‘WE can’t even get a seat!’ Bird Pizzeria owner talks viral spot’s future on run
Charlotte Observer reporter Théoden Janes continues his series of interviews with often-influential, always-intriguing people who live and work in the Charlotte area — conducted while they run a handful of miles together. The hope is that the release of endorphins and dopamine will trigger responses that are less canned, less inhibited, more thoughtful, and more focused.
This week’s interviewee: Kerrel Thompson, 41, co-owner (with wife Nkem) of Charlotte’s acclaimed Bird Pizzeria — which in 2024 was anointed by The New York Times among “22 of the Best Pizza Places in the United States.”
Notable endurance-sports achievements: 6:54:51 at Ironman 70.3 North Carolina in 2024; 1:06:22 at the Around the Crown 10K in 2023; 43:04 at the Charlotte Turkey Trot 8k in 2021; 2:57:19 at the Miami Man Triathlon in 2021.
Where we ran for this interview: From the McAlpine Creek Greenway Trailhead off Old Bell Road in Charlotte.
What we covered: How much time and effort you’ll have to put forth in order to get one of their pizzas (or Kale Caesar Salads), why he’d prefer the words “Black-owned” not be used to describe his business, and 2.2 miles at an average pace of 17:04.
The conversation is edited to improve clarity and flow.
Q. I’ve seen interviews with you and Nkem in which you’ve both come off as really humble, but at the same time almost nonchalant about Bird’s success. I mean, the way you guys have exploded in this city is incredible. Do you ever step back and think, How did this happen?
A lot of the time, I do, honestly. When we do get a moment, it’s extremely emotional, considering the fact that we really just started this as a means for our family. So it’s not that we’re nonchalant about it, it’s just — I don’t know. I’m not gonna say we felt like we didn’t have a choice, but we just gave everything to it, and then risked it all, feeling that this was something that we really could make a difference by doing.
I mean, obviously, like, we dreamed. But I don’t think we could have ever expected the turn that it took.
Q. You were like, It’d be great to be successful, but I’ll just be happy if we can make a living.
Yeah, but also, I wasn’t going to compromise anything. I was going to go so far above and beyond until I created something that really resonated with me. Where my wife could look me in the eye and be honest and say, “This is actually amazing.” We weren’t gonna settle and accept doing something as if people on the outside weren’t gonna see it for what it was.
I’ve always envisioned Charlotte as being everything that you read about, everything that high-level thinkers and developers are considering. I’ve always wanted that for the city. So I’m like, “Let’s create something like we already are that city.” That’s the type of product — the type of brand — I was trying to create, no matter what. That’s what I wanted to put out in Charlotte.
And we were just really dedicated to doing something good, consistently. I think if anybody devotes themselves in that way to something, then that something has value in existing. It does some good in the world, and eyes are gonna find you. People are gonna find you.
Q. But you never expected two-month waits for reservations.
It’s actually like three months out, for the dining room.
I remember back in the day, we would open up that takeout window (Bird Pizzeria opened as a takeout spot in Charlotte’s Optimist Park in December 2021) and I remember seeing Square orders come through in real-time and we’d be like, “Oh, yeah! Okay, we can make a few pies. This is great!” There were some days we started the day off with maybe 10 preorders. We had business before we even turned the oven on. Then that slowly grew to where we would sell out before we opened.
That’s always been something we’ve been super-grateful for, considering that we had so many parameters designed around our business, because of the fact that it was a covid business. Like, we had to practice social distancing. So a lot of our systems were designed to limit those interactions, which as a byproduct created this amazing online pre-ordering system people adapted to really quick — whereas a lot of businesses had to pivot later on. So seeing how that made it so that we were able to capture business before we actually start our day was amazing, and that then trickled over into reservations.
Q. Do you still sell out before you open?
We got more refrigeration and upped our capacity on dough production, so now we can handle takeout orders while we’re open. So I’d say that now, about 60% of our takeout business is from pre-orders (made before we open). We’ll have about that amount already made, through our system, pretty much at the start of every day.
Then the dining room — we keep about 5% of our dining room available for walk-in. Every other seat in our dining room is for reservation.
My wife and I joke that we wanted a restaurant where we could actually dine in ourselves, but we can’t even get a seat!
Q. How long is the wait these days for walk-ins to the dining room?
Usually we’ll have around 60 or so on our waiting list. In the summers through the tail end of the fall, it can be longer. Now, it’s actually died down, because people aren’t standing outside in the weather. But on nicer days, it can pick back up. And we get through it quickly.
Now, too, there’s some people that are literally there now because of the whole Kale Caesar thing. People that’ll come and just order a salad. And we can make those pretty quick; we pre-prep so many before service, just to kind of get it going. So it’s really fun surprising guests on how fast we can bring it out — like, as soon as the ticket comes in, somebody’s bringing it to the table. It’s like, WHAT??
Q. You’re talking about the viral Kale Caesar Salad (which is topped with a golden-brown blanket of crushed housemade croutons). Are you selling as many of those now as you sell pizzas?
Close.
My wife was getting on me last night because she was like, “Can we please just put it on the takeout menu?” And I’m like, “Wellllllll —” Because for me, the plating experience is a little bit more unique when you eat it in the dining room. We have it on the takeout menu. We just do it differently. And the presentation of it, to me, really sings when you dine in and enjoy it.
So Wednesday through Saturday you can only get it in the dining room. But it does show up online on our Sunday takeout menu. That’s the one day. It’s still kind of low-key.
Q. I often think of the New York Times story as your big break. But is there something else you consider to be what really catapulted you?
(Kris Kornbluth) worked for the Observer. For CharlotteFive.
(He) wrote a story (in August 2021) about the fact that we were going to be opening in Optimist Park, so when we opened on 15th Street, everyone was there. The Observer was there, CharlotteFive was there. It was like every single news and media outlet. I did not expect that. And it’s hilarious — I was so nervous, because I hadn’t even cooked in that oven a hundred times yet. But ... just having that there, I think, was what really put us on the map in a very strong way out the gates, for something that was just so small. Everything that we did really and truly made sense for us.
I mean, there’s so many people that told us that this was stupid, that you can’t do it without at least $60,000. And that it would fail.
Q. “At least $60,000”? What did you start it with?
We started with a little under half of that. And basically, a third of that went towards our oven, which was a non-negotiable. I was like, “I gotta have the tool of my dreams, whatever size I can afford” — which is the smallest one they made. They don’t even make it anymore, because it wasn’t profitable, and too small for (a commercial) operation. But I just said, “Well, this is what we can do. So we gotta make it work.”
Q. Do you think that in the beginning, some of the attention paid to you guys was due to it being a Black-owned business, and because the media tends to qualify those?
Yeah, for sure. It can do those things.
I’m glad you asked that, too, because initially, when we got our first interview with Axios Charlotte, that was the headline. And we actually told them, “You gotta remove ‘Black-owned.’ We’re just a business.” We said that to them directly, and they changed it. I think that kind of shifted a lot of things.
But yeah, that’s how we wanted to be acknowledged: just a good business, period. I feel like what we were doing was an elevated but also very democratic concept, that crossed demographics. And I think really being intentional about establishing the language that circulates around what you’ve created is really important, because a lot of times identities will be built based off of what’s been said.
Q. What does the future look like for Bird? Do you have plans to expand at some point?
There’s so many things, within this last year and some change, that we’ve been doing operationally to make this more of a company than a small, family-owned business.
I think ultimately, from an efficiency standpoint, expanding our restaurant is — I’m not gonna say dire, but it’s necessary at some point in the near future. It would just make sense. But then on the other side, it’s like, At what cost? Because we really love the fact that right now, we’re embedded in the community. We’re in a neighborhood, in a hundred-year-old building. That’s an anomaly in this city, where pretty much everything has been reimagined into this new context. So we feel very tied to that space because of all the unique characteristics.
I don’t know. It’ll be six years for Bird in October, and five years that we’ve been on 15th Street in December. We’ve had a tight menu by design, but I do want to expand our current cuisine, to make it an even more-exciting dining experience. Those things could happen more easily with a larger footprint.
Q. So, in your opinion, what is the second-best pizza place in Charlotte? Do you go to other pizza places?
Of course. My wife hates it. But I do it because ... I love the game, you know? I love the game. It’s for the love of the game at the end of the day. This is something that’s been in me as far as I can remember. I just love food. I really have a connection — just a desire — for pizza.
But second-best? Alright, I’ll just say what I enjoy. We go to The Crust a lot (in ParkTowne Village across from Park Road Shopping Center and in the Promenade on Providence), only because I’m from Ohio, so I really understand what they’re doing: that tavern-style pizza, super-thin. They’re good. I mean, I think they’re good. No one else in my family (he and Nkem have three kids, ages 3, 6 and 9) really thinks any of these places are good.
Q. I’m realizing we haven’t talked about your relationship with endurance sports at all. I know you’ve taken a break from running recently, as the business has boomed and because the kids keep you busy. But I wanted to hear a little about the half-Ironman you did in 2024 (Ironman 70.3 North Carolina, which consists of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike and a 13.1-mile run). Was that your first half-Iron-distance race?
First one, yeah.
Q. What made you pursue that as a goal in the first place?
Well, one, my wife has done a lot of hard things, and I wanted to dedicate a hard thing to her that I accomplished. ... Then two, I had just had my 40th birthday, so that was a gift to myself to ... stay disciplined through it. I mean, at the end of the day, I did want to look like Bruce Lee. But (chuckling) that didn’t happen. That’s my next goal. ... But ... just gifting myself the gift of discipline over a period of time. I think that’s one of the best things I could have given to myself, because I love being disciplined. It’s just so nice. It’s so rewarding.
There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world that can make you veer and become distracted, but if you can buckle down and be disciplined about something, it’s so fulfilling.
Q. Do you think you would ever try to do another one?
Oh, for sure. And I eventually would like to do a full Ironman, before I hit 45. Just to have something else to be amazed by. Because, honestly, I didn’t really believe that training was going to actually work.
Q. Wait, what do you mean by that?
I just never believed that the thing that I was training for would work out. I’m like, When am I gonna actually experience the freedom of feeling like “I can do this”? And then I experienced it. It took me a while. But I did. And I was like, Wow! So I think pushing to that next level again, and having that experience again, is inspiring to think about. To think that you can actually develop yourself.
It’s just such a gift, man. It’s such a beautiful thing that we have here in this body, and that we’re able to do these things with it.
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Coming next Monday (Feb. 2): Théoden runs with Leigh Thomas Brown, real estate broker, keynote speaker, author, social-media influencer, and founder of the Patriot Relief disaster-response nonprofit.
Do you know of an influential Charlottean who runs — whether for fun, for fitness, or to feed a serious addiction — and who might be willing to be interviewed by Théoden while they log a few miles together? Send an email with your suggestion(s) to tjanes@charlotteobserver.com.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 5:40 AM.
