Each time regular customers return to Bonterra Dining and Wine Room, they are sure to recognize someone on staff, and someone is sure to recognize them. That’s in part thanks to the long tenures of the restaurant’s staff: three of them have been working at the restaurant for all 22 years of its operation, while several others have been there for nearly as long. 

More than two decades ago, on December 16, 1999, Bonterra opened its historic church doors to Charlotte diners.

“Customer relationships are the key ingredient,” owner J.D. Duncan says when asked about the restaurant’s staying power. “We have built our base, and we know them. We know what they like to drink and eat and where they like to sit. We have a Cheers-like atmosphere in a fine dining setting.”

The return to fine dining has been a welcome one. Duncan recalls being “forced into to-go” in March 2020. Still, he would never UberEats a $40 lobster tail or expect a precisely prepared filet to remain that way in transit, so he pivoted: burgers and chicken sandwiches in the most affordable (not to mention available) containers they could find with amped up wine sales from Bonterra’s distinguished cellar. Duncan also invested in new furniture and plantings to enhance the al fresco patio option for guests hesitant to eat indoors. On weekends, the Bonterra crew made special deliveries for special guests’ special occasions. 

These days, Bonterra is as busy as it always has been. Still, Duncan hopes large groups will remember to call on the restaurant for onsite wedding events and corporate lunches, which helped sustain the restaurant pre-pandemic. 

“I also hope patrons will try to understand why menu prices are rising,” he says. The staff spends several additional hours each week price-hunting to keep costs down; however, many factors at play are out of Duncan’s control: a glass shortage hurts wine pricing, transportation’s high fuel costs make meat approximately 30 percent more expensive, and what was a $12 hourly wage is now around $20.  

While operating during the pandemic has been difficult, Bonterra’s hallowed halls remain upright.

“My father once told me that cash is king,” Duncan says. “If you can remain ready for the unexpected, your establishment can survive. Someone might report food poisoning or prejudice, and then your restaurant makes the news. That can be devastating. You never know what could happen, so you have to be prepared and fluid.” This advice has held through 2001 when corporate lunch and dinner business took a hit due to 9/11 as fewer traveled to the city, again when the economic crisis hit in 2008, and still today as Duncan leads Bonterra through the pandemic to the other side. 

Global Restaurant & Bar, located in downtown Pineville, has also been able to survive and build upon its more than fifteen year existence, thanks to regulars and creative solutions. Opened on June 12, 2006, the restaurant serves globally-inspired seasonal cuisine, cocktails, and wine. Shannon Brunet, Global co-owner, agrees with Duncan that it is the customers who have helped them persist. Even when the restaurant moved out of an overlooked, tucked away location into its present day 1923 historic landmark — and toughed out the yearlong renovation that was supposed to be completed in half the time — Global’s regulars followed them from Ballantyne.

“It’s been blood, sweat, and tears, but we knew we wanted to own the next location,” Brunet says. “We also were able to expose the original building’s brick walls and cedar rafters that were hidden away.” Customers who have become regulars in more recent years are also helping them endure. 

As with any unforeseen circumstance, there have been losses. Brunet says at Global, those losses have been primarily profits and staff. “We are a very small, family-like team here,” says Brunet. “We lost around five or so staff members. They simply couldn’t wait this out. Now we are bare bones.”

Like Bonterra, however, Global is recovering. “Everyone goes the extra mile,” Brunet says. “I don’t like to say our staff work for us. They work with us.”

The team even held Zoom brainstorming sessions in 2020. “We had to get creative due to increased costs, without damaging our product,” Brunet explains. That creativity came in the form of cocktail kits, wines-to-go at retail price, a makeshift drive-through (still an option for those less inclined to dine in), and adapting Chef Bernard Brunet’s French-trained culinary style for an era of takeout. 

If the Charlotte community wants to help curb the slow fade of beloved restaurants like Bonterra and Global, they can offer support in many ways. “One customer came in and bought $500 worth of gift cards last year,” Brunet recalls. There is also word-of-mouth recommendations. “It’s important that diners remind each other to frequent the local mom-and-pop restaurants, as they don’t have the cash reserves that some of the larger franchises do.”

“You have these big dreams when you open a restaurant, but sometimes you have to step back and adapt,” Brunet says. For instance, she and son Xavier, the restaurant’s third co-owner, had to convince her husband — the restaurant’s executive chef — to offer more of a bar bites style menu for a time. Turns out the grass-fed gourmet burger was such a hit, it’s a mainstay on the menu even today. It will likely still be there even when the pandemic subsides, as will establishments like Duncan’s and Brunet’s — thanks to their business savvy and loyal patrons. 

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