Saturday, June 23, 2012

WashPost takes a Charlotte wine-and-BBQ tour

They've started popping up: DNC-themed spreads about Charlotte in the country's biggest newspapers.

"In Charlotte, N.C., the New South Rules" reads the headline this weekend in the Washington Post’s travel section (and online: www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel

Author Zofia Smardz – sometimes snarky, sometimes complimentary – takes readers on a tour that starts at Cosmos CafĂ© "in downtown – oh, sorry, make that uptown" and ends with a plate of BBQ and a glass of white wine at Mac’s Speed Shop

"Pretty, leafy Charlotte," she says upfront, "may lie 500 miles south of the Mason-Dixon line, but it’s even farther from the South of my outdated imaginings . . . It's all buttoned-down business, a multicultural melting pot and a farm-to-table haven."

She visits the Museum of the New South, the Bechtler, the NASCAR and NoDa.

Best line comes from her husband, who also does the uptown walk: "Most cities have historic buildings. Charlotte has historic plaques."

--Tim Funk

10 comments:

Tom from Taylorsville said...

"Most cities have historic buildings. Charlotte has historic plaques."

I don't think I've seen it put more succinctly.

Anonymous said...

Yep. The historic plaques.

Really something for Charlotte to be proud of, aren't they?

This is what comes from Charlotte disavowing and erasing its past.

Anonymous said...

What past?

Many of those markers commemorate things and spots of long, long ago. How many other US cities still have those places? Museums like Charleston and Williamsburg? Early major cities like Boston and Philadelphia? Charlotte barely existed early in the nation's history and never had any museum-worthy things to save, except the US Mint building that Became the Mint Museum.

Anyone who carps about Charlotte's so-called lack of history completely misunderstands Charlotte. This is a bootstrap town of strivers and for the last 100 years or so we've been rushing headlong to the future.

I suspect the real lament is that bootstrap servers are not genteel and gentrified enough for the writer and her ignorant, if clever, husband.



Most of those places weren't worth saving

Anonymous said...

The "farm-to-table" comment is very accurate. A whole lot of restaurants downtown are set up like that. Mimosa Grill, Harvest Moon, etc. All very good.

WashuOtaku said...

No surprise that the author kind had some sort of dixieland idea that is out of whack with reality, it seems to be that way a lot with people up North. The ones that realize it's not that way move down here apparently.

As for all the old buildings, yea most weren't worth saving.

Anonymous said...

At least we have newly paved streets down (up) town.

Anonymous said...

Don't know if the biker in black ordering a wine at Macs is a true story or not but had me laughing!

Carl from Cramerton said...

If Mac's Speed Shop is going to be the hipster place to represent "Charlotte BBQ" they need to step up their game. The Speed Shop is to barbecue as Wendy's is to hamburgers.

Anonymous said...

One of my friends was moving here to work for BofA, and his uncle said, "Ah, the city with no soul."

The national media sees the QC for what it is,, the empress with no clothes.

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