Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in November 2015.
Fahrenheit Charlotte crowned the Queen City with the best view when it opened its doors in March 2014. To see the skyline from above, head Uptown to the Hyatt Place Hotel and ride the elevator 21 floors up to Charlotte’s first and only open-air restaurant and bar. Nearly every seat provides a 360-degree view that complements the culinary creations of James Beard-nominated owner-chef Rocco Whalen and Executive Chef Dave Feimster. Outside on the wraparound rooftop terrace, the bar serves cocktails imbued with local spirits, like Covington sweet potato vodka, and herbs from the rooftop kitchen herb garden. Stake out a spot by one of the terraces with a view of the glowing Duke Energy building and the setting sun as a backdrop for a metropolitan selfie.
222 South Caldwell Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(980) 237-6718
Purple is Ellen Davis’s color. The Charlotte native, with red hair and sparkling blue eyes, wears purple like a uniform around the house — a Queen Anne-style Victorian home in Charlotte’s historic Fourth Ward neighborhood. If you want to pay her a visit, you’ll need to make a reservation. Davis’s home isn’t just any home. It’s the McNinch House, an acclaimed restaurant that occupies the entire first floor of her residence. Each evening, Davis plays hostess to a dinner party complete with chandeliers and jacketed waiters, who deliver classics like she-crab soup, duck breast, and filet mignon plated on an elegant array of pieces from Davis’s personal china collection.
511 North Church Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704) 332-6159
Pass through the century-old church doors into the vaulted space of Bonterra’s main dining room, and head toward the back set of stairs leading underground. As you move into the basement of this former church, the sounds of diners and clinking wine glasses falls away. A door marked with “The Cave” opens into Bonterra’s private dining room, where a table for 12 is the centerpiece of this grotto-like space that’s the perfect temperature for the collection of reserve wines stacked in neat rows along the wall.
1829 Cleveland Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28203
(704) 333-9463
If you’re looking for the elephant ears that 28-year-old chef Clark Barlowe peeled and blanched for a pho-like soup yesterday at Heirloom restaurant, they’re probably long gone. Not to worry. The Johnson & Wales graduate has the massive leaf on tonight’s tasting menu wrapped around a filet of fish caught along the Carolina coast. Barlowe, who’s had stints in the kitchens of El Bulli — once claimed to be the best restaurant in the world — and the famed French Laundry in California, is a chef-forager who often uses unusual or unexpected ingredients in his dishes — yes, that’s caviar in his NC deviled eggs — that may or may not land on Heirloom’s daily 12-course tasting menu, which isn’t posted online until four hours before the doors open at 5 o’clock.
8470 Bellhaven Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28216
(704) 595-7710
The consummate comfort food is found at Barrington’s in SouthPark: gnocchi decadently paired with rich veal stew. Chef Bruce Moffett transforms potato, flour, and eggs into soft pillows of perfection best enjoyed from a seat at the eight-person bar overlooking the chef’s window. Moffett says the perfect gnocchi is made by handling the tender dough as little as possible. The careful chef coddles the airy dumplings in a slow braise of veal stock, porcini mushrooms, red wine, and tomatoes.
7822 Fairview Road
Charlotte, NC 28226
(704) 364-5755
The sweet finale to a six-course tasting at The Asbury is a play on Cracker Jacks by Jossie Perlmutter, a 23-year-old pastry phenom. Her sophisticated interpretation consists of a peanut financier cake with caramel popcorn and peanut butter pastry cream, balanced with an apricot, white balsamic, and orange blossom puree, then finished with a quenelle of salted-caramel ice cream. Perlmutter’s talents make for an already memorable ending, but then, a surprise: Mignardise, sweet bites of chocolate pistachio shortbread, blackberries, and chocolate chantilly truffles arrive as a parting gift, tucked inside a wooden cheese box — the grandest of finales.
235 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704) 342-1193
Sitting at the marble bar at Kindred restaurant, the newest addition to Main Street Davidson, a robin’s egg-colored enamel bowl swells with warm, yeasty milk bread, which is at once comforting and familiar, yet altogether new. Next comes a plate of fresh plums dressed with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt, the essence of the season. When a plate of charred romaine topped with ripe tomatoes arrives, doused with a generous splash of olio nuovo, it’s difficult not to cheer. The food at Kindred has that kind of power. In one moment, you’re reliving the fresh-baked bread of your childhood, and the next, you’re in the summer garden plucking fresh fruit from the vine.
131 North Main Street
Davidson, NC 28036
(980) 231-5000
An exploration of tomatoes hits the table at Heritage Food & Drink, an array of reds that span from the intensity of a fire truck to the deep softness of a sunset. A bright concasse is paired with the concentrated flavor of roasted tomato puree. Tomato chips, made from dehydrated slices of the fruit, taste like candy, and tomato water consommé whispers summer. This is Paul Verica’s art — an expression of his love for the seasons transformed into a colorful melange of flavors and textures. The chef’s modern culinary creations are juxtaposed with the rattle of passing trains and the charms of small town Waxhaw. “I wanted to set myself apart,” says Verica. And he has, literally and figuratively.
201 West South Main Street
Waxhaw, NC 28173
(704) 843-5236
Mark our words: Whether they nod to North Carolina or were penned by its residents, these notable, quotable passages remind us of the power of speech inspired by our state.
When one stream flows into another, the two chart a new course for the future — together.
When the weather outside is frightful, one chef serves loved ones dishes so delightful.
A historic Rose Bowl pitted Duke University against Oregon State in Durham. Then, in the dark days of World War II, those same football players — and a legendary coach — joined forces to fight for freedom.
