Your 23 Year Old Sister Is Visiting
Post by Scott - 10/24/2024
I moved to Charlotte when I was 23. It did NOT look like this. Our best dance club was a deli during the day. A deli! Now, Charlotte might as well be the Promised Land to young adults. So when your younger brother/sister/cousin shows up and you want to show off, take them on a tour of some of Charlotte’s best breweries for people who still get carded regularly.
This could be the list. I’ll add more spots, but you could just say, “Go to Sycamore” and call it. This spot in the center of South End gives city vibes with skyline views and the light rail running past. Does the light rail only go north and south? We’re very cosmopolitan! Hang out at one of the picnic tables downstairs and people watch as you remember a life before you knew every episode of Bluey. Sip a frozen espresso martini or one of their rotational IPAs. It’s cool when you have to head home for naptime. No need to specify if the nap is for you or your child.
Sycamore’s slightly more chill brother, this place has everything you want when you’re still asking the question, “what did you major in?”. The massive patio leads right out to the rail trail and is feet from the New Bern station stop to aid your brewery crawl. They have a full coffee program, cocktails, and great food to go along with the Pulp Prescription hazy IPA and the constantly changing JawRipper fruited sour series. I lived 100 yards from here for 4 years long before Suffolk Punch opened up. I’m currently sitting on the porch, writing this and I can see my old place. I’m not bitter. Not bitter at all.
Resident Culture Plaza Midwood
Let’s shift over to Plaza Midwood. Resident Culture is perfect for your artsy sibling with their wonderfully weird murals and laidback clientele. The brewery introduces new beers every week, so check out something fresh or head back to a classic like Lightning Drops hazy IPA or an Island Time Mexican lager. Shout out to Resident Culture always having awesome glassware. Come on Friday for Food Truck Friday and get a bit of everything from the trucks to show them that Charlotte has a soul.
If Dwight Schrute is Bears, Beets, and Battlestar Galactica, then Salud is Beers, Beats, and Basquiat. Upstairs and downstairs they have some of the best beers in Charlotte, a DJ spinning hip hop and latin music, and murals that call back the Lower East Side, Kobe, and Messi. Order a pizza, some wings, and a Del Patio lager. Tell yourself you’ll totally come back for Noche Latina until you realize it doesn’t START until 9 pm. Being cool is a young person’s game.
Burial is just cool. From the ridiculously named beers to the specific tap list font all housed in 70’s basement/hunting lodge, Burial makes you strut a little. Set up on the back patio or head up to the rooftop. Point out how they used to have a skyline view for about 2 weeks before that massive condo/parking garage went up. Just pick the beer with the most Death Metal name and roll with it. Though Burial serves great burgers and fries, grab a beer and a sandwich at Common Market. Show them people still smoke American Spirits here. Lie to them and tell them that all of Charlotte is this cool.
Sycamore in South End
Bring your ID, hot stuff.