This Myers Park restaurant staple is still going strong after nearly 90 years
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Charlotte’s Classic Eats
As new restaurants open every day in Charlotte, it’s easy to forget about the old standbys, the places that have grown up alongside the Queen City. Our Charlotte’s Classic Eats series highlights the places that you have frequented for years, reminding us why they have stood the test of time.
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Providence Road Sundries has been around a long time — 89 years to be exact. It’s unclear who opened the drugstore on Providence Road in 1933, but one thing is for sure — the addition of a soda fountain in the 1950s proved a wise move. Nowadays, locals frequent the restaurant for lunch, dinner and drinks seven days a week.
“We have lots of regular families that eat here. It’s not unusual to see third or fourth generation customers here,” restaurant owner Meredith Bell told CharlotteFive. “We’re everything from a daycare to a sports bar. There’s guys watching sports at midnight — and the next morning, little girls are running around in their church dresses.”
Bell’s husband, Paul, purchased a stake in the Myers Park establishment in 2009, but it wasn’t until he became a majority owner in 2016 that the two learned the restaurant inside and out. Meredith and Paul Bell met as adolescents; however, it took running into each other at a bar a decade later to realize their attraction for one another.
That bar? Providence Road Sundries.
Comfort food and new additions
As you would expect with such an old restaurant, stories and lore are plenty at Providence Road Sundries.
The after-hours, high stakes poker games.
A previous owner’s teenage son who almost ran the business into the ground.
The formation of Christ Episcopal Church, now three doors down.
The fire that closed the restaurant for three months.
What’s not old, however, is the food served starting at 11 a.m. each day. “We make everything fresh in-house,” Bell said, walking into the kitchen. “We hand cut our fries. Same with our onion rings. We parbake our wings before flash frying them for 4-5 minutes. Our salsa and guacamole — we make it from scratch each day.”
Pandemic food trend: Comfort food
Since the Bells took over Providence Road Sundries, the menu has maintained lots of comfort food — including burgers, wings and chili.
“During the beginning of the pandemic, we saw a huge swing to comfort food. Everyone started wanting heartier food,” kitchen manager Billy Swett told CharlotteFive. “People were ordering lots of reubens, chicken chili and beef chili.”
Complementing staples and healthier selections have been welcome additions in recent years. Among top-selling lighter fare:
Kale & Avocado Salad
The Mediterranean Bowl
Providence Road Sundries is still a soda fountain at its core, though — after all, it was the onion rings, not any salad, that won a BOB Award in 2019.
A place for everyone
Providence Road Sundries won another BOB Award in 2021: best hidden bar. A bar was added to the restaurant in the 1970s, and it’s been a neighborhood hang out since. General manager Allyson Ertel and the bar manager are constantly rotating the taps. “We’ve created a friendly, inclusive space and everybody knows everybody,” Ertel said.
Across from the bar is a 40-foot long mural of people who have changed the world — depicted from the vantage point of the bartender. Charlotte artist John Tomlinson completed the piece in December 2016. It includes caricatures of Elvis Presley, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey and others, and includes Easter eggs such as the Christ Episcopal Church logo scattered throughout.
Like other restaurants in our Charlotte’s Classic Eats series, it all comes back to the people.
“We’ve got the best customers. We’ve got the best staff,” Bell said. “Our customers really got us through COVID.”
This is more than just lip service. When restaurants were forced to close in 2020, customers organized — on their own — to raise money for the staff.
Spend an hour with Meredith Bell and you’ll hear all about the 30 employees, none of whom were laid off during the pandemic. You’ll hear about Forest, the bartender who started on Sept. 1, 2001. You’ll learn about Billy, who convinced Bell to add a burger with blueberry sauce to the menu. And of course there’s Allyson, who Bell brags “is always trying new things.”
Amid the stories of fires, remodels and celebrity sightings, however, I’m still daydreaming of the chipotle honey wings.
Providence Road Sundries
Location: 1522 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28207
Neighborhood: Myers Park
Cuisine: Comfort food, Southern
Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (Bar open daily, 11 a.m. through 12 a.m.)
To order: dine in, order online via ChowNow or call 704-366-4467 for takeout.
Instagram: @providenceroadsundries
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
