chow down uptown Archives - I am a Honey Bee

Price and I recently went on vacation in Charlotte, North Carolina. We had a fantastic time visiting the Queen City. I will do a series of blog posts recapping some of the fun things we did while down there. I hope you enjoy!

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Thursday Night- Boston to Greenwich: Sonic

Friday- Greenwich to Charlotte: First we stopped by my favorite deli in the world for Bacon Egg and Chese Sandwiches to start our trip. For lunch, we stopped somewhere in VA for Arby’s. First time having Arby’s, might be my last. not high up on my list of doable fast food places. good fries though.

Friday night in Charlotte: ChowDown Uptown. (previously blogged about)

Friday night- Mac’s Speed Shop for BBQ! This place was suggested to us from one of the guys in the Gensler Charlotte Office. Great suggestion since the food was amazing. We loved the fried pickles and the platter we shared. I could not get enough sweet tea.

Saturday morning- There were signs on the highway indicating that the Charlotte Farmers’ Market was close by. I can’t resist a farmer’s market so we stopped by there before starting out fun filled day. I was in awe of everything I saw from the fresh produce to the vibrant flowers. We ended up getting a sweet potato pie form a very lovely vendor.

Saturday lunch/dinner- We went to Price’s Chicken Coop after we went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway (blogged about here). It was the first time I had hush puppies. They were very different than the ones we had on Friday, but just as good.

Sunday breakfast & lunch- We hopped into Starbucks on our way north out of the city to look around at different areas in and around Charlotte. Then we came back into Charlotte and had lunch at Nix Burgers. I loved my bloody mary from there and had an a-mazing pimento burger

Sunday night- We shared left overs from Price’s Chicken Coop and a salad from California Pizza Kitchen.

Monday drive from Charlotte to Philly- I put mint and frozen strawberries in my unsweetened ice tea 🙂

Sunday- We stayed with our friend Dawn. Price wanted a cheese steak so we went to Genos. Dawn and I shared some sushi take out from Fat Salmon. The rolls were so big and the combinations were so unique. Like the BCT had INSIDE – Bacon, Cream Cheese, Tomato, Cucumber and ON TOP – Avocado w/Spicy sauce

Tuesday morning: Our friend suggested Green Eggs Cafe (Northern Liberties) for breakfast. I wanted the Philly Style Eggs Benedict but we were so early that their order of pretzel rolls had not arrived yet. We ended up with red velvet pancakes and stuffed french toast. We only had half so we had the rest for dinner after our long drive back form Philly to Boston.

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Prior to leaving for Charlotte, I checked the Yelp website for some ideas on things to see and do while we were down there from Thursday night to when we left early Monday morning. One of the events that I saw was a food truck rally called Chow Down Uptown the was occurring night that we arrived. This was a gathering of food trucks in the central part of the city- what we commonly know as downtown. (I learned that Charlotte calls their downtown area Uptown because of the Billy Joel song “Uptown Girl”) I love the food trucks in Boston so I knew this would be a sure thing.

We arrived during rush hour, which wasn’t bad at all, at least compared to New York’s or Boston’s. We had the local NBC news on while we were settling into our hotel room. Sure enough, there was a piece on Chow Down Uptown, so I knew it some something meant to be.

The event was held at NC Music Factory. We didn’t really get to explore the venue but I thought it was a nice space. The space is in fact a series of old factories. We breezed through one space and I could see how they kept a lot of the history alive with the old pieces that were left intact. The food truck rally was held in a lot next to the amphitheater.

We missed the rush by the time that we arrived since it was on the latish side. The night was perfect for the event. We thoroughly enjoyed the weather, especially in comparison to some of the fall nights that we have in Boston.

We had a hard time choosing what to have for dinner. There were several food trucks that offered great things, such as burgers, philly cheesesteaks, BBQ, and tacos. I liked the diversity of the menus items that we had to choose from.

-some very friendly food truck vendors-

We ending up getting our dinners from Maki Taco, an Asian inspired food truck. The smells coming out of the truck were incredible. Since we arrive a bit late we missed out on some of the menu items. They ran through their current offerings and still everything sounded amazing. I got the chicken hibachi and Price got 3lettuce wrap chicken tacos with fresh sauteed veggies. The hibachi was exactly like that I have ordered at restaurants, but with 1/3 of the price tag. I’ll settle on a manageable portion without the show for great food at an amazing price. Price’s tacos were great too. We are not sure if it was because we arrived late and they modified their menu to serve more people but they were served the tacos on romaine lettuce leaves, this made it difficult to eat, we would suggest using Boston bibb lettuce instead.

-Both of us enjoyed our dinners so much-

Next up.. dessert! We decided on the Southern Cake Queen cupcake truck because the selection of desserts looked so good. Price got a Willow cupcake, I got the Turtle, and we got a Charleston Chewie to split over the weekend. Each were impressed with the cupcakes we had, really enjoying the flavors and texture of each of the cupcakes. I loved the Charleston Chewie, it reminded me of a really rich blondie.

-Willow Cupcake and a Turtle Cupcake-

It was a great night out introducing us to what Charlotte food trucks have to offer. The food was great, and the Southern hospitality really shown through as we got to talk to the vendors. Grant, the founder of Maki Taco, was eager to share with me what makes his food truck so special, it was great to hear about his passion to serve local, fresh ingredients. They considered everything from the food to the printing of the shirts, which are made in the US and printed by a local company. Plus he explained that they JUST started- really just a few weeks old- so they were so excited to attend the event! And Emma, of Southern Cake Queen, asked if I was a part of Charlotte Food Bloggers as I was busy snapping away by her food truck. I explained I was not and that we were just visiting, which prompted her into sharing some things about the city. I just loved the friendliness of everyone!

If you want to find out about more Charlotte food trucks then check out Roaming Hunger, which lists food trucks by cities.

Follow the food trucks we visited:

Maki Taco

Southern Cake Queen