Chain restaurant closures, ‘Real Housewives’ buzz and Charlotte’s best bakery
RIP to your go-to spot for wings and burgers. Hickory Tavern pulled the plug on four restaurants over the weekend — three of them right here in the Charlotte area — and if that was your Sunday afternoon hang, it’s time to find a new booth. 😢
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If you missed today’s CharlotteFive newsletter, here’s a rundown of that news, plus other stuff Charlotteans are watching this week.
The Charlotte-born sports bar and grill served its last loaded nachos and mozzarella sticks at its Mooresville, Huntersville and Providence Road locations on Sunday, Aug. 23. A Columbia-Vista restaurant in South Carolina was also marked “permanently closed.” 🔒
Parent company Artistry Restaurants — the Florida-based group that scooped up Hickory Tavern in early 2025 — called it a “challenging yet strategic move” meant to prioritize locations “best positioned for long-term success.”
“While never an easy decision, it is important that we regularly evaluate where we can operate more efficiently so our resources and future investments are directed toward the priorities that will best serve our teams and guests,” Bryan Lockwood, CEO of Artistry Restaurants, said in a news release sent to CharlotteFive.
👉 Read on for Tanasia’s full breakdown.
File this under “we’ll believe it when we see it” — but Bravo’s franchise of fabulous lifestyles, fickle friendships and fiery feuds might finally be eyeing the Queen City. ✨
In an Instagram reel posted Saturday, news personality Morgan Paige dropped some hints. Her clip included a moment where she asked “Real Housewives” host Andy Cohen about the future of the franchise. His answer? “Maybe some new cities, and just more, more, more,” Cohen said.
Paige also flagged a recent casting call from Shed Media looking for “Charlotte’s most fabulous women” — specifically, per Paige, “affluent women with enormous personalities.” “Sounds like a ‘Housewives’ casting call to me,” Paige said.
Read more Hickory Tavern closes 4 restaurants, including a few in Charlotte. Here’s where
NBCUniversal and Shed Media haven’t responded to CharlotteFive’s requests for comment. And honestly, we’ve heard this song before: In 2012, Bravo told The Hollywood Reporter that a Charlotte edition wasn’t happening after a report said the network was hunting for “outspoken Charlotte moms between the ages of 28-45.” 🤷
Thousands of votes later, we’re down to the sweet stuff. The CharlotteFive Readers’ Choice best bakery poll has narrowed 40 nominees down to five, and now it’s on you to pick the Top 2. 🧁
Here are the finalists:
The fourth round is live until noon Wednesday, Aug. 26. Then the fifth round — the one that crowns your winner — kicks off shortly after noon that same day and runs until Friday, Aug. 28. ⏰
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Keep up with what’s new, what’s opening and what to eat: @cltfive on Instagram, @cltfive on Threads, @cltfive on TikTok and @charlottefive.com on Bluesky. 💙
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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