THIS weekend (5/4-5/7) in Charlotte
 

Planned to be in Charlotte for just a day on Friday but plans have changed and my 16 yr old DS and I will be there all weekend. Here are our plans so far but am happy to take more suggestions.

We have tix for the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at Discovery Place on Friday and we have dinner reservations for Capitol Grille and Blue for two of the evenings.

I haven't yet decided whether to rent a car or just cab it to the Omni. So far everywhere we're going is walking distance from the hotel and I know there are several interesting blocks to see in the immediate vicinity.

If you intend to stay uptown, you've little need for a car. Keep in mind the Wachovia Championship is currently going on (golf) so the uptown area will likely be a tad busier than usual. You may want to re-think the Capitol Grille, it is nothing special...try Monticello (in the Dunhill) or Luce (Italian) instead. Also, don't miss the art museum (right across from Discovery Place).

Thanks for the restaurant info. Italian won't interest either of us but I'm going to check out Monticello online.

I hesitated to make ressies at The Capital Grille but chose it becaus DS and I both love oysters on the halfshell and they have them. They also have a tuna entree which is up our alley. We're both health and fitness nuts and we both live on raw and steamed seafood.

I thought about hitting Zink for lunch as they have a sushi bar. Any thoughts?

I'm also looking for a bit of shopping (ugh!)only because I need a unique knitted or macrame sweater to go over a resort style dress I just bought for an upcoming special occassion.

Does the Overstreet Mall have boutique shopping? Any other upscale shopping within walking distance of the Omni?

You might consider the Mimosa Grill for your dinner. It is a little way down Tryon. There is also McCormick and Schmick's for seafood. Also Lavecchia's is close for seafood.
I have no idea any more what is going on in retail uptown. If you want the full shopping experience you could cab it to SouthPark.
If you do have a car (agree you don't really need it for uptown) it is also Metrolina Antique market north of town.
Arpa's is a tapas place.
Zink may be OK for their sushi bar at lunch but we had dinner there (after DSS) and VERY surprisingly, had VERY indifferent service. It is surprising since it is a part of a restaurant group in Charlotte that prides itself on service especially.

Lavecchia's would be the place for oysters. They have all different kinds, an unusual offering around here.

Kept the reservation to Capital Grille and it was hopping last night (due to the golf tourney). Our reservations were for 8:15pm and at that time I heard the hostess telling walk ins that there were no tables available until 9:45pm.

Dinner was good but not memorable (as expected). We both got our seafood fix for the day and didn't overeat. I never eat the bread at restaurants but had to sample the dark bread with cherries in it. Yum! The high ceilings and wood paneled walls make for a very LOUD setting. Great for business or catching up with friends but not romantic for sure.

That is the reason (noise) that we will never go back to Morton's. Zink is like that downstairs--we ate upstairs. Enjoy.

The overstreet mall is not a mall like you are thinking. There are a few and I mean few stores....mostly eating places for those that work uptown. After 5 p.m. most everything in the overstreet mall will be closed.

Any of the restaurants mentioned are good. Yes, cab it to SouthPark for shopping or you could catch the bus....it is safe and easy to navigate.

Zink has sushi?

Down near Mimosa Grill, Aquavina (seafood) has recently lowered their prices and lunch is now an absolute steal. I'll be going there today.

And while it's a chain (a good one) I still favor the seafood (oysters included) at McCormack & Schmick's.

Yes, Zink has a sushi bar in there somewhere. Glad to know about Aquavina and lunch.

Thanks one and all. We're having a very relaxing weekend. I usually teach 6am aerobics so sleeping in until 7:30am is luxurious to me.

We visited Discovery Place this morning and enjoyed the DSS exhibit very much. I'm glad they had the little phone commentary thingies. Added much to the experience for me.

We ate lunch at Monticello at the Dunhill and I could have bathed in the chocolate butter offered with the bread. I don't really do bread but had to have a couple of bites just so I could try the chocolate butter. Yum!

Wandered the Overstreet Mall this afternoon. There is one cute trendy and very affordable clothing store called Belle Ville that I liked. I overheard one employee telling a customer they were relatively newly opened. Great jeans under $100 and tops and jewelry in the $30-50 range.

Dinner at Zink was good. They have a number of inexpensive wine menus- wines for $20/bottle, $30/bottle, $40/bottle with I thought was smart. I had a spring garden salad with lemon vinagrette, very mild, non-lemony taste which I liked as I'm not big on dressing.

Sushi was good. The tuna maki roll was very sweet. The salmon sashimi was wonderful. The Hawaian spicy tuna specialty roll was tasty.

Our grand finale was a molten chocolate truffle cake topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. I couldn't believe my son made me get that instead of his favorite, creme brulee but soooo glad he did. Fantastic.

Tomorrow we have ressies at Blue.

Did you happen to listen to any of the commentaries for children--it was a different button. REALLY cute--very upbeat and jazzily spoken to keep children interested.
You might be interested to know that one reason Discovery Place got this exhibit was because of their expertise in building the exhibit. This is the first time the scrolls have left Israel and DP built the exhibit that will now travel on to other cities. Our Jewish community also really stepped up to fund it--as did other corporations, of course.

DS and I both listened to some of the commentary for children as well as that written for adults. What a good idea.