Culinary Utopia?

This culinary utopia we speak of is much simpler than it sounds and consists of things we see everyday. My first experience with said utopia happened in Paris of 06 on my second trip to France. A friend and I rented a little apartment in the Jewish qtr above a few cafes which opened early and closed late into the night. Across from our apartment was an open air market that had handmade jewelry, clothing, bags, fresh bread, cheese, vegetables, fruits, pastas, wine, coffee, etc. This market didn't open up just on Sunday's, it set up and shut down everyday and was prepared for rain as well. I couldn't help but wonder where these people came from. Here we were, in the middle of the city and who seemed to be farmers of sorts showed up everyday with fresh produce and sundries! People came and went through the market all day to get breakfast, do grocery shopping, picking up lunch and dinner, until almost everything was gone. I smile just thinking about it.

All this brings me to the present time, where my daytime dining options( if I haven't packed a lunch) consist of Chipotle(texmex), Five Guys(greasy burger joint), Noodles( processed and packaged everything) or and old school burger and ice cream shop. Lunch is a discussion no one wants to have. Recently though an all raw food restaurant has opened in the area and it is worth dodging the cars to cross the busy street to get to.

We live in a city which claims to pride itself on promoting your local businesses and expanding culture... why have we not invited our farmers to come in with fresh meats, veggies and fruits? Why is it better to throw up(literally)another fast food chain instead of building an open market to support our locals all while providing a much needed service?

This is not a rant, but a simple idea.

A quick rant...

As most of you probably know there is a shortage of truly great restaurants here in Charlotte leaving our Queen City lacking the cuisine fit for her! Part of this issue is the over saturation of corporate chain fast food eateries. We will not refer to them as restaurants because they do nothing to restore anything to people except maybe some chemical preservatives and saturated fats! These places are NOT healthy, wholesome, or quality! ( Unless your idea of quality is utility grade beef, chemical pesticides and the like? ) The owners and operators of these places are not even "restauranteurs", but franchise owners preying upon large families and people on the go!They do not care about you as individuals nor care where the product they serve comes from as long as it is affordable, allowing them to make profit.

We will no longer accept this mentality from the people and places that serve us food! Food should be nourishing, comforting, fresh, grown/raised and prepared with care! We do not want to be fed foods that are proven to cause health issues,we all deserve to eat well and feel good! The best way we have found to do this is to eat at some of the smaller, chef owned restaurants where the Chefs are passionate about food, service and will care deeply about how their cuisine is regarded by their guests, preparing your food with care. Many local chefs prefer to use local produce, meats and sundries, advertising this on their menus and telling you which farm or breed the ingredients come from. We appreciate knowing these details!Get to know your local chefs, some of them even have multiple restaurants meaning more good food for us. We believe that by only supporting these small local restaurants rather than fast food chains is the key to preserving the availability of quality food and insuring its growth here in Charlotte!!! Oh yea... and fast food sucks!

Well here goes our first attempt to translate the desires of our taste buds into words for you all to read. Why do we think you maybe interested in what we have to say?

To my right we have Jamie who's passion and dedication to evolving fresh and skill full foods has led him to work with some of the countries most talented chefs.... we can only hope some of it has rubbed off enough to keep you interested!

Myself, I'm Cozy, an italian mutt who enjoys researching all aspects of dining. I'm constantly trying to find and create umami in the most natural of senses.

Together we have taken our love for life, food, wine and adventure to create this blog until our restaurant takes form.