131 MAIN is a Blakeney dinner option for steaks, seafood and American dishes cooked over a hickory wood fire. The covered porch and fire pit give you another way to enjoy the evening. Dining-room reservations are available through Resy; the bar and patio take guests first come, first served. The restaurant is cashless, so bring a credit or debit card.
300 East has been serving East Boulevard in Dilworth for more than 35 years, in the Street Car Station Shops. The kitchen works seasonally with an emphasis on seafood and local sourcing. It runs weekend brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is patio seating, weather permitting, and patio tables cannot be reserved. Guy Fieri filmed it for the Indulgent Dishes episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Abugida is a family-run Ethiopian room on Central Avenue that describes itself simply as a 'Family owned authentic Ethiopian restaurant'. The food is eaten the traditional way, scooped with injera rather than cutlery, and the kitchen keeps a wide range of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dishes on the board because Ethiopian fasting cooking is built that way. The cafe also serves a full coffee ceremony, poured at the table with frankincense burning alongside it.
Alexander Michael's has been a Fourth Ward neighborhood tavern since 1983, inside the brick Crowell-Berryhill Store that opened in 1897. The room kept pieces of Charlotte with it: the bar and back bar were made from solid oak doors taken from the old Independence Building, and the beer cooler came from a Charlotte grocery store around 1920. Come for a burger, a beer and a building that survived when much of the neighborhood did not.
BellyUp! Charlotte / Over 50
Good places to eat and drink in Charlotte, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
10 spots
Bar Fly takes over the rooftop deck above Room Service at Camp North End on weekend nights, from the same founder. The landlord's page describes bold and playful decor, cocktails, bites, dancing and music, with a rotating schedule of events each weekend. The drinks list runs to cocktails, wine, sangria, beer and rotating slushies.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Blasian Asian Way started as a food truck in 2019 and now holds a stall in the Keswick building at Camp North End, where it took over the space Saru Ramen had held. The kitchen cooks Korean-inspired food from locally sourced and organic ingredients, and leads with bulgogi served alongside American-style plates.
Free Range Bar is the Camp North End sister to Free Range Brewing in NoDa, and the landlord's page calls it 'a labor of love from brothers, Jeff and Jason Alexander'. It sits on Camp Road inside the old missile plant complex.
Halal Street Food is a family counter in the Keswick building at Camp North End cooking from a Dominican and Pakistani household: chicken and lamb over rice, kabobs, falafel, gyros, fresh-squeezed juices and desserts. It keeps the longest hours of any food tenant on the site, ten in the morning to ten at night, every day.
Barrel Arts is Heist's production brewery and second taproom, in a warehouse on Woodward Avenue north of NoDa. It has its own address, its own hours and its own kitchen: Livy's Neapolitan Pizzeria operates inside it.
La Caseta is a Latin American counter in the Keswick building at Camp North End, the redeveloped Ford plant north of Uptown. It describes itself as a place where 'we are all familia, and are welcome to take a seat at the table to create memories through a shared meal', and it was founded by the immigrant families behind Raydal Hospitality.
Room Service is the sit-down cocktail room at Camp North End, in the Keswick building on the old Ford plant site. Its landlord's tenant page calls it 'Charlotte's premier spot for unique craft cocktails and elevated dining in a relaxed environment'. Its rooftop deck runs as a separate bar, Bar Fly, on weekends.
Soul Miner's Garden is the all-vegan stall in the Keswick building at Camp North End, run by Charlotte native Sasha Quinn, who is both owner and chef. The line it works to is 'Creating delicious food that just so happens to be vegan!' The menu draws on family recipes: loaded nachos built with local ingredients and house-made tortilla chips, hand-cut fries, Southern-style collard greens, a portabella mushroom Reuben and a Shroomin' Philly made with locally sourced oyster mushrooms.
Tipsy Pickle is the pickleball house at Camp North End, with professional-sized courts, golf simulators and cornhole, though its own site puts the food and drink first. The kitchen runs what it calls 'approachable Tex-mex with Margaritas, Cold beer & much more', and the bar keeps local beer, picklebacks and fried pickles. It opens at seven in the morning every day, earlier than anything else on the site.
eggroll Co. holds the first suite in the Keswick building at Camp North End and builds its whole menu around the egg roll. Its own line is that the standard is 'to create and deliver tastes that you won't find elsewhere'.
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