No, Al Mike’s isn’t closing. Yes, the building is for sale
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Photo: Michael Graff/Axios Charlotte
Steve Casner’s phone started ringing early Thursday morning with startled callers.
- Real estate hawks had noticed an eye-popping listing: the building that houses Alexander Michael’s, the beloved Fourth Ward restaurant Casner owns, was for sale for $1.5 million.
Good news: The restaurant isn’t going anywhere.
What’s happening: Casner confirmed with Axios that the building’s owners are selling. But he says his his lease is “ironclad” and that he plans to keep the restaurant as long as he can.
- Its 40th anniversary will be April 2023.
Why it matters: Whew. We’ve lost enough longtime restaurants in the past year. Al Mike’s, which opened in 1983, the same year Harvey Gantt was elected mayor, is a comfortable classic in this city that runs on what’s new.
Driving the news: The building was constructed in 1897 and ran as a store until the 1960s, then was a paint store and a laundry mat.
The backstory: On April 27, 1983, Alexander Copeland and A. Michael Troiano Jr. opened a restaurant in the old general store.
- Folks called them Zan and Mike, but Al Mike’s sounded better than Zan Mike’s.
- Casner was the manager of the restaurant that opening night, and he still has the ledger that shows they had 77 guests.
One of those guests was Linwood Bolles, a Charlotte native and the listing agent on the property now. He said “everybody was there” opening night and it was so crowded, you could barely fit through the door.
Zan eventually sold his share, and then Mike sold the place to Steve in 2004. He’s run it ever since.
- Al Mike’s story grew alongside Fourth Ward’s, and its customer base is one of the most loyal in the city, especially among folks who live in the neighborhood.
- That base is so steady that when Casner got a call from “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” about being featured in an episode about a decade ago, Casner said no.
Between the lines: Zan, one of the original owners, died in an early-morning fire in Charlotte in 2010. He was a noted youth baseball coach, and somehow a Louisville slugger survived the fire.
- The bat hangs the wall at Al Mike’s today, and, thankfully, it’ll be staying there awhile longer.