SouthPark Sit-down: Conrad Hunter
December 2, 2024
Changing his tune: The Charlotte native and longtime musician finds his true calling leading a thriving wine business.
by Natalie Dick | photographs by Richard Israel
Foxcroft Wine Co. is one of Charlotte’s hottest spots to grab a drink with friends or meet a client for happy hour. Founded in 2004, the cozy wine bar’s flagship location on Fairview Road buzzes nearly every night of the week. As a frequent customer, I thought I knew a thing or two about the place until I spent an afternoon with owner and founder Conrad Hunter.
High above the bar and scattered around the dimly lit restaurant hang portraits of legendary musicians. At first glance, you might not give them much thought. But there’s a story there — Hunter’s own story, of how a guy hell-bent on playing music for a living wound up at age 64 with an expanding wine bar and restaurant enterprise.
“An Australian friend of mine paints all the portraits. It’s a trend that started when he gave me the Elvis one as a good luck charm,” Hunter tells me as he points to a framed image of “The King” behind the bar. “Music got me early.”
“It’s interesting to look back on my time at Berklee,” recalls Hunter, who attended the Boston performing-arts college for a year with dreams of becoming a musician. “Some of my classmates were (now) famous people like guitarist Steve Vai, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, and musician Branford Marsalis.”
Top Right: House-made pastas at Foxcroft Wine Co. include the rigatoni, made with homemade sausage, tomato cream, tarragon and breadcrumbs.
Musical beginnings
Hunter is offbeat (pun intended) and irreverent, and he refers to himself as a proud contrarian. It’s a trait he developed in his youth when he discovered he was much better at playing music than sports.
As an only child of two working parents, Hunter jokes he was practically raised by a retired neighbor he called “Nanny” who babysat him. He attributes his early music exposure and influences to his caretaker’s teen children.
“Like most middle-class families in the ’60s, my parents made me take piano lessons,” he explains. “I wanted to take guitar lessons, but my arms couldn’t reach around a guitar, so I had to wait a few years. As I got older, I played drums, guitar, anything I could get my hands on.”
He started gigging with his first garage band at age 14. “We played all the biker bars in what is now LoSo,” he recalls. “Anytime the cops would show up, I got pushed out the back door because I was too young to be in there. As soon as they left, we’d pick up where we’d left off.”
A self-described nerd in high school, Hunter jokes, “No girls at West Mecklenburg wanted to talk to me, so music was the next best thing. I made good grades, but I thought going to college was a waste of my parents’ money.”
When his parents insisted, he agreed, with one stipulation: He wanted to go to Berklee, the acclaimed performing arts college in Boston. “They looked at the price tag and said no, try in-state for a year and if you don’t like it, you can transfer.”
He chose East Carolina University for its reputable music program. “Even though I placed first chair piano in the jazz orchestra as a freshman, my heart was set on Berklee.” Until he got there, and found Boston’s bitter cold winters and the college’s strict policies didn’t suit him. “I tend to buck authority. That’s why I like being my own boss,” he says. To his parents’ delight, Hunter returned to ECU, changed his major to English with a minor in philosophy, and played in a band called The Tour.
“I moved back to Charlotte after graduation and tried working a real job for several months but said, this sucks, so I joined a band, went on the road and never looked back.”
Right: Garlic shrimp is seasoned with smoked paprika, olive oil and fresh oregano and served with grilled bread.
A new passion
From the ’80s to late ’90s, Hunter’s professional life was frenetic. He played in multiple bands, including the Spongetones, worked as the road manager and sound engineer for the rock band Fetchin Bones, opened a recording studio (White Room Studios), and managed the nightly music lineup at The Artist’s Cafe, an open-kitchen brasserie located uptown.
“The Artist’s Cafe is when I was introduced to wine. When I wasn’t busy with music, I would hang out in wine shops and talk to wine people. I started to develop a working knowledge of my palate.” He still remembers the moment he became hooked. “It was my birthday, and some friends bought me a bottle of Bordeaux from La Mission Haut-Brion.”
For the first time, Hunter realized music wasn’t his only passion. Burned out from long hours and low pay, he left the music industry to pursue his newfound infatuation as a wholesale wine distributor. Five years later, he teamed with Frank Redd, then-owner of The Wine Shop on Park Road, to open Foxcroft Wine Co.
“That seed laid dormant in me for a long time,” Hunter says. “At first, I just enjoyed drinking wine. But the more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became. When I’m interested in something, I tend to dive deep into it, try to absorb it and learn everything about it.”
A wine business is born
Foxcroft Wine Co.’s opening as a retail wine shop in September 2004 was met with a lackluster response. Hunter was convinced the brand’s true potential was in making it a warm and inviting place where people could have a drink and a bite to eat, and stay for a while. In 2006, he bought out Redd’s share, expanded the space and hired a chef.
His hunch paid off. Today, Foxcroft Wine Co. has six locations, including four in Charlotte, with plans to expand to Atlanta and potentially Washington, D.C. Hunter is also co-owner of Foxcroft’s sister business, Dot Dot Dot, a cocktail lounge at Park Road Shopping Center.
“At the moment, we’re growing our management team. This year, we opened a commissary in the same complex where my recording studio was off Pressley Road, where we make all of our pasta and bread from scratch.”
Right: The house-ground Angus burger is topped with grilled onion, truffle aioli, tomato, greens and cheddar or blue cheese.
The menu offers shareable plates and entrees designed to be paired with a glass of wine or a bottle selected from Foxcroft’s extensive list. During our visit, we sampled the homemade rigatoni, garlic shrimp and a delicious house-ground burger. (As a frequent patron, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the truffle fries — one of my personal favorites.)
“You call yourself a loner,” I say to him, “yet you’ve been in dozens of bands and, as CEO of a thriving wine business, have some 200 employees in multiple states that follow your lead. How does that reconcile?”
Hunter responds with a musical reference to Neil Young’s song, “The Loner.” After a long pause, he continues, “Yeah, but I’m the keyboard player. Keyboardists are off to the side. They’re not the front guy.”
Translation: Hunter likes to fly under the radar, even as his wine enterprise flourishes. There is a distinct correlation between his love of wine and music. It strikes me that as both have evolved, Hunter has developed an even deeper appreciation of each.
“They’re all connected,” he agrees. “It’s about relationships. People always say this place is like Cheers, where everybody knows your name and they know what you drink. I’ve watched friendships develop at each location. I think that has value. It’s not transactional like so many other things these days.” SP
WATCH: Curious why live music isn’t featured in Hunter’s establishments? Also, discover why he brought Mina, his wife of 32 years, to a graveyard on their second date.
TAKE FIVE
Favorite musician now: North Carolinian Ryan Adams. My team teases me for talking about him too much!
White or red? Both. I usually try to have one of each in the evening.
What are you most proud of? I’m proud of my kids (Lillian, 28, a human-resources administrator in Charlotte, and Wolfgang, 26, a comedian in Brooklyn). They might not think so because I’m a hard-ass, but I am. They both share my love of music.
Something few people know about you that would surprise them: I’m planning a Viking funeral. Seriously — it’s in my will. I want to be cast out on a boat that is set on fire while mourners drink my booze collection. It will probably take place at Loch Norman.
Do you have a favorite varietal? It changes over the years. I used to really like riesling. I like Brunello from Tuscany. I like pinot noir. I love Burgundy, but I can’t afford to drink it anymore because it’s gotten so expensive.
