Once again, a Charlotte eatery has landed on a national list of best restaurants. This time it's Banh Mi Brothers, coming in at No. 93 on Yelp's list of "America's Top 100 Places to Eat in 2020."
That restaurant, at 230 W. W.T. Harris Blvd. in the University area, serves up what it calls a "hybrid of French-Vietnamese food" — Banh Mi is a sandwich on warm crusty bread, with a protein and toppings such as mayonnaise, cucumber, pickled daikon and carrot, hot chilies and herbs. The restaurant opened in 2016.
For this ranking, the data-science team at review platform Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) pulled the top restaurants by ratings and number of reviews in 2019 across the U.S., with representation based on each place’s share of top-rated restaurants nationally, then curated the list with the expertise of its community managers.
"The result is a list as quirky, interesting and unique as the Yelp Community itself," writes Brenae Leary, public relations manager. It features "fancy-schmancy spots" with white tablecloths as well as "hidden gems and off-the-beaten-path joints."
Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, South Carolina, is the top-ranked restaurant in the Carolinas at No. 34. Chez Genese in Greensboro also made the list, landing at No. 80, and Sunny Point Cafe in Asheville appears at No. 91. To sample fare from the No. 1 eatery, one would need to travel to San Diego and track down the Shawarma Guys food truck.
Banh Mi Brothers has garnered a mention on this annual feature by Yelp in the past. It also ranked among the best places around town for international cuisine, a list provided exclusively to CBJ last year.
Yelp's latest list comes on the heels of upscale SouthPark restaurant Peppervine being named among the best new restaurants of 2019 by OpenTable.
In a city like Charlotte, opportunities abound to sample flavors from around the globe. Here's a rundown of the city's best international eateries, as rated by Yelp. (April 5, 2019)
In other local news, The Charlotte Observer reports on plans for condos, offices and retail space to be developed on what is now a largely residential street in Dilworth, next to Atrium Health's sprawling main campus. The daily newspaper cites a city permit, filed by John Barker of DAS Architecture, which details plans for multiple buildings around a plaza on Lombardy Circle as well as underground parking.
And WFAE-FM reports CIM Group, the California-based owner of the EpiCentre, is expected to reveal in the coming weeks a plan for a turnaround at the uptown entertainment complex, which has seen a drop in business after multiple violent crimes there in recent months.
Yesterday's top-read story on the CBJ website: Newly assigned leaders at Crescent Communities talk about what's next for one of Charlotte's biggest developers (EXCLUSIVE)
In the national news:
- Trump's new national security team made fast work of Iran strike — The Wall Street Journal
- Scooter startup Lime exits a dozen markets, lays off employees — WSJ
- 'Chaos is the point': Russian hackers and trolls grow stealthier in 2020 — The New York Times
- Video shows Ukrainian plane being hit over Iran — The Times
- Steel hub's comeback preceded Trump, but he benefits — The Times
- Trump moves to exempt big projects from environmental review — The Times
- Boeing employees mocked FAA and flouted safety in internal messages — The Times
- Job market ends 2019 with disappointing 145,000 growth in payrolls — CNBC
- More than 1,700 stores are closing in 2020 as the retail apocalypse drags on. Here's the full list. — Business Insider
- Australia urges a quarter of a million to flee as winds fan massive bushfires — Reuters
Sports:
With Matt Rhule officially named head coach of the Carolina Panthers, CBJ has a roundup here of what he's had to say on a number of topics.
In other NFL news, voting ends Sunday for the Walter Payton Man of the Year charity challenge, and Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is still crushing the competition with roughly 578,000 mentions on Twitter as of Friday morning. By comparison, the No. 2-ranked nominee, Kyle Rudolph of the Minnesota Vikings, has racked up about 280,000 mentions. Fans can vote in the challenge by tweeting a player's unique hashtag — for QB1, for example, that hashtag is #WPMOYChallengeNewton.
And, as for the teams that are still in the playoffs: The Minnesota Vikings will face the San Francisco 49ers, and the Tennessee Titans will play the Baltimore Ravens, in the divisional round tomorrow. Sunday's games will feature the Houston Texans against the Kansas City Chiefs followed by the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers.
The Charlotte Hornets have extended a partnership with LendingTree Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE) that keeps a logo for the locally based provider of online loan marketplaces and other services on players' jerseys. An industry source estimated the agreement includes a 10% increase for the Hornets from the jersey patch and related advertising LendingTree does with the team and at Spectrum Center, pushing the cost of the sponsorship close to $5 million per year. CBJ has more details here.
Languishing at 15-25 as the midpoint of the regular season nears, the Hornets are on the road this weekend to face the Utah Jazz today and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.
This week and beyond:
Queens Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week returns Jan. 17, with a dozen new restaurants among the participants.
Find details and registration for upcoming CBJ events here, and place nominations for awards programs here.