One Duckworth’s restaurant in Charlotte has closed just as another marks its opening

Duckworth’s Grill & Taphouse has closed after more than a decade on Park Road near Charlotte’s Montford area.

Rob Duckworth opened the first Duckworth’s in Mooresville in 2004 as an ice cream shop. Over the years, the restaurant expanded and now operates five area locations, including a sports bar and speakeasy that opened in uptown in 2015.

The brand’s newest and largest restaurant opened Monday at Rea Farms, the south Charlotte development that includes a massive new Harris Teeter, hundreds of residences, a K-8 magnet school, a Hyatt hotel, office space and dozens of other retailers and restaurants. And construction recently began in South End on a new Duckworth’s restaurant called Link & Pin.

Last spring, Duckworth transformed the Park Road location into a “test kitchen” for anything new to Duckworth‘s, from experimental menu items to new cookware. This is where the company tested new concepts before deciding whether to roll them out to other locations, Duckworth said in a statement Monday.

The Rea Farms restaurant, for instance, has a number of elements that were tested at the Park Road location, including build-your-own salads and burgers.

“This (Park Road) location was and will remain an important chapter in the story of our business, and I am proud of what our team has accomplished here over the years,” Duckworth said.

“Our organization is working with our team members of Duckworth’s Park Road to offer them continuous employment at one of our several other area locations.”

This article originally appeared in The Charlotte Observer.

This story was originally published July 8, 2019 at 12:36 PM with the headline "One Duckworth’s restaurant in Charlotte has closed just as another marks its opening."