by Michelle Boudin

Charlotte’s chefs have spent years growing and redefining the city’s restaurant scene. Around the country, business owners are noticing — and acting. While homegrown chefs have been building their own national reputations, a different trend has been taking shape alongside them: restaurant groups that already have a foothold in major cities like Miami, Los Angeles, and New York are choosing Charlotte as their next stop, making deliberate bets on where the industry is headed here.

French-inspired and New York-born cafe Maman, now with 60 locations across nine states, Canada, and D.C., opened three locations in Charlotte in just a matter of months. The New York based chef and co-owner of Zamindar’s, an “elevated Indian dining experience,” landed here roughly three months ago after two years of planning. And in Plaza Midwood, Austin-born sushi duo Uchi and Uchiba opened inside a converted, century-old textile factory, one of the most closely watched openings the city has seen in years.

“It’s always great to be in those larger market cities like we are in the Miamis and LAs of the world,” Uchi General manager David Fair says, “but where we truly feel like we can play a large role in growth is finding those communities that are wanting and seeking growth within their restaurant and service community, but don’t necessarily have all of the restaurants there yet. We love to be able to be on the ground floor and help the community and other larger restaurants realize that this area has that potential.”

Fair says the Uchi team decided to open in Charlotte two or three years ago, drawn by the same infrastructure that’s fueled the city’s broader growth: convention centers, the airport, and a steady stream of people passing through. But Fair is careful to credit the local chefs who did the groundwork before Uchi ever looked at the Queen City.

“You have some of these chefs and restaurateurs that have been here for a little while working toward creating that mark within the restaurant community – people like Chef Andres Kaifer, people like Chef Sam Hart,” he says. “Now you’re starting to see an integration of restaurant groups and independent restaurants coming from outside of the Carolinas, and it’s because of those efforts. Obviously Michelin and Top Chef had a large part to do with opening the community up to understand how evolving this restaurant scene is.”

Jon Dressler, who runs the family-owned Rare Roots Hospitality Group in Charlotte, sees the city’s appeal.

“The local Charlotte culinary scene has been expanding by leaps and bounds in the last ten years, which has certainly drawn the interest of out-of-town restaurants into our market as our population base continues to grow with a strong influx of new residents,” he says.

For an out-of-town brand with national name recognition, Fair says the challenge is fitting into a scene that already has its own momentum rather than steamrolling it. Uchi very intentionally did that, partnering with established local chefs before it ever opened its doors, hosting a run of pre-opening events including a pop-up at Emmy Lou’s, a ticketed Uchi/Counter- dinner, and a passed-appetizer event at In Town Golf.

“Before we enter any new market, we want to find a way to collaborate with the local chefs that we know have made a big impact,” Fair explains. “We had already had such an abundance of support even before opening our doors, based on the community and the connections we’ve been able to make across the country.”

The same instinct shaped the restaurant’s design. Uchi’s team worked to preserve the bones of the Plaza Midwood building it now occupies, a textile factory more than a century old.

“We really wanted to Uchify it, but not necessarily take away from the history of it,” Fair says. The private dining room’s cloth was made by a local artist, and the rest of the decor came from local antique shops. “Our design team works really closely with a lot of local vendors to make sure that we’re honoring where we come for each of our openings.”

That approach is paying off. Fair says the team was surprised by turnout in the first month, with weekend reservations booking up quickly even as the restaurant held back some walk-in space at its sushi and cocktail bars.

The owner of Zamindar’s, David Pandoria, lives in Charlotte, and convinced his New York based co-owner and executive chef Vamshi Krishna that the Queen City was ready for an upscale Indian restaurant. Krishna already operates three New York City-based restaurants.

“This has been a vision of mine for over ten years, to bring an elevated experience to Charlotte,” Pandoria says. “Now with the growth that we have in Charlotte, the city is expanding very quickly, and it’s actually one of the top cities in the U.S. It helps that there is a growing restaurant scene now with people expanding outside the normal cultural foods.”

Fair agrees, and is proud to be a part of the growing scene and expanded palates.

“It’s an immense sense of pride when you get to see how happy guests are,” Fair said. “Being able to step back and really gaze around the dining room and see the hustle and the bustle and the energy – that makes it really, really special.”

Maman also made a big splash right out of the gate, quickly opening not one but three locations around town.

“Charlotte is growing at an incredible rate which made it attractive from the start but the more time we spent here, the more we fell in love with the vibrant community — as an entire city but also unique to each neighborhood,” says Elisa Marshall, co-founder of Manan. “It has been a unique experience learning more about each area.”

Dressler welcomes the new additions to the scene he’s been part of for decades.

“The influx of restaurant concepts from other cities increases our national profile and gives the local diners more choices and variety,” he says. “It certainly will allow for the local owners to stay sharp and increase their levels of service, hospitality, and culinary offerings.”

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