Heritage finalizing lease for former Crisp location in Elizabeth and The Crunkleton eyeing spot next door

Heritage is largely regarded as one of the top restaurants in the Charlotte area. In their most recent restaurant ranking, Charlotte magazine listed Heritage as our city’s #1 restaurant, ahead of well-known spots like Kindred, Rooster’s, Good Food and Fig Tree (although I disagree with their ranking).

I recently drove out to Waxhaw and dined at Heritage. While the food was good, the physical space felt old – about the exact opposite experience from dining at Kindred. With their new location, I’d expect Heritage to invest in both the upfit and a true bar experience (Charlotte loves its craft cocktails and restaurateurs love the margins).

The current Waxhaw location will close ahead of the new location’s expected opening by the end of the year, Charlotte magazine reports.

“This vintage retail building on 7th has been one of my favorites in Charlotte for years,” said Scott Betzold of d3 Studio, the company doing responsible for the up fit. “Paul Verica’s (the chef/owner) concept is a perfect fit for the classic details of that space. With so many older structures being lost in that area, the new Heritage location is really going to be something special.”

Although unconfirmed, sources close to the Elizabeth real estate market told the Agenda that the guy behind The Crunkleton in Chapel Hill is eying the spot currently occupied by Heroes Are Hard To Find (they’re moving to NoDa).

This appears to be correct as owner Gary Crunkleton told the Observer, “Any rumors that we want to be his neighbor are accurate.”

Side note: It’s kind of funny that the Elizabeth Starbucks may be sandwiched in between these hot new establishments.

Additionally, it looks like Kennedy’s will transform into a new concept named Caswell Station. No word yet on the details, but we’ll keep you posted as the story develops.

[Agenda related story: Elizabeth as we knew it is dead, but that’s okay]