Sports & Game Day Charlotte

Uptown · american, pub food

Alexander Michael's has been a Fourth Ward neighborhood tavern since 1983, inside the brick Crowell-Berryhill Store that opened in 1897. The room kept pieces of Charlotte with it: the bar and back bar were made from solid oak doors taken from the old Independence Building, and the beer cooler came from a Charlotte grocery store around 1920. Come for a burger, a beer and a building that survived when much of the neighborhood did not.

Uptown · new american

Church and Union sits at the corner of 5th and Church Streets in Uptown Charlotte, which is where the name comes from. Top Chef alumnus Jamie Lynch is the chef partner and Aaron Dearing is executive chef. The restaurant describes itself as being in Uptown's historic district, a few blocks from its sister restaurant La Belle Helene. Both are run by the Charlotte-based 5th Street Group.

Plaza Midwood · burgers, seafood, american

South 21 has been on East Independence Boulevard since 1955 and still says so at the top of its own site: 'Serving Charlotte Since 1955'. It is a survivor of the drive-in era, working the same lot on the east side while the road around it turned into an expressway. The board runs to burgers, sandwiches, fish plates, onion rings and daily specials. CharlotteEAST notes it has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Elizabeth · new american, french, italian, seafood

The Fig Tree is a white-tablecloth restaurant inside the restored 1913 Lucas House in Elizabeth. Husband-and-wife owners Greg and Sara Zanitsch have run it here since 2005, with seasonal French and Italian influences, a deep wine list and an elk chop that has stayed on the menu for more than fifteen years. The veranda and residential-size rooms make dinner feel like a special occasion without pretending the building was ever anything but a house.