innovative approach have positioned Tri-Square as one of Charlotte’s most respected builders. Let us partner with you to create the home of your dreams.
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blvd. | the arts
Painting pages
ARTIST CYNTHIA FLAXMAN FRANK’S FIRST COMMERCIAL EXHIBIT OPENS THIS MONTH AT ELDER GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART. BY VANESSA INFANZON
C
ynthia Flaxman Frank ate lemons when she was a young girl to see what kind of response she could get from the people around her. It was a source of pride to do something no one else could do. “It was part of my identity as a child,” Frank says. “I would always get some type of reaction like surprise or delight or looking at me like I was a curiosity. Nobody could believe I could eat lemons like other people could eat oranges.” The lemons from Frank’s childhood appear in her “Overprint” series. She explores the act of repetition by changing the background, colors, foreground and shape of the fruit. This month, Frank’s paintings will be on display at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art in South End. Cynthia Flaxman Frank: on the mezzanine is her first commercial show and features 14 to 16 pieces. The exhibition opens March 5 in conjunction with South End’s First Friday Gallery Crawl from 5-7 p.m. Gallery owner Sonya Pfeiffer balances the offerings at the 6,000-square foot gallery with works of art that open dialogue and address challenging topics with others that bring calm and respite. She describes Frank’s work as an antidote to chaos. “As soon as I saw her work, particularly the lemons, and the other ones where she repeats things, they had this meditative quality to them,” Pfeiffer says. “I also felt they were an expression of beauty but not necessarily a traditional beauty — not a classic floral or landscape. The beauty is in how she executes it.”
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1400 Sterling Road
305 Belle Meade Court
Charlotte, NC 28209
Waxhaw, NC 28173
CT
RA
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Offered at $1,375,000
Offered at $1,200,000
Highgate Rebecca Hunter 704-650-4039
Offered at $1,085,000
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Longview Country Club Tim and Suzanne Severs 704-564-7346
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1530 Queens Road PH #2
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Charlotte, NC 28226
Charlotte, NC 28207
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at $399,900
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McAlpine Forest Rebecca Hunter 704-650-4039
Offered at $795,000
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The Carlton Lauren Campbell 704-579-8333
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Windswept Missy Banks 704-968-0547
8021 Rittenhouse Circle
127 N Tryon Street #513
2990 Selwyn Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28270
Charlotte, NC 28202
Charlotte, NC 28209
Offered at $550,000
Sardis Ridge North Tony Nicastro 704-651-5333
Offered at $475,000
Iveys Townhomes Daina Brundrett 704-651-8917
Offered at $359,000
Selwyn Terrace Caranna O’Melveny 704-502-3807
ALLEN TATE SOUTHPARK
2053 Kings Manor Drive Matthews, NC 28104
blvd. | the arts
‘TYPE IS POWERFUL’
METICULOUS REPETITION
Frank, 53, began painting just four years ago after a 30-year career in graphic design. Her three children are grown, and she works from her home studio near Myers Park High School. She started in mixed media and moved to oil. “I’m a very new painter,” she says. “It’s been an interesting evolution of my artistic life.” She grew up in Providence, R.I., and spent summers in Wellfleet, a small town on Cape Cod. While Frank always created, when she was young it came in the form of singing and songwriting. She began her career in design after graduating from Yale University with an English degree and an MFA in graphic design. She moved to Charlotte from Connecticut in 1998 and launched Cynthia Frank Design. Frank developed an advanced typography course for Central Piedmont Community College and taught it for five years. Typography is the language of designers, Frank says. It’s utilized alone or with images, and it communicates tone, content and message. “Type is really powerful,” she says. “Fundamentally, most of what I make as a fine artist relates back to my love of and lifetime association with language and typography.” Since 2018, she’s taught design methods and beginning and advanced design classes in the art and art history department at UNC Charlotte. Adam Justice, director of galleries for the College of Art and Architecture at UNCC, met Frank two years ago. In early 2020, he asked Frank to exhibit her work in the Rowe Arts Building. Written Image was a chance to show how Frank encapsulates graphic-design typography and her image-making with painting and collages. “She teaches graphic design at UNCC, but in her private studio practice she does a lot of painting. I wanted to explore the links between those two different creative processes that she has. I think Cynthia’s work is a really great example of how design really permeates all processes of art-making.”
The pieces from “Excerpt” evolved from a fascination with illuminated manuscripts, the ancient art form of illustrating text and integrating drawings. An intricate design is added to the first letter of a word or in the margins on a page with gold, silver or bold colors. “I’ve always loved them,” Frank explains. “[I] started thinking about what would happen if you zoomed in and blew little pieces of them up. That’s where the idea of ‘Excerpt’ comes from. An excerpt is a piece of something, a piece of a page.” Frank wondered how she could apply her own aesthetic and modern understanding of type and typographic texture using a page’s grid, borders, edges, margins and the structure as a foundation. If there’s a suggestion of a letter form in her artwork, it’s obscure because she’s made it that way. “In the series, I translate the qualities of these old manuscripts into modern paintings with my own indecipherable text,” she says. “Often I tease that through the meticulous repetition on a single meaningful symbol that, to me, is a personal memory.” The lines between graphic design as an applied art and fine art are blurred for Frank. She builds up a surface with a repeated form to make the texture of repetition obvious and uses handmade stencils of a simple symbol, an icon or her favorite — the lemon. “By repeating it over and over, the expression of that one form becomes my personal story,” she explains. “I’m writing it. I’m rewriting it. I’m printing it in a way that all [comes] out of the language of graphic design. Then imprinting it on the canvas, which is in a sense, my own page.” SP
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Cynthia Flaxman Frank: on the mezzanine will be on view from March 5 – May 22 at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art, 1520 South Tryon St. There will be an artist reception on March 26 from 6-8 p.m.; for more information visit eldergalleryclt.com/ cynthia-flaxman-frank-exhibition.
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blvd. | food & drink
Braving it out
OPENING A RESTAURANT DURING A PANDEMIC? WHY NOT, THESE SOUTHPARK OWNERS AND OPERATORS SAID. BY JENNINGS COOL
Cordial
L
ast spring, Covid-19-induced panic spread through the hospitality industry as temporary closures became the talk of the town. For restaurant owners specifically, it was time to sink or swim: Either back away from owning and managing a restaurant completely, or embrace the challenges ahead and dive headfirst into the unknown. Monte Smith, owner of brunch favorite Cafe Monte French Bakery & Bistro, chose the latter. Motivated by opportunity and the desire to support workers in the industry, instead of pulling away from the food-and-drink scene, he embraced the challenge of opening a second restaurant during the downturn. “We are adding rather than taking away,” Smith says. “It is a new challenge on a personal level.” In late 2019, Smith learned about an opening at Phillips Place, where Cafe Monte has operated for more than a decade. Inspired by his Gulf Coast roots — he was born in Galveston, Texas — and undeterred by the pandemic, Smith opened his second restaurant, Southern Pecan Gulf Coast Kitchen, in October in the space previously occupied by WP Kitchen + Bar. “We were initially hesitant, but we believed we could take advantage of the existing facility and of the opportunity to open a new restaurant,” Smith says. Smith had previous experience starting a business during an economic downturn — he opened Cafe Monte in 2008, in the 44
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midst of the Great Recession. But launching a new restaurant at the height of a global crisis was a whole new challenge. Even after several months in business, he still steps over hurdles each day, one of his tallest being forecasting. “There are a lot of things that don’t relate to running a restaurant or business on a day-to-day basis that we have had to consider and work with,” Smith says. Budgeting for the future and relying on patterns of the past is not what it used to be. With daily regulation changes and fluctuating mandates, Smith, along with many other business owners has had to be more strategic and creative when looking ahead. “Every day has a new twist and turn to it,” Smith says. Smith was not the only one who braved the uncertainty of a Covid opening. AC Hotel Charlotte SouthPark opened in December 2019 with plans to unveil Cordial, its modern rooftop bar, once the weather heated up in spring. Pandemic panic pushed Cordial’s debut to the backburner. “What do you do at that point? Do you stick with the schedule and force it through? Or do you wait?” says Taylor Lugar, general manager of the hotel. “We pumped the brakes.” The bar is owned by Marriott, but Cordial is a local concept created by Lugar and Amanda Gibbons, food and beverage director. Cordial sat idle for several months. Keeping morale and excitement alive to fuel the opening was hard to maintain, Lugar says.
blvd. | food & drink Grilled banana nut bread from Southern Pecan
Southern Pecan On the menu: Appetizers include Louisiana barbecue shrimp and roasted poblano pimento cheese, and there’s a variety of salads and po’ boys. Bestselling entrees include a blackened redfish with crawfish creme; pecan-encrusted catfish with cilantro lime butter; and Southern fried steak with mashed potatoes and pole beans. The vibe: “Affordable gourmet” food in a casual setting; good for couples, families or just a night out; patio seating is available.
However, summer 2020 offered a glimmer of hope: As businesses started to reopen, Lugar thought it could be a good time to unveil the rooftop bar. Cordial opened its doors in June. “We have to adapt quickly to changing mandates and make sure we are complying with ordinances so customers feel safe and want to come back,” Lugar says. One of the many obstacles Cordial has faced is inconsistent availability of products and ingredients. Many vendors, short on supplies, make deliveries once a week as opposed to two times, limiting menu offerings. Cordial started with a small menu of appetizers and shareable plates. Its menu has gradually expanded to include more seasonal items as business has picked up. “We are in a tough situation, but I still feel very lucky and fortunate to still be in operation and open for business,” Lugar says. Bentley’s, a French-American restaurant, overcame its own set of obstacles when it relocated from uptown to Piedmont Town Center in SouthPark. Owners Jim and Kay Emad decided to make the move in May 2019, well before the pandemic, but setbacks pushed the opening to June 2020. The Emads had a vision to completely renovate Bentley’s new space, previously home to Georges Brasserie, including new lighting, a new bar design and wine room, and other enhancements. Once the pandemic hit, however, their plans were delayed. Sourcing the materials needed to build and maintain the restaurant has been an ongoing battle, Jim Emad says. The restaurant recently added a bar menu Monday-Thursday to attract diners seeking a more casual meal. “We just try to go day by day and solve problem after problem.” SP
Hours: 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. seven days a week. *Covid regulations may have impacted hours; check in advance.
Cordial On the menu: Craft cocktails; charcuterie boards with cured meats and cheeses, hand-rolled empanadas with pulled sofrito chicken, and Caribbean jerk wings with cilantro-lime ranch. New seasonal menu items include citrus shrimp with mashed plantains and roast pork sliders. The vibe: Sleek and modern inside; expansive patio outside, perched just above the tree line with distant views of the uptown skyline. Hours: At press time, Cordial was open Thursday - Saturday, 3-9 p.m.
Bentley’s On the menu: Signature dishes include oysters Bentley, caviar tuna tartare, Chateaubriand Bouquetiere, Hawaiian sea bass, bourbon filet mignon, and for dessert, Bentley’s crepes suzette and bananas Foster prepared tableside. On the new bar menu, available Monday-Thursday, expect tuna nachos, a lobster BLT, a lamb burger, New York strip and more. The vibe: Airy and open with neutral décor; ideal for date night or an elegant dinner with friends. Hours: Open for dinner MondaySaturday starting at 4:30.
Bentley’s
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SouthPark WAVERLY LAKE NORMAN
MY E R S PA R K
SHERYL HALLOW 704-907-1144
2438 Overhill Road Exquisite details | 4BR/6.1BA | Pool/Guest House $3,500,000
FOXCR OFT
VALERIE MITCHENER 704-577-8200
4000 Columbine Circle Spectacular new home | 5BR/5.3BA | Pool & spa $3,395,000
E N GL IS H GA R DE NS
SANDRA SINGER 704-231-8575
3612 English Garden Drive 3.78 acre estate | 6BR/7.1BA | Entertainer’s dream Under Contract $3,200,000
M Y E R S PA R K
1255 Queens Road West
PATTY HENDRIX
Circa 1925 | 4BR/4.2BA | Beautiful gardens Sold $1,975,000
704-577-2066
F OXC R O F T
MY E R S PAR K
COOK | PIZZO TEAM 704-236-1135
2015 Queens Road West 4-Story condo w/elevator | 4BR/3.1BA | Views $1,299,000
LIZ M C INTOSH 704-488-6224
3924 Columbine Circle Chef’s kitchen | 5BR/4BA | Private 0.72 acre lot Under Contract $1,295,000
S O U T H PA R K | P I E D M O N T R OW
COTSWO L D AR EA
MAREN BRISSONKUESTER TEAM 704-287-7072
1417 S Wendover Road 1+ acre | Selling as lot or SF home | Pool | Pond $897,000
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PATTY RAINEY
4620 Piedmont Row Drive, #313 Corner unit | 2BR/2BA | Fabulous floor plan $425,000
704-534-0096
h m p ro p e r t i es .c o m
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blvd. | retail
Taste of home GLEIBERMAN’S ENTERS ITS FOURTH DECADE AS
THE REGION’S SOLE EXCLUSIVELY KOSHER MARKET. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER
S
hortly after Jeff Gleiberman opened his eponymous kosher market in 1990, he was chatting with a woman in his store who marveled at his selection of kosher products. Many items were foods she grew up with in New York City yet had difficulty finding in Charlotte. “The woman had her son with her, who I guessed to be about 8 or 9,” Gleiberman recalls. “I asked her if she wanted any knishes.” Gleiberman proudly carries the popular treat — a flaky dough pocket, typically stuffed with potatoes and onions — that is a fixture on Jewish tables and a ubiquitous New York City street food. “Her son innocently turned to her and asked, ‘What’s a knish?’ It really set me back, I was stunned he didn’t know.” Charlotte’s ethnic food scene has changed dramatically in the 31 years since Gleiberman’s opened. And while fresh knishes and kosher Jewish delicacies from gefilte fish (fishcakes made with white fish and spices) to rugelach (crescent-shaped pastries made with a cream cheese dough) can now be found at Harris Teeter, Food Lion and other supermarkets, Gleiberman’s remains the only market in the Carolinas selling exclusively kosher foods. Gleiberman’s, located just off Sardis Road North and Galleria Boulevard in Matthews, is in its third incarnation since opening in 1990 at the Amity Gardens Shopping Center on Independence Boulevard, now home to a Walmart Supercenter. In 2006, the market moved to Providence Square Shopping Center near Shalom Park. For 12 years, Gleiberman operated the city’s only kosher restaurant alongside the store until 2018, when the site’s owner began to redevelop the property, precipitating the move to Matthews. Many Jews maintain kashrut, or kosher dietary laws, as a critically important element in adhering to their faith. “Kosher is part of our Jewish way of life and a religious belief,” says Rabbi Yossi Groner, 48
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director of Chabad-Lubavitch of North Carolina and chief rabbi at Charlotte’s Congregation Ohr HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. “What the torah tells us is food that is kosher means it is fit for us to eat because it has passed the standard of purity.” Both the ingredients and their preparation techniques make foods acceptable or not under kosher dietary laws, Groner explains. “Gleiberman’s provides an essential service for Charlotte’s [observant] Jewish community,” he says. For Brooklyn native Gleiberman, it’s a matter of pride and sense of responsibility to the Jewish community, where he finds inspiration to operate in an increasingly difficult retail environment. “It is an important part of Jewish life, and I believe it is important to have a local resource,” says Gleiberman, 63. “It gives me pride to bring items not found in mainstream markets to my customers here in Charlotte.” Gleiberman estimates slightly more than half his customers keep a kosher home, while others patronize his store to find a taste of Jewish culture and comfort food. Memories are found in treats such as fabled black and white cookies, challah or seven-layer cakes from Beigel’s New York Bakery, chocolate and cinnamon babka from Green’s Bakery in the Bronx, Bells bialys, or Bissli, a popular brand of snacks favored by the store’s many Israeli customers. Gleiberman’s also carries a wide selection of kosher wines and nonalcoholic beverages. It’s during Passover, the major Jewish holiday annually commemorating the liberation of ancient Israelites from Egyptian bondage, that Gleiberman’s shines, providing access to an increased variety of kosher for Passover foods. (This year, Passover begins on the evening of March 27.) “It’s our busiest time of the year,” says Gleiberman, who sees customers come from as far afield as Hickory, Wilmington, Raleigh, Asheville and Columbia, S.C. Gleiberman’s carries more than a dozen varieties of matzoh alone — the unleavened crispy baked crackers are favored by observant Jews as a bread substitute and considered a staple over the holiday. “I even carry kosher for Passover Coca-Cola,” Gleiberman says. “There’s a special formulation during the holiday that doesn’t use corn syrup and is bottled in New York.” The market also serves as a cultural touchstone and social center for many area Jews. Visits here are often punctuated by friendly banter evocative of corner bodegas in New York City’s Jewish enclaves. “My father’s commitment to the Jewish community is special and inspiring,” says David Gleiberman, Jeff’s 29-year-old son who works at the market “Many times over the years, I’ve seen him open the store during off hours to help someone get ingredients for a special meal, or to provide a shelf-stable prepared dinner for a traveling businessperson seeking a kosher meal. He’s put his heart and soul into the business. It’s his life’s work.” SP
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blvd. | the creators of n.c.
Welcome home
HOW AMARRA GHANI BECAME A GUIDING LIGHT FOR THOSE IN NEED BY WILEY CASH • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALLORY CASH
C
harlotte resident and founder of Welcome Home, Amarra Ghani, has continually found herself in two roles that are surprisingly in concert with one another: caregiver and outsider. These two roles go hand-in-hand more than one would think. Often, outsiders come from a perspective that allows them to assess the needs of others with fresh eyes, and caregivers tend to take on singular roles that set them apart. “I’ve always felt different,” Ghani says. “The color of my skin, my name.” After 9/11, these feelings intensified for Ghani, a practicing Muslim whose parents are Pakistani immigrants. “I felt super-ostracized,” she says, despite growing up in ethnically and culturally diverse cities in New York and New Jersey. “People would say hurtful things to me because of what I looked like or how I grew up.” Ghani’s feelings of being an outsider intensified when her family moved to Charlotte halfway through her senior year of high school. Feeling alone, Ghani, who was not raised in a religious family, began to lean on her faith. “I was isolated from everyone,” she says. “I fell in love with Islam because it was comforting for me. I was praying more. I was reading the Koran, and I felt like God was my only friend.” After high school, Ghani attended community college in Charlotte before transferring to UNC Asheville, where she founded the Muslim Student Association in hopes that other practicing Muslims would not feel as alone as she once had. “That’s where I found my voice,” she says. After college, she moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and later as a production assistant at NPR. Ghani was living out her career dreams but was called home to Charlotte in 2016 after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She became her mother’s caregiver. She didn’t stop there. While throwing a “friendsgiving” celebration that year, Ghani encouraged her friends to bring warm winter clothes that she could donate to people in need. She learned that a friend’s mother — a native of Afghanistan who’d been living in Charlotte for 40 years — was gathering clothes for local refugees. 52
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blvd. | the creators of n.c. When Ghani took her friendsgiving haul to the woman’s house, she asked her what else local refugees needed. She was surprised to learn that most of them needed the basic necessities like utensils, towels and bedding. She told her that she would put out a call on social media, which she had regularly used to make connections during her work in D.C. The response was overwhelming; soon, her parents’ garage was full of donated materials, from used clothing to brand-new items to gift certificates. “Once I started, it just kept growing,” she says. When the pool of donors and volunteers swelled from 30 people to more than 250, Ghani realized that she needed a better platform, so she set up a WhatsApp group called “Welcome Home.” This seemed like an appropriate name for a group dedicated to welcoming refugees as they bridge the gap between the struggles in their old lives and the challenges of the new. While working full time with Wells Fargo, Ghani set about turning Welcome Home into a functioning organization, complete with a board of directors. Once things became official, the first phase of the organization’s work was to meet the basic needs of the refugee community by furnishing apartments, for example, or taking people on grocery-store visits and other errands where assistance was needed. The second phase of operations focused on sustainability, and the organization forged ahead with programs in English language education and services that pair refugees with translators who can accompany them on doctor visits and other appointments where language may be a barrier. Ghani knows these difficulties firsthand. “English is my second language because my parents would not talk to me in English,” she says. “As the child of immigrants, there’s a time when you become your parents’ parent. I was 11 when I started helping my dad with forms or going to the doctor with them or going to parent-teacher conferences to translate.” What a difference an organization like Welcome Home would have made in the life of her family. “I wish someone had guided my parents,” she says. “My dad could’ve had less pressure on him.” And how were they to know such resources existed? “When you’re someone who doesn’t speak the language, and you’ve just arrived and don’t know the community around you, you need someone to guide you. That is what drives me.” Welcome Home started with 21 families, and they all eventually graduated from the program, no longer in need of assistance. “We have families who come here and who don’t know English or how to drive and perhaps have a fourth grade education,” Ghani says. Not only are they learning how to survive in a world that feels so foreign, 54
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she continues, but they are learning how to thrive. “We have three families who have been able to purchase houses in the last year,” she says. They were able to raise money to cover the rent for another family where the wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. “Earlier this year, we learned that this family was able to buy a house as well.” But Ghani also recognizes the hesitancy many people have about seeking help, which is why Welcome Home plays such an important role in the lives of refugees from places like Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar. While many refugee organizations are missionary in nature, Welcome Home is not. Still, Ghani cannot deny the comfort families find in working with an organization largely comprised of people who share the refugees’ religious faith, culture and worldview. “It makes a difference in small ways and big ways,” she says. “For example, during Thanksgiving, our families know that we can provide Halal turkeys. That establishes a level of trust.” Now, perhaps more than ever, trust is paramount as refugees settle into a new community during the coronavirus pandemic. As the virus takes its toll in communities across the state, Welcome Home finds itself back in its first phase, meeting the basic needs of its families. “It’s all about necessities and fundraising to cover bills,” Ghani says. It’s also about keeping families safe from the virus itself. In mid-February, Welcome Home partnered with the city of Charlotte and the Mecklenburg Department of Health Services to provide vaccinations. “They reached out to us because of the skepticism of the vaccine in refugee and immigrant communities. We’re bridging that gap and bringing familiarity to the process of getting vaccinated,” Ghani says. Through it all, Ghani, who last month was awarded UNC Asheville’s Francine Delany Award for Service to the Community, maintains that she is driven by her faith, as well as by the memories she has of being an outsider and her most recent calling to care for those in need. “What did I do to deserve the life that I have?” she asks. “Nothing. I was just born into this family and this faith and this atmosphere. Others aren’t so lucky.” When she works with refugee families, assisting them with everything from getting clothes to learning English, she can’t help seeing a bit of herself in their struggle. “I know where they’re coming from,” she says. “I’ve been in that place.” No matter the place where members of Charlotte’s refugee community find themselves, Amarra Ghani wants to make certain they get home. SP Wiley Cash is the writer-in-residence at UNC Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, will be released this year.
BE TEMPTED The Cheesecake Factory • Sushi • Burger • Bar Maggiano’s Little Italy McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant Nordstrom’s Marketplace Cafe Reid’s Fine Foods & Wine Bar
blvd. | calendar
March
Cinderella at the Skyline Drive-in series at Camp North End
Frontline Workers at The Brooklyn Collective gallery
Enjoy a classic film with a cool view of the Queen City at this drive-in movie experience. Stop by the one of the delectable food stalls to snag a bite to eat before the show. The details: March 4, 7 p.m.; $30 per car; skylinedrivein. eventbrite.com
Dear Frontline has partnered with the Brooklyn Collective gallery in uptown Charlotte to honor frontline and essential workers who have supported our communities throughout the pandemic. The exhibit includes works by 11 local and national artists. The details: March 12-June 30; brooklyncollectiveclt.org
In process: Andrew Hayes at Hodges Taylor Gallery
Color Me Green 5K Trail Run at U.S. National Whitewater Center
This solo exhibition features sculptures incorporating found book pages and steel by Asheville-based artist Andrew Hayes. The details: Opens March 5; hodgestaylor.com
Stephen Hayes at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art Durham native Stephen Hayes gives voice to the African American experience through historical interpretation and contemporary mixed-media artwork. The details: March 5-May 22; eldergalleryclt.com
Love Rules by Hank Willis Thomas at SOCO Gallery The wordplay in the Brooklyn-based conceptual artist’s neon sign imparts a message of a community striving toward unity. The presentation coincides with a solo exhibition of photographer Linda Foard Roberts’ “LAMENT” series. The details: March 11-April 21; socogallery.com
Curt Butler: Solo Show at Shain Gallery Known for his work with oil and encaustic (wax) mediums, Butler’s pieces are a magnificent blend of brushstrokes best viewed from multiple perspectives. The details: March 12, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; shaingallery.com
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Dodge clouds of green powder as you leprechaun-leap your way through the trails. The details: March 13, 8 a.m. - noon; registration costs vary; usnwc.org
Acoustic Grace at uptown’s Brooklyn Grace This new monthly showcase features local singer-songwriters and a cappella performers in a free concert, which can be livestreamed on Facebook. The details: March 25 at 7:30 p.m.; blumenthalarts.com
W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine at Mint Museum Uptown This exhibition of more than 130 photographs examines the historic use and artistic treatment of walls over the centuries. The details: Through July 25; mintmuseum.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.
AMI VITALE, RIPPLE EFFECT, 2009; PROVIDED BY THE MINT MUSEUM
H A P P E N I NG S
Bobby Wildermuth, robertbobbyart.com
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|simple life
In the beginning A GRANDE DAME, AN OLD BEECH AND OTHER MEMORY KEEPERS ON THE PATH TO THIS GARDENER’S GENESIS BY JIM DODSON
F
ifteen years ago, a grande dame of English gardening named Mirabel Osler smiled coyly over a goblet of merlot and said something I’ll never forget. “You know, dear,” she declared, “being a gardener is perhaps the closest thing you’ll ever get to playing God. Please don’t let on to the Almighty, however. He thinks He gets to have all the fun.” The café in Ludlow, Osler’s Shropshire market town, claimed a Michelin star. But the real star that early spring afternoon in the flowering Midlands of England was Dame Mirabel herself. Spry and witty, the 80-year-old garden designer had reintroduced the classic English “cottage garden” to the mainstream with her winsome 1988 book, A Gentle Plea for Chaos. The intimate tale of how she and her late husband transformed their working farm into a botanical paradise where nature was free to flourish became a surprise bestseller that fueled a worldwide renaissance in cottage gardening. It’s actually what inspired me to create my “faux English Southern garden” on a forest hilltop in Maine. My visit with Osler was one of several stops I was making across England in the spring as part of a yearlong odyssey through the
horticulture world researching a book about human obsession with gardens — including my own. When I asked Dame Mirabel why making a garden becomes so all-consuming and appealing, she had a ready answer. “I think among the most valuable things a garden does for the human soul is make us feel connected to the past and therefore each other,” she said, sipping her wine. “We’re all old souls, you know, people who love plants. Especially trees.” She was delighted that I shared her enchantment with trees, mentioning a gorgeous old American beech that stood beside our house in Maine and how it became the centerpiece of my own wild garden. When my children were still quite young, we carved our initials into the beech — as one must do with its smooth, gray bark — hoping our names and the tree might reside together forever, or at least a couple hundred years. Unfortunately, our great beech was visibly ailing, which sent me on an odyssey to try to save it. That quest ultimately became a book called Beautiful Madness. “I think that’s the alchemy of a beautiful tree,” Dame Mirabel southparkmagazine.com | 61
|simple life agreed. “They speak to us in a quiet language all their own. They watch over the days of our lives and will long outlive us. No wonder that everyone from Plato to the druids of Celtic lore believed divinities resided in groves of trees. Trees are living memory keepers.” Mirabel Osler passed away in 2016, age 91. Not long after Beautiful Madness was published in 2006, however, she wrote me a charming note to say how much she enjoyed reading about our visit in Ludlow. True to form, as my wife, Wendy, and I discovered on that unforgettable spring day, Dame Osler’s final garden was a chaotic masterpiece, a backyard filled with beautiful small trees and flowering shrubs arching over a narrow stone pathway. Not surprisingly, as this long, dark winter of 2021 approached its end, Dame Mirabel was on my mind anew as I began serious work and planning on what will be my fourth — and likely final — garden. Five years ago, Wendy and I purchased a handsome old bungalow in the neigh-
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borhood where I grew up, allowing me to spend the next three years transforming its front and side yards into my version of a miniature enchanted forest — my tribute to Dame Mirabel’s Shropshire garden. I nicknamed the long-neglected backyard dense with overgrown shrubs and half-dead trees “The Lost Kingdom.” Reclaiming just half of this space was another odyssey, but more than a year later — and thanks to the assistance of a younger back and a Bobcat — a promising shade garden of ferns, hostas, Japanese maples and a handsome Yoshino Japanese cedar now flourishes there. It reminds me of the many Asian-themed botanical gardens I’ve visited. That left only a final section of the “Lost Kingdom” to deal with, which I began clearing late last fall, resulting in a nice blank canvas half in shade, half in sun. Since Christmas Day, I’ve spent hours just looking at this space the way the author in me stares at a blank white page before starting a new book.
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Creating a new garden from scratch is both addictively fun and maddeningly elusive — a tale as old as Genesis. It’s neither for the faint of heart nor skint of wallet. Gardens, like children, mature and change over time. At best, gardeners and parents must accept that we are, in the end, simply loving caretakers for these living and breathing works of art. Although the Good Lord may have finished His or Her garden in just six days, I fully expect my new final project — which, in truth, is relatively small — to provide years of work and revision before my soul and shovel can rest. No complaint there, mind you. As the Secretary of the Interior (aka, my wife) can attest, her garden-mad husband enjoys few things more than getting strip-off-beforeyou-dare-come-into-this-house dirty in the great outdoors, possibly because his people were Orange and Alamance county dirt farmers stretching back to the Articles of Confederation and their verdure seems to travel at will through his bloodstream like runaway wisteria. After weeks of scheming and dreaming, sketching out elaborate bedding plans and chucking them, it finally came together when a dear old friend from Southern Pines named Max, renowned for his spectacular camellia gardens, gave me five of his original seedlings for the new garden. I planted them on the borders and remembered something Dame Mirabel said about old souls and trees being memory-keepers. Surrounded by Max’s grandiflora camellias, this garden will be a tribute to the trees and people I associate them with. A pair of pink flowering dogwoods already anchor a shady corner where a peony border will pay tribute to the plant-mad woman who taught me to love getting dirty in a garden, my mom. Nearby will be a pair of flowering crab apple trees like the pair that bloomed every spring in Maine, surrounded by a trio of Japanese maples that I’ve grown from sprouts, linked by a winding path of stone. A fine little American beech already stands at the heart of this raw new garden, a gift from friends that recalls the old beech tree that sent me around the world. For now, this is a good start. There will be more to come. For a garden is never really finished, and I’ve only just begun. SP
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March books
|bookshelf
NOTABLE NEW RELEASES COMPILED BY SALLY BREWSTER
Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro Nobel laureate Ishiguro takes readers to a vaguely futuristic, technologically advanced setting reminiscent of his Never Let Me Go for a surprising parable about love, humanity and science. Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanlike robot designed to be a child’s companion. She spends her days watching humans from her perch in the AF store, fascinated by their emotions and hungry to learn enough to help her future owner. Klara, who is solar-powered, reveres the sun for the “nourishment” and upholds “him” as a godlike figure. Klara is eventually bought by teenager Josie and continues to learn about humans through her interactions with Josie’s family and childhood friend. When Josie becomes seriously ill, Klara pleads with the sun to make her well again and confronts the boundary between service and sacrifice. As with Ishiguro’s other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara’s quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity. The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing, by Mark Kurlansky Fly-fishing is a battle of wits — fly fisher vs. fish — and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets are highly intelligent, wily, strong and athletic animals. The allure is that fly-fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. There is an art, too, in the crafting of flies. Beautiful and intricate, some are made with more than two dozen pieces of feather and fur from a wide range of animals. The cast, as well, is a matter of grace and rhythm. Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into the history of specific subjects, from cod to oysters to salt. But he spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, a lifelong love of the sport has led him around the world to many countries, coasts and rivers. Every Last Fear, by Alex Finlay In this fantastic debut thriller, a family made infamous by a true-crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son
to uncover the truth about their final days. After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: Nearly his entire family have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain — and they won’t tell why. Matt’s older brother is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend, Charlotte, and was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: The night Charlotte was killed, Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime. When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. The Committed, by Viet Thanh Nguyen The conflicted spy of Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer returns in this fabulous new novel. The unnamed Sympathizer arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his “blood brother,” Bon. The pair try to overcome their pasts and ensure their futures by engaging in capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. Traumatized by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, Man, and struggling to assimilate into French culture, the Sympathizer finds Paris both seductive and disturbing. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals whom he meets at dinner parties given by his French-Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds stimulation for his mind but also customers for his narcotics. But the new life he is making has perils he has not foreseen, whether the self-torture of addiction, the authoritarianism of a state locked in a colonial mindset, or the seeming paradox of how to reunite his two closest friends whose worldviews put them in absolute opposition. SP Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, located at 4139 Park Road. parkroadbooks.com.
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Home for spring
WITH ITS LONG-LASTING SHOW OF FLOWERS, CHARLOTTE SHINES IN SPRINGTIME.
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BY LAURIE DURDEN
n her book, A Southern Garden, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote: “I do not suppose there is any part of the world in which gardens are not beautiful in spring. Travellers in other seasons are told, ‘you should see our gardens in spring.’ To which they reply, ‘but we cannot leave our own then.’” This surely rings true to me — I want to be home for spring. Springtime in the Queen City is especially wonderful, not only because it is gorgeous, but also because it lasts so long. Spring’s blooming season begins in February and continues through May. I may be biased, but I would argue that Charlotte’s spectacular show of flowers and foliage rivals any landscape, anywhere. As a garden designer, I am typically installing clients’ gardens in spring in a race to beat the onset of the summer heat. I’m usu-
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ally too busy to even think about my own garden. Last year, the Covid-19 lockdown changed all that, and I found out what I was missing. It truly was a silver lining to have the opportunity to set up my studio on the back porch, where I could watch spring unfold over hours, days, weeks and months. Everyday there was something new. I could literally see time passing, when it otherwise felt like time had completely stopped still. When we begin the design of a new garden, we first stress the importance of establishing the bones, with walls, evergreen shrubs and trees. These permanent elements provide a framework for the fleeting seasonal displays. Flowering trees, shrubs and vines establish a dependable rhythm to the garden, each coming into play in its own way as a part of the spring garden dance. The addition of spring
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAURIE DURDEN AND DUSTIN PECK
|gardening
Landscape designer Laurie Durden photographs her bulb-testing garden throughout the season for future reference. “It’s easier to understand the nuances of characteristics when you can see them all together. For example, pink is not a single color; there are reddish-pinks, peachy-pinks and pale pinks — and everything in between. Some will become annual additions to the garden, and some will not be invited back.”
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|gardening shrubs and trees fills out the garden. This planned progression of my favorites certainly brings joy, but the real fun is in the back of the garden behind a hedge, in a large planting bed where a swing set used to be. This testing garden is where I plant my tried-and-true favorites for cutting, along with new selections to evaluate for color, character, height, bloom time and length of bloom. The best part of this annual experiment is having flowers to bring inside all season long — and, especially, having a surplus to share. With minimal effort, you can fill your home and the homes of your friends with flowers all spring. While I love tulips from the grocery store, trust me when I tell you that tulips grown in your own garden are way better and don’t take much more effort. This spring, my charge to all aspiring and seasoned gardeners alike is to pay attention: Make notes, and take photos, so that come September, you can confidently order bulbs for your own version of ‘Tulip Testing.’ SP Laurie Durden is a garden designer based in Charlotte. ldgardendesign.com
Beautiful bulbs Here are a few of Durden’s tried-and-true favorite spring bulbs. Pre-spring Crocus, Snowdrops, Hyacinths Early spring
flowering bulbs can turn a carefully choreographed garden waltz of spring flowers into a boogie-down disco of unexpected delight. My own garden has been my laboratory for nearly 17 years, and my favorite research and development project is spring bulbs. I affectionately refer to this as ‘Tulip Testing,’ though I should note that this exercise is not limited to tulips — you can experiment with any flowering bulbs. It started more than 12 years ago when I was selecting bulbs for a special project and found I was completely overwhelmed by the vast selections available in catalogs. It was easy enough to select a color palette, but then I realized there are countless shapes and sizes; early, mid-season and late bloomers; and so many more intriguing options. Gardening is learned by doing, so I ordered a couple hundred curiosities to try out in the back corner of my garden. I was hooked from the moment they went into the ground. Anticipation is a gardener’s greatest tonic. From the moment bits of foliage pushed through the earth, I regularly monitored the progress. I’ve conducted ‘Tulip Testing’ each year since, and while I confess it is not very scientific, I have learned a great deal. This year, I planted many more hundreds and, like every year, I wish I had planted more. (PSA: You cannot plant too many bulbs.) Now, I can confidently plant my formal garden beds and containers to bloom in a sequence that mostly goes according to script and is beautiful from early March through mid-May. The season begins with a warm palette of tulips in the bare, early spring landscape and evolves into white and cool colors as the new foliage of 70
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Glory of the Snow; Squill; Daffodil ‘Ice Follies’ and ‘Barrett Browning;’ Tulip ‘Apricot Beauty’ and ‘Purissima’ Mid-spring Daffodil ‘Actaea’ and ‘Thalia;’ Summer Snowflake; Grape Hyacinth; Tulip ‘Ivory Floradale,’ ‘Pink Impression,’ ‘Shirley,’ ‘Negrita’ and ‘Big Apricot’ Late spring Camassia; Spanish Bluebells; Tulip ‘Maureen,’ ‘Queen of the Night,’ ‘Elegant Lady,’ ‘Menton’ and ‘Angelique’ Almost summer Allium ‘Pink Jewel’
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Lovely layers
FAMILY HEIRLOOMS AND NEWFOUND TREASURES CREATE A MYERS PARK HOME WITH HEART. BY CATHY MARTIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY DUSTIN PECK
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T
hree years ago, the Myers Park homeowner decided her home needed a reset. A mishmash of furniture accumulated over the years lacked a cohesive style, and the house she and her husband had lived in for the last decade wasn’t quite working for the busy family’s lifestyle. “I cleared everything out,” the homeowner says. “It was just a matter of keeping the things with meaning and the family heirlooms and getting rid of the rest.” The couple had completed an initial renovation and family-room addition after they bought the home in 2007. Happy with their neighborhood and with ample room for three kids and a dog, they now sought to bring a little more of their own personalities into the space. On the recommendation of a friend and neighbor, the homeowner turned to interior designers Nancy Targgart and Kim Moore of Cashion Hill Design. The longtime friends first
In the living room, a daybed from Adrienne Davis Design at Slate Interiors has become a favorite reading nook for the homeowners’ three children. The custom lambrequin was crafted by Design Services of Charlotte. A vintage Oushak rug from Charlotte Rug Gallery adds warmth and texture. The trio of rose mirrors is from Adrienne Davis Design, and the alabaster and brass coffee table is from Darnell & Co.
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Left: The designers kept the homeowners’ vintage chandelier and glasstop dining table, a family heirloom. A cheetah-print rug and pink-velvet upholstered chairs lend a modern vibe to the traditional space. Above: The bar adjacent to the dining room features a bold and playful Cole & Son wallpaper design; the vintage shell tray and brass art deco lamp are from CHD Interiors.
teamed up in 2005 when they launched a retail business called Plum. Combing antique shows, estate sales and expos across North Carolina, they snapped up items that were carefully restored and then resold at biannual popup sales. “We picked things that we loved — it could be furniture, art, light fixtures,” says Targgart, a Greensboro native who grew up in the furniture and design business. Plum wound down after the recession of 2007-09, but the partners’ passion for design and eye for well-crafted objects remained, along with their connections with local art and home-furnishings vendors. They officially launched Cashion Hill Design in 2020. The homeowner was instantly attracted to the designers’ individualized approach to design that wasn’t “too matchy-matchy.”
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The color palette in the family room was largely inspired by a painting by local artist Ted Lee, above. Swivel club chairs are from Lee Industries, and the chaise is from Julian Chichester. The custom silk lampshades are from R.Runberg Curiosities.
“We always try to get our clients away from Instagram decorating,” Moore says. Instead of picking a look and trying to replicate it exactly, the designers encourage their clients to strive for a space that speaks more to their distinct personalities. “We really feel a responsibility to help people discover what their own look and style is,” Targgart adds. Part of that is helping clients take a critical inventory of their current belongings before starting a new project. “We tell them, ‘Let’s edit out the unnecessary, and build back in the layers of personality.’”
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he homeowners both grew up near the beach, so they wanted a palette that was inspired by coastal hues — pinks and plums from seashells gathered by the shore, green seagrass against blue skies — without the predictable elements typically found in beach-themed designs. “When we first walked in, the living room was very uptight and traditional,” Targgart says. “They’re a young, fun family,” who enjoy entertaining and supporting local artists. 78
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The music room was designed as a relaxing space for the family to listen to their favorite vinyl or play the piano or guitar. The Moroccan rug is from Adrienne Davis Design at Slate Interiors, and the sunburst mirror is from B.D. Jeffries.
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“We said, ‘How can we make this more them?’” They began by removing some of the traditional elements that made the living room a bit too stuffy for the active family. Modern pieces such as a custom console from CHD Interiors and curved Highland House sofa blend with vintage finds like the Oushak rug, trio of rose mirrors, and alabaster and brass coffee table. A daybed by the front window has become a cozy reading nook that gets plenty of use by the homeowners’ three children, 15, 12 and 7. For the light-filled sunroom adjacent to the living room, the homeowners wanted to create a music lounge with a relaxed vibe for listening to their favorite vinyl records and for making their own music — two of the children play piano, while their father takes guitar lessons. Pillows covered in a bright tropical print accent rattan furniture that previously belonged to the homeowner’s grandparents, and a Moroccan rug adds warmth and texture to this fun and funky space. Much of the design inspiration in the family room stems from a large painting commissioned by Charlotte artist Ted Lee. Blush and plum accents and a reeded waterfall console from 1st Dibs add a subtle coastal flair. The dining room is anchored by a glass-top table that belonged to the homeowner’s mother. “When you have a piece like that, it’s so easy for us to build off of it,” Targgart says. The designers also kept the homeowners’ existing window hardware and vintage chandelier, updating the bulbs to make it feel more current. When the designers suggested a Schumacher wool fabric for the draperies, the homeowner was instantly reminded of a camel coat worn by her father when she was a young girl. A half-moon console displays another family heirloom, a silver set that belonged to the homeowner’s mother. The original artwork on the sideboard is another unique Cashion Hill find: Three vintage framed pochoirs — prints made with a stencil-based technique — by Edouard Benedictus were acquired from one of Cashion Hill’s
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A large painting by local artist Josh Jensen brightens the powder room. Sconces by Urban Electric create a sophisticated vibe.
preferred vendors on a visit to Atlanta’s biannual home-furnishings market. While the designers were at work updating the interior, the homeowners also decided to give the exterior of the property a refresh. A sunken brick patio at the back of the house had become a breeding ground for moss and mold, so the homeowners tapped architect Greg Perry and John Bourgeois of Bourgeois McGinn Builders to design and build a new back porch. A seating area surrounding a fire table has become a year-round family gathering spot for TV nights, while a glass-top dining table and swing chair is a popular space for enjoying outdoor meals or simply relaxing.
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chieving a personalized, curated look requires patience, but the reward is worth the wait, the homeowner says. “I’ve learned it’s better to wait on that right, perfect thing that’s got a little more character than to open up the page in a catalog and say, ‘That one.’” The result is a carefully crafted space where nearly every detail has a special meaning or significance. “Everything reminds us of something, whether it’s collecting shells on the beach with my daughter, or some childhood memory,” the homeowner says. “There’s a story behind everything.” SP
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Architect Greg Perry and John Bourgeois of Bourgeois McGinn Builders designed and built the new back porch in 2018. The seating area surrounding a fire table gets year-round use.
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Family style
A ROCK HILL DESIGNER WORKS WITH A FAMILY OF FIVE TO UPDATE THEIR HOME, STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN MODERN AND TRADITIONAL. BY CATHERINE RUTH KELLY • PHOTOGRAPHS BY DUSTIN PECK
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In the living room, an emerald-green velvet sofa from Anthropologie and vintage chairs from Slate Interiors surround a concrete-base coffee table from Sleepy Poet Antique Mall.
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W
hen a Rock Hill couple approached Rainy Westerman about assisting with the space planning and design for their new home, the interior designer welcomed the opportunity. “Design really starts before the finishes are selected,” Westerman says. “It is always an advantage to be able to start working with clients during the planning stage.” The homeowners have three young children, so creating a comfortable and inviting home was their first priority. While their style leans toward traditional, they didn’t want the decor to be too formal or fussy. “The house has a beautiful Georgian exterior,” Westerman says. “We just needed to reconfigure and refresh the interior.” Westerman worked with the homeowners to balance these preferences, encouraging them to use vibrant colors throughout the house to make it feel fresh and current while seamlessly integrating their heirloom furniture with sleek new pieces.
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Kitchen cabinets, along with the custom fretwork design on the island, were manufactured by Knot Yet Cabinetworks in Rock Hill, S.C.
“Fresh, bold paint and fabric colors can make a statement and breathe new life into old pieces,” explains Westerman, who as a child loved exploring antique stores with her stylish grandmother. Her grandfather, an architect and builder, fostered her appreciation for good design. The living room, an intrepid mix of moody hues, offers a sophisticated yet cozy gathering space. The walls and ceiling are lacquered in Apollo Room Blue by Martin Senour. Though 88
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the color evocative of Colonial Williamsburg is discontinued, Westerman had Eastway Paints match the formula. An emerald-green velvet sofa and vintage chairs surround a concrete-based coffee table that Westerman found at Sleepy Poet Antique Mall. “I had had my eye on that table for months and knew it would be the perfect fit in that room,” Westerman says. For the dining room draperies, a colorful custom fabric by Charlotte artist Windy O’Connor sets an elegant tone for the
Traditional meets modern in the breakfast nook, anchored by a crystal chandelier by Visual Comfort.
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spacious room. The ornate lucite and crystal chandelier is handmade by Raleigh artist Louise Gaskill. The Hickory Chair dining table and upholstered chairs are accented by white powder-coat metal chairs purchased at an antique store in Greenville, S.C. Westerman worked with Vinyet Architecture to create a more functional and flowing kitchen area. The addition of a bay of windows above the sink allows more natural light. The walls and cabinets are painted a clean, creamy white, while the trim and barstools are a navy blue to complement the La Cornue range. Traditional and modern pieces strike a balance in the bright and airy breakfast nook, anchored by an heirloom table flanked by transparent ghost chairs. The half bath near the kitchen is brightened by a Scalamandre zebra-print wallpaper in a cheerful yellow. “We wanted this bathroom to be fun and playful, because the children use it the most,” Westerman explains. “It is right next to their
drop zone at the back door.” The brass fixtures and marble countertop are stylish yet durable. For the more formal powder room near the front entrance, Westerman selected a soft blue and beige hand-stamped grasscloth by Philip Jeffries for the walls and a complementary shade of high-gloss blue for the trim. In lieu of a traditional sink, an antique wooden console was transformed into a marble-topped vanity, adding a touch of glamour to the intimate space. The colorful yet comfortable theme continues in the den and the children’s bedrooms. Westerman’s goal was to match the bedroom themes with the children’s personalities — a soft pink for the young daughter and boyish blues with contrasting pops of red or yellow for the sons’ rooms. “It was really fun to work with a family with three young children to create a home that would grow with them,” Westerman says. SP southparkmagazine.com | 91
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Down South
A COUPLE MOVES BACK TO THE CAROLINAS TO RETIRE AND RECONNECT WITH FAMILY. BY BLAKE MILLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAM RICHARDS
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li and Lynne McDavid always knew they wanted to go back home. After spending 30 years living and working in the Washington, D.C., area, the couple knew their time in the Northeast was coming to end. With that, they also knew they wanted to retire where they had roots. “I’m originally from South Carolina, and Eli has family in Winston-Salem,” Lynne says. “So for us, it was always about coming home to the Carolinas.” Charlotte was top on their list of places to retire and set down new roots. “We wanted a city that was smaller than D.C. but still gave us that urban vibe,” Lynne adds. After touring several homes and neighborhoods, the McDavids became smitten with a semi-custom home plan from Classica Homes. Located in south Charlotte, the home checked all of the McDavids’ criteria, including an open, seamless floor plan and clean, transitional architectural details throughout. “Our last home had a very traditional look, which was fine for 20 years ago,” Lynne says. “But it was heavy and very formal. This time, we really wanted light, bright and airy. We wanted it to be a bit more modern than what we were coming from.” An exhaustive search for an interior designer led them to Cheryl Luckett, owner of Dwell by Cheryl Interiors, whose work aligned perfectly with what the McDavids envisioned for their new home.
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“I always start by asking my clients not what they want their home to look like, but instead how they want their home to feel,” Luckett says. “For Eli and Lynne, it really was all about feeling open and fresh and airy. Their responses really drove the entire vibe of the design scheme.” The McDavids looked to Luckett to design their main living spaces — the living room, kitchen, dining room and outdoor areas — before moving onto the master bedroom, upstairs den and more. “After talking with Eli and Lynne, it became apparent that a fresh color scheme of blues and greens lent themselves to the aesthetic they envisioned,” says Luckett, who loves to use textiles as a springboard for her designs. “I’m a color girl. That textile color usually plays itself out in this space with the upholstery and the rugs.” Draperies in a bold medallion print coupled with a houndstooth ottoman set the tone for the rest of the living room. The adjacent dining room exemplifies the whole home’s soothing color palette with a stunning blue-green York wallcovering. “I was a little skeptical of it at first,” laughs Eli. “But once it was in place, it looks great,” he says. “The wallpaper was a no brainer in this space,” Luckett says. “It really defines the room and makes it feel a bit more special. It elevates the dining room from the other living spaces.”
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Knowing the McDavids wanted to incorporate original artwork by African American artists throughout their home, Luckett also commissioned the painting above the mantle by Greenville, S.C., artist Allison Ford. “The piece set the tone for that entire living space,” says Luckett of the abstract painting of a coastal marsh. “It has a Southern light and fresh feel.” Luckett continued adding inspiring pieces by Black artists, such as the painting in the foyer by artist Tilly Willis. “When we found this piece, we thought it could be Gullah or Africa,” says the designer. “To me, it said coastal South Carolina, African roots. But it still had that fresh, light, airy feel. That painting sets the tone for what you’ll see throughout the home. A lot of people skip the entry or not give it a lot of thought. But it’s an opportunity to let people know what to expect when they enter the home.” Layered throughout the rest of the home are coastal accents such as a bowl that looks like driftwood and beads that mimic sea glass, each a nod to the McDavids’ Southern roots. “There are a lot of pieces, accessories, books and everyday objects that Cheryl added that just make things pretty when it’s all said and done,” Lynne says. “Every time I walk into our home, it’s just so beautiful. It feels like such a treat every time.” SP 98
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Putting down roots
A HOMEBUILDER AND HIS FAMILY COMPLETE AN EXTRAORDINARY RENOVATION OF THEIR LAKESIDE HOME. BY CATHY MARTIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID RAMSEY
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rent Haston grew up at Lake Wylie, on the Mecklenburg County side of the 12,000-acre reservoir that borders South Carolina, in the home his father built when Haston was just a baby. So in 2000, when the house next door came up for sale — a 1,500-square-foot ranch with a walkout basement — Haston snapped it up. He’d just graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and joined the family construction business as a project manager. Flash forward to 2018, and Haston’s life had changed quite a bit. He was now president and CEO of the Roby Family of Companies, the 70-year-old business that includes residential general contractor Andrew Roby Inc. and related real-estate and construction 100
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services. Haston and his wife, Ragan, and the couple’s five children were still living in the small ranch across the water from Belmont. But despite minor updates over the years, the home was starting to get a bit cramped. “Trent’s roots here are so deep,” Ragan Haston says. “We knew we wanted to stay here. This is where he ran around and played [as a child].” The couple wanted their own children to experience a similar upbringing. To help translate their vision for a modern home with an open floor plan and lots of storage, the Hastons enlisted architect Meyer Greeson Paullin Benson to partner with contractor Roby
The Haston family more than tripled the size of the original 1,500-square-foot ranch, right, adding 3,800 square feet.
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Hand-hewn beams from Reclaimed Lumber and Beams in Lenoir contribute to the farmhouse style and help define the living and kitchen areas. The windmill-inspired Monte Carlo “Prairie” fan is from Ferguson Enterprises.
on the project. The original home was a low-slung red-brick ranch built in the 1970s. Ragan grew up in Charlotte but spent summers at her grandparents’ farm in Illinois and envisioned a family home reflecting that farmhouse aesthetic. Despite two hurricanes, which added several months to the project timeline, construction was completed in about 18 months. The resulting 5,300-square-foot home checked all the boxes for the homeowners: A gambrel roof, painted white brick, shiplap walls and hand-hewn beams contribute to the farmhouse style, while a two-level Cumaru hardwood deck and screened porch provide the entertaining and outdoor living spaces they desired. In the new part of the home, a large living room and kitchen are open but defined by four 12x12 reclaimed wood beams separating the two spaces. Matching smaller beams were used over the kitchen sink and for the fireplace mantel. “Trent loves wood fires — he builds a fire every night when he gets home from work,” Ragan says. In designing the living-room hearth and surround, the Hastons mimicked the style of the fireplace in Trent’s childhood home. “The hand-hewn beam gives it more of a farmhouse 102
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feel and adds warmth,” she adds. Since the four oldest children play violin, a music room was high on the priority list. When the homeowners decided to add a row of desks in this space, they never imagined how useful the feature would become during the remote-learning era of 2020 and early 2021. The music room now doubles as a home school. Before the renovation, the Hastons’ three daughters, 13, 11, and 9, shared a small bedroom with a separate playroom. “They got used to being together,” Ragan Haston says. Three separate lofts with private queen beds allow the girls to stay together in the same room while each maintains her own personal living area underneath. Ragan’s favorite room in the renovated home is the mudroom, which was designed with the family’s Australian labradoodle, Wylie, in mind. In it, Wylie has his own “room” and separate feeding area tucked under the stairs, with a faucet and drain for convenience and easy cleanup. “With five kids you have a lot of stuff,” Ragan says, so the mudroom also contains lockers for each family member, plus a large island filled with art and school supplies, gift wrap and more. Honed field tile in a
Calacatta Laza quartz countertops from Harkey Tile and Stone provide a durable surface in the kitchen. The flush inset cabinets were built by Mint Hill Cabinets, which also installed the cabinetry in the mudroom and the built-ins in the daughters’ bedroom. Hardware was sourced from Charlotte’s Blackhawk Hardware.
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herringbone design provides durable flooring, and cabinets are painted in a cheery Sherwin-Williams Wondrous Blue. While the renovation was completed over a relatively short period of time, planning had been ongoing for several years. “I have to give props to the architect,” says Ragan, who designed the interiors herself. “We wanted to renovate the house for so long. Once we started construction, I kind of enjoyed doing this — it was fun.” The only thing the homeowners kept from the original house was an old castiron bathtub. “I bathed all my babies in that tub,” Haston says of the sentimental piece. Trent’s father, Ron, passed away in 2014, but his mother still lives next door. Ragan admits the area is a little remote, and until recent years lacked certain amenities they might have enjoyed had they moved closer to town. But being able to raise their young children in an area with so many memories and steeped in family history just felt right. “We wanted our kids to grow up here.” SP
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Charlotte
REAL ESTATE SOUT HPARK M AGA ZIN E PR E SE N TS A LOOK AT DIST INGU ISHE D AGE N TS IN OU R A R E A WHO GO ABOVE A N D BE YON D FOR T HE IR C LIE N TS. HEAT H E R M AC K E Y AT M AC K E Y R E A LTY M ER ED I TH TO M AS C A K AT H M P R O P E RTI E S P EG GY PE TE R S O N TE A M AT H M P R O P E RTI E S SU SA N M AY AT H M P R O P E RTI E S JEN N I F E R JAC KS O N AT A L L E N TATE
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Heather Mackey Heather Mackey believes buying and selling a home is a personal experience. That’s why she pays attention to details, listens carefully to clients, and forms relationships based on honesty and trust. With fourteen years of real estate experience, Mackey recently took a leap of faith and decided to build on that client-driven foundation by opening Mackey Realty. As a boutique residential real estate firm, Mackey Realty serves Charlotte and all surrounding areas with the same personable, forward-focused vision and innovative approach clients have always appreciated.
Mackey is motivated by her clients and fulfilled by helping them find the right home for their family. She’s known to discover the pre-market gem that becomes the “one.” With twenty years in Charlotte, Mackey loves harnessing the knowledge of her network for the benefit of her clients. From neighborhood details like traffic to schools, Mackey takes pride in giving her clients everything they need to know for that most important decision of buying a home. Our agents are dedicated, resourceful and will be with you every step of the way. True to our southern roots, we believe clients are like family. Welcome to Mackey Realty.
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UNDER CONTRACT
A wonderful home in the heart of SouthPark. 4251 Cameron Oaks Drive, Charlotte, NC 28211
Meredith Tomascak This home is an entertainer’s dream with oversized and gracious rooms, tall ceilings and loads of natural light. The updated kitchen features a large center island, Viking appliances, and marble countertops. An owners suite on the main level features a sitting room or private office, plus his and her walk-in closets. The upper level offers three spacious bedrooms, theater room, office and bonus room. This well-maintained home is situated in the gated community of Morrocroft Estates. Contact Meredith Tomascak to learn more about this stately home. As a native Charlottean, Meredith is passionate about sharing with her clients an in-depth knowledge about real estate trends and offerings in the Queen City. Her proven track record of success makes her a valuable part of the HM Properties team. HM Properties is proud to be a market leader which offers award-winning, full-service residential real estate expertise in the Charlotte metro area.
SouthPark - Waverly - Lake Norman 704-806-7650 meredith@hmproperties.com hmproperties.com
Integrity. Knowledge. Trusted Judgement. Let the Peggy Peterson Team create a seamless experience for all your residential real estate needs.
Peggy Peterson Team Peggy has been selling real estate in the Charlotte area for more than 30 years. Her extensive market knowledge is unparalleled -- and it shows by the strong base of repeat clients and new referrals. Peggy and her teammate, Kim Antolini, often have the pleasure of helping many generations of one family with their most important investment. Their strong work ethic, teamwork and love for the Charlotte area works to the benefit of their clients. Peggy is well versed in fine older homes, new construction and renovated homes. Kim brings more than a decade of experience to their
partnership with expertise in working with builders and contractors. As a skilled negotiator, Peggy earned the reputation of being assertive, but fair. Clients always appreciate how the Peggy Peterson Team makes the process easier. You can be assured that Peggy and Kim will be alongside you every step with the resources of HM Properties to help your family find the perfect home. HM Properties and the Peggy Peterson Team are proud to be market leaders who offer award-winning, full-service residential real estate expertise to the Charlotte area.
SouthPark - Waverly - Lake Norman Peggy Peterson - 704-904-6279 - peggypeterson@hmproperties.com Kim Antolini - 704-608-3831 - kimantolini@hmproperties.com peggypeterson.com
Thoughtful design and custom details in Carmel Park. 5428 Carmel Park Drive, Charlotte, NC 28226
Susan May This beautifully constructed home is minutes to SouthPark and a short drive to uptown. Come home to a relaxing lake view and room to unwind. This home features an owners suite with a vaulted ceiling and fireplace, plus guest room and office on the main level. The dining room and living room overlook the private courtyard. The kitchen includes a Viking cooktop, double Miele ovens and opens to a family room with vaulted ceilings and stone fireplace. Large bright laundry room has abundant storage. Inviting outdoor living spaces, plus a three-car garage. Contact Susan May to learn more about this well-designed home. With more than 25 years of experience in real estate and as a top producer at HM Properties, Susan has learned the most important thing is to listen to her clients and act on their behalf based on her training, experience and instincts. HM Properties is proud to be a market leader which offers award-winning, full-service residential real estate expertise in the Charlotte metro area.
SouthPark - Waverly - Lake Norman 704-650-7432 susanmay@hmproperties.com hmproperties.com
Competitive Pricing, Flawless Product. Tell us about your dream home. At Peters Custom Homes, we build your vision with exacting detail and elegant design to meet your lifestyle with beauty and functionality. With 15 years of experience in luxury real estate and design, Nicholas and Miriam Peters have built an expert in-house team which guarantees their clients a greater value in terms of product and service. Miriam and her design team craft a vision for each room and hold regular design meetings with clients. Nicholas and his team manage and anticipate each aspect of the build with expertise and transparency. It’s what makes us different and allows us to minimize stress on our clients and stay on budget.
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At Peters Custom Homes, we invest in our process and people to make the building of your dream home a positive experience from start to finish. We do everything we can to take care of our clients and bring their vision to life.
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npeters@peterscustomhomes.com
From tide FISHERWOMAN ANA SHELLEM HARVESTS SHELLFISH FOR CHEFS FROM WILMINGTON TO CHARLOTTE.
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to table BY JOHN WOLFE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALLORY CASH
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inter in the marshes of Masonboro Island: Cold, clear water flows out to the sea through winding tidal creeks, exposing the roots of the umber-colored salt-marsh cordgrass as oysters lie asleep in their beds. The crisp air is tinged with the brine-sweet smell of marsh mud; there’s no sound but the distant roar of the waves against the beach, the occasional crack of the pistol shrimp and the cascading call of the willet — not silence, but the absence of noise. In the eastern sky, the sun hides behind clouds whose rippled textures mirror the surface of the water on this windless morning. This is the office of Ana Shellem, owner and operator of Shell’em Seafood, commercial fisherwoman, and badass queen of the salt marsh. She sells sea shells not just by the seashore but also to top restaurants across North Carolina. If you’ve dined at Fin & Fino, Sea Level, The Porter’s House or Fine & Fettle in Charlotte, there’s a good chance you’ve enjoyed Shell’em’s mussels, oysters, clams or stone crabs. Shellem, 30, learned to navigate these waters shortly after moving to the area nine years ago. Raised in Tennessee and Kentucky, she started working in professional theater when she was 8 years old. As a teen, the young actor spent summers in New York City and moved there after graduating from high school. Shellem was 21 and living in Harlem when she visited Wilmington for the first time. “I hadn’t experienced the ocean like this, ever in my life,” Shellem says. “I felt drawn to it — like a need to be here.” She got a job as a bartender in Wrightsville Beach, where she met her now-husband Jon, who lived on a sailboat, and has stayed ever since.
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asonboro is a barrier island, only accessible by boat, about 5 miles southeast of Wilmington. On this bright morning, Ana is gathering mussels destined to become part of paella this evening at Ceviche’s, a local favorite restaurant. Many fishermen have trouble selling mussels — the general public doesn’t know how to cook them — and they often get overlooked. Shellem figured out how to get around this problem by selling directly to chefs, and essentially made the market for them in North Carolina. Now, they are one of her staple harvests. As the boat pulls up to the marsh’s edge, I scan the horizon and realize that we — myself, Ana and photographer Mallory Cash — are absolutely alone. We step out, squelching
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into the mud, where I notice the three-toed tracks of plovers and herons far outnumber our own human bootprints. In boots, waders and braids, Shellem forges fearlessly through the grass, taking in textures, colors and subtle differences in soil composition to help her track down what she searches for. While her mind is completely in the here and now, focused on the present, this art of foraging is ancient, deeply ingrained in some back part of our brain most of us don’t use. She zeroes in on a cluster tucked deep in the grass. A single, fluid well-practiced motion with her hori-hori knife, and she rises up, a wide grin on her mud-flecked face, a cluster of mussels in her gloved hand. They are beautiful. She delicately places them in her bucket and is already off in search of more. The sun comes out and lights up the world. Today, the work goes easily. But there are days when the northeast wind blows strong, the tide doesn’t drop and the marsh hides her face. There are frosty mornings in winter when her gloves are frozen solid; there are sultry summer evenings when no-see-ums feast on any exposed flesh. There are long days of big orders to fill when her body aches from bending, and from lugging heavy buckets of shells through the sucking mud back and forth to her trusty grey skiff, affectionately named Marsha. There are thunderstorms. There are duck hunters with shotguns and poor eyesight. There is the all-encompassing dread of climate change and the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes it brings with it. Two years ago, 118
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Hurricane Florence almost destroyed what she had worked so hard to build. She couldn’t harvest for six months. But business slowly came back, like the tide whose rhythms she has built her life around. After four years of business, and with more than 30 clients across the state, the other fishermen — almost entirely male — now take her seriously. They have learned that she isn’t going anywhere. Her clams, mussels, oysters and stone crabs, however, are going places — and fast. Whereas many fishermen sell their harvests to a wholesaler — they can sometimes be driven all the way to Georgia before ending up on a plate in Charlotte or Raleigh — Ana personally delivers each order to her clients, often within 24 hours. She enjoys the satisfaction of working directly with chefs, knowing that if she worked with a distributor, the product would likely spend days sitting on a truck. “That’s not the way I want to treat my product,” she says. “That’s not the way I want to treat Mother Nature.” That speed makes the difference, according to Sunny Gerhart, owner and chef at St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar in Raleigh. Gerhart has been buying Shellem’s harvest since she started the business. “The cool thing about Ana is she’s not trying to sell 10,000 bags of oysters,” Gerhart says. “She works with the folks she works with. If I say I want three bags, she’s going to harvest me three bags, and that’s it. The quality is there, and it’s super fresh coming right out of the water. We’re getting it the same day — she’s harvesting in
the morning, and then she’s on the road. It’s hard to get any fresher than that.” With oysters this fresh, Gerhart says it’s best to serve them raw, on the half shell, perhaps with a little mignonette. He sometimes experiments with smoking and preserving the clams and mussels, echoing the culinary tradition of the Basque coast of Spain. Still, he keeps the preparations simple to highlight the flavor of the produce and the hard work that goes into it. “It’s a beautiful product on its own, but it’s really taken care of by Ana,” Gerhart says. “She’s a steward of the coast, doing her thing, bringing that stuff to us. We’re just trying to showcase what she’s doing, what the coast is doing. I don’t need to show off my culinary skills — she’s the one doing the hard work, so let’s let that shine.” Shellem’s harvests sometimes end up in places other than restaurants, too. Free Range Brewing in Charlotte has created one of its most popular beers, Sea of Companions, with her oysters since 2018. “[Ana’s oysters] are the star ingredient,” co-owner Jason Alexander says. “They’re the saltiest we’ve ever encountered, and they’re super fresh.” Art and chemistry combine in creating this rich wintertime porter, with notes of salted chocolate. A malty backbone of roasted oats and wheat, 96% of which is sourced locally, is blended with a touch of hops to add balance and bitterness. Each 200-gallon batch includes more than 600 oysters, boiled in the wort like a stew during
the last stage before fermenting. “As the beer is in the kettle, we recirculate it through a separate vessel with the oysters in it,” Alexander explains. “That allows us to fully cook the oysters, which causes them to open so they release their liquor inside. It allows us to break down the meat and release some proteins, which contributes to the body of the beer, and it allows us to strip some of the minerals from the shells, which enhances the flavor of the beer.” Shellem’s Mussel Beach, a stout made with ribbed mussels harvested by Shellem, will be released later this spring.
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herever her harvest ends up, it always points back to this marsh, to one hardworking woman and a dream. Our day out here is coming to a close — time to head home and wash the mud out of these pants — but Shellem will be back out here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. The pull of the moon on the tide pulls her, too. Even on days she doesn’t have orders, she often finds herself on a busman’s holiday, back out in the marsh, exploring new spots or just pausing to appreciate the beautiful surroundings. “I didn’t start [fishing] for the money,” Shellem says. “I started because it made me happy.” Out here, amid the grass and the mud and the water and the sky, it’s easy to see why. SP southparkmagazine.com | 119
|travel
Georgia on our minds THE MADCAP COTTAGE GENTS SCAMPER OFF TO SAVANNAH AND THE NEW DRAYTON HOTEL.
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BY JASON OLIVER NIXON
hadn’t been to Savannah in years, and John had never visited. Pre-pandemic, Savannah was often bandied about as a possible Madcap weekend away destination, but somehow we always wound up in places like London or, closer to home, Charleston instead. And we do love Charleston, but sometimes the Holy City can be a tad too polished. “Savannah is like Charleston’s wild child,” noted a friend with deep ties to the Georgia coast. “We aren’t as uptight and formal, and we really like to kick up our heels and throw a good party. After all, our nickname is the ‘Hostess City.’ And remember that we are an 120
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open-container city, so always get your cocktail to go!” Meanwhile, our next-door neighbors in High Point spend most of their time in Savannah, where they have a second home and run a ghost tour company, Savannah History & Haunts. The pair has been urging us to visit for years. “You will love it,” said Bridgette, one half of the powerhouse behind the couple’s multi-city tour company. “There are great hotels and restaurants, and the history is off the charts. Plus, you can take one of our tours.” John and I re-read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and,
yes, screened Forrest Gump late one night to get into a Savannah state of mind. Weekend away, here we come! We decided to take George, our pound-rescue Boston terrier, along for the adventure and left the pug posse back home in the capable hands of the dogsitter. For the five-hour drive from the Triad, John and I meandered through Cheraw and Florence, S.C., instead of facing — or more like being smoked by — Charlotte’s notorious speed demons. Still, after a few hours on the Interstate 95, we were ready for a strong libation as we pulled up at our weekend roost: the recently opened and absolutely stunning, dog-friendly Drayton Hotel. George trotted in like he owned the place, and we all settled into The Drayton’s colorful Living Room, aka the lobby, where masterfully crafted, medicinal martinis were quickly rustled up. George perched happily atop a poof and preened. Housed within the historic American Trust and Bank, The Drayton calls to mind an intimate, London-style hotel that mixes
colors and patterns, giving a nod to the past with modern flourishes and understated — but beautifully presented — service. Smack on the corner of busy East Bay and Drayton streets, The Drayton offers the perfect location but feels worlds away from nearby River Street with its tourist hustle-bustle. The five-story hostelry boasts a terrific restaurant, St. Neo’s Brasserie, a chic, high-ceilinged dining room and first-rate service (our server, Libbie, was a gem). The rooftop bar wasn’t open for the season, but there is a slick, tucked-away bar in the basement and a coffee outpost just off the lobby that didn’t disappoint. Our intimate suite was equally cool with knockout views of the container ships plying the Savannah River (Savannah is the third largest container port in the nation) and a truly inspired bathroom with a wet room that paired a shower and clawfoot soaking tub. With refreshed to-go cocktails in hand and George happily tucked away, we decided it was time to hit the town. Savannah is the perfect walking city. Of course, the city celebrates its 22 signature squares, verdant and dripping with Spanish moss, which span one square mile of its downtown. You will probably pick southparkmagazine.com | 121
Drayton Hotel
a favorite over the course of your visit. For us, it was Lafayette, but be sure to visit Chippewa, the site of Forrest’s iconic bench (his actual bench was a prop, now found at the Savannah History Museum). The squares are surrounded by historic residences with gated gardens, many of which you can tour, including the Davenport House and the Mercer-Williams home, site of the murder detailed in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. There’s also dreamy Forsyth Park and museums aplenty. “SCAD seems to be gobbling up the city,” noted John as we found our Savannah sea legs and looked around for more gin to accompany lonely olives. SCAD, of course, refers to the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the institution does, indeed, seem to have kudzued here, there and everywhere in between. We passed the famed Olde Pink House eatery (too crowded!) and questioned whether we had to wear masks outdoors — you’re supposed to. Geographically and pandemically situated, John and I decided to follow our friend’s lead, and we truly kicked up our slip-on Converse-clad heels. We dined at The Fat Radish (bliss!), the farm-to-table Cha Bella, The Collins Quarter and The Fitzroy. We sipped cocktails on the roof of the glamorous Perry Lane Hotel and brunched at Clary’s Cafe, the Little Duck Diner and B. Matthews Eatery. And then, we shopped. Savannah boasts a glorious assortment of design outposts such as Courtland & Co., PW Short General Store (incredible!), Alex Raskin Antiques (the crumbling building alone is worth the visit) and minimalist favorite Asher + Rye (too Scandi-spare for Madcap maximalists). We were in home design heaven. Our neighbors’ 90-minute 9 p.m. candlelit ghost tour was a special highlight of the weekend. Throughout, we explored dark byways and atmospheric squares and learned about the ghosts and cemeteries that haunt and dot Savannah. Dan, our High Point neighbor, guided the tour. Decked in historic-styled garb, he was a font of knowledge paired with heaps of charisma and a true spirit of fun. John and I trotted George out for long walks (Savannah is super dog friendly), sampled ice cream at the fabled Leopold’s, sipped more potent potables at Artillery and the Lone Wolf Lounge, nibbled treats from Byrd Cookie Company and explored the refurbished
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Plant Riverside District with its power-station-meets-pure-glitz JW Marriott Hotel and river-facing sushi and biergarten eateries. And, whew, there went the weekend ... But there is so much more to see and experience in Savannah. We will most certainly be back — with cool Chatham Artillery Punch cocktails in hand, of course. SP For more information about The Drayton Hotel, visit thedraytonhotel.com.
Jason Oliver Nixon and John Locke are the cofounders of Madcap Cottage, a home-furnishings brand based in High Point. Lately, they’ve been embracing the new reality of Covid-friendly travel — heaps of road trips.
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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas
Metamorphosis benefiting RunningWorks December 11, Project 685
This year’s RunningWorks gala was virtual, with a limited number of supporters in attendance and many others streaming at home. Meredith Dolhare and Roman Harper hosted the event, with proceeds benefiting the organization’s mission of assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Windy O’Connor, Luis Machicao, Whitley Adkins and Jeff Wallin
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Sarah Blake
Windy O’Connor
Lamar Booker and Li Horne
Meredith Dolhare and Roman Harper
Ron and Debbie Hitzell
Chris Chapman and Jaclyn Adair
Effie Loukas and Mike Metcalf
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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas
Holiday sips & s’mores December 19, fireside at The Collaborative
Russ Johnson
Stephen and Aundrea Wilson and family
Sophia Batres-Josifovski and Irina Toshkova
The Milicevic family
Heather Gwaltney and Elizabeth Fagg
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
Carolyn Hotham and Mary Margaret Beaver
The Collaborative opened its doors in December with a fireside event including s’mores and cocoa in the courtyard. Patrons browsed fine jewelry from Tiny Gods and art from Stephen Wilson and TFA Advisory.
Intersection January 9, at C3 Lab
Jeremiah Chapman
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Chavonne Trevillion and Asha Davis
Hannah Barham
Kristie Lowery, Marina Kaydanova and Meredith Opsahl
Blair Townsend and Angela Johnson
Mimi Sabates and Doug Herbert
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON
C3 Lab celebrated the opening of Intersection, which featured the works of a dozen local artists, with a DJ and limited-capacity reception.
INTRODUCING
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Matthews
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My favorite things BY WHITLEY ADKINS
O
ver the last decade, I’ve done the majority of my package mailing at The UPS Store on Selwyn Avenue. On a recent visit, it dawned on me that the rest of Charlotte needs to know more about this franchise-store owner. When a package for which I had paid expedited shipping via the UPS website did not arrive on time, I went directly to the owner, Khamla “Moo Moo” Sphabmixay — the nickname was given to him as a child. Moo went above and beyond in handling the situation. Born in Laos, Moo and his family relocated to Charlotte’s Grier Heights neighborhood in 1977, sponsored by a local Catholic family. Moo’s family later moved to a neighborhood on Hovis Road in west Charlotte. Moo graduated from West Charlotte High School, where he was a top-ranked tennis player, and co-owned several small businesses prior to owning UPS Stores in Piper Glen and on Prosperity Church Road. He’s owned the Selwyn Avenue store for the last nine years. Moo lives with his son, 18, who attends Hopewell High School. Comments have been edited for length and clarity. The customers: I love helping people, talking with people, and helping them through good times and bad times. That’s the great thing about the business I have now — we get to interact with people from all walks of life. When you can identify someone as down-to-earth, regardless of their “status,” and they can identify me as being equal, regardless of my status, that’s what it’s about. It’s not about money; it’s about who you are and how you present yourself.
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Favorite foods: One of my favorite meals comes from a Lao food truck, JP Food To Go, parked off Little Rock Road. Also, Le’s [banh mi sandwiches at Asian Corner Mall] off Sugar Creek Road, and Thai House with several locations around Charlotte. My biggest opinion on food is it’s not where you eat, how much it costs or how great the restaurant’s ratings are — it’s not good unless you have it with someone. Neighborhoods: My favorite neighborhoods are Pawtucket and Coulwood. I love Myers Park because I grew up spending time there, and Belmont because my Dad took us there when I was a child. There are great people in every neighborhood. Pastime: I grew up spending time with my family at various fishing holes. There is one fishing hole down Highway 16 as you cross the Mountain Island Bridge. Walk maybe 1,000 yards, and you’ll find it. Also, there is a great fishing hole in Belmont not far from the dam. It is the place where my Dad always took our family, and my uncle brought his family. Outdoor activities: The U.S. National Whitewater Center is great. I like to play tennis at Tuckaseegee Park and Hornets Nest Park — I’d love to start playing more again. I also really enjoy going to Blackstone Shooting Sports off Interstate 77 and Wilkinson Boulevard. It gives you an elegant feel in a shooting-range environment. SP
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