Yeah it's going to be a shit show. Assume most everywhere will be doing events for the weekend but I'll throw out a few recommendations for bars since I am an alcoholic and work uptown: High end: Merchant & Trade, Nuvole, Fahrenheit. All rooftops, all expensive as hell (M&T charges $12 for a can of local IPA) Others: Dandelion, 204 North, Fitzgerald's, Ri Ra's, believe it or not Brixx on 6th street actually has a great selection of craft drafts As others have mentioned, the Epicenter will be a shit show (per usual) so I'd steer clear from that. Places you might be referred to but I would avoid: Duckworth's: Service blows during a normal lunch rush and is mediocre bar food. The Cellar is a different animal and is probably decent but you'll likely need reservations. Rock Bottom: "Charlotte's oldest brewery" or some dumb shit. They've been brewing beers uptown for a long time but they still haven't figured out how to make a good one. 5Church: One of the older "foodie" type restaurants in uptown; has gone way downhill in the last 3 to 4 years and I'm actually surprised they are still in business.
if you go to corner pub, there is a decent chance you'll run into frank kaminsky. put that bad boy on the calendar
If you're coming for AS weekend might as well do that damn thing. Otherwise what's the point? Also dathalfnukkahd has some connects I think ...
No clubbing. Just looking for good places to eat or get drinks. I'll be here working NBA events with coworkers aged 30 to 35. We usually like to get out when we can but nothing crazy. Holiday Inn right next to the arena. I'm engaged now. Crazy.
Grats bro! Yeah I think Cellar, Farenheit and Merchant & Trade would be your speed for drinks in a slightly upscale atmosphere. Cellar definitely for food one night. If you want to take the light rail slightly out of downtown, I'd reccomend Seoul Food Meat Company for eats and Unknown Brewing as a cool brewery to hang at outside. We dont do great cocktails here but have a lot of beer to choose from ...
Well started typing this out and it got longer than I intended but here goes for lunch/dinner spots: American Dandelion - Mainly small plates but they're solid. Really good place to grab lunch or brunch. They have a good Italian sandwich and a really good grilled cheese & tomato soup. 204 North - Steer clear for dinner, the entire menu changes and it gets a lot more pricey than what it should be. For lunch, I'm a big fan of the fried chicken sandwich and the hot chicken sliders. Cowbell - Bunch of different burger options and a ton of whisky to choose from. Essex - Pretty good Mediterranean-style place. I'm a fan of the lamb kefta burger and the schwarma wrap. Would steer clear of the Korean tacos, been underwhelmed. Also have good salads. Barbeque Don't even bother uptown. Gun to my head I guess I'd pick City Smoke but it's way too expensive for what it is and you'd be just as well off going to Queen City Q but neither of them are great. Seafood Fin & Fino - Newer restaurant and I've been a pretty big fan the couple times I've gone. Crab cake sandwich is bangers. Sea Level - Food is solid but pricey for what it is. I'd recommend Fin & Fino over this if you're looking for seafood. That being said, they normally run $1 oysters from 5-7 (I think every day, but maybe just weekdays). Figured it's worth a call out. If you do end up here, don't order the trout risotto, honestly one of the worst risottos I've ever been served. Some of their other food is (shrimp po boy) is good. Asian Basil - People go nuts for this place. It's solid Thai cuisine and the best Thai uptown to my knowledge but don't expect it to be the best you've ever had. Room 112 - Chinese/Sushi that's always packed out for lunch. Fujo - Similar to R112 Steakhouses If you're trying to go for a good steak you have options but you've probably heard of/been to most of them. We have a Cap Grille/Ruth's Chris/BLT/Flemings/Mortons all within uptown. Of the 5, I'm partial to Cap Grille and BLT. If you want an authentic old school steakhouse experience you can scoot down to Beef N Bottle which is probably an $8 uber from uptown. Just a tip if you do BnB, in my opinion their temperatures are one notch cooler than what you'd get at a normal steakhouse. I.e. if you normally order medium rare, you may want to order medium to get a similar temp at BnB. There's plenty of other places I'm probably forgetting here, but that should give you a good start. Will echo the other poster than Seoul Food Meat Co is a really good time but I'd say to be prepared for a wait.
A party list from a local blog. DJ Maseo (guess he's in De La Soul?) at Snug Harbor could be fun if you're able to get away from downtown. Solid local venue ...
Booked to come out for work a week from Monday. Also going to scout some houses. Looking at July to make the move out.
neither one of us was 21 at the time and we were uptown tailgating for that opening game (2011 i think?) so we went to a place where our fakes were sure to work
Went to mac’s speed shop, thought it was very very good but I am a novice as far as knowing what great bbq should be. It was the best bbq place I ever went to. The epicenter on Friday night was a shitshow but i didn’t stay, we were on our way to the hotel
Charlotte residents - where should we house hunt? Family with pets and a baby. We scoped out Huntersville last time we were out and liked that area. Interested in something south of downtown if we can afford it, but it’s looking to be fairly high.
Probably going to rent the first year. 15-1700ish is doable. Looking for a house with some kind of yard. Working right off of 85 and WT Harris.
Unfortunately I don’t know anything about the rental market in charlotte, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for guidance on that issue. Your job is in NE Charlotte. I don’t know what type of city you are coming from, or what your appetite for traffic is. But if you move south of Charlotte you’re going be spending a lot of time in shitty traffic.
That's about the caliber of bbq you can get in CLT. A fine meal but the real bbq aficionados know what the rest of the offers. Though Sweet Lew's is getting some recognition at that level ...
I absolutely loved it. Just to give you an idea of where I am coming from, it was the first time i ever ate brisket. And fried pickles. So my mind was blown.
Yeah, Mac's is still pretty damn good. As is Midwood Smokehouse. They're just not world class, which is fine.
Oh yeah, I was going nuts in there. There was like 50 beers on tap. Tried 2 and a bourbon and everything was perfect.
Went to midwood too, I did not like it as much. Maybe I ordered the wrong stuff. It looked more like a family place than mac’s
Anyone else made it to Sweet Lew's yet? It's in a not-so-great part of town between uptown and NoDa, but it's well worth the trip. The brisket is easily tops in the city IYAM
I will keep that in mind, Charlotte is a place where I can go and spent some company money. Loved the city, it’s almost a perfect sized city with great weather. I would definitely live there if I could.
If I'm not mistaken I think it's the only wood pit smoker in the city. I think there's a rule they got around? The Noble Smoke place opening up later this summer will be a true wood pit too. You can definitely tell in the bark/smoke ring on their cuts ...
Been busy working at Spectrum Arena and a few other places most of the time. Places I've eaten at are Capital Grille, Nikko's Sushi, Queen City Q. Haven't made it out to any bars yet. Beautiful city though. Looks like it would be a nice place to live.
I’ll have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night in town by myself. Not sure if any local coworkers are going to be available. Staying by northlake mall. What should I do?
Northlake has cheap hotels and is mostly safe, you won’t find anything worth eating there. Just uber to uptown/noda/midwood at night, should be a cheap ride.
Anyone doing the Untapped beer festival next weekend? Got tickets for my birthday with the early tasting. Interested to see if they do it on the field or in the concourse like they did at the Knights stadium.