Supperland is now open. How to get a seat at Plaza Midwood’s new hot spot.
It’s almost time.
If you’ve ever slathered sweet tea butter on hot-from-the-fryer hush puppies at Haberdish or sipped a crisp, handmade cocktail from Colleen Hughes, you’ll be excited to know that Supperland will open its doors for business on March 3, 2021.
Brought to life by Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel of the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group, Supperland will serve cocktails and Southern steakhouse staples in an old Plaza Midwood church. This new concept adds to the duo’s current lineup, which includes Haberdish, Crepe Cellar Kitchen & Pub, Growlers Pourhouse and Reigning Doughnuts.
CharlotteFive initially caught up with Brown and Tonidandel in 2019, when they anticipated a spring 2020 opening for Supperland. However, when COVID-19 broke out, progress slowed. Now, they’re back on track and ready to serve meals with a side of history.
“Jeff and I are so excited to share this incredible project with our city,” Brown said. “It’s been a lot of dreaming and a gigantic amount of teamwork to restore this old building and turn it into a restaurant. We hope it brings some joy and happiness to our community in a time when we could all benefit from the ‘bright side.’”
Here’s what you need to know about opening week: Reservations are now available online, but the restaurant is saving half of its available seats for walk-ups. While you wait on your table, you can enjoy a drink at the cocktail bar or stroll around outside and check out nearby businesses. (Note: Bar seating is limited due to COVID-19, and food is not available there yet — but it will be in the near future.)
Takeout will also be available soon via the Toast app and the Supperland website.
Dishes to try include The Seven-Layer Salad, with local vegetables, crunchy black-eyed peas, goat cheese and a herb-mustard vinaigrette, the slow-cooked wagyu beef Pot Roast and Grilled Lobster with with miso-drawn butter.
Another miso-forward dish, the Miso Mac & Cheese, includes a North Carolina miso mornay sauce on shells, topped with miso cream.
If you’re too full to make room for a slice of Citrus Pie or the upscale Ambrosia Salad with brown-sugar pecans and brandied cherries for dessert, you can grab a box of Supperland’s freshly baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies — complete with benne seeds and pecans — for the road.
From church service to dinner service
While Brown and Tonidandel planned some of their concepts prior to finding a space, they let the Supperland location and history determine the concept.
“We were looking at places all over town, trying to find something interesting. Jeff and I both love restoring spaces and creating something out of a place that’s been scrapped or left behind,” Brown said. “When we walked into [Supperland], my breath was just taken away. It was so expansive and gorgeous, and I knew it had so much potential from that moment.”
The land where Supperland will live was initially purchased by the first Church of Christ congregation. Without the funds to construct a large building, members started by building a smaller structure in 1948. In 1956, they added a second, larger structure.
“It was really important to bring forward the history of the building,” Brown said. “Rooting something in the place where it is just makes it so special and one-of-a-kind,” Brown said.
You may recognize this approach from Haberdish, which used to be an old general store and now features cocktails with an apothecary nature. There’s also an old soda fountain at the Haberdish bar, where cocktail wares are stored.
From Haberdish to Crepe Cellar Kitchen & Pub and Growlers Pourhouse, each of the Brown/Tonidandel concepts are immersive and unique. Supperland will follow suit.
“For Supperland, what’s constantly been in my mind is the idea that the kitchen is a stage, and that it’ll be almost like a dinner theater. You’ll be entertained beyond the plate,” Brown said.
“We’ve made special custom-designed plates for the experience, but it’s also the music, the sights, what the servers are wearing or what it’s like to have an open fire for cooking. It’s all about the story behind the place, knowing you’re in a restored building that’s been given new life. All of that just makes it more beautiful.”
To keep the story of the building alive, Brown and Tonidandel elected to keep the space open and expansive, instead of breaking it apart, as you’d traditionally find in a restaurant.
“The idea is you walk in and it’s supposed to knock you with a little bit of grandeur,” Brown said.
Recognizable church elements include high ceilings, wide windows and an aisle running down the center. Part of the kitchen will be raised up in a space to draw the eye toward the front, similar to how a church service would look forward toward the preacher.
“We are really trying to take the dynamic of walking into the room and looking toward the pulpit and the area where the choir would be. With the restaurant, we wanted to make sure that continued — that when you walk in, your eye is drawn straight down the aisle to the space where the cooking is happening,” Brown said.
Southern steakhouse meets church potluck
Brown and Tonidandel will design the menu toward that of Southern steakhouse — but with a special twist.
“For our sides, we’re trying to lean into the church potluck idea. There’s fun, colorful, weird items that we think can make a Southern steakhouse-type restaurant into something more whimsical and fun and unexpected,” Brown said.
Main courses, cooked on a 14-foot fire grill and inside a fire brick oven, will include steak, chicken, lobster, whole fish and vegetarian options.
“There’s so much flexibility in a steakhouse venue as far as well-sourced protein. It also serves really well toward people with allergies and different eating habits. So we’re excited about that flexibility, too.”
Executive chef Chris Rogienski, the current sous chef at Haberdish, will oversee the menu and kitchen operations. Sweet offerings will be prepared by pastry chef Liana Sinclair, who’s moving from Austin, Texas, to Charlotte to join the Supperland team.
For the cocktails, expect libations from Hughes, similar to those at Haberdish.
“Jeff really wanted to give Colleen creative license to get crazy with things, and she’s doing a phenomenal job,” Brown said. “She makes so much by hand. She’s literally squeezing the oranges for the juice.”
Hughes is a big proponent of creating closed-loop cocktails — using items from the kitchen to reduce waste while creating incredible cocktails.
“Citrus is a good example. They’re using lemon juice in a drink, then taking that lemon peel and cooking it down in a reduction to help close the loop,” Brown said.
Each element of Supperland has been carefully planned, from the menu to the ambiance.
“We’re excited to lean into this idea of creating a space that’s super unique and just draws people in, and makes them crave to be there, whether it’s for the food or just to be there because the energy feels good,” Brown said.
COVID-19 precautions
To ensure a safe environment for both customers and employees, tables will be spaced 6 feet apart, the restaurant will follow best practices from the health department and masks are required for everyone indoors when not eating or drinking.
Reservations are suggested to help manage arrival times. There will be a host at both buildings to help manage walk-up traffic. To begin, there will not be outdoor seating available until it’s warmer, as the team is working to secure outdoor heaters.
“Just like all our places, we are following best practices suggested by the health department and NC governor,” Brown said. “This will be a different kind of opening than other openings we’ve done in the past. We are balancing being really excited to have guests in our space — and then knowing we cannot have too many people inside our doors.”
Supperland
1212 The Plaza
Tuesday-Friday dinner
Saturday-Sunday all day
Instagram: @supper.land
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 9:38 AM.
