Charlotte’s Midnight Diner sets closing date with plans to reopen, add 2nd location

Charlotte’s popular Midnight Diner next month will permanently shut down operations near South End, but the 24/7 eatery will relocate about 1 mile away in uptown.

And, there are plans to open a second location next year in north Charlotte, Midnight Diner General Manager Eddie South told The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday.

The diner opened 12 years ago at 115 E. Carson St., and is slated to close Sept. 5, according to Midnight Diner’s Facebook page.

“You have exactly one week left to visit our current location,” Midnight Diner said Monday on Facebook, “but we are very excited to open later this fall on Trade Street across from the Spectrum Center.”

The stainless steel boxcar diner will be transported to a nearly 1-acre site at 420 E. Trade St., The Charlotte Observer previously reported. The new location includes 25 free park spaces during the day and 75 spaces after 5 p.m., South said.

The diner will close after Monday’s third shift ends at 4:30 a.m., South said. It will take 10 to 14 days to prep the diner for its roughly 1-mile move, which will take one day. Midnight Diner then expects to reopen in 45 to 60 days following construction at the new site.

Some of Midnight Diner’s 100 full- and part-time employees will work at its sister restaurant, Red Eye Diner, South said. The uptown diner at Epicentre will resume its third shift, which was cut during the pandemic. Red Eye Diner is less than a quarter mile away from the uptown Midnight Diner site.

Brian Dominick owns both diners and the strip club Uptown Cabaret on the same redevelopment site as Midnight Diner in South End.

Catch the Red Eye Diner

Midnight Diner urged customers to go to its sister restaurant, Red Eye Diner, during the moving process.

Red Eye diner will close “eventually once the Epicentre starts to transition to new ownership, but not yet!”, Midnight Diner said Monday responding to a question on Instagram.

However, South told The Charlotte Observer Tuesday that Red Eye Diner plans to remain at Epicentre, but those plans ultimately depend on the center’s new owner.

“Our intention is to remain open,” he said. “We think there’s enough business there for both places.”

Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas is the new owner of the Epicentre entertainment complex at 210 E. Trade St. The lender, which bid $95 million in a foreclosure auction sale, was the only bidder.

Midnight Diner also expanding

The second Midnight Diner location is at 6538 N. Tryon St., the site of the former Old Hickory Bar-B-Q at the Tom Hunter Station light rail stop, Dominick said.

The new restaurant is expected to open next year, South said.

TanDom Investments, registered to Dominick, purchased the 1-acre property in October 2020 for $1 million, Mecklenburg County property records show.

New development planned

The move makes way for Chicago developer Riverside Investment and Development’s $750 million plan for the site at the prominent intersection between uptown and South End. Project renderings show three high-rise buildings that are a mix of commercial and residential uses, the Observer previously reported.

Called Queensbridge Collective, it will include a 42-story office building, and two apartment buildings that are 38- and 30-stories each.

This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 6:18 PM.