Emeril Lagasse's uptown restaurant to close April 26

E2 Emeril's Eatery in uptown Charlotte will close April 26. 

The restaurant from celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse said on its Facebook page Wednesday morning that it'll maintain its normal hours for lunch, dinner and happy hour until its closure.  

"We will miss our many friends and partners in Charlotte who did so much to support us," the restaurant said in the post. 

Lagasse opened the restaurant located at 135 Levine Avenue of the Arts in early 2012. It offers a menu full of New Orleans-inspired American cuisine, as well as a gluten-free menu. 

"I have a strong connection to Johnson and Wales," Lagasse told WBTV in a 2012 interview."Also, I saw this spark happening in this community, a food spark, the farm to fork movement was really happening here and this is a place we all decided we should be."

Amélie's French Bakery to open South Charlotte site

Amélie's French Bakery will be opening its newest location in South Charlotte mid-March, a store employee told The Observer.

The new restaurant will be in Carmel Commons, which is across the street from Charlotte Catholic High School at the intersection of Carmel Road and Pineville-Matthews Road. Work on the 5,000 square-foot store began last fall.

Amélie's also has stores in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood as well as in Atlanta and Rock Hill. The NoDa location, the first Amélie's store that opened in 2008, is known for its quirky decor and round-the-clock hours. Travel site Scoutology.com recently rated the NoDa bakery No. 1 in North Carolina.

According to a Facebook post, the new restaurant will have a full kitchen and will serve wine, beer and crepes.

It'll "most likely" have hours similar to its Rock Hill and Atlanta stores, which are open Monday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., Thursday though Saturday from 7 a.m. until midnight and Sunday from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.

An exact date for the opening wasn't immediately available, but this blog will be updated as more information becomes available.

Interior of Amelie's in NoDa

Chop't to expand beyond Park Road Shopping Center

Chop't Creative Salad Company's newest location in Charlotte is just the first of many to come in North Carolina, according to co-founder Tony Shure.

Transplants to the city may recognized the Chop't name: the company's new Park Road Shopping Center restaurant, which Chop't said last week is slated to open this summer, will be its first location outside New York and the District of Columbia.

"We want to open a bunch in North Carolina," including in Raleigh and Durham, Shure said. Plans are also already underway, he added, to expand into uptown Charlotte.

After several trips to North Carolina to meet with investors, Shure said the state appealed for a number of reasons. 

"It seemed like everyone we met was wellness-minded, fitness minded – the way we all are nowadays," Shure said. "We're trying to make Chop't, and vegetable eating in general, just part of peoples' everyday lives. So we're looking for the most convenient places to be."

Though the Chop't menu may not look it, Shure describes the restaurant as fast-food. At the same time, he said, it's also a "full-blown culinary operation" that, for example, makes its own dressing and doesn't use sugar. 

"The efforts behind the food are the same as what happens with tablecloth restaurants," Shure said. "All the hard work goes on behind the scenes, but when the doors open, we're as ready for speed as McDonald's and Chick-fil-A are."

Shure describes Chick-fil-A, an undoubted local favorite, as the In-n-Out Burger of the Southeast. The way Chick-fil-A operates, especially its friendliness, is "inspiring," Shure said, but "we just have different points of view on food." 

"Why not have a bowl full of vegetables – crunchy, farm-fresh, locally sourced vegetables with really well-sourced, sustainably-raised proteins and homemade dressing? To me, that's a way to live," Shure said. 

Shure and co-founder Colin McCabe, who met at the University of Wisconsin as undergraduates, started Chop't in New York in 2001. 

Read more here: http://obswhatsinstore.blogspot.com/2015/02/popular-salad-spot-chopt-to-open-in.html#storylink=cpy

"This is a really big deal to us, to go to Charlotte," Shure said. "To us, it's the same thing as opening our first store on 17^th Street. We're putting everything we have into it, and we’re really excited about it."

Chop't is a fast food, full-blown culinary operation, says co-founder Tony Shure.