One of Charlotte’s Classic Eats restaurants is unexpectedly closing — to make way for a bank.
Harper’s Restaurant, a staple in SouthPark since 1992, is closing. The final service will be July 20.
This closure wasn’t in the plan, according to Tom Sasser, founder and owner of Harper’s Restaurant and Burke Hospitality Group. Despite the Harper’s team fighting for a renewed lease term, the landlord of Sharon Corners has ultimately chosen to go in a different direction.
The new direction, Sasser told CharlotteFive: a bank.
This comes as upsetting news to Harper’s Restaurant’s ownership, staff and to the Charlotte community at large, who’ve come to know and love this restaurant since 1987, when the original Woodlawn location opened.
How it all started
Harper’s was an early pioneer of chef-driven restaurants featuring local ingredients in Charlotte.
“Nobody was really doing a scratch kitchen type restaurant,” Sasser said. “There was Gus Sir Beef, and he was bringing stuff from his farm … but there were mostly chains.”
[REMEMBER WHEN: Gus’ Sir Beef restaurant closed permanently after 54 years in Charlotte.]
That’s where Sasser, already working for a restaurant group, saw an opportunity, and with the help of longtime friends and a few business partners, brought Harper’s to life. “We thought Charlotte was about to explode,” Sasser said.
His instincts were right. Each decade, Charlotte’s population has increased by more than 15%. In the ’90s, this growth reality was optimistic for small business owners like Sasser.
But over 30 years later, the sentiment has sort of gone awry. Charlotte’s “explosion” has in many ways adversely affected dozens of small businesses as larger corporations with budgets big enough to buyout these properties come to town. It’s a tale as old as time here in the Queen City, especially for food business owners.
“We were there in the beginning, there’s no question about it,” Sasser said. But it’s clear he’s not looking for any recognition for being an early pioneer of Charlotte’s culinary scene.
Right now, Sasser’s focus and attention, like it has been for 35 years, is directed toward the community he’s fostered at his restaurant — his current and former staff and longtime customers.
As Harper’s employees transition out of work, Sasser is offering job opportunities at his other concepts — Mimosa Grill in Uptown, Taco Molino in Fort Mill, Horace’s Hot Fried Chicken and One Catering.
Sasser has a marked pride for the people who’ve walked through the restaurant’s doors. “We were lucky enough to meet a lot of great people who came to work for us at the restaurants … cooks, bartenders, dishwashers, servers or managers that have gone on to run some of the best restaurants in town and all over the Southeast,” Sasser said. “We’re proud of that … to be a place to let people learn about the business.”
And at the end of the day, if his staff and guests had just a bit of fun or joy over this 35 year ride, “Boy, that’s all I need. That’s a good time,” he said.
Harper’s is a place of many firsts
Over the years, Harper’s became the setting of many firsts for guests — first-time parents, first-time visitors to Charlotte, first-time business partners making deals while “breaking bread,” Sasser said.
It was actually one of the first restaurants I ever dined at without my parents. A 7th grade birthday party, a chevron dress and a skillet cookie was ultimate, unbridled freedom at the time.
Sasser said real estate agents would bring their first-time home buyers into Harper’s, too. Once the home was bought, Harper’s “would be the first place [the homebuyers] would come back to … They raised their kids here,” Sasser said. “We certainly raised our kids here.”
Sasser’s son, Holden, grew up working in the restaurant, and actually found his way back to his culinary and hospitality roots, as he now operates Union Barbecue Truck in Charlotte.
“My kids have seen … how pleasurable it was for people to have that experience and to have fun … it just kind of rubs off on you,” Sasser said.
He finds that the gratification of giving good service is an “incredible feeling,” akin to the intoxicating feel of performing on stage, a nod to Sasser’s former life as an actor.
“You’re only as good as today’s service … at 5 o’clock, the curtain goes up and you have to perform,” Sasser said. Like any good performance, stakes are high. The final satisfaction comes from clean plates and a smile on customers’ faces, he said.
“It’s hard and maybe feels like you’re running a marathon every day, but it’s not rocket science,” Sasser said. “It’s providing someone a little bit of joy.”
Sasser developed a hospitality training course for his staff, where he describes how hospitality is not merely great service, but “It is about a feeling. It is an emotional thing. It is about making sure the other person feels like you are on their side,” Sasser said.
Regulars are forever
This on-your-side hospitality has manifested itself in many different ways since 1992 at Harper’s Restaurant.
Mr. Hall Turner, a regular who has been coming to Harper’s weekly for the past 20 years, calls the restaurant in advance to ensure his favorite line cook, Shon Harris, is working and then places his order.
There’s loyalty all around here — even between a customer and a line cook.
If you dine at Harper’s and sit at the bar, you might notice a few plaques along the edge. Sasser said the occasional drink on the house didn’t quite do justice to longtime customers — Mark Rollison, Art Secor, Macon Jordan and former employee James Zang. So, instead, “their names are etched in the bar,” Sasser said.
The predictability of the entire Harper’s experience — the generally unchanging menu, the timeless wood-and-brick ambiance, the service — is characteristic of this restaurant. The reliable and will-be-missed classics include the burger with Betty’s pimento cheese (Sasser’s mom’s signature recipe), the Danish Ribs and the Chicken Supremes — a recipe Sasser tweaked only once in 35 years.
“Some things change, but a lot of things are the same and people don’t want them to change,” Sasser said. He laughed. “Maybe this is an old person thing.”
But, maybe that sentiment defies age, and it really just reflects a desire for comfort and security in a world that remains as fickle and unpredictable as ever.
As Sasser told me the stories of Harper’s Restaurant’s regulars, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a quote from “The Bear” (which I binged last week). In Season 3, chef Andrea Terry says: “I think what I’ve learned over the years, in all the places I’ve worked, is people don’t remember the food … It’s the people they remember.”
This seems to be quite true for Harper’s.
Future of Harper’s Restaurant
While the forced closure is disheartening for the Harper’s team, but “we’re looking at other opportunities,” Sasser said, pointing to an upcoming cafe project.
In the meantime, Sasser encourages guests to make a reservation or come in and say hello before July 20.
After that time, if former Harper’s regulars are craving their Chicken Supreme, the Harper’s Restaurant in Greensboro is still very much open and One Catering will “still be making Harper’s food if people request it,” Sasser said.
Reflecting on running this restaurant, Sasser told CharlotteFive the business has taught him a few things about mistakes.
“The last time I looked we are all humans … and we make mistakes … It’s just how you react to the mistake, how you address it, you don’t run from it, you face it,” Sasser said.
And that mindset is exactly the one Sasser has adopted with this major, unexpected setback. He’s not running from it, he’s facing it, not for himself, but for the very people who clock in and out of Harper’s every day, the ones etched right into the bar.
Harper’s Restaurant
Location: 6518 Fairview Rd. Charlotte, NC 28210
Cuisine: American
Instagram: @harpers_southpark
Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.
This story was originally published July 8, 2024 at 5:45 AM.
