What’s to eat in downtown Matthews?

“Bedroom community.” Sounds sleepy, doesn’t it? Just a place where people come home to roost at night before they rush away the next morning, bound for distant office towers and city jobs.

It’s shorthand for a lot of small communities that ring big cities like Charlotte, tied to the nearest skyline by strip malls and high-speed highways.

These days, though, downtown Matthews has been finding ways to get people to stick around, even to reverse their trips and come there for fun.

“It’s starting to be more than this little suburb,” says Janet Denk, a freelance writer and editor who lives in Matthews. “Because there is growth in downtown, people are feeling like we’re more.”

Plenty of food fans from outside Matthews come into the little downtown every Saturday for the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market, at West John and North Trade street. Now the town is finding ways to get people to stick around or come back when it isn’t Saturday morning at the crack of dawn.

“We want to give people a reason to stay longer,” says Rob Jacik, the owner of a popular bottle shop, the Carolina Beer Temple, and one of the organizers of the Red Brick Partnership, an organization of local businesses and residents that works on events like First Thursday Nights, a monthly arts market and retail promotion that just started this week.

Stumptown Park events like the annual Matthews Alive at Labor Day bring in a lot of visitors, he says, but they don’t always draw people to local businesses a few blocks away. During Beachfest this weekend, there will be a trolley to take people from local restaurants over to the park.

“We’re really trying to build a few bridges in town,” he says.

One of the things Jacik wants to build on is the downtown itself: Several walkable blocks of picturesque buildings centered on Renfrow Hardware, a downtown landmark that opened as a general store in the late 1800s.

“There is no central downtown in Mint Hill, Stallings, Indian Trail,” he says. “We have that core.”

One very popular draw this spring: a new Food Truck Friday, to pull in both families and an adult crowd looking for something a little edgier.

“We do families with kids 10 and under pretty well,” says Lee Ann Moore with the Matthews Parks and Recreation Department. “It’s nice to bring a different group. There’s a lot of people who don’t have kids.”

Moore grew up on a local farm, the third generation of her family in Matthews. New development like Matthews Station, a block from Renfrow’s, and the nearby North End shopping area have given people who live in the area more reasons to come downtown, she says.

“We didn’t have a cigar bar years ago. The Beer Temple has taken off, the Black Chicken (wine shop) has taken off. It’s bringing people in to hang out longer than they used to. Instead of just driving to the post office to drop something off, people are hanging around.”

We spent a recent Friday afternoon exploring a half-dozen places some of what Matthews has to offer for food fans:

1. Sante, 165 N. Trade St., 704-845-1899, www.santeofmatthews.com. The small, fine-dining restaurant is in a building that used to house a barber’s shop, with pressed-tin ceiling, local art and an open-kitchen at the back. Chef/owner Adam Reed is a regular at the Matthews Community Farmers Market, and it shows in his food, with local radishes, carrots and greens worked into things like the lentil and wild rice pilaf tucked under pistachio-crusted salmon.

2. Cafe 157 American Bistro, 157 N. Trade St., 704-844-8686, www.cafe157.com. A former bank building now features an airy dining room with lots of windows and patio seating and a contemporary Italian-ish menu overseen by owner George Poriotis. The wine bar is a comfortable place to sit and enjoy a glass and an appetizer.

3. Royal Cafe & Creperie, 131 Matthews Station St., 704-846-2233, www.royalcreperie.com. Small counter-service place where you can pick your own fillings for a savory or dessert crepe, or go with one of their creations, like the Mediterranean (grilled chicken, artichokes, mozzarella, tomato, onion and pesto, for $8.75). Good coffee to go along with a warm Nutella crepe, and there’s a tea bar, with white, green, herbal and rooibos selections.

4. Carolina Beer Temple, 131 Matthews Station St., 704-847-BEER (704-847-2337), www.carolinabeeremple.net. It’s a small bottle shop, but the 18 taps change regularly, with a thoughtfully arranged list divided into sections like “non-local craft,” “Carolina,” “Belgian” and “meads & ciders.” There’s a short menu of sandwiches and such from caterer Southern Gourmet, but the chalkboard also assures “outside food is always welcome” with a handy list of nearby spots for takeout or delivery.

5. Black Chicken Wine Cellar, 131 Matthews Station St. (right next to the Beer Temple), 704-321-1244, www.blackchickenwinecellar.com. When owner Jason Niec (say it “NEESE”) opened five years ago, downtown was a lot slower, he says. Now he gets a steady crowd in the late afternoons to shop and try wines at his wine bar. He’s recently expanded with a bigger shop that includes food in downtown Waxhaw as well.

6. Your Mom’s Donuts, 11025 Monroe Road, 803-280-5720, www.yourmomsdonuts.com. It’s 3/4 of a mile away from downtown, just over N.C. 51. But several locals agreed it’s part of downtown life. Owners Courtney Buckley and Benjamin Fry still deliver, but their bakery is a place to hang out in the morning over coffee and those big, square doughnuts made with mostly local ingredients.

This story was originally published May 7, 2015 at 1:41 PM with the headline "What’s to eat in downtown Matthews?."