The plates that define Charlotte: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Charlotte. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Lexington-style BBQ is North Carolina Piedmont's chopped or sliced pork shoulder, smoked over hickory wood and dressed in a tomato-and-vinegar sauce with red.
Where: Sweet Lew's BBQ, Noble Smoke at Optimist Hall
Price: $14 to $24
Pimento cheese is the Southern spread of grated sharp cheddar, mayonnaise and chopped pimento peppers, eaten on crackers, biscuits or a country ham sandwich.
Where: Haberdish, Pinky's Westside Grill
Price: $8 to $14
Carolina fried chicken is buttermilk-brined chicken double-dredged in seasoned flour and fried crisp, served with biscuits, pimento cheese and a hot honey.
Where: Haberdish, Bossy Beulah's, Mert's Heart and Soul
Price: $12 to $22
The country ham biscuit is the Carolina morning sandwich of cold-cured country ham on a hot buttermilk biscuit, often with mustard or a slick of red-eye.
Where: Haberdish, Mert's Heart and Soul
Price: $5 to $10
Sweet tea is the canonical Southern non-alcoholic table drink, brewed strong with black tea and sweetened hot with sugar, then chilled and served over ice.
Where: Mert's Heart and Soul, 300 East, Sweet Lew's BBQ
Price: $3 to $4
Banana pudding is the layered Southern dessert of vanilla custard, sliced bananas and Nilla wafers, often topped with whipped cream or meringue and served.
Where: Sweet Lew's BBQ, Mert's Heart and Soul
Price: $6 to $10
Shrimp and grits is the South Carolina Lowcountry breakfast plate that crossed inland to Charlotte: stone-ground corn grits cooked slow in butter and stock,.
Where: Haberdish, The Goodyear House
Price: $18 to $26
Calabash-style fried seafood is the North Carolina coastal frying tradition of light cornmeal-battered shrimp, fish and oysters, named for the fishing.
Where: Fin and Fino, LuLu's Maryland Style Chicken & Seafood
Price: $14 to $26
The Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut is the North Carolina yeast-raised doughnut dipped in sugar glaze served warm on the rack, founded in Winston-Salem in 1937.
Price: $2 to $4
Vietnamese pho is the Lang Van east Charlotte signature, a slow-simmered beef-bone broth ladled over rice noodles with thin-sliced beef, served with herbs,.
Where: Lang Van
Price: $12 to $18
Lexington-style BBQ is North Carolina Piedmont's chopped or sliced pork shoulder, smoked over hickory wood and dressed in a tomato-and-vinegar sauce with red.
History: Wayne Monk opened Lexington Barbecue (Honey Monk's) 60 miles north of Charlotte in 1962, cementing the style of chopped pork shoulder over hickory with tomato-vinegar sauce. The Piedmont style coexists with Eastern North Carolina's whole-hog vinegar style, and the two BBQ schools have argued for a century.
Where to try it: Sweet Lew's BBQ, Noble Smoke at Optimist Hall
Pimento cheese is the Southern spread of grated sharp cheddar, mayonnaise and chopped pimento peppers, eaten on crackers, biscuits or a country ham sandwich.
History: Pimento cheese spread arrived in the South in the early 20th century as canned pimento peppers became cheap and widely available through the Atlanta-based Pomona Products cannery. Charlotte's mill villages adopted it as a working-class sandwich filling, and the spread has stayed on Carolina tables for over a century, now appearing at Haberdish and on every Charlotte Southern brunch menu.
Where to try it: Haberdish, Pinky's Westside Grill
Watch out for: Dairy
Carolina fried chicken is buttermilk-brined chicken double-dredged in seasoned flour and fried crisp, served with biscuits, pimento cheese and a hot honey.
History: Fried chicken arrived in the South via West African cooking traditions that combined with Scottish frying methods on Carolina plantations through the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 20th century the dish was the canonical Sunday-supper plate across Charlotte's churches and mill households. Today Price's Chicken Coop, Haberdish and Mert's Heart and Soul keep the Charlotte tradition with cast-iron-fried birds and seasoned crust.
Where to try it: Haberdish, Bossy Beulah's, Mert's Heart and Soul
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
The country ham biscuit is the Carolina morning sandwich of cold-cured country ham on a hot buttermilk biscuit, often with mustard or a slick of red-eye.
History: Cold-cured country ham was the Appalachian preservation method that brought Southern households salt-cured pork through the winter. Paired with the buttermilk biscuit, the country ham biscuit became the canonical Carolina breakfast sandwich by the early 20th century. The salt-cure draws on the Surry County, North Carolina ham tradition; Charlotte's Comet Grill and Bossy Beulah's serve the biscuit through the morning.
Where to try it: Haberdish, Mert's Heart and Soul
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Sweet tea is the canonical Southern non-alcoholic table drink, brewed strong with black tea and sweetened hot with sugar, then chilled and served over ice.
History: Sweet tea entered Southern cooking in the late 19th century when refined sugar and refrigerated ice became affordable through the Southern railway expansion. By the 1920s it was the table drink across Carolina households, served at every meal except breakfast, and remains the unmarked default ordering 'tea' across Charlotte to this day. The pour comes pre-sweetened with two cups of sugar per gallon at most Carolina restaurants.
Where to try it: Mert's Heart and Soul, 300 East, Sweet Lew's BBQ
Banana pudding is the layered Southern dessert of vanilla custard, sliced bananas and Nilla wafers, often topped with whipped cream or meringue and served.
History: Banana pudding emerged in the late 19th century when bananas became affordable through the Southern port trade with United Fruit Company shipments from Central America. Nabisco's 1903 introduction of Nilla wafers cemented the canonical layered presentation, and the dish remains the standing Carolina dessert at BBQ counters and church suppers. Charlotte's Mert's Heart and Soul and Lupie's Cafe run the canonical Charlotte versions.
Where to try it: Sweet Lew's BBQ, Mert's Heart and Soul
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Shrimp and grits is the South Carolina Lowcountry breakfast plate that crossed inland to Charlotte: stone-ground corn grits cooked slow in butter and stock,.
History: Shrimp and grits originated as a Lowcountry breakfast plate in coastal South Carolina, where shrimpers ate it after pulling nets in the morning. Chef Bill Neal at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill codified the modern restaurant version in 1985. The dish crossed into Charlotte's brunch programs in the 1990s and now appears on most Southern menus; Mert's Heart and Soul and 300 East run the canonical Charlotte versions with Geechie Boy grits and Carolina shrimp.
Where to try it: Haberdish, The Goodyear House
Watch out for: Dairy, Shellfish
Calabash-style fried seafood is the North Carolina coastal frying tradition of light cornmeal-battered shrimp, fish and oysters, named for the fishing.
History: Calabash-style frying emerged in the small fishing town of Calabash, NC on the South Carolina border in the mid-20th century, when Captain Lucy Coleman opened the first calabash-style restaurant in 1940. The light cornmeal batter became the standard for fried seafood across the North Carolina coast and now defines fried-fish counters across Charlotte; Hot Fish Club, Captain Steve's Family Seafood and Boardwalk Billy's run the canonical Charlotte versions.
Where to try it: Fin and Fino, LuLu's Maryland Style Chicken & Seafood
Watch out for: Gluten, Shellfish, Fish
The Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut is the North Carolina yeast-raised doughnut dipped in sugar glaze served warm on the rack, founded in Winston-Salem in 1937.
History: Vernon Rudolph opened the first Krispy Kreme in Winston-Salem, NC in 1937 with a French chef's secret yeast-doughnut recipe. The Hot Now sign and the glazed-on-the-rack ritual cemented the chain as a North Carolina institution, with a Charlotte store on Independence Boulevard among the oldest in the state.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Vietnamese pho is the Lang Van east Charlotte signature, a slow-simmered beef-bone broth ladled over rice noodles with thin-sliced beef, served with herbs,.
History: Vietnamese immigrants brought pho to Charlotte's east-side corridor along Shamrock Drive and Central Avenue starting in the late 20th century, after the post-Vietnam-war resettlement programmes through the 1980s. Lang Van opened in 1990 and was awarded Charlotte's only Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2025 for the family-run kitchen's pho and broader Vietnamese menu. Le's Sandwiches and Saigon Palace round out the canonical Charlotte Vietnamese addresses.
Where to try it: Lang Van
Watch out for: Gluten
Charlotte's signature dishes include Lexington-style pork BBQ, Pimento cheese, Carolina fried chicken, Country ham biscuit, Sweet tea. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.