by Kristen Wile

Longtime Selwyn Avenue brunch spot littleSpoon has closed its doors. Owned by Alesha Stegemeyer, littleSpoon served brunch in a high-energy, high-personality space with plenty of natural light and popular patio seating. The menu included brunch staples such as sandwiches and avocado toast, as well as a variety of flavorful, chef-driven items. Opening in July of 2014, the restaurant celebrated its 10-year anniversary this month. Over the past year, however, Stegemeyer has found herself more often in South Florida, making operations difficult to manage.

littleSpoon’s decade-long tenure in Myers Park also saw a significant shift in dining, both in Charlotte’s restaurant landscape and in the costs of running a restaurant. Stegemeyer says she’s looking forward to not having a constant worry of what could go wrong, such as power outages causing thousands of dollars in food loss — something that often happens in Charlotte’s older neighborhoods — or equipment issues.

“You really have to want to be there nights, weekends and holidays, and I think what people don’t realize in general is things break all the time,” she says. “That’s something that a lot of people in the industry don’t talk about with our guests or just in general, but equipment breaks constantly. So you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

On littleSpoon’s last day of service on Sunday, regulars and industry colleagues stopped in to say farewell. This week, Stegemeyer will be in the space clearing out inventory for the next tenant. When she closes the doors for the last time, she’ll be closing the doors on the restaurant industry, as well.

“It’s a fickle business and I am thrilled and really proud that I was able to do it and I’m proud of littleSpoon and everything that we set out to accomplish,” she says, “but I’m so excited to get out.”

We spoke to Stegemeyer about the restaurant’s legacy, closure, and how Charlotte has changed in the past decade. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Unpretentious Palate: Why did you decide to close the restaurant?
Alesha Stegemeyer: It’s a combination of a lot of different things. I’m not in Charlotte as often as I used to be; we used to live here full time. It’s very difficult to manage and run from afar. On a personal level, I’m ready for a new adventure, a new challenge, something different. It was an asset sale, so I’m actually not sure who’s going into the space. We still had 3 to 4 years on the lease, but the way it worked out, everything kind of fell into line the way it was supposed to. It was the right choice for me and our family. Ultimately, restaurants need to be redone every couple of years and we just didn’t want to redo littleSpoon a third time and stay open. The landscape has changed a ton, too. And then the cost, it’s much harder as an independent to stay up and running.

UP: When did you first start thinking about the idea of possibly closing? Was there a specific moment?
AS: It’s always a conversation with any business — it’s always a conversation as to when we’re ready. We’ve been talking about it for the last year-and-a-half, two years. It takes time to find a buyer and with a mixed use space, we don’t own that space. The landlord has to approve the buyer and all of those things. We had a couple of different groups come through wanting to take over the space, but it didn’t really work out and we finally got one that everyone agreed on.

We’ve been actively working on it for like a year, but I think honestly with us moving down to Miami, we started with six months there, six months here, and then it was nine months there and three months here. Now we just keep a place there and I come up for a week or two here and there with my dog, because my husband Kyle is still at the bank here. When I realized my life was going to be more focused in South Florida, it just made sense to start a new chapter and move forward with selling the restaurant.

UP: Do you foresee restaurants being in your future in any way, or is this closing the chapter on that?
AS: No, it’s closing the chapter on that. I started the project 11 years ago with the build-out and construction. I moved to Charlotte this month 11 years ago; we signed the lease in August of that year (2013). It was a year-long build-out because it really was a retail space before. We opened I think July 17, 2014. We’ve had such great times. The first five or six years were great, and then the pandemic happened and that was crazy, and I think I lost my luster for it. You really have to love it. You really have to love the business and the industry, and I just wasn’t loving it as much as I used to.

But no, no more restaurants for me in the future. I think I’ve checked that box and now I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, to be honest.

UP: What changes have you seen in the Charlotte dining scene in the past 10 years?
AS: When littleSpoon first opened, we were the first breakfast restaurant — or actually restaurant at all— to play hip hop, if you can imagine that, considering the music and everything that’s going on now. The scene is significantly different. 10 years ago, there wasn’t a South End as we know it. Obviously, there is the influx of new people in Charlotte’s growing so much, but I do notice it’s kind of going back to the trend where there are a lot of corporate restaurants happening again. That’s happening just because the cost of owning a restaurant and operating a restaurant is astronomical these days.

I think the one thing that stayed relatively consistent in Charlotte is that it’s really not a city where people go out to eat five nights a week. In New York or even Miami, even if it’s just a big tourism scene, people go out to eat so much more than they do here. And I think that’s really difficult when you have to basically make all of your money Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and you’ve got Monday through Wednesday that’s just sort of dead in the water.

But I’m excited for Charlotte and what’s going on here. There are lots of new options and lots of new faces. It’s been great, and Charlotte’s been really good to me. It’s crazy to see Charlotte change so much, honestly.

UP: Can you share a bit about how the costs of running a restaurant have shifted? Is it feasible to have an independent restaurant these days?
AS: It’s a struggle, honestly. When you take the food cost and then also your real estate cost — just your lease payment, your monthly rent — it’s crazy. Then, there is also the cost of employment plus all the taxes and everything else. It was a very slim margin to begin with. It’s not impossible, obviously people are doing it, but it’s very difficult. You really have to have all of your margins straight. Food costing is more important now than it’s ever been. Truthfully, I’m really excited to get out.

I feel like it was the right time and things are just getting more expensive, unfortunately. They’re not giving these restaurant spaces away. And sometimes the cost of the real estate, it just doesn’t make sense. You really need to get into a good lease. It can be done, definitely, but if someone asked me if I recommended owning a restaurant, I would say no.

What do you hope the legacy of littleSpoon is?
AS: Honestly, I think it’s the people that we met. We were the first job for a lot of kids in Myers Park, the kids in the neighborhood. I remember when Ryan Allen came in and started working for us, like he’s still, he’s still family to me, and Joe (Silvano, littleSpoon kitchen/front-of-house manager), and everyone else. It’s definitely the employees that I’ve been able to mentor and become friends with. It’s the people — all of our regulars that have been coming in for years and continued to come in, even through covid. That’s the biggest impact. It’s the people that we, we got to know and became family.