Each year Charlotte loses dozens of businesses that began with a dream. Here, our writers pay homage to just a few.
Blue Blaze Brewing (2016-2024)
The team at Blue Blaze Brewing announced in a February social media post that they would be closing their doors for good the following month. Owner Craig “Unca Keg” Nunn said the company was forced out of its location at the end of the Stewart Creek Greenway in west Charlotte’s Smallwood neighborhood due to rising commercial rent, an issue that has taken its toll on countless small businesses across the city.
In January 2023, a judge granted Blue Blaze Brewing a reprieve that saved it from eviction by its landlord, Atlanta-based firm Portman Holdings, after Portman tried to raise the rent by 376%, but Blue Blaze couldn’t fight the hike forever.
“Over the years, we’ve poured our passion, creativity, and dedication … our blood, sweat, and tears into crafting exceptional liquids and fostering a vibrant community of beer, music, and outdoors lovers,” Nunn wrote in a farewell statement. “The journey over the last 10 years since I began this idea has been nothing short of extraordinary, exceptional, and life-altering; and we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support and friendship you’ve shown us along the way. We very much wish that our place here could have continued to be available to us into the future.”
Nunn opened Blue Blaze Brewing in 2016 with his father, who passed away two years ago from brain cancer.
“Each and every moment has been testament to the power of good beer, of great company, and of family,” Nunn’s post read. “We take pride in the legacy we’ve created and the indelible mark Blue Blaze has made on the craft beer landscape and in our hearts & lives.”
At the time, Nunn said he hoped the brewery could find a new location, though we haven’t heard any updates since the closure.
littleSpoon (2014-2024)
littleSpoon created lots of buzz when it opened in 2014. With classic ’90s hip-hop bumping during brunch, it was enough to make you forget you were in Myers Park. But it wasn’t just the music that was the draw, as proprietors Alesha Sin Vanata and Kyle Stegemeyer consistently rotated innovative options on and off the menu at the small farm-to-fork space.
“Vanata plans to change the menu ‘on inspiration,’ so diners should know not to get too attached to any of the dishes,” read a Charlotte Magazine review in the year the restaurant opened. It was this same willingness to create change when the time was right that inspired Vanata, now Alesha Stegemeyer, to call it a day at the quirky brunch spot over the summer.
“It takes a lot of money to keep a restaurant operating. It just got to a point where it wasn’t working anymore,” she told the Charlotte Business Journal in July. “I feel like I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish. It was just time.”
I’ve Read It in Books (2020-2024)
Rob Banker opened I’ve Read It In Books in 2020 as a bookshop inside a record store (Premium Sound) inside a bottle shop (Tip Top Daily Market), where he sold new and used books, growing his collection and building a network of collectors and bibliophiles.
When he was forced out of the space in June 2022, he searched for new spaces but couldn’t find anything affordable until he was approached with an opportunity: become one third of the Vintage House, a new trio of retail shops opening in a black house on North Davidson Street directly across from Benny Pennello’s and Heist Brewery.
Joining local boutiques Stash Pad Vintage and Milk Money Vintage, Banker opened the new space in March 2023, launching with around 800 books and aiming to double that.
In January 2024, Rob Banker announced via Instagram that he was closing the business, shutting down what had been a promising mission to run a much-needed bookstore inside NoDa.
“I opened just shy of 3-and-a-half years ago and it’s been an incredible journey,” he said in his post. “The new location had much better traffic, but unfortunately it’s not enough to allow me to expand the shop and bring on desperately needed additional staff. At this point, I’m not able to keep up with the demands of the shop and my own health and finances.
“This was not an easy decision,” he continued. “Thank you to everyone that shopped here over the last few years and donated books so that we could make a small impact on the community.”
The Government Center Showmars (1999-2024)
Sure, we don’t usually spill much ink waxing poetic about the closure of a single national chain location, especially one with multiple other locations around Charlotte, but any journalist can tell you that this spot was special.
In July, Showmars decided not to renew their lease at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, despite having one of the best deals in Charlotte real estate, with a rent of only $500 per month (cue the exasperated gasps from restaurant owners struggling to pay their rent across the city).
Though it closed at 3 p.m. — hours before most local government meetings — you’d be surprised how much business got done at the Government Center Showmars. It was a great place to run into the visible members of city and county government, as well as the most convenient meeting place for talking to the less visible civil servants who hold the real levers of power. If nothing else, one of their large sweet teas could last through an entire zoning meeting.
Harper’s (1992-2024)
Standing at the intersection of Sharon and Fairview roads, Harper’s was a Charlotte mainstay that saw many a packed lunch service as SouthPark grew from a suburb into another urban core. They closed in July when their lease expired. The site, while not the original, was the best known over the restaurant’s three-decade history.
Befitting the pace of progress in Charlotte, it has already been demolished (as has Blue Blaze’s facility above), and in an ironic twist, this site of numerous power meetings between Charlotte bankers will soon be replaced by a commercial bank branch.
However, if you’re still missing your Harper’s fix, you can still find them in Greensboro, and a future location in Charlotte has been promised by the ownership group.
BLT Steak (2009-2023)
When the Ritz-Carlton opened in Uptown Charlotte in 2009, it was further affirmation to many that Charlotte was becoming the “world-class city” it so desperately wanted to be. That its in-house restaurant would be helmed by celebrity chef Laurent Tourondel only further gilded the lily.
In a city full of pricy steakhouses, the two most memorable menu items at BLT arguably weren’t steaks (though those were delicious) but instead the gruyère popovers and lobster Cobb salad. If Charlotte wants to continue to be world-class, another local restaurant needs to step up their popover game in BLT’s absence.
Cold Hearted Gelato (2022-2024)
Sometimes a great concept can have a great location and still not make it. Cold Hearted Gelato, a woman-owned, chef-driven dessert spot in downtown Plaza Midwood, closed its doors in August after two years despite (or perhaps thanks in part to) a complete revamp of Midwood Corners shopping center.
Cold Hearted served up inventive flavors, had great take-home options and served up sweet treats you couldn’t find anywhere else. Sharing a wall with Dunkin, the creative minds at Cold Hearted outperformed their corporate counterparts using more than 31 flavors, and you could always find something new to try. Unfortunately for the Queen City, the restaurant business can be … well, you know.
Futo Buta (2013-2024)
Chef Michael Shortino opened Futo Buta in 2015 as one of the first ramen shops in North Carolina. Shortino tragically passed away in September 2023, leaving those who were close to him rocked. In a Valentine’s Day essay published by Queen City Nerve in February, Shortino’s partner Courtney Estes, who took over operations at Futo Buta, wrote of the heartbreak she was still and will forever experience.
“This story and process is very much ongoing. In these last several months, confronting grief head-on, I confront the complexity of love itself — its ability to transcend boundaries and the confines of mortality,” Estes wrote. “My person is no longer here, but my love for him, and the memories we created throughout Charlotte, still are. If I’m here to remember them, those locations still hold the echoes of our relationship.”
In June of this year, Estes announced that she would close the popular South End eatery, though Shortino’s legacy will live on.
“Just as a death does not diminish the life of a loved one, the closing of a restaurant does not erase the impact it has had on a community,” read her statement on the restaurant’s Instagram page. “Michael’s life was, and is, so greatly intertwined with this concept, one that cultivated an incredible story, marked with truly life-changing relationships.”
