Time to catch up. Here’s what’s new on the dining and retail scenes around Charlotte. Sign up for our newsletter to get more restaurant and shopping news each week.
explore
Discovery Place Nature (pictured above) is rebranding as Charlotte Museum of Nature. The museum at Freedom Park held a topping out ceremony in December and is expected to open in 2026. See more renderings of the new museum here.
shop
Laguna Beach, California, jewelry brand gorjana is opening a store in Center Court at SouthPark Mall. gorjana sells everyday and fine jewelry and has more than 90 stores in 20 states.
eat/drink
Pastry Chef Sam Allen, Blinder’s Sports Lounge, Salted Melon Market & Eatery, Mazi
Charlotte’s Bottle Cap Group (Whiskey Warehouse, Brazwell’s, Ink & Ivy) is reviving Nickyo’s Rodeo, a western-themed restaurant and karaoke bar in Eastover from 1985 to 1994. Nickyo’s will open this spring at 120 W. Bland St. in South End. The 8,600-square-foot restaurant will have an indoor stage, DJ booth and a courtyard. υPastry Chef Sam Allen, previously of Wentworth & Fenn at Camp North End, has joined L’Ostrica. Salted Melon Market & Eatery, which had a holiday pop-up market at Phillips Place, will open a permanent location at the shopping center this spring. Mazi, a new Mediterranean-inspired restaurant from Built on Hospitality (The Goodyear House, Chief’s, Folia) opened in South End. Blinder’s Sports Lounge opened in South End.
southern comfort
Dogwood Southern Table & Bar reopened at the Westin Charlotte. The contemporary southern-comfort-food restaurant serves lunch, dinner and “in-between and late-night” snacks seven days a week. It’s all part of a $25 million renovation at the uptown hotel.
“We’re ecstatic that Dogwood is coming out of retirement, and even more ecstatic with the grandeur that comes with it being a part of The Westin’s upfit,” says Rare Roots Hospitality Group co-owner Jon Dressler.
Dogwood was a stalwart in SouthPark’s Sharon Square for almost a decade from 2014-23. Former Dogwood favorites reappear on the menu, including: Duck and Dumplings (confit duck, pickled mirepoix and house dumplings), Hushpuppies, Oysters (charbroiled or on the half shell), and Baked Pimento Cheese Bites with tomato jam.
New menu items range from a Pork Shank with roasted vegetables, winter spices and pork jus to a Crispy Carolina Catfish with maque choux and chow chow. On the snack menu available between lunch and dinner, guests can sample Dogwood’s Bacon Jam, the pimento bites, wings, salads and a hot roast beef sandwich.
Light, open and airy, the large dining room is lined with cozy booths and conversational seating areas. Floor-to-ceiling windows deliver unobstructed views of College Street and Brooklyn Village Avenue. A grand horseshoe-shaped bar is central to the action and certain to attract the after-work crowd. — Michael J. Solender. SP
Featured image: Courtesy Charlotte Museum of Nature
Other images: Photographs courtesy gorjana; Mazi, Built On Hospitality; Sam Allen; Salted Melon Market & Eatery; Blinder’s Sports Lounge; The Plaid Penguin
