Only one Midtown Sundries remains in the Charlotte area. How did it survive?
In the ‘90s and 2000s, Midtown Sundries was a fixture of Charlotte’s dining scene, its sports bars drawing after-work crowds, families and loyal regulars across the city. Today, the chain has dwindled to a single outpost — and it’s not in Charlotte at all.
The last Midtown Sundries stands about 20 miles northwest of uptown in Denver, where it has quietly outlasted every other location.
I grew up going to the Denver location when I was in high school from 2010-2014, mostly for half-price wings on Tuesdays (that deal has since been amended to 30% off). This week was the first time I’d been back in years.
It hadn’t changed at all.
The spacious dining room is built around a large, square bar at its center. TVs are a focal point throughout the restaurant, including a large projection screen overlooking the main dining area that broadcasts live sports.
On the speakers, Yonder Mountain String Band’s “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” a fast-paced, high-energy bluegrass track, was quickly followed by a country rendition of “No Scrubs,” the 1999 R&B hit from TLC that no artist should attempt to cover.
Neon beer signs and branded lights glow behind the bar, while rows of booths line one side of the dining room beneath pendant lighting and a bank of windows that fill the space with natural light during the day.
Tucked into one corner of the restaurant, a pair of pool tables offers customers another reason to linger after the final whistle. A handful of arcade games are scattered throughout the space, including a claw machine near the entrance and a Golden Tee PGA Tour Showpiece PRO golf game in a back corner, adding to eatery’s neighborhood feel.
That mix of food, sports and entertainment has been part of Midtown Sundries’ identity since the beginning — a formula that helped turn the restaurant into a Charlotte-area favorite.
What happened to the other Midtown locations?
The first Midtown Sundries location opened on Kenilworth Avenue in 1991 under owner Luther Caudle, a former operations manager at Providence Road Sundries.
In the Charlotte Observer archives, food writer Helen Schwab wrote that “it’s the sum of the parts that counts,” praising Midtown Sundries for its atmosphere as much as its menu.
She highlighted the restaurant’s “dark, woody, comfortable decor” and singled out its “marvelous and unusual” grilled chicken wings as the standout dish.
While Schwab said that no single feature defined the restaurant, she wrote that with its broad menu, live entertainment and laid-back atmosphere, Midtown Sundries was “likely to do something you like.”
In the years that followed, at least six more locations opened, in Cornelius, University City, South Charlotte, Rock Hill, Indian Land and Denver — but one of them closed due to financial difficulties.
Midtown Sundries’ in Cornelius closed in 2010 after 12 years in business, citing declining sales and financial troubles involving its landlord, WCNC reported.
At the time, the property’s owner faced foreclosure proceedings, owed roughly $61,000 in back taxes and had lost its authority to do business in North Carolina after failing to file required annual reports.
In 2019, the owners of Midtown Sundries in Indian Land announced on Facebook that the restaurant would close and reopen under a new name.
It’s unclear why the other locations shuttered, but why has the Midtown in Denver stood the test of time?
‘The Barbalo are my favorite’
It wasn’t hard to figure out why Denver residents gravitate to Midtown: the food.
The menu is exactly what you’d find at a typical sports bar — appetizers ranging from nachos, potato skins and buffalo chicken dip to boom-boom shrimp, cheesesteak egg rolls and seared ahi tuna, while the main menu includes burgers, sandwiches, tacos, barbecue, steaks, seafood and pasta. Daily specials are prominently featured, along with a full lineup of beers and cocktails.
But for most people, it’s the jumbo wings.
“The Barbalo are my favorite,” a woman at a nearby table told me as she wiped sauce from her fingers.
She was referring to wings with the restaurant’s housemade Barbalo sauce — a blend of barbecue and buffalo. Other flavors include buffalo, garlic parmesan, Carolina gold and mango habanero.
With such a wide-ranging menu, Midtown Sundries gives customers plenty of reasons to return, whether they’re sticking with an old favorite or working their way through something new.
“The majority of people who come in here are regulars. In fact, some come in every single day,” owner Ken Moore told the Denver Citizen in 2013. “And most like multiple things on the menu.”
Everyone I talked to mention the food, but that couldn’t be the only reason why Midtown has survived this long.
I briefly thought about the lack of sports bar options in Denver, forgetting that Sports Page Food & Spirits, another popular restaurant chain in Denver, sits just a half-mile away from Midtown in the Waterside Crossing shopping center. There’s also Latitudes Bar and Grill, a locally-owned spot on N.C. 16 Business, and Two Trees Sports Bar & Grill, which is more of a dive bar closer to Sherrills Ford.
Competition may have grown over the years, but Midtown Sundries has never tried to reinvent itself to keep up.
Keeping what works
While the formula at Midtown Sundries hasn’t changed much, the restaurant has evolved by making small adjustments instead of sweeping overhauls.
The menu is largely the same as it was when the Denver location opened in 2008, but according to manager Chuck Howard, Moore periodically adds new dishes and removes those that don’t catch on. Recent additions have included items such as a Big Mac-inspired salad, while less popular offerings, like shrimp and grits, have quietly disappeared.
Howard, who has managed the restaurant for about 13 years, said that consistency has been part of Midtown Sundries’ appeal. Rather than reinventing itself, the restaurant has focused on refining what already works while maintaining the neighborhood atmosphere that has kept regulars coming back.
“He’s very hands-on, and he keeps his pulse on everything that’s going on, going in and going out,” Howard said, noting the Denver location is approaching its 18th anniversary.
As restaurants come and go, Midtown Sundries has leaned on uniformity more than reinvention. Nearly two decades after opening in Denver, Howard doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.
“I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
Midtown Sundries
Location: 7296 NC-73, Denver, NC 28037
Cuisine: American
