18 Essential Restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina

"Maybe it’s the cocktails: all classics — paragons — and potent; a single Old Fashioned to begin, and the night will end with dancing. It could be the shrimp cocktail —  star of the starters — and the wicked housemade cocktail sauce that servers warn first-timers to wade into carefully. Or, maybe it really is the steaks and a kitchen with the precise talent needed to cook them just so. Several theories exist to explain the many decades-long staying power of Beef ‘N Bottle Steakhouse, but the most likely one is its defiance to exist in the social media reels of circa now while also refusing to wear labels like “old school” or “vintage.”  Inside the dining room, the traffic noises of lower South Boulevard are silenced, Frank Sinatra plays on the speakers, white Christmas lights hang from low ceilings, and ambiance means sharing a table with pictures of the Rat Pack — time moves slowly within these wood-paneled walls." - Timothy DePeugh, Kathleen Purvis