Charlotte NC eats

On the subject of leaving town.... heading to Charlotte for three days next week.

Dining suggestions???

A friend took me to a great place a few years ago called Cajun Queen. It had great cajun food at a good price and they have live music most evenings. Also the restaurant is in an old house that dates back to 1918 which provided a neat atmosphere.

Here is the link.
http://www.cajunqueen.net/

I can relate to the concept of the old house that is for sure!
Thanks for the tip.

We moved here from Charlotte. What kind of a place are you looking for and what part of town will you be in?

My favorite place is Lulu -- it's a French Bistro that uses seasonal food. It's on Central Ave (in an old house) in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood. http://www.360charlotte.com/Restaurants/LuLu.html

Carpe Diem on Elizabeth (in the Elizabeth neighborhood) http://www.carpediemrestaurant.com has been around for a long time and has very solid food at reasonable prices. Down the street is Custom Shop which is supposed to be good but it opened just as we were leaving.

The Fig Tree is a more expensive restaurant in an old Arts and Crafts home with really good food. http://www.charlottefigtree.com

If you're looking for a little local flavor (and aren't a vegetarian) you may want to hit the Penguin Drive in (it's not a drive in anymore) http://www.penguindrivein.com -- Burgers (get it Southern Style), fried pickles, tatooed waitresses, etc. It's also in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood.

A new trendy spot at SouthPark is http://www.harpersrestaurants.com/m5.html -- I've heard good things about it.

I haven't found a place in Louisville that serves what I consider "real" Italian food yet (not Italian-American) -- both Coco Osteria (downtown) and Il Posto (SouthPark) are very good.
http://www.cocoosteria.com/index.htm
http://www.americascuisine.com/charlott ... steria.htm

If you're looking for a lunch place, my friends own a deli that is modeled after the Bagel and Deli in our college town (Oxford, OH) -- they steam the sandwiches so that all of the fillings melt together. It's really great (I like the Gandy Dancer). It's right next to downtown in the South End http://www.owensbagelanddeli.com/index_ ... ge0001.htm

ETA: I forgot Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa (on North Davidson) http://www.cabofishtaco.com/charlotte/index.html

Keep in mind that even for the size of Charlotte, they don't have quite the restaurant culture of Louisville. If you need more help, let me know!
ps - There are Trader Joe's in Charlotte now, in case you're a fan.

Nicole,
You are a true forumite!!! Way to go.... all good suggestions. Again, being the owner of a restaurant here in an old house, I will definitely check out those spots in a house!!!

I will be uptown, but, I will have a car, and love to venture out to different areas!

Looking at the LuLu website, the interior is ever so slightly reminiscent of Meridian Cafe!!!
Scary.

That's funny about the Lulu interior. It was our special place to go for a relaxing yummy dinner.

If you're interested in primarily restaurants in old houses, you'll find the largest concentration of that in Plaza-Midwood, Elizabeth, Dilworth and possibly NoDa (these are all older"in-town" neighborhoods). Sadly, Charlotte has a history of bulldozing older buildings and putting up new, sparkly monstrous buildings in their place. There are very few protected historic areas and the zoning is very lenient, in my opinion. In Dilworth, there is an upscale, very good Indian restaurant in an old house - it's called Copper. Dilworth is a historic neighborhood close to downtown and next to South End. http://www.copperrestaurant.com/

looked at the Copper menu Nicole, nice take on Indian favorites, I will seriously consider that one as well.

Thanks

If you are "Uptown", you might want to consider Sonoma or Arpa. Arpa is a tapas and wine bar. Excellent food! They grill outdoors within their sidewalk dining area. Sonoma has a large outdoor dining area on a plaza and a trendy indoor area. It is extremely popular with the young professionals in Charlotte. A very lively vibe. Good food to boot.

We thought Roosters was a lot of fun,
M 5 also great

I will try to remember the other fun places we went.

I was there with my daughter for a fencing tourney recently. We had an excellent mean at Cafe Mimosa in "uptown". I reviewed it on http://www.tripadvisor.com