Will 2018 Be Charlotte's Breakout Year?
By: David Landsel
Charlotte has always been something of a puzzle. It is a big city, a city that's going places, a city at the heart of a growing metropolitan area of millions. It feels as if they've done everything right here, everything you're supposed to do in order to attract the right kind of creative talent, from encouraging density at the heart of the city—here, known as Uptown—to creating a modest, but growing rail transportation network.
On the food and drink front, the region's diverse population (Charlotte is currently one of the most diverse cities in the United States) has an increasingly impressive array of options to choose from, too. There's a public market; there are all the things we seem to like these days, really, from obsessive ramen joints, to risk-taking craft breweries; there's a great cocktail lounge tucked away behind a Harris-Teeter supermarket, an ambitious wine bar inside a shuttered pool hall. Respected Asheville chef William Dissen (The Market Place) will soon open a restaurant here. Up in the northern reaches of the metro, you have Joe and Katy Kindred's widely-celebrated destination restaurant, Kindred, as well as their sophomore effort (Hello, Sailor), which made its debut late last year. Master mixologist Gary Crunkleton, well-regarded in Southern cocktail circles, is coming to town to open his own bar. Atlanta restaurateur Ford Fry is bringing his very successful act to town this year, not once, but twice, maybe even more than that. Hell, even Shake Shack is getting ready to open up here—its first foray into North Carolina. In short, things have been happening, are happening, and will continue to happen.