Hitting the road? Let Charlotte chefs tell you where to eat in the Carolinas and beyond
.jpg "Ponce City Market’s Skyline Park features games, food, mini-golf and spectacular views.")
Will there ever be a summer made for travel like this one? After more than a year of staying home, the car keys are practically burning holes in our hands. The beach, the mountains, lake trips, campouts, family reunions — many of us are ready to make tracks and treks.
And who better to help you spot restaurants in other places than chefs you already know and trust? When you look around at some popular Carolina destinations near Charlotte, you can find familiar faces have set up stakes elsewhere. We tapped a half-dozen food people with Charlotte ties to find out where they eat in their new locations. (And it goes without saying: Their own new spots are worth your time, too.)
Whitney Thomas: The former chef at Mico in the Grand Bohemian Hotel is now in Atlanta, where she’ll start with 5Church Atlanta in early July. She’s already got a whole list of Atlanta favorites: Ponce City Market, a repurposed department store full of food stalls, is right beside the Atlanta BeltLine, making it perfect for walking and riding around Old Fourth Ward. Also on her list: New Realm Brewery, with good bar food, and Continent, Scotley Innis’ take on Afro-Caribbean and Asian food. She also loves brunch at chef Deborah VanTrece’s Twisted Soul Cookhouse.
Courtney Buckley, Your Mom’s Donuts: While she makes frequent trips back to her locations in Charlotte, the square-doughnut queen moved In March to Johns Island, outside Charleston, to open a new location. “I don’t leave the island much,” she says, but if she goes into Charleston, she loves Chez Nous, chef Jill Mathias’ very personal small restaurant. “The concept is amazing — she handwrites the menu every day, based on what she gets in. Two (appetizers), two entrees, two desserts. It’s adorable. I’ve never had a bad meal.” On Johns Island, her favorite is Sunday brunch at Seanachia, the Irish pub conveniently located next door to her doughnut shop in Maybank Village.
Blake Hartwick: The longtime chef at Bonterra in Dilworth headed to what seems like a remote location, on Lake Wateree in South Carolina, to get his own place, The Retreat at Ridgeway, expected to open June 29. It’s only a one-hour drive from Bonterra, he says. Despite the rural location, Hartwick and his wife and business partner, Heather, have found a couple of other places in the area: Mill Pond Steakhouse, in a historic house near Camden, and Sam Kendall’s, a steakhouse and bar with locations in Camden and Hartsville.
Jamie Lynch, 5th Street Group (5Church and La Belle Helene in Charlotte): The Top Chef alumnus is used to bi-city life — he’s had an apartment in Charleston ever since the group opened 5Church Charleston in 2015, and added Tempest last year. In Charleston, his favorites are always The Ordinary, FIG and Taste of Thai, plus Wild Olive Cucina Italiana on Johns Island (also a favorite of Buckley’s). And in Nashville, where they’re opening Church and Union this summer, he’s found a new favorite, JoyLand: “The cornmeal-dusted fries are pretty excellent.”
Geoff Blount, International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach: The longtime pastry expert at Central Piedmont Community College moved to ICI five years ago, along with several other Charlotte favorites, including Joe Bonaparte and Tany Hashmani. “I tell everybody to avoid ‘restaurant row’ (the strip along the beach downtown). Leave the tourists wanting to eat crab legs from Alaska.” His favorite “hole in the walls” are El Chepo, (“whole rabbit tacos, cabeza — amazing food”) and The Porch in Socastee (“nothing’s premade, you walk in and it’s all made for you”). In nearby Conway, he loves Bonfire A Smoking Taqueria (“It’s not a taco joint, it’s not a barbecue joint, it’s both”) and Rivertown Bistro, with farm-to-table food. In Murrells Inlet, he calls Wicked Tuna “a hidden gem,” where you can watch your fresh catch being unloaded from boats. And if you get to Myrtle Beach on a Thursday, there’s a farmers’ market at International Culinary Institute, including bread and pastries from Blount’s students.
