By TM Petaccia

Since 2008, Queen’s Feast / Charlotte Restaurant Week has become an important promotional vehicle for area restaurants wanting to attract customers during what are typically slow traffic periods. The brainchild of Bruce and Jill Hensley of Hensley Fontana Public Relations, participating restaurants offer a three-course meal at a fixed price.

“As the metro restaurant lineup widens and more people move to the area every day, restaurants are looking for unique and effective ways to gain exposure and trial business,” Jill Hensley says. “There has been some pull-back on diner spending nationwide thus far this year, so that may be a local factor as well for participants in wanting to draw folks back into the restaurants.”

The Summer 2025 edition of Queen’s Feast runs from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 27. 126 area restaurants (as of this writing) are participating with prix fixe menus ranging from $30 to $50, plus tip and sales tax. The overall number of participants has significantly jumped over that past few editions, 18 more restaurants than this past January’s event, but it is still down compared to pre-pandemic levels, which reached a high of 143 in January 2020.

“We have been a participant in Restaurant Week since day-one,” says Jon Dressler, owner of Rare Roots Hospitality, whose Dressler’s, Fin & Fino, Dogwood, and Chapter 6 restaurants are participating this season. “We choose to participate this year for the same reason that we championed back in the day. It allows us to expand our audience and our reach into the community to folks that have not had the chance to join us. We are always looking for ways to provide the diners a look to see how we approach hospitality. Our chefs enjoy curating experiences and we enjoy meeting first timers or greeting long time friends for a repeat visit.”

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Restaurant Week by the numbers

It’s not all about Charlotte. Of the 126 Queen’s Feast participants, 36 of them are not located in Charlotte. Restaurants in Pineville, Matthews, Huntersville, Belmont, Hickory, Locust, Ft. Mill, Rock Hill, and other surrounding areas are taking part in the ten-day event.

Charlotte neighborhood counts. Within the Charlotte city limits, Uptown leads the list of Queen’s Feast participants with 26 restaurants, followed by South End at 18, SouthPark/Foxcroft at 14, and Ballantyne with 10. The Arboretum/Waverly and LoSo neighborhoods each have three participants with Dilworth, Eastover/Myers Park, Madison Park/Montford Park, Midtown, NoDa, Oakhurst/MoRa, Plaza Midwood, and Southwest Charlotte areas each having two participating restaurants — while the Elizabeth, Quail Corners, and University neighborhoods each having a solo participant.

For the most part, you’ll pay more. When Restaurant Week began in 2008, the base price of the prix fixe meal was $30.

Today, only five restaurants are offering meals at that original $30 price point: The Penguin in Dilworth, Margaux’s in Pineville, the LoSo and Ballantyne locations of Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, and Cranford Brothers Barbecue in Hickory. Sixty-six percent (83) of the restaurants list $45 or $50 Queen’s Feast menu prices.

“Certainly balancing their costs with putting out an exciting and representative prix fixe menu is more of a challenge than ever,” Hensley says. “Those that continue to put their best in front of the guest during Queen’s Feast get the most return on participation in terms of good reviews, word-of-mouth, and return visits.”

Note: The full list of restaurants and menu offerings changes continually throughout Restaurant Week. So check the website for the most current listings and prices.

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Dos and Don’ts

DO make a reservation. As you might guess, tables are typically at a premium during Restaurant Week. Be sure you make a reservation, especially on the weekends.

DON’T play “restaurant roulette.” This is a heinous practice every week of the year, but seems to be particularly prevalent during Restaurant Week. Restaurant roulette is when one makes a reservation at several restaurants for the same day/time and chooses at the last minute which one to honor. This can be devastating to restaurants who have blocked out a table and made food purchases based on reservation numbers. It’s a low-class move. Don’t do it.

DO look at the menus before selecting your Queen Feast restaurants. The Restaurant Week website does a great job of listing the prix fixe menu of every participating restaurant. Take a good look before deciding on which places to go. You’ll see what’s included for the set price, and whether they accommodate any dietary restrictions. Some menus list supplemental dishes at extra cost, as well as other items of note. “There are a lot of restaurants with different price points from which to choose now,” Hensley says. “Diners are shopping the menus to see which are offering enticing choices and variety, in combination with a good value compared to regular prices.”

DON’T base your Yelp or social media review on your Restaurant Week experience. Remember Queen’s Feast is a special event. Very little of it is typical of the everyday dining experience. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy the overall vibe and food concepts enough to return. Then, you can put the restaurant through your personal evaluation process.

DO tip based on the meal’s value, not the special price. Your servers and BOH workers are putting in the same effort they always do; probably even more. Don’t skimp on their tips just because you are getting a special price. “Relax, savor the meal and the company of your fellow diners, and be kind and generous to the restaurant staff members who are working hard to provide you a special evening,” Hensley says.

DON’T go where you always go. The whole point of Queen’s Feast / Restaurant Week is to expand your knowledge of all the diverse culinary options our region has to offer. Make it a food adventure. Have fun. You might just discover a new “go-to” restaurant. “We see Queens Feast as a way to expose some folks who haven’t joined us in a while, or maybe ever at all, to our brands,” says Chris Coleman executive chef and partner at Built On Hospitality, which has its The Goodyear House, Mazi, and Folia concepts participating this season. “Specifically, with the opening of some new concepts in the last year, we want to make it easier for folks to be able to join us.”

“Restaurant week is a good event for friends to get together and try new places or visit some of those gems they have not visited in a while,” Dressler says.