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 · italian, new american, southern

Angeline's is the restaurant inside the Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel in Uptown, on Church Street across from Romare Bearden Park. It describes its cooking as traditional Italian with a Southern twist, with seasonal Southern ingredients handled by Italian technique. It serves breakfast on weekday mornings, brunch on weekends and a late-night menu from 10 to 11 p.m. every day. Valet parking runs a discounted $15 for up to two hours.

Plaza Midwood · vegan, comfort food, southern

One of Charlotte's oldest vegan restaurants, in an unassuming building off Independence Boulevard, with a long menu of fully vegan comfort cooking: barbecue, cheesesteaks, bratwurst, reubens, meatloaf and crab cakes.

Historic West End · cajun, creole, seafood

Bite Your Tongue is a carryout New Orleans kitchen on Beatties Ford Road serving po' boys, red beans and rice and bread pudding. QCity Metro reported in July 2024 that it works out of a commercial kitchen Historic West End Partners opened in the corridor specifically to add food options to Beatties Ford Road, after the group bought the building.

Dilworth · pizza, italian american

The Dilworth room on Scott Avenue, the Charlotte original of a wood-fired pizza company that now runs twenty locations across four states and still keeps its corporate office on East 7th Street in Charlotte. It publishes a kids menu and a separate gluten-free menu as downloadable PDFs, along with an allergen sheet.

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.

Elizabeth · new american, italian, latin

Customshop sits on Elizabeth Avenue in the Elizabeth neighbourhood and is run by chef-owner Andres Kaifer, who cooks Latin and Italian influences into North Carolina seasonal produce. The menu is printed fresh each day around whatever the farms have sent, alongside a rotating craft cocktail programme and a curated wine list. It made the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South as a Recommended restaurant in November 2025. It serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday and is closed Sunday and Monday.

University City · southern, soul food, seafood

Cuzzo's began in 2014 as a Southern food truck run by first cousins Andarrio Johnson and Anglee Brown, who were born and raised in the South Carolina Low Country, and became a west Charlotte restaurant in 2016. This is the second room, on North Tryon Street in University City. The motto on the wall is 'Where Everyone's Family', and the kitchen is known for lobster mac and cheese and shrimp and grits.

Midtown · pub food, pizza, bbq, american

Dilworth Neighborhood Grille is a bar and grill on East Morehead Street that is open until 2 a.m. every day of the week, which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in this part of the city. Wings and pizza are the signature items alongside sandwiches, burgers, salads and barbecue. The room calls itself family friendly and has outdoor seating.

Uptown · seafood, new american

Fin & Fino calls itself a social seafood house and is part of Charlotte's Rare Roots Hospitality group. The menu is built around shared plates drawn from seafaring cultures of the Atlantic. The kitchen offers a chef's-choice option called The Treatment, where guests hand over the course selection. A second room opened at Birkdale Village.

Elizabeth · pizza, italian american

A New York style pizza room on East 7th Street in Elizabeth, established in 2004. The company's own site invites guests onto the patio, calls the restaurant family and dog friendly, and publishes a kids menu with pizza, chicken, pasta, ravioli and macaroni and cheese. Its current specials page does not publish a kids-eat-free offer, so this profile does not treat the older Tuesday promotion as current.

Uptown · french, brasserie

La Belle Helene is a French brasserie on South Tryon in Uptown, serving French classics with a modern sensibility. It is run by the Charlotte-based 5th Street Group, whose principals are Patrick Whalen, Alejandro Torio, Chef Jamie Lynch and Chef Adam Hodgson. Jamie Lynch, a Bravo Top Chef alumnus, is the chef partner. Its sister restaurant Church and Union is a few blocks north.

bbq, southern

A family smokehouse and saloon on Old Pineville Road, opened in 2006 by brothers Ryan and Jim Register with their father Namon. Its own account is that the family noticed how few scratch-made kitchens Charlotte had and started collecting the family's best recipes with the idea of opening their own room. The bar side is rustic, with beer signs and sports jerseys on the wall. Our State singles out the award-winning smoked ribs and the homemade coconut pie, and says the wings are smoked over pecan wood.

Uptown · southern, new american

Mimosa Grill opened on South Tryon in Uptown in 1996 and is run by Burke Hospitality Group. The kitchen describes itself as global-influenced American built on local Carolina ingredients, and says it works directly with regional farmers and purveyors on seasonal menus. It closes early on Sundays, at 2 p.m.

Myers Park · new american

Rada is a small room on Selwyn Avenue in Myers Park that opened in 2025 with almost no announcement and was MICHELIN Recommended in the inaugural American South guide within months of opening. Charlotte Magazine credits chef Callan Buckles, who came from New York kitchens, with a tight European wine list and a Basque-influenced cocktail programme alongside the food. The New York Times picked it up in the same stretch. It takes bookings through Resy and runs a wine club.

Uptown · seafood, oysters

Sea Level NC is an oyster bar and seafood room in Uptown Charlotte on East 5th Street. The bar runs an oyster happy hour Monday through Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. with house oysters at $1.50. The bar stays open later than the dining room, which closes at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It is one of four rooms in the Charlotte group that trades as eat704, alongside The Waterman Fish Bar, High Tide and Packard Tavern.

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 · vegan, caribbean, african, burgers

A whole-food plant-based kitchen on Elizabeth Avenue built on African and Caribbean cooking rather than imitation meat. Its own line is that this is true food cooking from Mother Nature, not fake meat substitutes. It runs partly as a subscription meal service: customers pick a monthly plan, choose entrees and sides by Saturday midnight, and the food is delivered Wednesday afternoon.

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.

Myers Park · italian, mediterranean

A Mediterranean room on Selwyn Avenue from Noble Food & Pursuits, running handmade pasta, pizza and seafood. It keeps a heated patio open year round and splits the day into lunch, an aperitivo window from 2:30 to 5, and dinner.

Uptown · irish, pub food

The Pub at Uptown is an Irish pub on West Trade Street in Charlotte's Third Ward, in the Gateway district near Truist Field, Bank of America Stadium and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It is open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day and runs its full kitchen menu until 1:30 a.m., which makes it one of the few genuinely late kitchens in Uptown. It added weekend brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Parking is free in the garage attached to the building.

Plaza Midwood · american, pub food

Whiskey Warehouse sits on The Plaza across from Supperland and calls itself a top shelf pub: classic American dining, craft beer and cocktails, with a rooftop above the main bar. The rooftop keeps its own hours and runs latest of all, to 2am on Friday and Saturday.