A bank in a pizza joint (and TGI Fridays and a deli)

You could practically hear Charlotte's collective groan when news broke this summer that one of its oldest restaurants, Harper's, would close and that a bank would take its place.

Why it matters: Charlotte is a bank town with a reputation for letting businesses go to make way for new development.

Flashback: Four years ago, I wrote about how banks are gobbling up some of Charlotte's hottest real estate even though fewer people are visiting bank branches, and even though banks have been trimming their branches since the recession.

• Babalu, the taco restaurant that opened in 2016 and closed two years later on East Boulevard in Dilworth, was renovated and turned into a Fifth Third Bank, for instance.
• Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank opened its first Charlotte branch Uptown where Dean & DeLuca used to be.

Between the lines: Banks — newcomers as well as established ones like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Truist — see Charlotte as a good place to do business and serve the needs of a growing population.

Driving the news: The trend is still alive and well. U.S. Bank signed a lease for the prominent spot on South Boulevard previously home to Fuel Pizza, which operated there for two decades.

• Fifth Third recently disclosed plans to open in a shuttered TGI Fridays in Steele Creek, one of Charlotte's fastest-growing neighborhoods.

• Chase Bank, the country's largest bank by assets that debuted in Charlotte in 2020, will open in the old Harper's spot in Sharon Corners in SouthPark.

The bottom line: There's still a desire for a physical bank branch in a digital world. You can deposit checks using your bank's mobile app, but you can't have a nuanced conversation with a bot about your student loans or applying for a mortgage.

• "We know our customers value the personal connection they have with our branch bankers," Wells Fargo spokesman Josh Dunn told me a few years ago.