October 17, 2025
Napa on Providence goes back to its roots
The longtime Myers Park spot is refocusing on small plates paired with wine
by Michelle Boudin
Napa on Providence calls itself “your friendly neighborhood restaurant with a serious wine obsession,” and the beloved Myers Park staple just went old school.
Aimee Larson is the President of the Conway Group, the restaurant group that owns Napa in Myers Park and its three sister locations. Charlotteans may know owners Jeff and Paula Conway from the Ruth’s Chris chain — the couple brought its first location to the area with Ruth’s Chris South Park back in 2005, later opening the Uptown location. They have since sold those restaurants to focus on the Napa brand. Larson says in order to keep diners coming in, she can’t ignore the trends they’re seeing at the restaurant. That’s why she and her team just launched a revamped menu with an emphasis on small plates over entrees, similar to the way things were when the first Napa opened in 2012.
“This has been a very challenging season for restaurants in Charlotte,” Larson says. “We’ve seen so many closings happen. I hate it when I see the headlines that another locally owned restaurant has made the difficult decision to close their doors. It breaks my heart and it’s stressful. Our sales have been very soft so we did a lot of investigating into the market and what we noticed drove us to change our menu structure.”
She believes the economy and a recent surge in diet drugs means people are eating out less and simply eating less when they are eating out. Larson also says millennials want more of the experiential type dining that comes from unique flavor profiles and more small plate offerings.
“They’re the largest generation eating out right now and they don’t want to be limited to the old-fashioned, this is my entrée, this is my plate, this is all I get,” she says. “They are very much more attracted to having the experience of being able to try different things and have it be more of an adventure.”
Napa executive chef David Sears says opening their newest spot in Raleigh this spring was a real eye opener for the Napa team.
“We opened up Glenwood property in Raleigh and we saw that 90 percent of the patrons were all ordering the small plates,” he says. “It was kind of that aha moment that this is what we should be doing; this is what the guest wants.”
Larson points out that’s what much of the competition is doing as well.
“When you look at all of the restaurants that are in the Charlotte area that are really kind of making a name for themselves, they’re all doing a small plate concept.”
But Sears makes it clear, they’re not doing tapas and wine is still their guiding force. “We want to be able to give you some diversity in what you’re eating and unlike most restaurants where they think of the menu and then they think of the wines, we think of the wines first and then think of what food is going to pair best with the wine that we have in house,” he says. “That’s kind of our foundation and that’s our thought process as we try to build out our menu seasonally.”
The style of the food remains the same, focusing on contemporary American with a heavy Northern California influence. “So that’s a lot of Mediterranean, a lot of French, a lot of North African or Spanish, and then we take into consideration that California is right there next to the Pacific islands as well as to Asia, so there’s a lot of Asian influence in there as well.”
In designing the new menu, Sears says he wanted to make sure the dishes were interesting enough to entice even foodies to leave their own cooking skills at home and have someone else make dinner.
“I am adamant that the things that we create here are not something that you can replicate at home because during the pandemic everyone stayed home and everyone became a foodie — I’ve never seen so many people know how to make bread in my life,” he says laughing. “So what we’ve done is bring the food that people can relate to, but I also wanted to put things on this menu that people go, ‘this is unbelievable. I wish I knew how to make this, but it seems like this might be impossible for me to do,’ so it now requires you to come in and dine with us.”
One of the chef’s favorite new menu items are the bacon wrapped dates filled with linguiça sausage, manchego, watercress and lusty monk aioli. “It touches every aspect of your tongue and hits all the flavor profiles,” Sears says. The chef is also excited about the confit beets made with fresh figs, truffle walnut crema, picked mint and broken citrus vinaigrette. “We also brought in some Korean style short ribs but with North Carolina barbecue style.”
In addition to the new menu for all the Napa locations, the Myers Park restaurant recently welcomed Bradley McClain as general manager. Bradley is well-known in the Charlotte culinary community, most recently at Mano Bella in SouthPark as well as Peppervine, Ruth’s Chris, and Bruce Moffett’s Good Food on Montford, one of Charlotte’s original small plate concept restaurants.
“This feels great,” McClain says. “I started my career in Charlotte at Ruth’s Chris for [Napa owners] Jeff and Paul Conway so it feels like coming back to family for me, and I’ve lived near the Myers Park location for so long so I’m very familiar with it.”
Having recently added the fourth Napa location, Larson says they’re scouting additional locations but nothing is imminent. “We’re taking a breath. Two restaurants in six months was an adventure and we’d like to continue to grow but right now we’re putting our heads down and getting through this slow season.”
