Chef Charles Grill 2 Go on Davidson’s West Side will shut its doors at the end of the day Friday, after about four months in business. Also this week: News about a new Friday evening farmer’s market in Cornelius, and political gathering coming up Thursday at Creole House.
CHEF CHARLES CLOSES GRILL
Charlotte-based caterer and chef Charles Semail said this week that traffic has been disappointing at his Chef Charles Grill 2 Go on Mock Road on Davidson’s West Side, so he has decided to shut his doors after just under four months in operation.
The popular caterer and chef will continue to be a regular at the Davidson Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. But he said there just wasn’t enough business to support a stand-alone takeout shop at his West Side location.
“I love the location, I love the little building, and we have had a good experience. The food was great,” he told DavidsonNews.net. “The big problem is I don’t have enough traffic. I’ve been losing money every day.”
He said he is negotiating with the building’s onwers, the Raeford family, about exiting his lease early. He said the Raeford’s have been very helpful.
“I’m very sad. I’m sure next Saturday at the market, people are going to be very upset with me. But you know, c’est la vie,” he said.
Mr. Semail said his sales are the farmer’s market are “going great” and that he did his biggest market ever last weekend. “I’m also expanding my line of products, maybe peach pie, gazpacho, different types of sausage,” he said.
His was the third business in the Mock Road location in the past two years. Raeford’s Grill and S&T Grill both had brief runs in the space before closing.
Read more about the venture in our April 14 news item, “Chef Charles Grill 2 Go opens on West Side.”
Chef Charles will continue working out of his Charlotte catering kitchen. He can be reached at 704-423-8300.
CORNELIUS FARMERS MARKET
A Friday evening farmer’s market has begun operating this summer around the Gazebo in Jetton Village, Old Jetton Road off West Catawba Avenue.
The market is every Friday from 5-8 p.m. and includes seafood and fish, cheese, fresh flowers, baked goods, potted plants, crafts, and sauces and jams.
POLITICS AT THE CREOLE HOUSE
The Creole House on Main in Cornelius will host a get-together for interested conservatives on Thursday, Aug. 5, at 7 p.m.
Creole house owner Darrin Nicolas and organizer Rick Short of Davidson said they wanted to offer a place for conservatives to meet one another and share their views on current topics.
Mr. Short is a newcomer to the area hoping to find like-minded neighbors. “I don’t have an agenda. I’m the new guy in town. I wanted to meet some people who I might have something in common with,” he said.
Mr. Nicolas said he offered to host the meeting. He said the group is for “all of us who are sick and tired of local government, our county, state and federal government, telling us how to live our lives.”
Mr. Nicolas has had his own issues with government recently. His restaurant was closed briefly in May and June while he tried to sort out a long list of issues raised by health and building inspectors and Cornelius zoning officials. “My business is off 50 percent because of what they’ve done,” he said.
Creole House is at 20517 N. Main St., Cornelius, 704-896-1049.
In reference to Mr. Nicolas’ comment about his business being off “because of what they’ve [the government have] done,” it sounds as though–if the earlier report on why his business was shuttered is correct–his business is off more because of what he or the owners did NOT do: obtain the proper health permit for handling seafood, and install the proper improvements for transforming the small-scale restaurant space into what Mr. Nicolas envisioned, and then getting the proper occupancy and land use permits.
In essence, he himself was quoted admitting as much: “Basically, I’m trying to do a full-service restaurant in a building it was not designed for. It was designed for a sandwich shop,” he said.
If anything, he should more correctly be placing blame on the building’s owners. Again, he was paraphrased in the earlier report as having “…said the building’s owners told him the structure was suitable for what he was planning.” Someone–the owners of the building, or Mr. Nicolas, or whomever else was advising him–wasn’t thorough in their due diligence work.
I suppose it’s nice to use “the government” as a convenient scapegoat for problems we feel we have little control over. But in cases like this–health and safety issues, particularly–I’m very much on the side of the health department and building code officials who are charged with keeping the public safe. Laissez faire doesn’t cut it when someone may get sick (or worse) from the food being sold, or injured (or worse) when a building being operated isn’t safe enough to handle the intensity of the occupancy or use.
The government isn’t “…telling us how to live our lives” in a case like this; they’re helping keep us safe from being injured by something that we, as average citizens, aren’t expert enough in to know when we’re about to be hurt.
… and I was feeling sick and tired of conservatives telling us how we should live our lives.