Charlotte food scene

[debbiemoose]

I am a freelance writer in Raleigh attempting to distill the essence of the Charlotte food scene for an article. Thoughts? Don't-miss restaurants? Other foodie hangouts (we don't have Dean & DeLuca here, they do). Banking/business influence? Ethnic influence? Planning an eating trip in the near future...

Debbie

[Gifted Gourmet]

I am a freelance writer in Raleigh attempting to distill the essence of the Charlotte food scene for an article. Thoughts? Don't-miss restaurants? Other foodie hangouts

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Debbie, first of all, welcome to the Southeast Forum of eGullet! We hope to see you posting about your food experiences here frequently!

Perhaps a very good starting point for your Charlotte food questions might be found here in this thread by Phaelon ...

Another excellent source is our own Kathleen Purvis, Food Editor of the Charlotte Observer website

[hazardnc]

Debbie, I saw your request the other day, and I have been thinking about your questions.

I have lived in Charlotte for almost 13 years, having moved here from Atlanta. I have also lived in Houston, Dallas and Nashville.

The food scene here has changed dramatically since I moved here in 1992. Back then, there were no "ethnic" restaurants to speak of. Middle East deli was here as was Thai House. We had a good, upscale Greek restaurant (the Grapevine) that went out of business.

There is a significant Greek population here and they own a lot of the diners in town (the Landmark, Athens, the Open Kitchen to name a few)

As Charlotte has grown, so has our restaurant scene. As with Dallas, Houston and Atlanta in their early days of rapid growth, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of national chains (Mortons, Capital Grill, Macaroni Grill, and the like) and a nice increase in the number and variety of ethnic restaurants.

Favorite ethnic: Lang Van for Vietnamese, Taqueria Linares and Taqueria La Unica for Mexican, the Red Sea for Ethiopian, the Woodlands for Indian (vegetarian), Middle East deli for Lebanese, La Gran Havana for Cuban

Favorite American: Coffee Cup for breakfast, Eddies for burgers, Cajun Queen and Boudreauxs for Cajun (the former has excellent fried oysters), the Penguin for fun atmosphere and great fried pickles, Merts Heart and Soul for southern.

Best new restaurant - Arpa for tapas/Spanish - really quite good food here.

Favorite upscale: Barringtons (most innovative menu I have seen) and Bonterra (great wine list and service)

As for food shopping -- while it is certainly wonderful to have Dean and Deluca, I wish we had something akin to the Dekalb Farmer's Market. We could definitely use more fresh produce options. The biggest plus to D&D is that we have a wonderful source for imported cheeses and meats - even foie gras. We have the Fresh Market and Talleys for decent seafood options. Novas is a good bakery, but we could use more - what I would give for a convenient bakery that makes excellent croissants and French pastries!

I was reading a post about Nashville's Capital Grille, and thinking how wonderful it would be to have a restaurant with an innovative chef who offered tasting menus.

City influences - definitely the banking scene (thus the number of steak houses) plus the fact that Charlotte is family oriented. We do not have the number of singles with money here. It seems to me most Charlotteans opt for the chains (Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Carrabas) as they are hesitant to try dishes that are truly adventurous.

Good luck on your article!

[phaelon56]

I'm a regular visitor to Charlotte (and a future resident - planning to relocate there in early 2006). Living in a small traditonally blue collar city (Syracuse NY with population of 150,000 and 200,000 in surrounding suburbs), I've been accustomed to having a dearth of good ethnic choices (apart from a few good Viet and Thai places) and a glut of medicore Italian places of the red-sauce variety.

Although some of the more family oriented residential/commercial areas of Charlotte such as University park City (where my GF resides) are infested with chains, Charlotte really does have an encouraging diversity of ethnic and traditonal choices (many already mentioned in the excellent previous post). You'll find at least two or three Cuban restaurants, some great little taqueria's, a few decent Indian restaurants (including one that is all vegetarian) and even a Brazilian rodizio place.

The limited time I'm able to spend on my visits and the cost of flying down and back has us eating at home much of the time at present but there are some upscale options I'm interested in exploring more of in the future. Some of those are discussed in this thread Bonterra Restaurant, Charlotte NC; Has anyone been?

[Carolyn Tillie]

After a week on the east coast, the last 12 hours were spent in Charlotte (the final leg before rising at 4:00 a.m. to catch a flight home). Downtown was shimmering with inviting lights and feeling brave, I headed toward the shimmering spires...

Arpa was one of the first to catch my eye -- elegant and modern on a street corner teaming with folks -- and knowing how early I'd have to rise, decided it seemed reasonable enough for a quick meal.

The boss and I were hungrier than I anticipated as we went through a wide variety of lovingly-presented tapas;

Roasted Duck Supremes, leg confit and truffled potatoes; served in a stubby martini glass, I don't believe the duck was actually true confit, but was flavorful enough (if not a tad overcooked and tough) with arugula and miniature roasted tomatoes.

Melty Manchego on Crusty Bread, with olive tapenade and caramelized onions; a fairly standard offering except that the bread was almost a bit too large, in both height and width. How can anything be bad with caramelized onions?

Croquetas de Jamon y Pollo, traditional chicken and ham fritters; served on a spicy romesco sauce and drizzled pesto, these were innocuous enough but my boss adored them -- fried things are a favored of the weary.

Roasted Eggplant "Package", goat cheese, hazelnuts & pesto; sliced and roasted eggplant enrapped melted goat cheese but the garnish of fleur de sel overwhelmed.

Empanadilla de Carne, Spanish meat pie; the spiciest dish of the evening -- with a crispy, flaky crust.

We finished the meal with a shared molten chocolate cake that was far from molten, but tasted good with a few glasses of port.

Overall, a nice enough experience except that in retrospect, I found the entire meal to be too salty. I drank twice as much water as I did martinis (unusual for me). The ambience is very George Jetson/1972-SciFi but the servers are more than gracious.

[robsimons]

Of course Charlotte has a good food scene, but I think you really need to look in the smaller towns that surround it (say 45 minute radius). Lexington has a great place that just opened up not to long ago and is doing some amazing things with "southern food".

Check it out: www.SouthernCuriosity.com