14 NEW Restarants in downtown Charlotte!!

[uptownliving]

Holy Cow Batman there are 14 NEW Restarants opening in downtown Charlotte this month!!!

Here is the list, split into what is open now and soon to open:

Now Open

Food Court on The Green

500 South College Street

Arabica Coffee House

Coffee, coffee drinks, fresh sandwiches, pastries and yogurt

Mr. Hero Subs

Hot and cold subs

Curry In A Hurry

Authentic Indian cuisine

Matt's Chicago Dog

425 South Tryon Street

Serving authentic all beef Chicago-style hotdogs

Rainbow Caf

[Raleigh-NC]

That's GREAT news for Charlotte. What happened and all these places open within a month? Any new projects just got completed, or something?

[uptownliving]

About 3/4 of these are in new retail space in the Ratcliffe, Gateway Village, Hearst Tower, and Post Uptown....the rest are space that was vacated by the previous tenet.

[Allan]

Good news for Charlotte! I wish we had that many restaurant selections around here. For now I can only hope that Detroit will actually get a decent selection of restaurants someday, even though that some day probably won't be while I'm still living here.

[cityboi]

GREAT News! with all the great things happening uptown like the new arena, the restaurants will come.

[49er]

Theres also an unnamed 3 story club and restaurant opening next to Latorres on 5th. Seems like 5th street has become quite the nightlife scene:

City Tavern

Latorres

New club

Ri Ra

Brick and Barrel

Phils Tavern

the venue

Connollys

Blue

Buckhead Saloon

Thats 10 places in 2 blocks, not bad.

[Southend]

a new "speak easy" bar and lounge is opening on the corner of 5th and tryon soon- replacing cascades club.

[uptownliving]

I'm thinking I need to do a restarant tour of downtown....there are so many places to eat down here.

[Neo]

I'm thinking I need to do a restarant tour of downtown....there are so many places to eat down here.

That would be awesome!!!!

[49er]

The two hottest new places to eat and be seen in Charlotte seem to be Blue at College and Fifth and Red Star out on East Blvd. And then of course theres the Cheesecake factory which has a wait almost any time you go.

[Southend]

5th street is really becoming a nice avenue for food and entertainment as someone mentioned earlier:

city tavern, lattores, groucho's, the new speak easy lounge u/c, rira's, phil's tavern, the venue, connollys, blue, buckhead saloon and much more on the block.

[Raleigh-NC]

Can't wait to see what 5th Avenue has to offer. It sounds like it is going to be THE place to go for entertainment. Come on guys, post some pics. It doesn't have to be on a busy day; it can be a quiet Sunday, too. We MUST see what's there for us, visitors

[uptownliving]

I do remember people posting pics of 5th St before. they are out there somewhere.

[Raleigh-NC]

Uptownliving: I am sure I've seen some pics of Charlotte's 5th Ave, but it will be nice if someone finds the time to take a few shots of all those cool places and post them. In my page I will create a section about nightlife in North Carolina and I would LOVE to promote Charlotte's entertainment districts. As soon as I get my own digital camera I will take hundreds of photos of Glenwood South, Warehouse District and City Market, and I it would be nice if I put them next to Charlotte's, Durham's, Greensboro's (and other places') nightlife areas. If you find those pics, please repost them as a separate thread. I am dying with anticipation.

[49er]

It should only get better too - b/c the back side of the arena will be on 5th. Its supposed to have a Champs sports bar-type place on the 5th street side.

as far as what fifth looks like, its a rather normal looking street....meaning it doesnt look like an entertainment destination. At night when the neon and lights crank up i guess it does to a degree.

[DruidCity]

It sounds like a whole lot is going on up there.

Not to hijack the thread, but FWIW, here are the new additions in downtown Tuscaloosa (not including the University Strip) over the last month :

Mako's : Bar that advertises being patterned after "Coyote Ugly"

Copper Top : Existing bar that had been closed for a few months,

reopened under new ownership and management.

Epiphany Cafe : "Upscale Southern cuisine" - probably the only downtown restaurant here marketed as "upscale." Opened in place of "Arman's American Grille," which was sold when respected chef/owner Arman DeLorenz moved to Birmingham to concentrate on that larger market.

Ken's Downtown Pizza & Grill : Opened in place of the A La Grill, which closed after a noise dispute between the owner of that establishment and the landlord.

Alabama's oldest and perhaps most storied bar, The Chukker, is closing permanently at the end of the month. The all-night bar became unprofitable after the city enacted a 2AM liquor curfew, under pressure from university officials.

According to the bar's web site, among the many bands who visited the San Francisco-inspired bar in its heydey were R.E.M., the Allmans, the Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix.

[DruidCity]

According to the web site :

http://www.thechukker.com/history.html

""chukker" ... refers to a 7.5-minute period of play in a polo match..."

I don't know how one would go about "earning" such an odd description ...

Here's more info on it : http://www.druidcityonline.com/musicarchives.htm

At least two other places on the next block will also be displaced at some point in the next few years as part of the "downtown revitalization project," Michael's and KSV/The Black Orchid.

From the Tuscaloosa Convention & Visitor's Bureau web site http://www.tcvb.org , Michael's features "weekend drag shows" and KSV features "soul-food."