210 Trade | EpiCentre

[Cadi40]

The Epicenter and surrounding area sure does feel a lot like Nashvegas tonight and I’m sure tomorrow night will be even better. 

[Trickbot]

I'm blaming this on all of you EpiCenter doubters

[Temeteron]

38 minutes ago, Trickbot said:

I'm blaming this on all of you EpiCenter doubters

Damn that is awful! How can five guys not make it there? 

[15895]

7 minutes ago, Temeteron said:

Damn that is awful! How can five guys not make it there? 

Same question. How tf did 5 guys fail? They seem to good in urban locations. 

[CLT2014]

Bankers watching their calorie count at lunch time? People fighting back against the obesity epidemic? It was never extremely crowded when I walked by there. One of the best places to get lunch without a wait. If a group suggested going there, you definitely had some people protest based on how heavy the food is and the lack of healthy options. 

 A lunch at Five Guys is like 1,900 calories. Their french fries alone are 953 calories. 

Edited February 19, 2019 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

What about a Shake Shack?  The rents are very high in Epicenter too

[tozmervo]

I think this is just another shot at places that are actually f&ng affordable for lunch in Uptown

[Temeteron]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Bankers watching their calorie count at lunch time? People fighting back against the obesity epidemic? It was never extremely crowded when I walked by there. One of the best places to get lunch without a wait. If a group suggested going there, you definitely had some people protest based on how heavy the food is and the lack of healthy options. 

 A lunch at Five Guys is like 1,900 calories. Their french fries alone are 953 calories. 

I get it, but what about the night crowd? Libretto’s is gone, and now this? Only thing left is Moe’s, the diner and Jason’s deli 

[JacksonH]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Bankers watching their calorie count at lunch time? People fighting back against the obesity epidemic? It was never extremely crowded when I walked by there. One of the best places to get lunch without a wait. If a group suggested going there, you definitely had some people protest based on how heavy the food is and the lack of healthy options. 

 A lunch at Five Guys is like 1,900 calories. Their french fries alone are 953 calories. 

A block away from where I worked in DC was a food court that included a Five Guys.  I heard they had good burgers, but in my eight years of working in that neighborhood and going to that food court several times a week, I never once went to Five Guys for the very reason you have noted.

[KJHburg]

Here is the interactive directory to keep track of the vacant spaces.   

https://epicentrenc.com/directory/

Hopefully a locally owned operator will pick up the Five Guys space for locals like the 2nd generation spaces.  (great place for Green's Hot Dogs or Chinese restaurant) Then how about Shake Shack elsewhere in one of the larger vacant spaces.  

Edited February 20, 2019 by KJHburg

[CLT2014]

2 hours ago, Temeteron said:

I get it, but what about the night crowd? Libretto’s is gone, and now this? Only thing left is Moe’s, the diner and Jason’s deli 

A fast casual restaurant's dinner crowd is fairly reliant on a residential population. Uptown's residential population is rather high income, health conscious, and fit IMO. More likely to grab a quinoa bowl at Whole Foods, make a protein shake after going to Dowd Y or the Athletic Club, pick up a salad at B Good, go to Pokeatry, etc... In addition, Five Guys has become a stagnant brand with a lack of innovation to keep customers coming back and corporate has been bailing out failing franchises amidst declining sales.

All in all I think the lack of a lunch crowd is what killed it though. It never seemed very busy compared to other fast casual lunch options at Epicentre.

[a2theb]

14 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Bankers watching their calorie count at lunch time? People fighting back against the obesity epidemic? It was never extremely crowded when I walked by there. One of the best places to get lunch without a wait. If a group suggested going there, you definitely had some people protest based on how heavy the food is and the lack of healthy options. 

 A lunch at Five Guys is like 1,900 calories. Their french fries alone are 953 calories. 

This. I could not imagine going to five guys for a workday lunch. I would end up dozing off at my desk....

[KJHburg]

Here is another suggestion and we here in Charlotte have a very strong franchisee a Wendys.  Offers better salads and non burger items but still very affordable.  

I really wish some of the larger restaurant spaces would become a soft goods retailer that might attract even more people to this center.  

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

I hope we do see a transition at the Epicentre.  With Enso, Bubble, and possibly Suite retiring (maybe others), those are large chunks of retail spaces.  I don't want to eliminate all the nightlife options at Epicentre, but I do think clubs are dwindling in popularity, than say a decade ago.  The other issue with clubs are that they have limited hours & usually don't open until dusk or later.  So, what you are left with is half of the Epicentre closed during business hours when there is a lot of foot traffic walking around.  I think the hotels anchoring the Epicentre will help add more consistency and I do think we will see more shopping options in the near future to take their place.

[SydneyCarton]

14 hours ago, Temeteron said:

I get it, but what about the night crowd? Libretto’s is gone, and now this? Only thing left is Moe’s, the diner and Jason’s deli 

It's a shame that Libretto's is gone.  I used to take my son there all the time after riding the Lynx (though sometimes to Fuel Pizza too).  We lived not too far from the Ballantyne location and loved it.

Speaking of food, Charlotte's cuisine is dramatically better than Chapel Hill's, which I find very surprising given all of the universities.

[KJHburg]

4 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

It's a shame that Libretto's is gone.  I used to take my son there all the time after riding the Lynx (though sometimes to Fuel Pizza too).  We lived not too far from the Ballantyne location and loved it.

Speaking of food, Charlotte's cuisine is dramatically better than Chapel Hill's, which I find very surprising given all of the universities.

Yes college students want cheap food.  Great restaurants over in Durham and of course Raleigh.

With all the hotel rooms at Epicenter and strategic location I wish it had more soft good retailers.   Still it is still has fairly high occupancy.  But I do think less dependence on clubs and more on retail would be better for the center.  Or how about this knock down the building at Trade and College and build another hotel there!  Relocate some of those tenants.  I think this project will change over the next 5 years.  

[SydneyCarton]

33 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Yes college students want cheap food.  Great restaurants over in Durham and of course Raleigh.

With all the hotel rooms at Epicenter and strategic location I wish it had more soft good retailers.   Still it is still has fairly high occupancy.  But I do think less dependence on clubs and more on retail would be better for the center.  Or how about this knock down the building at Trade and College and build another hotel there!  Relocate some of those tenants.  I think this project will change over the next 5 years.  

Durham and Raleigh definitely have very good cuisine.  Between all of the professors from Duke and UNC who live in CH, I expected that the restaurants would be more varied and better.    Anyway, Libretto's is great, as is Lorenzo's.  

As far as the Epicentre goes, I'd love to see a Books a Million there.  (B&N obviously won't open there, but BaM might.)

[tozmervo]

51 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Durham and Raleigh definitely have very good cuisine.  Between all of the professors from Duke and UNC who live in CH, I expected that the restaurants would be more varied and better.    Anyway, Libretto's is great, as is Lorenzo's.  

As far as the Epicentre goes, I'd love to see a Books a Million there.  (B&N obviously won't open there, but BaM might.)

I legitimately thought BAM had completely liquidated. I didn't realize they still operated stores. 

[navigator319]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

It's a shame that Libretto's is gone.  I used to take my son there all the time after riding the Lynx (though sometimes to Fuel Pizza too).  We lived not too far from the Ballantyne location and loved it.

Speaking of food, Charlotte's cuisine is dramatically better than Chapel Hill's, which I find very surprising given all of the universities.

It is still there, just called NY Pizza.  As far as I can tell it is exactly the same as Libretto's.  

[SydneyCarton]

38 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

I legitimately thought BAM had completely liquidated. I didn't realize they still operated stores. 

I used to go to the one in Cotswold on the occasion that I was in that area.  It was pretty nice.

[KJHburg]

55 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

I legitimately thought BAM had completely liquidated. I didn't realize they still operated stores. 

Nope one is open at Concord Mills,  Rock Hill, Gastonia, and another one at the Carolina Mall in Concord.  

 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

As far as the Epicentre goes, I'd love to see a Books a Million there.  (B&N obviously won't open there, but BaM might.)

I bet you could convince LH to build one for ya, they like outdated concepts in weird places.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Guest

[j-man]

41 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I bet you could convince LH to build one for ya, they like outdated concepts in weird places.

Lmao. I think there's a better chance of an Apple store coming than that as someone mentioned a few weeks ago as a suggestion. 

[704Dimitri]

Sad to see all the retail that the All-Star game brought be gone and forgotten about. 

[15895]

^ that looks better than the pictures shared. In person it may have been different, but the all star epicenter looked tacky. Normal epicenter looks cosmopolitan and big city