Opinion: Charlotte loves to bash local restaurants, then we’re sad when they are gone

Charlotte locals: “I’m heartbroken by the loss of Zack’s, Prices, Spoons, Mr. Ks ... Charlotte has no culinary identity!”

Also Charlotte locals: “CLT restaurants are mediocre, overhyped, and let’s name them and bash them on Twitter.”

Seems inconsistent at best.

Charlotte has an emerging culinary identity; it’s a city of 2.4 million people with virtually no tourism outside of business travelers. It’s a banking town — a city where virtually all the premium restaurant real estate goes to huge corporate groups like Darden or The Cheesecake Factory.

By having most of the A+ locations, corporate restaurants will continue to thrive and print money. Further as most are publicly traded companies, they have virtually limitless funds to hire and retain staff, market to guests, advertise, etc.

This creates a hyper tilted competitive marketplace that disproportionately favors money over quality, talent or creativity. That means that LOCALLY owned restaurants have to compete with Darden for the best workers AND customers. This is not the case in cities like Charleston or Asheville.

In those cities, corporate restaurants are reviled and almost always fail. Don’t believe me? Google and see how Ruth’s Chris did on Market Street in Charleston. The guests vote by throwing their money behind restaurants and groups that are part of the community.

I’m from Charlotte, and I love this city. But if people want to CHANGE the culinary scene in Charlotte, it’s all about where you spend your money and whom you support. Want better locally owned places? Stop going to Eddie V’s (no offense to anyone working there) and go to The Stanley.

The growth of a culinary scene in a city is more like an evolution. But that growth has to be funded by 2 things. Economic and community support. Every time you eat at North Italia (owned by Cheesecake) just know that the money spent there coulda been spent at VANA.

I like The Capital Grille. It’s very well run, and the food is good. But outside of some jobs and sales tax, spending my money there is sending money (and resources) away from locally owned joints. So my going there is about ME and me only. Not about the community. Not about Charlotte.

Overhyped? Maybe. Support local anyway.

Charlotte locals are so quick to trash locally owned places as being “overhyped.” Yes. Perhaps they are ... but this is the media’s way of trying to level the playing field; to throw some attention toward the places that cannot compete economically with Landry’s or the like.

Pre-COVID, this was a cost of doing business. But when 15-20% of an entire industry is wiped out in a year, I think we all have a responsibility to take a hard look at what can be done to better build the industry back up.

I firmly believe that YOU, the consumer, have a hand in this. If folks from Charlotte want the local scene to be better, then support local! But supporting local means that for now, you have to accept that Darden restaurants WILL deliver a better product than most local joints.

Supporting local means shutting your mouth for a while about your mediocre experience, especially when people inside the industry are BEGGING for patience and perspective. You want better local restaurants, then earn it. Otherwise, there’s a table ready for you shortly at Applebee’s.

When I see local Charlotte people on Twitter say something like “Let’s list all the shitty locally owned places in Charlotte,” I’m grossed out. That doesn’t mean I can’t take criticism or am “butt hurt” as I was called yesterday. I’m disappointed that we all can’t take responsibility.

THAT’S what accountability is.

Editor’s note: This text originally appeared as a Twitter thread by Patrick Whalen, CEO of 5th Street Group. It has been edited for punctuation and clarity.

This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 11:08 AM.