A hidden Dominican deli, cheap pizza and Charlotte’s lost BBQ joints
Happy Monday, Charlotte. Today’s CharlotteFive newsletter serves up a heaping plate of food stories — from a tucked-away Dominican comedor to a fresh ranking that puts the Queen City near the top for cheap pizza. Pour yourself a coffee. Here’s what foodies need to know. ☕
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Andre takes us inside Tony’s Deli, a Dominican “comedor” tucked into Compare Foods Supermarket on Milton Road. Think sancocho thick enough to be rumored to cure hangovers, whole fried tilapia scored and seasoned just right, and pernil asado with skin “blistered and bubbled like the finest chicharon.” The Compare Foods chain was founded in 1989 by Dominican immigrant Eligio Peña and now has eight Charlotte locations.
If you go, Andre’s trifecta is non-negotiable: sancocho, pescado frito and pernil asado. Pair the pork with moro con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and platanos maduro fritos.
📍 Find it inside Compare Foods at 3112 Milton Rd, Charlotte.
Heidi is collecting your smoked meat memories. Bar-B-Q King closed last year — with lines stretching out the door for one last bite of those minced and sliced sandwiches — and plans call for a First National Bank branch on the site. Earlier this year, Bubba’s Barbecue, arguably the city’s last old-school Eastern North Carolina-style chopped pork holdout, served its final plates.
Got a favorite vanished pit stop? Heidi wants the story behind it.
💌 Share your memories with Heidi here or email [email protected].
Good news for budget pie chasers: a medium cheese pizza runs an average of $14.50 in Charlotte, making the Queen City the second-cheapest spot in the country to grab a slice, according to NetCredit’s 2026 U.S. Pizza Index. Raleigh also cracked the Top 10 at No. 9.
Tanasia explained the report, which broke down chain prices too: Little Caesars came in cheapest at $10.27 for a medium cheese, while Chuck E. Cheese topped the list at $20.23. San Diego ($20.76) was the priciest city overall. Want local picks instead? Pizza Baby made the nation’s Top 50 again at No. 41, and Zepeddie’s Pizzeria in LoSo recently earned an 8.7 out of 10 from a father-son taste-test crew.
L’Ostrica in Madison Park now offers a six-course tasting menu on Wednesdays and Thursdays with two to three choices per course, plus an expanded à la carte menu at the bar. Tasting menu guests can add à la carte dishes too. Look for starters like oysters and meatballs, then pastas and entrées featuring halibut, sugar-smoked duck breast and prime rib-eye deckle.
Friday and Saturday stay tasting-menu-only in the dining room. Sora in Myers Park made a similar move recently, opening up à la carte options alongside its French-Asian tasting experience.
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📍 L’Ostrica is at 4701 Park Rd; Sora is at 2907 Selwyn Ave.
🍽️ Get the full scoop from Heidi.
Dilworth, Plaza Midwood, NoDa — the answer depends on who you ask. In the 1970s through the ’90s, Plaza Midwood came closest, with gay bars, bookshops and bathhouses clustered nearby, longtime resident Ralph Martin told Jeff. Conservative policies and gentrification scattered those spaces over time.
Today the community is dispersed across the city, and Charlotte hasn’t had a dedicated LGBTQ center since one closed in 2014.
Ali found herself in a roomful of reporters interviewing a golfer who doesn’t exist. At the World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, Will Ferrell stayed fully in character as Lonnie Hawkins, the fictional washed-up golf legend at the center of Netflix’s upcoming comedy “The Hawk.” The bit included a mock Hall of Fame induction and a press conference where everyone in the room agreed to play along.
🎥 Read Théoden’s full account.
“Rehydration and recovery, especially in the Charlotte weather, is really key,” — Charlotte FC Team Dining Manager John Major, on taking care of Scotland’s World Cup soccer team with drinks including electrolyte-packed nonalcoholic piña coladas.
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This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists. To learn more about how The Charlotte Observer is using AI in our newsroom, see our policy here.
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