At Everybody Eatz restaurant in Charlotte, everybody is family
It’s a quiet Sunday at an unassuming strip mall on North Tryon Street, but inside Everybody Eatz, the kitchen is buzzing like a beehive.
Twenty-five clients pack the small interior, ordering salmon and shrimp, turkey wings, meatloaf plates and more. Customers walk in from the neighborhood, or drive from University and further. Above it all, chef Casandra “Ru” Gill’s cheerful voice rings out from the kitchen.
Gill opened Everybody Eatz a year ago on North Tryon, and it’s a true family affair. Her mother, uncle, and daughter and more put in work at the clean, home-style carryout kitchen a stone’s throw from NoDa.
Even Gill’s grandmother, Ms. Dorothy, stops in regularly to test the macaroni and cheese for quality control — it’s her recipe, after all.
“She’ll come up here for two hours and raise sand, then she’s ready to leave,” Gill says, laughing. “My social media loves her. I’m always posting her, she’s so funny.”
While the rotating menu features items such as smothered turkey wings, lamb chops, slow-braised collard greens and hand-squeezed lemonades, a few staples like the Pete Sauce are always available. It’s a favorite on Gill’s shrimp, croaker and other seafood.
Secret sauce
Pete Hood was well known on Charlotte’s West side, and thanks to his granddaughter’s entrepreneurial spirit, more folks are learning his name. He raised his family in a modest home on Tuckaseegee Road and Rush Avenue and was renowned for frying up a good piece of fish with a special sauce.
“As a kid, I always wanted mustard and hot sauce. But one day he convinced me to try his sauce, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Cassandra Gill shared.
Instead of giving her the ingredients, Pete let his granddaughter guess the recipe. Through trial and error (and a bit of snooping on him in the kitchen), she was able to guess its makeup and win his seal of approval.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer of 28 years passed away in 2011, but his values, like the house on Tuck and Rush, are still a part of the family.
Gill comes from what they call a cooking family — country folks with roots in Waxhaw, Monroe and other parts of Union County. As the oldest of four, she took to the tradition early.
Another family tradition Gill learned by observation was entrepreneurship. Her mother is a hair stylist and her father a mechanic who owned several tire stores.
“She was a shop baby, always watching the business,” her mother, Sudonna Staton, shared.
So when Gill began catering small events and pop-ups in 2018, it was no surprise. She quickly amassed a following. Then in August 2021, she heard from a friend about an opening in the strip mall on North Tryon. She inspected the place, a former barbecue spot, and decided with the help of her family to move on the offer, but it wasn’t easy. Besides necessary renovations, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the set-up process. New equipment sat on backorder for three months, and permits were slow.
“What kept me going those lean months was believing in my dream,” Gill said. “I didn’t go to culinary school or anything, I just love to cook. And when you have a talent, it’s a blessing so you have to take it and roll with it.”
Then on Halloween, she learned she was pregnant.
Everybody Eatz finally opened its doors in December 2021, and Gill continued to work until her eighth month of pregnancy. She posted baby bump pictures on the restaurant’s social media accounts and customers, seeing her growing belly, often enquired after her health.
Staton worried Gill was on her feet too much and bought her a rolling stool that for the most part, sat unused. She begged Gill to stay home.
“She told me, ‘Mom, I just opened, I can’t leave now.’ She took two months off for the baby and came right back.”
“I couldn’t break the commitment that I put out to the streets,” Gill said. “And I love my clientele. They were so understanding when I took my time off. But boy, when I got back, they didn’t show me no mercy.”
On your visit to Everybody Eatz: Get there early
From open till close, Everybody Eatz is busy nonstop. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, 1-7 or until it sells out. A word of advice? Come early, because it always sells out.
At 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday, the small space was already packed with 25 waiting customers. The shop sold out of food before 6 p.m., turning away at least a dozen hapless clients. Menus are posted on its Instagram account, and prices range from $20-30. Once or twice a month, customer appreciation days feature $10 platters.
Gill attributes her success to her family. Her grandmother and aunt alternate childcare while she works, and a strong co-parenting bond with her boyfriend and his family lightens the load so the restaurant can run like clockwork.
“My personal support system is on a thousand, so it’s easy to balance personal life with business demands,” she said.
Everybody Eatz
Location: 3720 N. Tryon St., Charlotte NC 28206
Cuisine: American, Southern, soul food
Instagram: @Everybody_e.a.t.z.clt
.jpg)