New rustic dining experience outside of Charlotte combines gourmet meals + camping
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- Finicky Table offers five-course campout dinners on a 19-acre Waxhaw property.
- Guests can book full-service camping with meals, gear rental and outdoor activities.
- Jessica Gaddy expands her food brand with events featuring local Southern cuisine.
Flavor queen Jessica Gaddy, known for her line of pimento cheese and other Finicky Foods products, has another endeavor in the works.
In the coming months, Gaddy and her husband, Eric, plan to convert their detached four-car garage into a commercial kitchen and hope to use their space to host campout dinners on their 19-acre property this fall.
“We both love to host. That’s why we thought The Finicky Table would be a really great extension of ourselves to the public,” said Gaddy, who has been throwing campout parties for friends for nearly a decade. “People always ask, ‘When is the next campout?’ Or ‘Invite me to the next campout!’”
In 2014, the couple moved into Eric’s childhood home, a quaint log cabin nestled among the sprawling woods of Waxhaw. They have since spent most of their time outdoors, fixing up the property while taking care of their dogs, cats and six quintessential chickens — and of course, having campouts.
The North Carolina natives have a shared background in food and beverage photography, and both enjoy hiking and recreating in the countryside.
While Jessica enjoys making artisanal comfort food recipes and embarking on handcrafted home projects, Eric is a natural outdoorsman and serves as a committee chair for the Tarheel Trailblazers, an organization that aims to bolster and preserve biking trails and parks across the region.
With many of their passions intertwined, it was only a matter of time before the Finicky Table would begin to unfold.
Take a seat at the table
Guests will be invited to The Finicky Table for welcome drinks and an all-inclusive five-course dining and camping experience. Camping gear will be available to rent and use on one of six campsites. Gaddy and her husband will offer assistance to camping newbies who need help pitching their tents.
“If you’re not familiar with camping, then we do everything for you. You can test those waters to see if you even like camping without having the commitment of buying anything,” Gaddy said.
Visitors will also be provided with sleeping pads, blankets and lanterns to ensure a comfortable, yet rustic camping experience.
Dinner will be served on a 12-seat, community-style picnic table adorned with fresh cut flowers from The Ivy Place, antique place settings and hammered aluminum silverware.
The Southern-style menu will showcase produce from local farmers including J. Brooks Family Farm and Boy and Girl Farm, and include a sharable charcuterie board, chateaubriand with roasted green beans and sweet potato hand pies, and finished with a fruit cobbler. Vegan and vegetarian options like mushroom bolognese or vegetable ratatouille will also be available.
After dinner, guests can gather around the crackling fire and enjoy time under the twinkling stars.
“[The menu] is super simple, but sometimes that is what makes us happiest. It’s all familiar, but it’s a little bit extra with the seasonings, just something to set it apart from something that you would do at home,” Gaddy said.
In between meals, adventurers will be encouraged to explore the wooded walking trails located on the property, including a half-mile loop trail that hugs Waxhaw Creek. Along the way, visitors can stop at the wildlife overlook for a chance to spot endangered wildlife.
For those looking to enjoy more stillness, guests can partake in a beginner yoga session or unwind in the hammock lounge, taking in the sounds of chirping birds and the earthy smells of the woodlands.
The next morning, campers can expect to rise with the sun while enjoying coffee and breakfast, like omelets made with fresh farm eggs, and classic shrimp and grits.
The goal: to bring the relaxation and reprieve of nature to locals without the hassle of driving far from home.
From Finicky Foods to the Finicky Table
Gaddy got the idea for the Finicky Table early in the pandemic when she had time to pause and consider endeavors outside of her corporate job and other ventures as a food blogger and photographer.
“It was probably all meant to be for me to end up here. You know, working with food, loving food, being creative with food. It went from talking about food to taking pictures to making it. That was kind of my trajectory of creative outlets,” Gaddy said.
She currently manages the popular Instagram account Charlotte Food Guide. You can also find her pictures on various magazine covers and in news outlets by the name of Shrimp and Grisettes Studio. But her current focus is on Finicky Foods and the development of The Finicky Table.
Customers who might feel less inclined to camp but still want a taste of Gaddy’s homestyle creations can find her delicious pimento cheese at Pasta & Provisions and the Salted Melon. Pretty soon, it will be on the shelves at Food Lion. It’s also available at the Waxhaw Farmers Market, alongside a few showcased bakery items like hand-decorated cookies, as well as homemade barbecue sauce and cooking spices.
“Having a community and repeat customers who come back [to the farmers market] every single Saturday to buy pimento cheese and remember to bring their jars with them and return them, that has been mind blowing,” Gaddy said. “I wasn’t expecting to feel the way that I feel to have people depend on me and look forward to seeing me.”
Taking the leap from food processor to culinarian
While Gaddy has taken a few cooking and baking classes, she has no formal culinary training.
“But I always wanted to be in the kitchen with my dad and grandparents growing up,” Gaddy said. “The kitchen was just a fun place. I got to learn. It’s been a lifelong passion for me. It just happens naturally that my favorite room in the house is the kitchen.”
For Gaddy, the nostalgia remains when thinking of enjoying country fried steak or having Krispy Kreme doughnuts with family. While the Finicky Table is still in the very beginning stages of development, Gaddy is excited to create a place where guests can come together and create their own food memories.
Tickets are expected to be about $125 per person. Interested guests are encouraged to subscribe to The Finicky Table’s newsletter to be one of the first to know when reservations become available and to receive itinerary updates, as well as anticipated seasonal menus.
The Finicky Table
Cuisine: Southern, American
Instagram: @thefinickytable
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
