A dish from a Charlotte pizzeria has gone viral — national influencers are making it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bird Pizzeria’s Kale Caesar salad in Charlotte gained national online attention.
- Influencers with millions of followers attempted to recreate the viral dish.
- Local support and social media shares helped spark the salad's viral momentum.
Of all the things for the internet to go hog wild over, you’d not guess it would be a salad.
Especially a salad from a Charlotte pizzeria that makes darn. good. pizza.
Listen, every single one of us locally knows how good Bird Pizzeria is. The restaurant has gotten a plethora of accolades over the years. It started with our very own Kris Kornbluth, who was the first to discover it at a table at local brewery — it was very quickly, definitively called the best pizza in town.
It continued from there: Nods also came from places including New York Times and Southern Living.
But now, it’s going viral on Insta for something a bit unexpected. You’ve delighted in the restaurant’s red and white pizzas, but ... how about a salad?
Bird Pizzeria’s Kale Caesar salad
You’ve seen the photo by now, if not on the internet, in this story at least. Now that you’ve seen it, you’re likely not surprised in the least to see this Kale Caesar salad making some noise.
It’s a spectacular display of fresh kale, Grana Padano, bread crumbs. You really have to dig in with your fork — literally, this salad goes deep. The top is a fluff masterpiece that looks like it belongs in an art museum, and the ingredients will immediately be all over your table.
Don’t you dare sneeze.
I started seeing this beauty pop up in my feed more frequently a couple of weeks ago and was properly impressed. And then while doomscrolling before bed the other night, my worlds collided: A national influencer whom I follow and have gotten tons of recipes from, Arash Hashemi (@shredhappens) — who has 4.7 million followers — was making his version of the salad.
Yes. Shred Happens was making the salad from our pizzeria.
And it wasn’t just him: Frank Campanella (@culinarylion), LOLADAY (@realloladay), NYC TREATS N EATS (@nyc_treats_n_eats) and other foodie influencers are also busy trying to figure out the recipe and make it for themselves.
I sat up straight, full of pride for this hometown place that keeps doing it big, again and again — and again.
Of course, it couldn’t have gone viral without it building traction locally: Amy (@cltfoodgirl) and Karen Falls (@finer_with_thyme) were some of the early adopters, posting about it as long ago as October. Plenty of local foodies have posted it since.
Bird’s co-owner Kerrel Thompson showed CharlotteFive how the team makes the salad (watch it in the video ⬆️, and check out our YouTube video for the full version).
“We essentially try to balance the amount of greens with just the right amount of dressing,” he said. “I think about getting everything you want in every single bite,” he explained as he topped the salad with a gorgeous amount of Grana Padano and house crouton crumbles.
Kerrel and co-owner Nkem Thompson have been making this salad since they moved to Charlotte and they started cooking more at home. “Our boys would eat it, so we knew we had something,” Nkem said.
Alex Cason contributed reporting.
Bird Pizzeria
Location: 510 E. 15th St., Charlotte, North Carolina, 28206
Cuisine: pizza
Instagram: @birdpizzeria
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This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
