Leluia Hall opens this week, ushering new era in Charlotte’s steak, seafood scene
Leluia Hall, the much-anticipated sister restaurant to Supperland, is set to open this week, bringing an entirely fresh spin to Charlotte’s steak and seafood scene.
Executive chef Chris Rogienski and beverage director Colleen Hughes, a James Beard Award semifinalist, granted CharlotteFive a rare look behind the curtain at Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown’s long-awaited new restaurant-in-a-church, tucked near where Dilworth meets South End.
Reservations are now open, and you can book a table as soon as Tuesday evening. The eager Charlotte masses are in for a treat as, right out of the gate, the menu is full of soon-to-be Queen City blockbusters.
These are the best ones that we tried:
Masa & Cheese
Masa dumplings, cotija cheese, roasted corn, popped corn
Brown was inspired by Mexican street food and, specifically, chochoyote dumplings and elote. She tasked Rogienski with making a corn-forward side dish — something cheesy and substantial with dumplings that could replace Supperland’s miso macaroni and cheese, but something that would also be just as memorable.
“This dish was the most R&D’d,” Rogienski said.
Rogienski’s sous chef, Alex Zellers, experimented extensively and tried around 20 different versions of the dish before they got it right. The dumplings are gnocchi-inspired but made with masa instead of potatoes. The technique evolved from creating parched dumplings that would sop up all the liquid around them as though they were poached en brodo, to what they are now: perfect masa-flavored vessels for the languid and creamy cotija cheese.
Fish Sticks
Black cod, shrimp & lobster mousse, panko, house tartar
On the starters side of the menu are the most epic fish sticks in town. As far as humanly possible from run-of-the-mill frozen Van de Kamp’s, these eat like — in Rogienski’s words — “the most expensive fish sticks ever.”
Not to worry, though, as that’s mostly a figure of speech: The fish sticks come in threes and are perfect for sharing. But they certainly are luxe, with black cod stuffed between shrimp and lobster mousse, rolled into hefty panko-coated croquettes and fried. Rogienski plates them with lemon zest and a house-made tartar sauce chock full of herbs.
Avocado Lime Pie
Avocado lime mousse, tiger nut crust, whipped coconut cream, mango gel, kiwi gelée
The star attraction on the dessert menu is the avocado lime pie. Brown tasked pastry chef Savannah Foltz with taking the avocado coconut mousse that she makes for herself at home and zhuzhing it up into a pie worthy of the Tonidandel-Brown brand.
Sweet and cheekily tart, the avocado lime mousse is practically seductive, each bite complemented by the coconut cream and tiger nut-and-date crust. It is also gluten-free, dairy-free, allergen-free and, save for the kiwi gelée, almost entirely vegan. The result may be the most guilt-free pie in town.
I’m Blushing cocktail
Green tea-infused Nikka Japanese vodka, strawberry, pandan & coconut cordial, lemon & bergamot juice, Leyenda Oloroso dry sherry, lemon twist
Hughes spent the better part of a year writing and refining the cocktail list for Leluia Hall. With I’m Blushing, Hughes refurbishes a tea-inspired spirit-forward cocktail she once served at Supperland’s basement speakeasy into something more accessible.
Hughes uses her favorite coffee-distilled vodka from Nikka and infuses it with genmaicha, a green tea with nutty brown rice notes. The strawberry, pandan and coconut cordial still has some of the coconut oil, which accentuates the smooth, creamy mouthfeel of the pandan.
Hughes likes to call this drink a “glass evolver” as the flavors keep changing over time as the liquid-nitrogen cooled glass slowly heats up to room temperature.
Apple A Day cocktail
White chocolate-infused Vida mezcal, Ocho Plata tequila, Mio sparkling sake, lemon & bergamot juice, acid-adjusted apple cordial, nitro-muddled basil, jalapeño, coriander tincture
As far as mezcal-based cocktails go, the Apple A Day is balanced and not so smoke-forward. Instead, the mezcal is there to add complexity to a cocktail that is already elaborate, even by Hughes’ James Beard-recognized standards.
Nitro-muddled basil plays a central part in the success of this cocktail, a technique whereby basil is flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen and then shattered into a fine powder that will rapidly infuse into the vodka. This technique is preferred over traditional muddling, as it does not release bitter chlorophyll into the drink.
The apple cordial is acidified so that it feels like drinking fresh lime juice, and the final touch is Mio sparkling sake for a little extra lift.
Leluia Hall
Location: 1829 Cleveland Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203
Cuisine: American, steakhouse, seafood
Instagram: @leluiahall
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
