THE RISE AND FALL OF THE EPICENTRE
Until a few years ago, Afshin Ghazi’s nightlife hub was the place to be in Charlotte. But the good times quickly faded with financial troubles, increasing violence, COVID, and today, foreclosure. What happened, and what’s next? 
BY ELY PORTILLO

THE 2022 BOB AWARDS
Our annual compendium of the Best of the Best in food, entertainment, shopping, and living.
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, ALLISON BRADEN, GREG LACOUR, AND ANDY SMITH

Darby Camp 
The Charlotte teen and rising Hollywood star IRL

The Kids Might Actually Be Alright
Are we overanalyzing and overmedicating normal teenage angst?

Tricks of the Trades
North Carolina’s first public trade high school trains the next generation of workers. For local companies, the students can’t graduate soon enough

EXIT STRATEGY
Exit 3A on I-277 is the most hated interchange in Charlotte. It won’t improve anytime soon

WHICH WAY DO WE GO? 
Charlotte officials have an ambitious blueprint for a “safe and equitable” transportation network—if they can find a way to pay for it

SECRETS OF THE ANTI-GRID
Historian Tom Hanchett answers some FAQs about Charlotte’s entropic street system

PLUS
GATEWAY TO GASTONIA
Gaston County officials are determined to build wealth for businesses and families—and kick its reputation as a local punchline

THE MOMO MOMS 
Six babies, three rare pregnancies, one unique bond

‘MY NAME IS OLIVIA’
A CMS division designed for a handful of students with physical disabilities brings teachers to them. Lately, the program has had to serve hundreds— including a surging number with mental illnesses

PLUS
BE A TOURIST IN YOUR OWN TOWN
Summer fun right under your nose

TOP DOCTORS
The annual list you can’t live without

SCREEN TIME
A cheat sheet for when—and how often—to get preventative exams

STREET EATS
Ditch the utensils and dig in: Some of Charlotte’s best cuisine is made to grab and go

PLUS
FROM REVOLUTION TO REVELATION
Sam Diminich’s journey to Cuba for “the most important meal I’ve ever cooked”

THE BOB AWARDS
We celebrate the Best of the Best in Charlotte this year—and 25 years of BOB Awards

PLUS
THE NODA THAT WAS
Painter Jerry Kirk keeps the memory of old, gritty NoDa alive. What’s it say about Charlotte that something so recent feels like ancient history

GIMME SHELTER
On a limited budget, I tried to find a place to rent in Charlotte. What I found had sagging countertops, bedside stoves, and possible blood smudges on the wall

ALTERED STATES
Design trends to track in the post-pandemic age

PLUS
JUDY CARPENTER’S REGENERATION
She’s led a pioneer’s life— in business, philanthropy, trap shooting, economic development, and more. At 80, she’s found a new territory to explore

FOUR YEARS LATER ... Who We've Become
Local writers on the pandemic's lingering legacy

PLUS
HOME TOUGH
Fusing style and function in south Charlotte

THE LONG ROAD FROM STANLY TO STEPHEN
Louis Cato, a musical prodigy from Albemarle settles in at the helm of the Late Show band

LIFE, THERAPY, AND THE PURSUIT OF WELLNESS
12 Ways to Get Healthy in 2024

PLUS
THADDEUS JONES
The executive recruiter draws on a deep family history to push for diverse faces in high places

ACCESSORY TO FREEDOM
Farah Usmani sells scarves to help victims of domestic violence flee their abusers

WHAT IS CHARLOTTE CUISINE?
We asked five food-and-drink veterans how our palates have evolved from old guard to New Southern

50 BEST RESTAURANTS
Our annual list

DRY, NOT BORING
Eight mocktails for when you’re on a break from booze

SPILLING THE KOOL-AID 
A colorful group of stand-ups breaks the wall of Charlotte’s high-fructose comedy scene

CHARLOTTEANS OF THE YEAR
The people and institutions who make Charlotte better, in 2023 and beyond

NO COMPETITION
ESPN commentators Andraya Carter and Alyssa Lang celebrate every win

THE WINE ISSUE
With chef-inspired wine and appetizer pairings + Yadkin Valley vineyards

THE QUEEN'S WATERS
The natural waterways that quietly define our city 

THE LONG GREEN THREAD
The Little Sugar Creek Greenway is a streamside path that can take you from NoDa to Pineville and back again—and only on occasion reminds you of the booming city on either side

ROAD HOGS
It’s one of the city’s most coveted properties. But Neese’s Country Sausage has loaded delivery trucks from a little brick building here since the 1940s, and the family-run company intends to stay put

FALL TRAVEL: CARIBBEAN RESURGENCE
Eleuthera, Grand Cayman, and St. Barthélemy

SAVING OUR TREES
Charlotte still merits the title “City of Trees.” But as development downs more of them, city officials and conservationists work to plant seeds of new growth

The Art of Beer

THEIR CANVAS IS A CAN
Meet some of the designers who turn beer can labels into art.
BY GREG LACOUR

THE BABY MAKERS
Parents, surrogates, and professionals wade through the complexities of the booming surrogacy industry.
BY TESS ALLEN

‘IT DOESN’T GET MORE REAL THAN A HEARTBEAT.’
A growing therapy team at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital thinks music matters in patient care—and sometimes goes places that doctors can’t reach.
BY GREG LACOUR

TACO TIME 
Eighteen tacos—some traditional, some not—to try ASAP, and margaritas to wash them down 
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, AND GREG LACOUR

HUNGER PAINS 
Prices are high, and service is strapped. What does the strain on restaurant labor mean for Charlotte’s dining scene? 
BY TAYLOR BOWLERCLTCM

CATS ON THE GROUND
Our booming city needs reliable, affordable public transit more than ever. But our system has a shrinking fleet of poorly maintained buses, myriad operational issues, absent leadership—and no clear route to fix any of it.
BY TESS ALLEN

THE 2023 BOB AWARDS
Only the Best of the Best make our annual list
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, ALLISON BRADEN, AMANDA PAGLIARINI HOWARD, AND GREG LACOUR

NOBODY’S LAND
For potential homebuyers, some good news: The market has started to calm down. Some bad news: It’s settling in an expensive place.
BY GREG LACOUR

FOUNDATION WORK
A pair of builders and frat brothers install charitable giving in their custom homes.
BY TAYLOR BOWLER

EXCUSE US, WE’RE SPEAKING
10 women and the hills we climb.
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, ALLISON BRADEN, KATHLEEN PURVIS, AND CARROLL WALTON

HERE COMES THE SUN 
Three destinations with nonstop service for your next girls getaway.
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, AND JENN RICE

CHARLOTTE HAS AN ARTS PROBLEM
A variety of factors keeps the city’s arts scene mired in a self-perpetuating cycle of mediocrity. What will it take to come unstuck? 
BY ALLISON BRADEN

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? Once, Charlotte was run by a group of civic-minded business leaders who transformed a small city into a national player. But they’ve stepped aside, and the city has become a Babel of atomized and often conflicting interests. This is how it happened.
BY JIM MORRILL

50 BEST RESTAURANTS
Plus trends from neighborhoods throughout the city.

50 BEST RESTAURANTS
Places throughout the city that reward your investment in Going Somewhere to Eat
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, AND GREG LACOUR

CHARLOTTEANS OF THE YEAR
They saw new trails through 2022 
BY TESS ALLEN, TAYLOR BOWLER, ALLISON BRADEN, AND GREG LACOUR

CHRISTOPHER WARRENGREEN.

GUIDED GIVING
Seven local store owners share their favorite, bestselling, and giftworthiest goods..
BY TESS ALLEN

KEEP CALM AND EAT DOUGHNUTS
When food writer Kathleen Purvis moved to Charlotte in 1985, a fancy breakfast meant butter on grits. 
BY KATHLEEN PURVIS

CRY US A RIVER
Jokes aside, I-277 is one of the worst mistakes in Charlotte history. What would have to happen to make it disappear?

SLAP SHOTS & ELVIS & BAD GUYS & JESUS 
If ever the marquee of a performance venue could capture the contradictory, heat-struck culture of 1970s Charlotte, this was surely it. 
BY GAVIN EDWARDS

In Memoriam 
Longtime Observer reporter and rail enthusiast Jim Wrinn lived his dream on the tracks.

A FAMILY-FRIENDLY GUIDE TO FALL 
Concerts, Halloween events, fruits on trees, and other ways to welcome a less restricted autumn.
BY GREG LACOUR

SCENES FROM A RECLAMATION
A Concord couple restores “the ugliest” 1900s mill home and documents the hair-raising project on TikTok.
BY TAYLOR BOWLER

UNDER THE HOOD
Before you even take a swig, quality control pros drop science into what flows out of the tap.
BY GREG LACOUR

BEER BRACKET
Our beer competition returns for its third year. Here are the beers you picked as the city’s best.
BY ANDY SMITH

CARE IN CHAOS
Atrium’s Dr. David Callaway on helping Ukraine war refugees and the value of risk

THE BUZZ
Life Lessons
Dr. Ashley Dawson overcame childhood poverty and systemic obstacles to open her own dental practice with a focus on giving back

THE GOOD LIFE
Weekender
Untamed beaches and boatloads of fresh seafood in North Carolina’s

FOOD + DRINK
Now Open
Introducing Yunta, where the cuisine spans the Paci�c and surprises

DRINKS WELL WITH OTHERS
At The Cocktailery, Tamu Curtis lives every hour like it’s happy hour.
BY TAYLOR BOWLER

THEIR HEARTS OUT
Four of Charlotte’s leading mixologists on the cocktails that mean the most to them, and how they worked their personalities into the mix.
BY GREG LACOUR

CALL OF THE ’BURBS
People think of Charlotte’s urban core as the hot area for apartments, but developers increasingly head toward the I-485 loop—and beyond.
BY GREG LACOUR

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
In 2021, Charlotte appointed Priya Sircar as its first arts and culture officer and assembled a board to distribute funding and develop a long-range plan. Could the move help turn Charlotte into a cultural destination? 
BY ALLISON BRADEN

September 2024

August 2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

December 2023

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

July 2023

June 2023

Charlotte magazine is filled with timely, well-written features and resources to help readers satisfy their lifestyle-driven needs. Readers rely on Charlotte magazine for information to enhance their modern lifestyles while getting the best out of what our city has to offer. In every issue, readers find information on the people, places, and trends that define Charlotte.

1. You agree that the use of Magzter.com, the application and its services, are at solely at your own risk. Neither Magzter.com nor its associates nor employees nor third party content providers guarantee that the service will be completely uninterrupted or error-free or foolproof against miscreant activities. Nor do they warranty that you will get the exact results as expected or promised by the website or product.

11. THE SERVICE AND ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' AND 'AS AVAILABLE' BASIS. MAGZTER, ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS AND AGENTS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER MAGZTER NOR ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS OR AGENTS, MAKES ANY WARRANTY THAT (I) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (II) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (III) THE INFORMATION THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR THAT MAY BE CONTAINED IN THE PUBLICATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (IV) THE QUALITY OF ANY PUBLICATIONS OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY AND YOUR DEVICE. MAGZTER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INABILITY TO DOWNLOAD CONTENT. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR MOBILE DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MAGZTER OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

2. You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

2.You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

3. In no event will Magzter.com or any person or entity or third party involved in the creation, production and distribution of the content on the website and the application be liable in contract or legally for any damages, including and not limited to, direct, indirect, incidental, special, and consequential incurred to you while or on using Magzter.com. By registering on the website or downloading the application, you agree that the provisions mentioned in this section shall apply to all use of and content on the website and the application.

3. Without prior written or authorised permission from Magzter, you should not modify, copy, distribute or sell any content obtained from Magzter as everything published here is the proprietary property of Magzter or its licensors. As such unauthorised use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws, Magzter strictly prohibits these and will terminate your access and account if any such illegal activity is proved or detected. You should also stand liable for the damages caused by these unauthorised activities. Except as permitted by the Publication's lawful owner, you acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading Publications accessed through the Service. Except as explicitly required under copyright law or permitted by the features of the Service you may not modify, reverse engineer, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works of, or in any way commercially exploit or provide to a third party the content of the App, the Publications, or any portion of them without the express permission of Magzter and the owner of such content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Magzter or Magzter's licensors.

5. You specifically acknowledge that Magzter.com is not liable for any kind of defamatory or offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties or their content and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

8. Magzter reserves all rights to monitor the content published and inputted by you for the purpose of determining whether you are compliant with these terms and conditions and other operating rules determined by Magzter. Magzter has the right to take decisions about the content and delete them at its own will.

9. Magzter is a distributor and NOT a publisher of the Publications and so Magzter has no editorial control over the content, including opinions, advice, statements, services, offers etc., that is represented in the magazines. So Magzter will not take responsibility for the accuracy or the reliability for any information or facts provided therein or that is made available through the service, by anyone other than authorised Magzter employees who are acting on their official capacities. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered by the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of Magzter. Magzter will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Service or from the Publications. The Service may contain links to other Internet sites and third-party resources and Magzter does not assume any responsibility or liability for communications or materials available at such linked sites. These links are provided for your convenience only. You are solely responsible for understanding any terms and conditions that may apply when you visit or place an order through a third-party site.

Choose your favorite titles from 40+ exciting categories

Details of the objectionable content, including its link on our platform

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}} best-selling international titles.

Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Magzter has crossed 80 million users since its inception in 2011 from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.

In the event that you encounter any objectionable content on our platform, we have put in place a grievance redressal policy to address your concerns.

Magzter Inc. (“Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. Please read the following privacy policy (the “Policy”) to learn more about our privacy practices. By visiting any of the websites operated by the Company, and any sub-domains thereof, or using any of our mobile applications and other methods of content distribution (collectively, the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Magzter Inc. is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 80 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Magzter is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. Please note that Magzter is merely a platform for publishers to distribute their content. We do not control or endorse the content published on our platform. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our publishers or their content.

Magzter is not responsible for compensating any party that has suffered damages or incurred costs due to any content, or part of the content, that violates their rights. Magzter is not liable to face any legal action in civil court for any violation of rights caused by any content, or part of the content, that infringes the rights of a third party.

Magzter offers the world’s largest {{allyoucanread}} subscription service called {{gold}} which gives digital readers unlimited access to 9,000+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Magzter offers the world’s largest “All-You-Can-Read” subscription service called Magzter GOLD which gives digital readers unlimited access to 9,000+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Name

Note: This will only share the cover and the publication information, but not the content.

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below:

The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.

This Policy covers Company’s treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information about you and your computer or device that Company gathers when you are accessing the Service. We may collect Personal Information from you, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our products, services, content, and advertising, and to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described in point 4.

This title is included with your Magzter GOLD subscription

To analyze the quality of content and provide appropriate feedback to publishers

We have designated a Grievance Officer to address any complaints related to objectionable content.

We request that any complaint related to objectionable content be sent to the Grievance Officer through email to the above-mentioned email address. We also request that you provide the following details when making a complaint:

and the App that provides you the capability to order, subscribe to and receive the delivery of various magazines, books, news and magazine and publication related content (collectively known as 'Publications') and to have these digital versions of the Publications delivered to you

c. We also collect information associated with your use of the application in order to make personalized recommendations. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to the Service is covered by this Policy.

f. The Personal Information we collect allows us to respond to your requests, improve our products and services, customize the advertising and content you see, and communicate with you about new products.

is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

n. We will also use usage information in order to ensure users adhere to our Terms of Use. For example, a user’s usage information will help us confirm that a user only downloads a magazine or other content a permitted number of times or to a permitted number of devices.

which gives digital readers unlimited access to 9,000+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

{{magzter}} is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Charlotte Magazine - May 2022

Charlotte Magazine - May 2022

In this issue

Charlotte Magazine Description: