The uptown lunch crunch returns
The uptown lunch crunch returns
Plus: Weddington residents cite Waverly 'debacle'; Gas prices rise 34 cents in a week; Ledger travel panel; Big sports weekend; Barclay Downs resident not amused by ding dong ditch
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With some lunch spots closed and bankers returning to work, sandwich lines are forming like old times; ‘things are waking up again’
Tables were full at The Market at 7th Street food hall uptown on Friday at lunchtime, with about 10 people waiting to place an order at Geno D’s Pizza. Lunch-hour crowds have picked up in the last few weeks in uptown as employees return to the office.
by Tony Mecia
As bank workers return to their uptown offices this month, they’re finding that many of their go-to lunch spots remain closed — and that lines are now forming for sandwiches, pizza and burritos during peak times.
Uptown workers tell The Ledger that they have seen a change in uptown in the last few weeks. Traffic is worse, parking is tighter, and running out for a quick bite during the 12:00 hour isn’t as quick as it used to be.
Before the pandemic, about 130,000 workers used to report to uptown offices, and it’s clear that today’s numbers are well short of that figure. But that is changing: Bank of America said last month that it expected workers back in the office March 1, and Wells Fargo has set a return date of next Monday (March 14). BofA and Wells are two of the region’s top four employers, with more than 40,000 workers between them (though not all are in uptown). With Covid numbers falling and mask requirements eliminated, other employers are also recalling workers to the office, at least several days a week.
That’s quickly shifting the lunch dynamic.
“There have been more limited options, but also a lot shorter lines,” says Locke Beatty, a financial services attorney with McGuireWoods. “That’s starting to change. It’s starting to feel like things are waking up again. I think you’re about to see really long lines. I think the people will come back faster than restaurants will fill the spaces that have been emptied.”
For the last year and a half, Beatty says he’d get a bite to eat whenever he had a break in calls or was hungry. Now, just like before the pandemic, he avoids the 12:00 hour because of growing lines. “You have to plan some other time if you don’t want to wait 15 minutes,” he says.
Along Tryon Street during the lunch hour on Friday, it was evident that there were fewer workers on the streets than there were before Covid, but more than there have been in the last two years. Employees ducked into and out of office towers, many fetching carryout orders or sitting outside and enjoying the sunny weather.
There were plenty of lunch spots that were closed, either temporarily or permanently: Something Classic and RiRa’s sandwich bar by Truist Center; Pita Pit on College Street; Just Fresh and Salsarita’s in the Overstreet Mall. Some places were open and had no lines, including Jimmy John’s and several spots in Latta Arcade. Some chains, including Chipotle and Chick-fil-A, had lines 10-15 people deep.
There was a line of about 15 people at the Overstreet Mall Chick-fil-A at lunchtime on Friday. Nearby, Just Fresh and Salsarita’s — busy spots before the pandemic — remained closed.
“Since December, it’s definitely been busier,” said Allyssa Chambers, who was sitting at a table outside the Bank of America Corporate Center. She works for a custom clothing company and visits clients uptown and says she has noticed longer lines at Chopt “around those prime times.”
Time to ‘staff back up’: Moira Quinn, chief operating officer for Charlotte Center City Partners, says the organization has been telling restaurant owners and food trucks to expect more customers.
“We are talking to some of these restaurant folks and encouraging them to staff back up,” she said. “We are doing everything we can to support a fully staffed and fully available lunch for everybody who is here.”
Lunch strategy: Quinn emphasizes that there are plenty of places to find food uptown, even if people have to be a little more strategic nowadays in avoiding lines — such as by ordering take-out ahead of time online, or going before or after the lunch rush. She said she’s partial to salads and frequents Devon & Blakely, Bella Ciao and Essex Bar & Bistro and has had no problems. And while some favorite joints have closed, she points out that new ones have opened, such as Sweet Crunch Waffles on 7th Street.
Brent Torstrick, a real estate lawyer with Robinson Bradshaw, said all the restaurants in his building, One Independence Center at Trade and Tryon, have closed, as well as some of his nearby favorites, including two Indian restaurants. When Covid hit, his firm started placing group take-out orders for those who came in.
“I get the sense that clearly there’s much more life,” he says. “I have come to work every day for two years. It’s different vibe now certainly than it was a year ago.”
Related Ledger article:
“Uptown is a ghost town” (🔒, Oct. 9, 2020)
Today’s supporting sponsors are Landon A. Dunn, attorney-at-law in Matthews…
… and T.R. Lawing Realty:
Weddington residents worry mixed-use development will be ‘the next Waverly’; ‘Not a Waverly,’ architect says
Some residents of Weddington are hotly opposing a proposed 80-acre mixed-use development at the intersection of Providence and Weddington roads, saying the project is too high-density for the town.
Plans for the Weddington Green development, proposed by Provident Land Services, include a mix of 181 single-family and attached housing units, an 8 ½ acre park and greenway and a “main street” with 138,000 s.f. of retail, restaurants and office space. Homes would be priced from the $550,000s to the “low millions,” developers told members of the town’s planning board at a meeting last week.
‘A debacle for the area’: But neighbors are showing up at meetings, taking to Nextdoor and posting signs against the development, and a change.org petition had 2,033 signatures by Sunday afternoon. “The project is reminiscent of Waverly, a nearby development that has been a debacle for the area,” wrote the author of the petition.
Dozens of residents packed the planning board meeting bearing signs “Reject Weddington Green rezoning,” and the town decided to move a public hearing on the project scheduled for March 14 to a bigger venue, at All Saints Anglican Church in Weddington.
Weddington, population 13,000, is a town with almost all single-family homes, and only 27 of the 11,000 acres in the town are zoned for commercial use, according to the town’s website. Much of the town’s commercial area is at the Weddington Corners shopping center, home to a Harris Teeter and Shell station across the street from the proposed development.
Some have moved to Weddington in recent years to avoid the traffic and growth woes that have affected other areas outside of Charlotte.
During last week’s planning board meeting, developers told the board that they sought to give Weddington a small main street reminiscent of downtown Waxhaw, as well as a park and greenway with an amphitheater and playground at the center of the project and a couple of gazebos described as “very traditional in keeping with Weddington’s character.”
“This is not a Waverly, as has been described,” said Brian Jenest, landscape architect and land planner with ColeJenest & Stone.
Waverly, which opened in 2017 on Providence Road in south Charlotte, is larger than the proposed Weddington Green development. Waverly is on 90 acres and has about 250,000 s.f. of retail, plus office space and more than 500 homes, according to its website. It was developed by Childress Klein and Crosland Southeast. That stretch of Providence Road has become more congested as the area has grown.
Future downtown Weddington, or Times Square? A change.org petition opposing the proposed Weddington Green development raises the question.
—CB
Big sports Saturday night: One era starts (with a loss), one era ends (with a loss)
Charlotte FC set a Major League Soccer attendance record of more than 74,000 on Saturday night for the team’s home opener, which it lost 1-0 (left); Coach Mike Krzyzewski coached his final basketball game at Duke University, losing to rival UNC Chapel Hill 94-81. (Soccer photo courtesy of Charlotte FC)
Coming this Thursday: ‘Set to jet? – What to know about the new world of travel’ ✈
This Thursday at 7 p.m., we’re holding an online event exclusively for Ledger members, focused on getting you up to speed on planning and taking vacations.
We’re holding the event in partnership with our friends at Jumbo, a Charlotte company that builds live-streaming platforms.
We’ll cover topics including navigating Covid restrictions, how to handle travel insurance, best-bets for destinations, what’s happening in the world of cruises, how the war in Ukraine is affecting global travel, what changes you’ll find when you get back out there, and more.
Our panelists are:
Karen Shelton, owner of My Path Unwinding Travel and Luxury Travel PhD
Roni Fishkin of Mann Travels
Lora Schapiro of Tauck
The Ledger’s Cristina Bolling will moderate.
If you’re a Ledger member, you can find the registration link here:
(Not a Ledger member but want to attend? Join us as a paying Ledger member today so you don’t miss out!)
In brief:
Gas rises 34 cents in a week: The price of a regular gallon of gas in the Charlotte area hit an average of $3.92 a gallon this morning, according to AAA, up 34 cents a gallon from a week ago. The highest average price ever recorded in Charlotte is $4.18 a gallon in 2008.
Voter registration: Former North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows, who resigned his seat in 2020 to become President Trump’s chief of staff, registered to vote in September 2020 and listed the address of a 14-by-62-foot mobile home southwest of Highlands that it’s not certain he ever lived in. (The New Yorker)
Divesting Russian assets: North Carolina’s pension fund holds about $80M in Russian assets, but state treasurer Dale Folwell says it’s not easy to divest those assets from the $118B state retirement plan because they are part of index funds the state doesn’t control. (WRAL)
On the agenda: Tonight’s City Council agenda includes updates on the Eastland Mall site, the Charlotte Future 2040 Policy Map and the Unified Development Ordinance.
Pricey home: A 6,600 s.f. house on Queens Road West in Myers Park is on the market for $4.5M. (Observer)
Record high: Sunday’s high of 80 degrees beat the record for March 6, which was 78 degrees set in 1956.
CROSSWORD SOLUTION: Here’s the solution to Saturday’s Charlotte-themed crossword. All puzzles and solutions are available on our crosswords page.
Best of Charlotte Nextdoor: Ding-dong-ditched in Barclay Downs
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project