Surprised? A new NoDa restaurant is opening quietly this weekend

Jimi Zuk and Joani Schulman spent two years trying to open their restaurant in NoDa, but it’s finally happening this weekend.

First, one thing to clear up: The Red House Cafe, 3046 N. Davidson St., isn’t connected to the Red House Cafe in Pacific Grove, Calif. This Red House is named for the 1900s house where it’s located, across from the Johnston YMCA. If you want see the menu for the NoDa Red House, you need to go to www.theredhousecafe.com.

The Red House Cafe is Italian-American, with in-house desserts baked by Schulman and Italian-American dishes cooked by Zuk. The menu stretches from burgers to Philly cheesesteaks, meatball parm sandwiches, and entrees like baked ziti and lasagne. It seats about 50 people, with a walk-up window for takeout, and will have outdoor seating when warm weather returns.

Zuk and Schulman are both from New Jersey, where they had a small takeout food shop. But Zuk has ties to the area, Schulman says.

“Jimi has a lot of family down here,” she says. “He spent nearly all his summer as a child in Charlotte. So for him, it’s like coming home.”

They’ll do a soft opening this weekend for dinner only from 5 to 10 p.m., then plan to expand to lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.

“We’re just breaking the ice here,” Schulman says. “And we’re still pulling our staff together.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Surprised? A new NoDa restaurant is opening quietly this weekend."