Culinary bookstore coming to Optimist Hall
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Special Sauce founder Kat Skeen. Photo: Courtesy of Special Sauce
Charlotte's first cookbook bookstore, Special Sauce, opens in Optimist Hall next month.
Why it matters: Special Sauce reflects not only Charlotte's independent bookstore boom, but also the city's hunger to be considered a culinary destination.
State of play: For Charlotte native and Special Sauce founder Kat Skeen, the bookstore isn't just about cookbooks and chef memoirs, but also a means of highlighting local chefs and the city by extension.
What to expect: The 500-square-foot space will include new cookbooks and chef memoirs, plus some of the classics. There will also be specialty pantry items and novelty oven mitts, for example.
- Skeen plans to curate an Instagram Reel series called Chef's Shelf, starting in November. Each video will feature a different Charlotte chef or culinary voice who will share cookbooks that helped shape them. These titles will be available on a dedicated "Chef's Shelf" in the store.
- Skeen is working with Bonnie + Bud to create gift boxes, which will launch on Nov. 13. Skeen selects the cookbooks included in the box and Bonnie + Bud chooses what goes with the cookbook. It will be a limited-edition drop featuring three surprise North Carolina chefs. Everything in the box will be North Carolina-made or distributed, Skeen says. A box will cost $135.
- You'll be able to shop Skeen's picks for cookbooks leading up to the holiday season online at specialsauceclt.com.
What's next: Skeen will host a Special Sauce pop-up at Pasta & Provisions' Dec. 5 market on Park Road.
- Starting in 2027, Special Sauce will add a monthly cookbook club called Chef's Table. The name is a nod to Skeen's dog, Chef.
- There will also be a Sauce Society subscription ($200 for the year). This will include a cookbook every quarter (four total) from your preferred category, plus a dedicated happy hour quarterly.
- There will also be pop-up events around town highlighting different chefs.
Between the lines: While recipes flood the internet, the kitchen remains one of the few places where you can curate your own environment, Skeen says. Cookbooks carry memories and they also allow you a moment away from screens.
Flashback: Skeen left Charlotte 20 years ago. She called San Francisco and New York City home before returning to Charlotte. At the start of the pandemic, she became more of a home cook, she tells Axios. Part of that was inspired by Omnivore Books on Food, a culinary bookshop in the Bay Area.
- There are around a dozen bookshops across the country dedicated to food, Skeen tells Axios.
- When she moved back to Charlotte a year and a half ago, she saw a drastically different city than the one she grew up in. Today she still takes her kids to places like Park Road Soda Shoppe. But Carpe Diem Restaurant in Elizabeth, where she celebrated her 16th birthday and had her first fine dining experience, has closed.
- The landscape is different and Charlotte has since hosted Top Chef and earned Michelin recognition.
The bottom line: Skeen hopes her new bookstore gives chefs and authors a dedicated space in Charlotte, while also welcoming in people hungry for community.
If you go: Special Sauce opens on Monday, Nov. 9, at Optimist Hall ( 1115 N. Brevard St.). A grand opening will take place on Nov. 14. Store hours:
- Sunday through Thursday: 11am-9pm
- Friday and Saturday: 11am-10pm
Go deeper: Independent bookstores in Charlotte — and a few more within driving distance