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On 4/5/2016 at 4:15 PM, Jayvee said:

in other news. Red Eye Diner is now open in epi

I had a one-person (me) UP meetup at Red-Eye this morning at 7am.  The place was surprisingly dirty....counter had grease and crumbs, floor was dirty, shiny front door had greasy handprints all over it.  My waitress (at the counter) was friendly enough, but she and everybody else in there looked and acted like they were just finishing the night shift....which maybe they were.  The menu looked good.  I'm a sucker for corned beef hash --- it was greasy but that's sorta to be expected...the scrambled eggs and rye toast were fine.  I saw a cali omelette and also some biscuits and gravy, both of which looked delicious.  The music was good and the TVs playing SportsCenter were nice.  I'll certainly give it a couple-three more shots before defaulting back to Showmars for my occasional indulgent breakfast.

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I'm gonna toss your feed back towards management. My guess: this was their first time handling a drunk/night crowd from AA5 part 1 last night. I'm sure that will all improve as midnight diner runs a tight ship and its the same management here. 

I ate there myself yesterday. Just as good as midnight diner. Nothing to blow your skirt up. But just solid, quality diner food. 

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Oh the other odd thing.....one guy came in and asked for a takeout menu and they didn't have any --- so he left.  Also no content on their website -- just "under construction", and no content/menu on their facebook page.  I know they just opened, but I guess I'm spoiled by how "with it" other Charlotte places seem to be.

I mean, nothing horrendous overall, not trying to be too negative or dissuade anyone from going there.  Just a few surprising things.

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This is kinda the wrong thread (sorry), but Duckworths downtown continues to struggle with sanitation. It cant be easy to run an operation that massive.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/04/08/which-mecklenburg-county-restaurants-didnt-make.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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14 minutes ago, kermit said:

This is kinda the wrong thread (sorry), but Duckworths downtown continues to struggle with sanitation. It cant be easy to run an operation that massive.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/04/08/which-mecklenburg-county-restaurants-didnt-make.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Their biggest issue is that the cellar and duckworths operate under the same permit. So any little thing knocks both. :/ last time I talked to them they said the cellar has like a 95 and upstairs was 90 (not accurate but you get the point) but the violations together bring it all down. 

They have new management, hopefully this improves. 

That said, the Cellar continues to crush it on Yelp. One of the highest and best reviewed places in the city. 

 

Edit: just got word duckworths is spending a lot of money to split the two permits out. They are putting a lot of money into new sanitary things like grease traps and stuff. Once this is done we shouldn't see anything but As from them. Since both have been opened, individually they've scored A but yeah, it being together is the big issue. Kudos to them for recognizing it and spending big bucks to make it better. 

Edited by Jayvee
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I feel like we should merge "Charlotte new restaurants" and "another restaurant bites the dust" into a thread called "Charlotte Restaurants" that way we can talk about restaurants of Old, Current, New and soon to be gone. 

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On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 9:05 AM, kermit said:

This is kinda the wrong thread (sorry), but Duckworths downtown continues to struggle with sanitation. It cant be easy to run an operation that massive.

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/04/08/which-mecklenburg-county-restaurants-didnt-make.html?ana=RSS%26s%3Darticle_search&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I couldn't get the Duckworth's downtown. What was their score?

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Blaze Pizza was a pleasant surprise on opening weekend. They are still working some kinks out (and they are getting slammed) but the crust is excellent, the sauce is good and the ingredient selection is solid (other than an impressive cheese selection it was pretty standard). The smoore desert (get it heated up) is the biggest surprise. Overall its a very satisfying pizza and good addition to the neighborhood.

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14 hours ago, kermit said:

Blaze Pizza was a pleasant surprise on opening weekend. They are still working some kinks out (and they are getting slammed) but the crust is excellent, the sauce is good and the ingredient selection is solid (other than an impressive cheese selection it was pretty standard). The smoore desert (get it heated up) is the biggest surprise. Overall its a very satisfying pizza and good addition to the neighborhood.

I actually didn't like the crust. Flakey and occasionally comes out burnt. Awesome value though and the smoores are amazing. 

 

I still prefer uncle Maddios. 

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On 4/10/2016 at 9:46 AM, Jayvee said:

I actually didn't like the crust. Flakey and occasionally comes out burnt. Awesome value though and the smoores are amazing. 

 

I still prefer uncle Maddios. 

I just finished a pizza from Blaze about an hour ago. Thought it was delicious! And quite a deal @ $7.65 with unlimited toppings included. Quick service now that the crowd has died down and it seems like they have their process down pretty well!

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Ate at kid cashew for lunch for the first time yesterday. Their lunch entrees were surprisingly delicious and reasonably priced. I had the open face chicken sandwich which resembled a chicken salad mixed with greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. I will absolutely go back for this entree.  But, wow was the space loud with 1/3 of the restaurant full at lunch time- can't imagine how loud it is at max capacity at night. Luke kuechly came in and sat at at the adjacent table about half way through the meal. 

 

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Heard this from a friend regarding the Fourth Ward Bread Compay:

The owner of building that McCarthy Tire and the bakery use.  He says that the bakery owner got a huge insurance payout and he got nothing.  He also reports that the bakery hasn’t paid rent in a year and he’s been trying to evict them.  Interesting in that there is still fencing and a dumpster on site, so someone’s getting paid, I guessing.

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1 hour ago, DMann said:

Heard this from a friend regarding the Fourth Ward Bread Compay:

The owner of building that McCarthy Tire and the bakery use.  He says that the bakery owner got a huge insurance payout and he got nothing.  He also reports that the bakery hasn’t paid rent in a year and he’s been trying to evict them.  Interesting in that there is still fencing and a dumpster on site, so someone’s getting paid, I guessing.

Explains a lot. That Fourth Ward Bread Co creator guy has been fishy/sketchy since day 1. Dude had a great idea and vision but 0 business acumen. 

Sounds like set fire to his own place, collected a monster insurance payout and skipped town. 

So the same person who owns McCarthy owns the bakery building too? Interesting. 

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Stopped by the cotton room at Belfast on Friday night. Was pretty slammed, but I was able to find a seat in the small lounge-ish type area. The cocktails are real cocktails, and take time to prepare correctly. One of my best friends had 2 old fashioneds and said they were some of the best she's ever had. I had two "basic-beotch" drinks off their specialty menu and they were both delicious. The crowd started to get a little bit antsy on the wait as there were only two bartenders (mixologists?) behind the bar. To those folks I say: CHILL OUT! If you want someone to open a miller lite bottle for you, there are plenty establishments in Brevard that will accommodate you. 

Love this space, Loved the drinks. Prices will sneak up on you, but they are well worth the effort. 

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13 minutes ago, Crown said:

Stopped by the cotton room at Belfast on Friday night. Was pretty slammed, but I was able to find a seat in the small lounge-ish type area. The cocktails are real cocktails, and take time to prepare correctly. One of my best friends had 2 old fashioneds and said they were some of the best she's ever had. I had two "basic-beotch" drinks off their specialty menu and they were both delicious. The crowd started to get a little bit antsy on the wait as there were only two bartenders (mixologists?) behind the bar. To those folks I say: CHILL OUT! If you want someone to open a miller lite bottle for you, there are plenty establishments in Brevard that will accommodate you. 

Love this space, Loved the drinks. Prices will sneak up on you, but they are well worth the effort. 

Hopefully you will be seeing my newly designed menus in there soon!

 

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Had food delivered from Old Pineville Premium Pub while hanging out at Three Spirits on Saturday (good beer, Honey Porter was great and IPA was hoppy but smooth to drink on a sunny day).  Either way the food from Old Pineville was great!  All well-done bar food but decently priced and quality.  A friend had the wings which were grilled who said they were comparable to Moosehead.  Can't say they're as good myself but I will be going to find out!  Their location is in a strip mall just north of Woodlawn on Old Pineville.  Nice to see some quality places moving this far down the light rail.

Edited by SouthEndCLT811
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1 hour ago, Crown said:

Stopped by the cotton room at Belfast on Friday night. Was pretty slammed, but I was able to find a seat in the small lounge-ish type area. The cocktails are real cocktails, and take time to prepare correctly. One of my best friends had 2 old fashioneds and said they were some of the best she's ever had. I had two "basic-beotch" drinks off their specialty menu and they were both delicious. The crowd started to get a little bit antsy on the wait as there were only two bartenders (mixologists?) behind the bar. To those folks I say: CHILL OUT! If you want someone to open a miller lite bottle for you, there are plenty establishments in Brevard that will accommodate you. 

Love this space, Loved the drinks. Prices will sneak up on you, but they are well worth the effort. 

Agreed. Big, big fan. And I think it will take a few months for people/the market, to understand this isn't your usual Brevard Court bar. But it is great to hear the market already responding positively. They don't have a full staff yet, they just needed to get open.  I think they'll have 3 people behind the bar at peak times.

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7 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

Agreed. Big, big fan. And I think it will take a few months for people/the market, to understand this isn't your usual Brevard Court bar. But it is great to hear the market already responding positively. They don't have a full staff yet, they just needed to get open.  I think they'll have 3 people behind the bar at peak times.

Is it similar to The Cellar and many other speakeasy style bars in having a strict capacity with seating only (no standing)? I feel like that, along with tasteful lighting and music, goes a looong way towards nailing a craft cocktail bar atmosphere and sets expectations properly so patrons don't get too antsy (or wild). 

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9 minutes ago, nonillogical said:

Is it similar to The Cellar and many other speakeasy style bars in having a strict capacity with seating only (no standing)? I feel like that, along with tasteful lighting and music, goes a looong way towards nailing a craft cocktail bar atmosphere and sets expectations properly so patrons don't get too antsy (or wild). 

It's not quite as upscale. It's exactly what you'd imagine a cocktail bar in brevard court to be...it's a very upscale dive bar with great cocktails lol. I think they have some capacity control, but it's not super strict (yet?). Music and lighting are onnnnn point. But you'd be surprised. This market is mostly dumb and doesn't understand the concept of a cocktail bar in general. Both the Cellar & the Punch Room had to put a disclaimer about it taking time to make the drinks on the menu.

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31 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

It's not quite as upscale. It's exactly what you'd imagine a cocktail bar in brevard court to be...it's a very upscale dive bar with great cocktails lol. I think they have some capacity control, but it's not super strict (yet?). Music and lighting are onnnnn point. But you'd be surprised. This market is mostly dumb and doesn't understand the concept of a cocktail bar in general. Both the Cellar & the Punch Room had to put a disclaimer about it taking time to make the drinks on the menu.

Yeah that sounds good and I think as you put it an upscale dive bar with great cocktails is a really cool niche to fill. I just don't want to see it devolve into a more generic uptown scene, at least on the weekends, as some initially promising places have. I don't think that's likely here though, these guys seem to know what they're doing.

It is strange how behind we are on the cocktail bar scene, just now catching up with a handful of decent places. I used to look forward to going to Fox Liquor Bar in Raleigh or Sazerac in Asheville, finding it odd that we didn't have anything similar. Some of our restaurants have fantastic, creative bars though that would honestly compete in that category if they weren't known more for food: Soul, Halcyon, Custom Shop, Sea Level (really impressed with their drinks)...

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