Rada Opens in Charlotte Today | Eater Carolinas

"Fresh from New York City, Chef Callan Buckles is the former chef de cuisine at Claud, a French-American restaurant featured in The New York Times best 100 restaurants and the city’s Michelin guide. He’s also been in the kitchen at the lauded The Four Horsemen and Momofuku. The vision comes from owner Eloy Roy, and the project occupies the former Little Spoon space; the menu is an exciting and experimental culinary hodgepodge of mainly shared plates, from a $3 gilda skewer to a $110 sirloin steak. Roy previously ran Oggi and The Lights Juicery and Cafe in South Charlotte (where Kim Kardashian was spotted back in 2019 when juicing was still a thing). Roy imagined Buckles as the chef from the beginning — not just because of his culinary pedigree but because he’s family: Roy’s sister is Buckles’ life partner — and the duo sees Charlotte as a promising landing spot for this shared-plates–biodynamic-wine concept that may be oversaturated in New York but is still relatively untapped in the Queen City; nearby references include Substrate and Bar a Vins (which don’t have full food menus) and Kindred Studio’s new Albertine, which shares a vegetable-centric, seafood-forward sway. At its core the restaurant wants to be a neighborhood spot: an elegant, uncluttered 50-seat dining room with soft mint green walls, suspended globe lamps casting ambient light, stout cafe-style wine glasses, plenty of natural light, and an emphasis on briny flavors on both plates and in drinks. The made-to-share menu is vaguely “contemporary American,” not exclusively Italian or Spanish, but with a notable influence from Buckles’ time at Claud and Momofuku. “I’m not egotistically a farm-to-table chef,” Buckles said. “I’m not doing the farm-to-table thing because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s just where the best food is going to come from.” An example: the crispy skin roast chicken with a vegetable farcis tucked between the breast and the skin, draped in jus; Buckles’ use of Asian ingredients, like fish sauce for salt and liquid shio koji, is another inspired touch. “It’s not safe food,” Roy said — safe to eat, of course, but possibly outside of Charlotte’s comfort zone — and guests won’t easily find eggplant escabeche, an eye‑candy dover sole with green romesco, or a squid, pil pil skewer anywhere else in the city. The cooking begs for wine: get the stemmy mencia from Bierzo or a red‑licorice gamay from Beaujolais with the bavette steak decked out in bright chimichurri; the txakolina from the Basque region “rips with acid and minerality” that flatters the seabass and Roy’s favorite, clams with butter, scallions, and vin jaune. At the white marble bar, don’t shy away from the house riff on a dirty gin martini that combines anchovy oil and Basque pepper brine, rounds out with a whisper of olive oil, and is topped with a gilda skewer (and yes, there is still a $9 Fernet for the industry crowd). When describing the restaurant, Roy pointed to his chest, saying this food will hit guests “on a deeper chord,” referencing something intangible and from the heart in dining; he thinks Charlotteans may realize, “this is actually what I’ve been looking for.” Walk-ins are welcome, and limited reservations are live." - Kayleigh Ruller