Davidson cafe Milkbread is a spinoff of the pandemic project from Joe and Katy Kindred of acclaimed restaurant Kindred. To make takeout easy during COVID, Kindred offered items like fried chicken sandwiches, doughnuts, and salads — the idea was so popular that the owners decided to make it a permanent menu at Milkbread. Another location is already planned for Plaza Midwood.

The group behind the Vintage Whiskey and Cigar Bar and the Wine Loft brings a new Italian experience to NoDa. Figo36 offers a wide selection of burrata setups, housemade pastas, and pizzas made to order.

Caviar, potato chips, and a killer natural wine list? What more do you need? Bar à Vins is the hip new NoDa wine bar from sommeliers Natalie Stewart and Jeff Kellogg with a little help from Katy Kindred (of Davidson’s Kindred) who designed the interiors. All the cool kids in Charlotte will be there.

Kerrel and Nkem Thompson used their at-home time during the pandemic to perfect the East Coast-style pizzas they ate while living in Chicago. After hosting a series of pizza pop-ups in their home and a residency at Bond Street Wine Company, they opened a permanent location with a pick-up window in December 2021. Crowds now regularly gather on the street in front of Bird Pizzeria, with lines forming even before it opens. 

Chefs Oscar Johnson and Daryl Cooper opened Jimmy Pearls in 2020, but went on to pursue the food truck life in 2021, but now they are back at Uptown’s Market at 7th Street to bring their famous Uncle Gene’s fish sandwich, shrimp rolls, and other Virginia tidewater cuisine to the masses.

Located inside the Mint Museum, Mariposa offer mezze of international influences for lunch and dinner. Examples of menu items include lamb belly bulgogi lettuce wraps, ceviche aguachile, piri piri chicken, tomato and burrata tart, Gullah paella, and more.

Asheville favorite Burial Beer is officially in Charlotte with the opening of the House of Relics. The Plaza Midwood newcomer features a taproom full of Burial offerings, a beer garden, and a rooftop deck. In addition to brews, natural wines and cider are also available from Burial’s sister project Visuals.

Vinyl (as in record; there’s an entire wall of them behind the bar) embodies the notion that music brings the people all together. To be sure, it is the rare bar in South End that attracts more than just the recent college graduate crowd that has come to define the neighborhood, and it has been standing-room only nearly from the moment it opened for business. One might chalk that up to Vinyl’s prime location, nestled between Vana and Wooden Robot Brewery on the corner of Tryon and Summit, but to do so would be to discount entirely the assured hands of the industry veterans who have converged to create something so thoroughly of the moment that connects almost immediately with anyone who visits. (In point of fact, when have banker bros, Tinder dates, influencers, and LGBTQ friends of a certain age ever been able to sit down, have a drink, and acknowledge that they have so much in common?) On the food menu, the garlic fries in particular are delicious, even startlingly so, and no that’s not the “You Only Get One Shot” talking. Served straight from the tap, that drink is Frenet Branca infused with coffee from local favorite Pepperbox Doughnuts, and despite the name, it is perfectly OK to have two.  — Timothy DePeugh

Buzzy new restaurant Para sits in the South End neighborhood with a hip dining room and a small plate menu leaning heavily on seafood and Asian influences. Chef Alex Verica, formerly of Dot Dot Dot and the Stanley, says that he wanted the menu to incorporate as many local farmers as possible, while focusing on “a more global approach to the overall menu.” Items range from lobster toast with caviar to wagyu beef tartare with caviar to milk bread with foie gras, peanut butter, and jam. It’s an indulgent menu that’s sure to make a few rounds with the flashy Instagram crowds and folks looking to make it rain for a lobster shooter.

Yunta offers Nikkei cuisine in a hip, modern setting. Nikkei food is Peruvian ingredients — tropical fish, quinoa, aji amarillo peppers — molded by Japanese techniques. Multiple chefs cite the modern preparation for ceviche as particularly indicative of the Nikkei style. And Yunta offers plenty of ceviche, along with pisco sours, shrimp croquettes, tostones, and more.

Prime Fish chef Robin Anthony recently added an extension to his sushi business with Omakase Experience, and it’s been booking up nightly. With only six seats in the dining room, reservations go fast. For $300, customers receive 16 courses of Edomae-style omakase — Anthony claims he is perhaps the only chef offering this style in North Carolina. Edomae style involves treating the fish (whether it be brined, cured, or aged) to bring out extra umami flavors.