The Official Charlotte, NC Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Towlie
- Start date
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
I keep seeing ads for a bunch of things coming or a lot of people working on things..... he's to hoping the virus dont ruin it
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Same here bro. I was just getting back used to seeing the city packed. Traffic was crazy last Saturday! Any of y’all hitting up QC Fest today?
KyokushinKarateMan
Train hard, fight easy
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Man….. I chilling today…. I need to stay low, cut back on some of my spending, and recover from this gym injury.
I start a new job on the 24th so I gotta relax
Other than get some food I’m staying at the crib
I want to check out this place called Snooze or something like that…. Let me find the IG
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Yep I need to go. Thanks for the motivation
Blueberry Pancakes/French Toast/Crepes are my favorite breakfast items.... so I'm definitely going today
At Charlotte's Black-owned restaurants, pandemic challenges persist - Q City Metro
At Charlotte’s Black-owned restaurants, pandemic challenges persist
Owners say they continue to struggle with worker shortages, higher food prices and a loss of customers.
Sharon and Cliff Freshwater said getting customers to return since the Covid-19 pandemic has been a struggle. (Photo: Jalon Hill for QCity Metro)
By Jalon Hill
August 10, 2021
“Bear with me. I’ll be with you in a minute,” Sharon Freshwater, co-owner of Freshwaters Restaurant, said as new customers walked through the door.
As a pandemic-related labor shortage drags on, Freshwater and her husband, Cliff Freshwater, are working as a two-person staff to keep their business afloat. While Sharon serves customers in the dining room, her husband cooks food in the kitchen.
At Lulu’s Maryland Style Chicken and Seafood, known for its signature crab cakes, co-owner Joseph “Jay” Davis is wrestling with another pandemic-related problem — sporadic shortages of meat.
As the spread of Covid-19 enters a troubling new phase with the rise of the more contagious Delta variant, some of Charlotte’s most prominent Black-owned restaurants are still reeling from the fit wave of the pandemic.
In addition to struggling with food and labor shortages, some owners, like Sharon and Cliff Freshwater, said customers have been slow to return.
“It’s been a struggle,” Sharon Freshwater told QCity Metro during a recent interview. “We’re still working on getting people back out to the restaurant. We’re running specials, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”
Jay Davis and Miketa Proctor, co-owners of LuLu’s LuLu’s Maryland-Style Chicken and Seafood Restaurant. Photo: Alvin C. Jacobs
In late March, Datassentail, a Chicago research firm that tracks the food industry, reported that 10 percent of all U.S. restaurants had closed permanently since the pandemic began. That included restaurants at all levels of service — from fine dining to fast food.
Especially hard hit were food trucks, the company reported, noting that 22.5% of the mobile restaurants nationwide are now off the road.
In Charlotte, among the Black restaurant owners interviewed by QCity Metro, nearly all cited labor shortages as being among their top concerns.
Andarrio Johnson, owner of Cuzzo’s Cuisine, speculated that enhanced unemployment benefits may be to blame, an opinion shared by more than a few employers, economists and conservative politicians.
“A lot of people make more money off of unemployment, so they feel like they could stay home and make unemployment money instead of working,” Johnson said. “That was our problem.”
To blunt the economic impact of Covid-19, the U.S. Congress approved an aid package that included enhanced benefits for laid-off workers. Those benefits, which total an extra $300 a week, are set to expire Sept. 6.
In North Carolina, the minimum cash wage for workers who receive tips is $2.13 an hour.
One of Charlotte’s most noted Black-owned restaurants, Leah & Louise, announced in June that it would begin adding a 23% service charge to all bills as part of a larger plan to provide its workers with a livable wage.
Greg and Subrina Collier. Photo: Peter Taylor
“There’s been a lot of conversation about how to change the hospitality industry,” co-owner Greg Collier said in a statement when the service charge was announced. “We want to make sure our staff is treated as well as we treat our guests. We can’t be in the service industry and only serve ownership.”
At Bobbee O’s BBQ, the pain is less about staffing and more about the rising cost of meat, said Chloria Chandler, the restaurant’s marketing manager.
“In certain months, we had our sales slightly increase from the year before, then the food price doubled,” she said. “It’s just a situation like even when your numbers are good, they really weren’t.”
Chandler said that these food hikes affected sales, leading Bobbee O’s to raise the price on some of its menu items.
Roy Grant, co-owner and founder of Roy’s Kitchen and Patio, said economic problems brought on by the pandemic have caused “a lot of challenges.”
The Caribbean restaurant, which once opened at 11 a.m., has been forced to limit its hours because of worker shortages and higher operating costs. That also has meant more hands-on work for the owners.
“We try to work with what we have,” Grant said. “Some days we don’t open up until four o’clock in the evening because of the staff.”
At Charlotte’s Black-owned restaurants, pandemic challenges persist
Owners say they continue to struggle with worker shortages, higher food prices and a loss of customers.
Sharon and Cliff Freshwater said getting customers to return since the Covid-19 pandemic has been a struggle. (Photo: Jalon Hill for QCity Metro)
By Jalon Hill
August 10, 2021
“Bear with me. I’ll be with you in a minute,” Sharon Freshwater, co-owner of Freshwaters Restaurant, said as new customers walked through the door.
As a pandemic-related labor shortage drags on, Freshwater and her husband, Cliff Freshwater, are working as a two-person staff to keep their business afloat. While Sharon serves customers in the dining room, her husband cooks food in the kitchen.
At Lulu’s Maryland Style Chicken and Seafood, known for its signature crab cakes, co-owner Joseph “Jay” Davis is wrestling with another pandemic-related problem — sporadic shortages of meat.
As the spread of Covid-19 enters a troubling new phase with the rise of the more contagious Delta variant, some of Charlotte’s most prominent Black-owned restaurants are still reeling from the fit wave of the pandemic.
In addition to struggling with food and labor shortages, some owners, like Sharon and Cliff Freshwater, said customers have been slow to return.
“It’s been a struggle,” Sharon Freshwater told QCity Metro during a recent interview. “We’re still working on getting people back out to the restaurant. We’re running specials, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”
Jay Davis and Miketa Proctor, co-owners of LuLu’s LuLu’s Maryland-Style Chicken and Seafood Restaurant. Photo: Alvin C. Jacobs
In late March, Datassentail, a Chicago research firm that tracks the food industry, reported that 10 percent of all U.S. restaurants had closed permanently since the pandemic began. That included restaurants at all levels of service — from fine dining to fast food.
Especially hard hit were food trucks, the company reported, noting that 22.5% of the mobile restaurants nationwide are now off the road.
In Charlotte, among the Black restaurant owners interviewed by QCity Metro, nearly all cited labor shortages as being among their top concerns.
Andarrio Johnson, owner of Cuzzo’s Cuisine, speculated that enhanced unemployment benefits may be to blame, an opinion shared by more than a few employers, economists and conservative politicians.
“A lot of people make more money off of unemployment, so they feel like they could stay home and make unemployment money instead of working,” Johnson said. “That was our problem.”
To blunt the economic impact of Covid-19, the U.S. Congress approved an aid package that included enhanced benefits for laid-off workers. Those benefits, which total an extra $300 a week, are set to expire Sept. 6.
In North Carolina, the minimum cash wage for workers who receive tips is $2.13 an hour.
One of Charlotte’s most noted Black-owned restaurants, Leah & Louise, announced in June that it would begin adding a 23% service charge to all bills as part of a larger plan to provide its workers with a livable wage.
Greg and Subrina Collier. Photo: Peter Taylor
“There’s been a lot of conversation about how to change the hospitality industry,” co-owner Greg Collier said in a statement when the service charge was announced. “We want to make sure our staff is treated as well as we treat our guests. We can’t be in the service industry and only serve ownership.”
At Bobbee O’s BBQ, the pain is less about staffing and more about the rising cost of meat, said Chloria Chandler, the restaurant’s marketing manager.
“In certain months, we had our sales slightly increase from the year before, then the food price doubled,” she said. “It’s just a situation like even when your numbers are good, they really weren’t.”
Chandler said that these food hikes affected sales, leading Bobbee O’s to raise the price on some of its menu items.
Roy Grant, co-owner and founder of Roy’s Kitchen and Patio, said economic problems brought on by the pandemic have caused “a lot of challenges.”
The Caribbean restaurant, which once opened at 11 a.m., has been forced to limit its hours because of worker shortages and higher operating costs. That also has meant more hands-on work for the owners.
“We try to work with what we have,” Grant said. “Some days we don’t open up until four o’clock in the evening because of the staff.”
Concord now has over 100,000 people and is the 10th largest city in NC
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRNrsMfU/
I can go get me a chopped cheese in Charlotte now. Lol. I might have to check it out
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I can go get me a chopped cheese in Charlotte now. Lol. I might have to check it out
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Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Well damn!!!!
Mecklenberg needs to stop playing and go head and acquire Concord now though
After that Fort Mill
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
I believe it. I live here and it’s out of control lol. All these damn people smh
thatrapsfan
Superstar
Y’all got a dope city, been here visiting family for about two weeks. Very livable place and doesn’t seem like there’s too much sprawl so still easy to get around.