¡THE QC LOCAL!

Charlotte’s a busy place. Here’s the best of it.

🎢 If you were curious, I went 50% in carrying out the things I was excited for our Super Bowl party this past weekend. While we made a valiant effort at Table Nachos, my friend Conner, who was fully supposed to be in charge of Super Bowl Squares, didn’t even bring a pen. Since I was too busy trying to assemble the table nachos, we unfortunately didn’t get to profit off of each other during the absolute walloping the Eagles gave the Chiefs this past Sunday.

🌹ROSE

• This past weekend, I gave in to the hype and watched Wicked with my girlfriend Haley, who had seen it at least 3 times prior, which means I’m up to 5 out of 10 Oscar nominees. I will say, the leads did a great job, and it was super well done. I gave it a 4/5 star on my Letterboxd and would overall recommend a watch to anyone keeping track.

🪷BUD

• March Madness in Charlotte. While my Demon Deacons’ hopes of making the NCAA Tournament are slim, that doesn’t mean that March Madness is anything other than absolutely awesome. My favorite three spots in Charlotte to watch any given sporting event are below:

  • Ed’s Tavern (Dilworth)

  • Providence Road Sundries (Myers Park)

  • All American Pub (Southend)

DEAL OF THE WEEK

🍕$5 mimosas at Rhino Market on Saturdays, perfect for a pick-me-up to go with their stellar breakfast burrito.

Anti Food Waste Apps in CLT

‼️One of my favorite recent finds to get great, cheap food in Charlotte has been through the extensive use of two apps that are specifically made to combat food waste, GoodieBag and TooGoodtoGo.

The premise of both of these apps is simple: Tons of restaurants throw away food every day that doesn’t get used, although it is still perfectly good food. Both of these apps have participating restaurants on the app that tend to throw away a good bit of food every day.

As a result, you get notifications every time a restaurant has food to throw away, but instead of throwing away that food, they package it up for you at a heavily discounted price. Here are several deals I’ve gotten from this app:

• 2 massive slices of pizza from PIE.ZAA for $5.50

• A dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for $5.50

• Two burritos, chips and a quesadilla from Phat Burrito for $9.

The list goes on. Other great participating restaurants include The Dumpling Lady, Your Mom’s Donuts, and Poppy’s Bagels, among tons of others. Highly recommend checking these out for cheap meals!

(1 of) My Favorite Restaurants Right Now

Since I was a young buck, my family has been getting takeout from YAMA Asian Fusion in Southpark. It’s been there for years, and I will do my best to make sure it stays there.

Although it is centrally located in the CLT suburbs, I doubt that many folks that have recently moved to Charlotte know about it, just because of the distance from the city. Not more than a 15-minute drive from Uptown, YAMA Asian Fusion boasts my favorite sushi in Charlotte, as well as tons of other amazing Asian dishes. My go to takeout order is the Chicken Fried Rice, which is easily two meals for around $15. The Lake Norman Roll and the Charlotte Roll are classics that my parents have loved for years as well.

If you haven’t heard of it, you have to check it out. Trust me.

UNDERRATED IN THE 704

Last week, my friend Adam was sitting in my apartment and suddenly jolted from his seat as if a spider had crawled on his ass. Having to answer for my roommate and I’s befuddled faces, he exclaimed:

“There’s a Jack Brown’s in Charlotte?!?”

Our faces stayed befuddled, as we were unclear if Adam was referring to a place or a person. It turns out that Adam was referring to the burger and beer restaurant that has now expanded to Charlotte. The sister restaurant of Billy Jack’s Shack, Jack Brown’s recently took over the name and space of the NoDa classic joint. All it took was a menu change and some staff trainings to get aligned to the other locations in Tuscaloosa, Richmond, etc, according to our waitress last Friday.

Anyways, the burgers were phenomenal. The menu is purely burgers, fries and beers, which is about as classic as you can get. They have a set burger for each day of the week, and have a “notch” sheet to keep track of every beer that you’ve had from Jack Brown’s. The vibes are phenomenal, there’s covered outdoor seating, and the service was awesome. If you go on a Friday, get the Ponch burger.

other goings on 🔥

• A while ago, I mentioned Cocktails & Curling in the newsletter. Well, the Charlotte Curling Club has 6 spots available on March 1st, and 6 spots available on March 15th. Sign up here!

• A couple of weeks ago, I passed a line around the block on Winnifred and found out that Babaloo Coffee Club just opened up about two weeks ago. Haven’t tried it out yet, but you can check it out more extensively here!

Let me know of anything you hear about or wanna hear about!

Hit me up at [email protected] for any q’s or debates you may have.

— Jack