Hidden gem in Charlotte’s Oakhurst neighborhood where the menu is as creative as the food
April 16, 2021
The Hot Box launches new food truck today
Find the concept’s famous Reuben and wings this weekend
Smoked wings from The Hot Box. Photo by Peter Taylor
The Hot Box returns to its food truck roots today as the concept’s new truck hits the streets of Charlotte. Chef/owner Michael Bowling opened a brick-and-mortar location inside of Southern Strain Brewing in late 2019, serving an expanded version of the menu that earned the food truck a dedicated following. Now, thanks to a grant from Charlotte Center City Partners, a bigger and better Hot Box food truck is up and running.
“I said that I would never own a food truck again,” Bowling says. “But with the Innovation Fund, the money that I got from Mecklenburg and Center City Partners, the money has to be spent. It’s not one of those situations where you can get the money and you can just hold it. You have to submit a plan of what you’re going to do with it. And my brilliant idea was let’s do food truck, because it gave us an opportunity to get back into the West End of Charlotte without having to put up millions of dollars at first.”
You can find The Hot Box food truck tonight, Friday, April 16, at Birdsong Brewing in NoDa from 5 to 9 p.m. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 17, it will be at Resident Culture in Plaza Midwood from noon to 5 p.m. On the menu are Hot Box classics, such as risotto fritters, smoked wings, and the beloved HBX Reuben.
The food truck is kicking off with a series of pop-ups before parking more consistently in West Charlotte once some adjustments are made to the lot where the truck will be stationed. It will remain there with the exception of pop-ups and catering events.
“The West End neighborhood of Charlotte — Seversville into Trade, Beatties Ford, Five Points, all of those neighborhoods — is a food desert,” Bowling shared with us in an earlier story. “I used to live over there, my sister still does, and there’s no food options. There’s Bojangles, there’s Church’s Chicken, but there’s no real healthy options, less fatty options, such things like that. So I’ve been wanting to open up a restaurant over there.”
Bowling hopes to have a more permanent presence in West Charlotte starting in May at the former A&P gas station lot.
