Hidden gem in Charlotte’s Oakhurst neighborhood where the menu is as creative as the food
June 1, 2026
Kindred navigates recovery with a new restaurant in the wings
Deepwell coming to Mooresville as repairs are made to flagship restaurant
by TM Petaccia
As the saying goes, “Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you realize it’s an on-coming train.” For restaurant couple Joe and Katy Kindred, the past month has been an exercise of careful planning followed by all hands on deck.
Three weeks ago, there was a fire in the upstairs bathroom at the James Beard Award-nominated, Michelin Recommended Kindred. While the fire itself was minor and handled quickly (the incident is still being investigated), the water damage was significant. The couple suddenly found themselves juggling two major projects at once: restoring their flagship restaurant while preparing to open a new concept that had been years in the making.
Kindred is temporarily closed while repairs are completed with a focus on cleanup, reconstruction, and making a handful of operational adjustments along the way. “We’re going to make some improvements,” Katy Kindred says. “I think people who come to Kindred often will probably notice some of the improvements, but we also want it to remain pretty familiar.”
Rather than dramatically changing the restaurant, the Kindred team is concentrating on upgrades that will primarily benefit staff. Plans include reconfiguring the bar area to create more workspace for bartenders, installing a new drink rail system, and updating cabinetry upstairs.
“It will be mostly things that will affect our staff more than the guests will notice,” Kindred says.
A reopening timeline remains fluid. While the restaurant has estimated roughly twelve weeks, Kindred said several factors could extend that schedule. “We’re still getting estimates in,” she says. “Some lead times might throw us longer than that, depending on how things shake out.”
The process has also introduced the family to navigating insurance claims and restoration work for the first time. “We have very fortunately not had to do this before, so it’s a new thing,” Kindred says. “We’re learning and we’re going with the flow.”
At the same time, the Kindreds are moving ahead with Deepwell, a new restaurant in Mooresville that they had quietly been developing long before the fire.
Located a few miles north of Davidson, Deepwell occupies the former J.J. Wasabi’s space, which had sat vacant for years. The concept is being described as a New Orleans-style steakhouse with a strong focus on butchery, charcuterie, and in-house meat aging. The restaurant will source wagyu beef from W8 Ranch in Ennice, North Carolina, and plans to dry-age steaks on site.
“We’ve been working on this restaurant for years, but for the better part of this year, we’ve been building it out. We were just getting ready to announce it, when the fire happened.” Kindred says.
A key figure in the project is longtime Kindred culinary director Craig Deihl, who will become a co-owner of Deepwell. Deal previously operated Artisan Meat Share in Charleston and will once again put those skills to use.
“We really wanted to capitalize on Chef Craig’s skills as a butcher and with his charcuterie skills,” Kindred says. “He’s been our culinary director for years. We decided it’s time to get him some skin in the game and get him his own sort of project to work on. It’s really his skillset that drove Deepwell’s direction. It evolved as we were menu planning to take on a little bit of the Cajun/Creole kind of vibe.”
Deepwell is expected to open in late summer or early fall.
The approximately 4,000-square-foot restaurant will include an additional 1,500-square-foot covered patio, with seating for roughly 120 to 130 guests indoors and another 50 outside. An indoor-outdoor bar is expected to be one of the property’s signature features. Large operable windows will allow guests seated outside to access the same bar as those inside. Because the restaurant sits within Mooresville’s social district, customers will also be able to purchase drinks from the outdoor-facing bar and walk through downtown.
The building itself dates to the late 1800s and will help define the restaurant’s aesthetic.
“It’s got a little bit more of a traditional kind of feel,” Kindred says, as her Kindred Studio is undertaking the restaurant’s design. “It’s a little bit more traditional and sort of rustic than some of our other projects.”
For now, the Kindreds are balancing restoration and expansion simultaneously. If schedules hold, Davidson diners may see Kindred return around the same time Deepwell welcomes its first guests, marking the next chapter for a restaurant group navigating both an unexpected setback and a long-planned opening at once.
