by TM Petaccia

Jon Dressler has opened five dining concepts in the Charlotte area, so the name for his newest restaurant was obvious. “Chapter 6 is the sixth iteration in the book of restaurants for Rare Roots Hospitality,” he says.

Chapter 6 is Rare Roots’ first foray into South End, located adjacent to the Charlotte Rail Trail, next to Sycamore Brewing. The 240-capacity space of combined indoor/patio seating will open to the public Sept. 20.

“South End has been on our radar for several years,” Dressler says. “We looked at a couple of different locations, knowing that this is a vibrant, growing part of town, experiencing tremendous growth. We wanted to be a part of this scene.”

The restaurant’s focus will be on small and shareable plates highlighting the cuisines of the western Mediterranean, primarily the southern regions of Italy, France, and Spain, plus Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.

“We all felt like this region wasn’t represented in Charlotte,” says Rare Roots director of operations Tim Buchanan. We’ve also had a crazy amount of success with the small plates approach at Fin & Fino and wanted to bring that over to South End. We felt like it has the right vibe here.”

Rare Roots executive chef Scott Hollingsworth points to a fully collaborative approach in formulating the direction of the menu at Chapter 6. “It was all of us: me. Jon, Jonny, Tim, Brittany; all of us. We started with past experiences and what we like to eat. Then we went to Spain and Morroco. We looked at local and seasonal produce. Everything. Then we used the flavors from what we experienced over there combined with everything else and just went from there.”

Chef de Cuisine Jonny Cox will be adding CDC duties at Chapter 6 in addition to his current role at Fin & Fino. “For me, Chapter 6 is a way to showcase the flavors of the western Mediterranean through a Southern lens by using local farms,” he says. “It’s all about simplicity and freshness, showcasing the natural flavor of, say, a radish or a fish, and touching it as little as possible.”

One of the dishes will be Cox’s Spanish interpretation of Dover Sole — the fish is dusted with chickpea flour with clams, mussels, and squid, cooked with Cipollini onions, Calabrian chiles, capers, and lemon. It’s designed to be shared. “It’s a big seafood feast. It’s my favorite dish so far,” he says.

Diners can also expect to see a number of housemade pastas, sauces, and the use of ingredients such as octopus, lamb sausage, preserved lemon, mint, basil, and garlic. “It’s a total scratch kitchen,” Cox says. The concept is a table party will order one of the larger sharable plates and surround it with a couple of personal tapas items. The total cost is expected to be about $45-50/person.

Another Fin & Fino concept making its way to Chapter 6 is The Treatment – a chef’s choice omakase meal of 4-5 dishes with a part of the proceeds donated to a local nonprofit. “We’ve already lined up our first cause, Harvest Haul, which connects farms and excess produce to the food banks around town,” Buchanan says.

Brittany Kellum, who oversees the cocktail program at Fin & Fino, is also designing the program at Chapter 6, along with the new restaurant’s bar manager Kendon Corbett, most recently at Dogwood.

“Unlike Fin & Fino, we wanted this to be really intentional with a strong Mediterranean feel and vibe — light, refreshing, easy-drinking, and really approachable to everyone,” Kellum says. “I always try to make a menu that has something for everyone. Whether you’re a bourbon drinker, a rum drinker, a tequila drinker, or if you’re not really a drinker, we’ll have something everybody could appreciate and enjoy.”

Hilary Demmitt moves from wine director at Fin & Fino to the same post at Chapter 6. “My focus is keeping things as regionally focused as possible. It will all be old-world wines, mostly from Italy, France, and Spain. I’d say the list is 95% done.”

Non-alcoholic beverages will feature NA cocktails as well as teas representative of North Africa, such as Moroccan mint.

The general manager position will be filled by Ellis Lindsay, who comes to Chapter 6 after seven years at The Porter’s House. “It’s always exciting to be a part of a restaurant, this one in particular,” she says. So many creative people at work. It’s great to be part of the process.”

“Our management team is made up of all internal people,” Dressler says. We very rarely have to go outside the family to hire a management position.

“Our company philosophy is very simple. We don’t talk about making money. We don’t concentrate on making money. We concentrate on taking care of our guests and having fun. If we can do both of those things successfully, then the money comes along with it.”

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