April SouthPark 2026

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FROM THE EDITOR

Last year, over a couple of weeks right before spring, I watched from my back porch as a flock of noisy birds took over my backyard, trilling loudly each morning and erratically flitting to and fro.

I know next to nothing about birds, but after a few days of this mysterious residency, I did a little online sleuthing. According to Professor Google, these little creatures with gray feathers, bright yellow-banded tails and menacing black masks were cedar waxwings. Species identified, now I wanted to know why, day in and day out, they were making such a commotion.

Turns out, during the winter months, these fruit-dependent birds subsist on a diet of 100% berries — cedar, holly, juniper, dogwood. Because they eat so much fruit, it’s not unusual for them to become intoxicated (or even die!) from ingesting overripe, alcohol-laced berries fermenting on the branch.

My hollies were bursting with berries! And these unsuspecting birds were, I presume, quite literally drunk. Mystery solved.

I’m not sure who enjoys porch season the most — me or my dogs, who love to stretch out on their beds, eyes closed, heads turned toward the sun. New SouthPark contributor and former Charlotte Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson also writes about porch season — far more eloquently than me — in his column, “State of Mind,” on page

73. “Sometimes the news is not what we think about as THE NEWS,” Tommy says. “Sometimes it’s the way the morning light makes shadow puppets on the wall, or how a flouncing bass ripples the surface of a farm pond, or a long open road and all day to drive it. That’s the beat I want to cover here. The in-betweens. The things we remember long after the story of the day is gone.”

Tommy is one of two new columnists in this month’s issue, along with Taylor Bowler. In her new back-page column, Taylor plans to explore cultural trends through a local lens. “I want ‘Crowning Moments’ to feature people I’m rooting for. It could be recognizable folks like local athletes, chefs, designers, CEOs … or just ordinary people doing good things for the city.”

It’s also our annual Home + Garden issue, so post up on the porch and enjoy a little reading — just be sure to keep an eye out for any boozedup birds. SP

CATHY MARTIN

3–The George Hotel in Georgetown, South Carolina (page 110)

4–Come

April

BLVD.

20 | people

SouthPark Sit-down: Birdie Yang

26 | interiors

In her new textile line, Alexis Warren creates punchedup patterns blending bold hues with heirloom designs.

32 | design

Gillian Stovall founded Part & Parcel Goods to create handcrafted rugs with original-but-timeless designs.

36 | style

As Bravo’s “Top Chef Carolinas” airs this spring, a look at the on-air fashions worn by the show’s dynamic hosts.

44 | collectors

A world traveler’s east Charlotte cottage is a dramatic showcase for thrifted finds and treasures from a life of adventure.

50 | arts

A new Caravaggio exhibit at Mint Museum Uptown explores the far-reaching impact of the Baroque master’s radical light, realism and scandal.

58 | food + drink

For Tart founder Becca Rankin, desserts are more than an afterthought.

64 | around town

What’s new and coming soon in the Queen City

66 | happenings

April calendar of events

DEPARTMENTS

71 | bookshelf

April’s new releases

73 | state of mind

A place to watch the world

77 | simple life

A garden reborn, and just maybe, ready for prime time

115 | swirl

Parties, fundraisers and events around Charlotte

120 | crowning moments

A nod to print’s staying power and the enduring value of storytelling

FEATURES

82 | Splendid settings by Cathy Martin photographs by Amy Kolo

14 Charlotte designers create knockout tablescapes at the second annual Come to the Table.

86 | A garden grows in Eastover by Taylor Bowler photographs by Dustin and Susie Peck Karri Files Paul modernizes a traditional backyard while keeping its beloved rose garden intact.

94 | Going all in by Cathy Martin photographs by Dusin and Susie Peck

Brooke Adler guides a Myers Park family through a top-to-bottom redesign, with only minor structural tweaks.

102 | From spec to spectacular by Taylor Bowler photographs by Loli Photography Designer Britni Antonelli injects color and character into her builder-basic house in NoDa.

TRAVEL

110 | By design by Daria Smith

5 Southern hotels where aesthetics take center stage

ABOUT THE COVER:

Garden designed by Karri Files Paul of KFiles Design; photograph by Dustin and Susie Peck

SUNNY Spring Style

1230 West Morehead St., Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208

704-523-6987 southparkmagazine.com

Ben Kinney Publisher publisher@southparkmagazine.com

Cathy Martin Editor cathy@southparkmagazine.com

Sharon Smith Assistant Editor sharon@southparkmagazine.com

Andie Rose Creative Director

Alyssa Kennedy Art Director alyssamagazines@gmail.com

Whitley Adkins Style Editor

Sarah Fligel Proofreader

Contributing Editors

David Mildenberg, Michael J. Solender

Contributing Writers

Michelle Boudin, Taylor Bowler, Natalie Dick, Jim Dodson, Page Leggett, Olivia Lee, Daria Smith, Tommy Tomlinson

Contributing Photographers

Daniel Coston, Justin Driscoll, Richard Israel, Amy Kolodziej, Loli Photography, Dustin and Susie Peck

Contributing Illustrators

Gerry O’Neill, Gary Palmer

ADVERTISING

Jane Rodewald Sales Manager 704-621-9198

jane@southparkmagazine.com

Lynda D. Kuehni Account Executive lynda@southparkmagazine.com

Mercy Clark Marketing Specialist mercy@southparkmagazine.com

Brad Beard Graphic Designer

Letters to the editorial staff: editor@southparkmagazine.com

Instagram: southparkmagazine

Facebook: southparkmagazine

LinkedIn: SouthPark Magazine

Owners

Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, David Woronoff in memoriam Frank Daniels Jr.

David Woronoff President david@thepilot.com Published

Tommy Tomlinson has spent 40 years in journalism and nearly all of those years in North Carolina. He has profiled Dean Smith and sipped Junior Johnson’s moonshine and watched the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse make its long, slow crawl from one site to another. These days he likes to write about the spaces in between the headlines — the moments that often end up mattering the most. He lives in Charlotte with his wife, Alix Felsing.

Taylor Bowler is a Charlotte-based writer

SouthPark

years as lifestyle editor at Charlotte magazine. She continues to write about the people and places that define the Queen City, and she’s thrilled to be back in the pages of . When she’s not working, you can usually find her folding laundry, listening to truecrime podcasts or shuttling her kids to soccer.

Daria Smith is a Charleston-based storyteller and editor who writes about travel, food and sporting culture across the American South. Her work traces the character of a place through its landscapes, from design-forward hotels to the personalities that give the region its texture, with bylines in Garden & Gun, Good Grit, The Michelin Guide, Southern Living and Covey . When not on the road reporting, she’s usually wading in a lowcountry salt marsh, watching for tailing redfish before laying out a fly.

blvd.

people, places, things

LAKESIDE RETREAT

This dreamy lakefront home is only 20 minutes from uptown Charlotte, on a grassy peninsula at Lake Wylie. The location of the HGTV Dream Home 2026 was revealed in December. Atlanta designer Brian Patrick Flynn incorporated custom millwork, an earth-toned palette, vintage collectibles, and stone and other organic materials in the home’s design. The 3,000-square-foot house was built by Fort Mill, South Carolina-based Knotts Builders. One lucky winner — to be announced in June — will receive the home, plus $100,000. While the sweepstakes is closed, you can view more photos of the home at southparkmagazine.com. SP

SOUTHPARK SIT-DOWN

BIRDIE YANG

The self-described “quiet Asian kid” continues shaping Charlotte’s culinary scene.

by Natalie Dick | photographs by Richard Israel

Birdie Yang likes to fly under the radar. He considers himself a small-business owner and a regular guy, rather than a restaurateur. But his impact on Charlotte’s food scene over the last 19 years tells a different story. Yang has built a thriving family of restaurants centered on traditional Asian cuisine made with premium, fresh ingredients, subtly infused with influences from other cultures along the way.

“I don’t like the title entrepreneur or restaurateur,” Yang says as we settle in over warm cups of green tea at Yama LoSo, one of his five restaurants. “I’m just a normal, down-to-earth person who came from nothing and sacrificed everything to make something happen. And I continue to do so with the support of my team. Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”

Yang has the kitchen prepare a sampling of dishes, including miso-marinated black cod, tuna truffle crisps, shrimp yakisoba and chicken negi kushiyaki. Each plate looks like a small work of art — thoughtfully crafted, presented on fine Japanese pottery and placed atop the locally hand-milled table where we’re seated.

“The sablefish is my favorite,” Yang says, “and of course, sushi.”

For Yang, dining is as much about the experience as it is about the food. A lifelong student of Japanese culture, he travels to Asia and Europe annually to refine his palate and deepen his culinary knowledge. His goal is to educate diners in a sophisticated yet understated way, encouraging them to explore while always feeling at home.

“I like to challenge people to expand their comfort zones,” he says, waving to regulars filing in during the lunch rush. “But it’s also important they feel comfortable and welcome — like family. It’s not stuffy here.”

Opened in 2024, Yama LoSo is the newest iteration of the Yama brand, which also includes locations in Waverly, SouthPark and, coming soon, Cornelius.

tiger

a spicy garlic

Sashimi (opposite page): Hon maguro (bluefin tuna), Hamachi (yellowtail), Sake (Scottish salmon), Hirame (fluke) and Suzuki (striped bass)

“That will be the final Yama spot in the Charlotte area,” Yang shares. “After that, the team will have to decide how hungry they are to grow. If we do expand, the Raleigh/Triangle area would likely be next.”

Meanwhile, Yang’s first restaurant — Yama SouthPark, originally named Yama Asian Fusion — is undergoing a complete renovation ahead of its 20th anniversary. Change is also coming for Baku, the high-end Japanese restaurant and lounge across from SouthPark Mall that Yang purchased in 2016. The location will close this month due to redevelopment of the site, though Yang plans to reopen Baku either there or in a new space.

“There’s so much energy behind Baku,” he says. “It must be the right spot, the right vibe, the right decor. I envision it as more of an entertainment destination than just a restaurant.”

His success hasn’t come without challenges. And the restaurant industry is notoriously unforgiving.

“It can be cutthroat, with small margins and intense competition,” Yang says. “But it’s the love of the people that keeps me going. Seeing longtime guests, watching their kids grow up — that’s magical. Money matters, but it’s not the most important thing.”

FROM ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TO RESTAURANT LIFE

Japanese food culture has been part of Yang’s life for as long as he can remember. Born in China, he moved to New York City in 1989 — his father worked as a sushi chef at Hatsuhana, one of the city’s oldest and most revered sushi restaurants. A decade later, the family relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where his father opened his own restaurant — and a teenage Yang began working alongside him.

“I was that typical quiet Asian kid who did well in school,” Yang says with a laugh. “I worked a lot of positions — dishwasher, busboy, everything. I loved it. I became fascinated with the food scene.”

That fascination eventually led him to drop out of college, abandoning a future in electrical engineering for a career in the restaurant world.

“My parents weren’t happy,” he admits. “It wasn’t the path they had hoped for their son. Like most Asian parents, they wanted me to be an engineer, doctor or lawyer.”

Despite their disapproval, Yang took a leap of faith in 2007, moving to Charlotte in his early 20s to open Yama Asian Fusion with two partners.

Tuna Truffle Crisps:

Tempura seaweed chips topped with bluefin tuna and avocado, dressed in spicy aioli and truffle ponzu, garnished with masago and spring onion

Kyuri Roll: Bluefin tuna, Scottish salmon and yellowtail wrapped in cucumber with avocado and tempura flakes, drizzled with truffle ponzu

TAKE FIVE

Pet peeve when dining out: Restaurants that try to do too many things. A clear identity done extremely well is what matters most.

Misconceptions about Japanese food: People think it’s only sushi and ramen. It’s so much more Languages spoken other than English: Three types of Chinese, some Japanese and broken Spanish

“It was nerve-racking,” he recalls. “It was my first business, and Charlotte was slower back then. The Asian food scene was behind. I chose SouthPark because I believed the demographic would support it. We didn’t know what would happen, but we were all in.”

The partners helped build the restaurant themselves, learning from a master millworker to install the interior woodwork. Yang hopes to salvage some of that original wood in the current renovation. If all goes as planned, Yama SouthPark will reopen in May.

“Yama means ‘mountain’ in Japanese,” he explains. “It represents my journey to the top — and our goal to serve food at the very highest level.”

QUALITY MATTERS

Following Japanese tradition, Yang is meticulous about sourcing ingredients.

“I have a two-generation relationship with my fish broker in New York,” he says. “Our fish is flown in daily. We could lower the grade, and most customers wouldn’t know — but it’s a principle we believe in.”

That commitment extends beyond food. Yang holds international wine certifications, and he’s among a select group certified as an Advanced Sake Professional. There are fewer than 350 worldwide — Yang completed rigorous training in Japan under global experts to earn the title. His restaurants offer up to 80 sakes from across Japan.

“My favorites are Tatenokawa and Born,” he says, before quickly adding, “But I’m still learning. It’s a journey — just like food. Once you get into it, it’s hard to escape.”

Bucket list: There are three mountains in Asia that I want to hike: Taishan, Huangshan and Emei. My wife and I are also planning to go to Tibet.

Hobbies: I’m a big car guy. My go-to is Porsche. I also like to collect watches. I like anything mechanical. It’s the appreciation for craftsmanship.

Yang also cites local mentors, including Peter Pappas of Crosland Southeast and the late Tom Hager, founder of Goldie’s, CharBar No. 7 and Hickory Tavern. Under their guidance, Yang made one of his boldest moves yet: investing $14 million in 2021 to transform a 1.25acre site in Lower South End into the restaurant and entertainment hub that now houses Yama LoSo.

“In this business, you either go corporate and sell — or you build a family business,” he says. “I chose family. I want to give back to the community.”

PASSION PROJECTS AND THE PATH FORWARD

Unlike many successful restaurateurs, Yang relies little on advertising, instead letting his reputation grow organically.

“For me, it’s about the team and the product,” he says. “It might not be the smartest business decision, but I believe in doing it the old-school way — stay humble and let the people tell the story.”

Last May, Yang realized a long-held dream with the opening of Sora, a tasting-menu restaurant in Myers Park.

“We wanted to create something that transports you to another place — an intimate fine-dining experience like in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.” The French-Asian menu at Sora changes daily, with optional sommelier-curated wine and sake pairings. Nearly eight years in the making, Sora reflects patience, perseverance and evolution.

“I’m getting to the age where I’m slowing down. Now I’m focusing more on passion projects” like Sora, he says.

True to form, Yang keeps certain personal details private — his exact age, his real name, even the origin of the nickname “Birdie.”

“I don’t like to go back,” he says. “I like to go forward.” These days, he leans more heavily on his team while continuing to research restaurants worldwide and explore commercial real estate. Still, he visits each of his restaurants frequently — daily, if possible.

“We employ 160 people now,” he says proudly. “I feel responsible for them.” He considers them part of his extended family.

At home, his teenage daughters, Chloe and Ayla, whom he shares with his wife, Janine, are foodies just like their dad. But unlike him, they show little interest in taking over the family business — something Yang is perfectly content with.

“Like my parents,” he says with a laugh, “I’d rather they not go into the industry. They’ve seen how tough it can be.”

Although his own parents were initially hesitant about his career choice, Yang believes they eventually came to embrace it.

“My mom saw my success before she passed away from cancer in 2018,” he reflects. “And my dad — he’s a traditional Asian parent. He may not say it outright, but I know he’s proud. Deep down, I know he is.” SP

VIDEO EXTRA: What makes sake so special? Scan the QR code to hear Yang explain in our video extra.

TRIED, TRUE & NEW

In her new fabric and wallpaper line, Alexis Warren creates punched-up patterns blending bold hues with heirloom designs.

by Cathy Martin

Alexis Warren is no cookie-cutter interior designer.

“As I look at it, you’re paying for our time and expertise, and for us to do something different and unique,” says Warren, who founded her eponymous design firm in 2020. “We’re not in the business of making your house look like your neighbor’s house — your house should feel like you and reflect you.”

But finding one-of-a-kind fabrics and wallcoverings is a challenge, and Warren had begun to notice a gap when sourcing for her clients.

“We were coming across so many textiles that were feeling very trendy. I thought, ‘I’m going to put this in a client’s house and in three years, they’re going to be so tired of it.’”

The designer also has a penchant for things cozy and classic. So when she discovered the vast inventory of historical textile prints at Baxter Mill Archive in Rock Hill, South Carolina, it was like coming upon a treasure trove. The design center founded by former Springs Creative CEO Derick Close houses more than 1.5 million designs.

“It opened my eyes to what is actually possible in the textile design world,” Warren says. Last fall, she launched WARREN, a debut line of 52 fabrics and wallpapers inspired by heirloom patterns.

BIRTH OF A BRAND

Warren, a Charlotte native, launched Alexis Warren Interior Design in 2020 after working as an assistant to a local designer and, later, at Sozo Gallery. She credits Sozo owner Hannah Blanton, who now runs Selah Art Advisory, with showing her how to connect with clients — and, in turn, how clients should feel a connection with art.

“It’s something that evokes a feeling,” Warren says. “That’s really the same as designing your house. Yes, we like putting patterns and colors and textures together, and scale, because they work. At the same time, it should be something that also evokes emotion.”

In 2024, Warren visited Baxter Mill Archive to design a tablecloth and napkin for a photo shoot. There, archived patterns are scanned electronically and can serve as the basis for new designs. Designers can adjust colors and manipulate the scale of elements such as flowers, checks and plaids, even introduce new motifs to an existing design.

Seeking unique patterns for her clients, Warren began creating one-off fabric designs. Then Baxter Mill asked her to create a set design for an event in Charleston, South Carolina. During the process, she and her team realized they had developed a complete line — or at least the foundation for one.

“We decided to go ahead and take the plunge and go for it.”

LIVED-IN AND LOVED

Starting WARREN was a full-circle moment for Alexis, who started out majoring in textile design at N.C. State University before switching to psychology.

She views the line as a way to offer something new and unique for her clients, other designers or anyone who wants to add a timeless-with-a-twist aesthetic to their homes. The upholstery-grade cotton-linen fabrics and wallpapers are sold to the trade and direct to consumers at warrentextiles.com.

“Taking so many old patterns and old colors and textures and bringing them back today just really added to what we can actually use,” says Warren, who tries to avoid repeating patterns when designing for clients. New designs are already in the works, along with collaborations including a stuffed Easter bunny with Lillou.

Mixing and matching color-saturated, heirloom-inspired patterns is part of the “lived-in and loved” aesthetic Warren is known for. She’s also keen on incorporating whimsical elements like butterflies and her signature bunnies for a more personalized look. (“Warren,” her last name, is also defined as a network of burrows dug by rabbits.)

“They’re pieces that are beautiful but they’re not delicate,” says Warren, a busy mom with a dog, a 3-year-old and a baby on the way. In creating WARREN, she leaned toward heavily patterned designs that look pretty but also easily camouflage small scuffs and blemishes.

“I’ve never treated items as if they’re overly precious,” she says. “That’s how I wanted WARREN to feel as well — beautiful but loved.” SP

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DREAM WEAVER

Gillian Stovall founded Part & Parcel Goods to create handcrafted rugs with original-but-timeless designs.

by Michelle Boudin

Gillian Stovall knew she would run her own design company, someday. It just took a little longer than she intended.

“I bought the name and domain [more than a decade ago] when I was 27. It means ‘something that is essential’ to you, and I knew I wanted to use it to fill a need in the home space.”

The Charlotte mother of two started working on Part & Parcel Goods in 2022 and formally launched her rug-and-textile company in early 2025.

Stovall has always had a love for design. After earning a master’s degree at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, she worked for an auction house as a home-decor and furniture appraiser.

“I thought it was my dream job, but I ended up hating it because it was very slow-paced and there wasn’t a lot of innovation.” She left to take a job at One Kings Lane, first as a buyer and later in product development for the online retailer. She left that role when she moved to Charlotte in 2016.

“It felt like this was a better place to raise a family, so we moved here and I became the Southeast [sales and marketing] manager for Sotheby’s Home, a marketplace for people to sell their personal antiques and heirlooms. It helped me build relationships with high-

er-end brands, because most of the furniture [made] in this country is actually made here in North Carolina.”

Soon after moving to the Queen City, she realized she missed working in product development and transitioned to a job at Chairish.

“I got to get even more in the weeds creating products and working with upholstery [with Bernhardt Furniture]. The last project I worked on was with rugs. That’s what really piqued my interest. I was shocked at how many looked alike, and even the higher-end brands would source an existing design and market it as their own. There was not a ton of originality, not a lot of people who did their own designs.”

Stovall began sketching her ideas and showing them to friends. The first sketch she did was for a tassel rug, which is now her company’s bestseller.

“I had been designing for a decade and I already had a lot of ideas, so I decided to take the plunge. And when I showed it around, people said, ‘I think you’ve got something here.’”

Stovall describes her line of 10 core designs — available in multiple colors and sizes — as timeless and classic.

“I’m really inspired by classic design and the history of a piece.

Guiding You Home in Charlotte and Beyond.

I know a pattern works when it creates a sense of nostalgia, but you’re seeing it in a new way — I have to have an aha moment, or it doesn’t make the line.”

While her process starts with the design, Stovall is just as meticulous about the materials and the people making them. She interviewed 60 different weavers before finding the right one.

“I knew I wanted to work with Indian weavers because they have a generational talent. I also only use the best quality, sustainable fabrics, like our 100% New Zealand wool and organic, sustainably grown jute and cotton. For the level of quality I wanted, I found natural fabrics were the best way to go, and the best products are made by artisans who have been doing this for generations.”

Most of the rugs are custom and made to order, and many of her clients are architects or interior designers.

“I’m not interested in selling on mass-market platforms. I don’t carry a lot of stock, and that’s an intentional choice.” Part & Parcel rugs are sold on her website, partandparcelgoods.com, and on

1st Dibs, Chairish and The Expert, upscale home-decor marketplaces for antique dealers and wholesale brands.

Having grown up in New York, Stovall has been pleasantly surprised at how well her products resonate with Southern customers.

“When I moved here, I was surprised by how many people entertain in their homes and how many of the homes have colors and patterns and so much light. It’s very inspiring and reflected in my work. My first month’s orders all came from Charleston!”

Soon, shoppers will find even more offerings from Part & Parcel Goods. Stovall is about to launch a line of durable performance rugs made from recycled-plastic bottles, and she’s working on a line of pillows.

“It’s a natural extension, and I’m really excited. I’ve always had a very clear vision for the brand. To see it happening after all these years is scary, but I’m also really, really loving it.” SP

STYLE ON SET

As Bravo’s ‘Top Chef Carolinas’ airs this spring, a look at the on-set fashions — and the Charlotte tailor who played a role in pulling them together.

by Cathy Martin

Everyone knows “Top Chef” is all about the food, and edgeof-your-seat viewing as a group of highly talented (and often photogenic) chefs perform under pressure.

But what about those outfits?

Kristen Kish wowed viewers and judges as the winning “cheftestant” on Season 10 of the long-running Bravo reality show. But since returning to the Emmy Award-winning series as a host in 2024, she’s impressing fans not for her knife skills, but for her jaw-dropping style.

Kish, who was born in South Korea and raised in Kentwood, Michigan, was attracting attention for her chic looks even before she returned to “Top Chef” in 2024.

“We’re crushing on the chef for more than her cooking skills — her grunge-y, simple style accessorized by plenty of tattoos is what first caught our eye,” reads a 2018 article from The Cut describing Kish’s “impeccable taste.”

Today, Kish’s on-air style is decidedly more polished, and the stylist responsible for those smartly tailored suits — along with the fashionable fits worn by co-hosts Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons — is Charlotte Rose Coleman.

“I started the first season that Kristen won, so she and I have a similar journey,” Coleman tells me in September on the Charlotte

set of “Top Chef,” which debuted March 9 on Bravo. As the show’s stylist, Coleman is responsible for sourcing and buying all the clothes the hosts wear on air.

“All of [the hosts] are very opinionated and have their own identity,” Coleman says. “My job is just to make them look a little better than if they were to do it themselves.”

TV VS. REAL LIFE

Despite some misconceptions about styling for a TV show, Coleman, who is based in New York City, says the process is actually very collaborative. And sometimes, that makes her work challenging.

“There are things like, I will not wear dresses, full stop,” says Kish, looking relaxed in slouchy gray sweats as we speak in her onset dressing room. “Don’t even try. Don’t even push me on it. And there are certain necklines that I’ve learned that I don’t like. And Charlotte’s like, ‘Great, no problem.’”

“[Kristen is] a pants girl through and through,” Coleman says. “And when she first showed up, she also was like, ‘I kind of have a color palette I like to wear — black, white, navy, gray.’ She never wore color, period.”

That’s where Coleman’s ingenuity comes into play.

“For me, the challenge is always: How do I keep making the outfits cool and different and interesting when we’re only able to play in a limited box?”

Coleman says part of her job is always reminding the hosts that their on-air personas don’t have to precisely match their real-life counterparts. For “TV Kristen,” Coleman’s moda operandi is to allow the host to “take up space,” projecting a strong stage presence.

“When we started, she hadn’t worn a pair of heels since she was in high school. And now she wears heels every episode.” Add a pair of flared pants, and Kish comes across as “bigger than life, in a way,” Coleman says.

“And it’s never gonna take away from the fact that at the end of the day, who she is in her true heart is a sweatpant-wearing girl from the Midwest who wears a backwards hat every day of her life.”

A MUTUAL RESPECT

Gail Simmons, who’s been part of the show since season 1, acknowledges that “Top Chef” isn’t inherently a show about fashion.

“But we want to look our best. We want to respect the challenge. … We also want to feel strong and professional and dress to make it part of the entertainment of the show.”

After working with Coleman for over a decade, “I feel like we share a brain at this point,” Simmons says. “She knows me so well — she knows the three of us so well — we have, like, a shorthand.”

Off camera, Coleman describes Simmons as a “cool Brooklyn mom.”

“She loves a crop shirt and a wide-leg jean, and she wears really cool sneakers. And you can’t imagine that, right?”

On set, Simmons’ style is confident, strong and a little sexy, even — a bit different from her earlier seasons on the show.

“I think that Gail has definitely transformed over time,” says Coleman. “When I first started working with her, I think that she

was put in this image of, ‘I’m a magazine editor.’ (Simmons worked at Food & Wine magazine for 15 years.) But as time has gone on, she’s not a magazine editor. She doesn’t have to play into the trope of what that looks like.”

“I don’t claim to know half of what she knows,” Simmons adds. “That’s why she does her job and I do mine, and she helps me get out of my head and change things up and wear new things, but also be myself and feel good.”

FROM MYERS PARK TO THE EMMYS

In September, while season 23 of “Top Chef” was quietly filming in the Carolinas, Kish wore a sleek, black pinstriped suit to the 2025 Emmys (both Kish and the show were nominated). Kish didn’t win an Emmy, but her look earned her a spot on Business Insider’s Best Dressed list. The slim suit, paired with a detached white collar and black tie, was designed and made by Walid Nassar and the team at Myers Park Tailors.

Nassar’s uncle started the family-owned business in 1989. Today, it’s run by Walid and his wife, Hanaa, who are Lebanese immigrants, and their son and daughter. Their staff of about 15 makes high-end, custom garments using fabrics imported from Italy, England and elsewhere. Unlike some custom clothiers, everything is made in their Kings Drive shop versus overseas factories.

“We live local, we breathe local,” Nassar says. “We do everything right here.”

Last spring, Nassar got a call from a staff member at Bravo’s “Top Chef.” The show was looking for someone to help with fittings for the contestants and hosts.

“We freed our time for them on a daily basis to be at their hotel

to fit the contestants first,” Nassar says. For the first few weeks, his team worked on tailoring the white chef coats worn by the cheftestants. Then they started fitting the hosts.

“They were in our shop on a regular basis,” says Nassar, who is no stranger to working with high-profile clients, including NFL and NBA players.

“I was surprised that Kristen liked us so much that she came in one night and she was like, ‘I want you to fit me for the Emmy Awards.’” Nassar wanted to create something extraordinary for Kish, who requested a suit that was open in the front.

“I came up with the idea at maybe 10 or 11 o’clock at night. I was working and I said, ‘I can do a faux collar — it’s going to look like a shirt on the top but it has no shirt body.’”

Kish came in and tried it on the next day and loved it, Nassar recalls. The entire process took about five days from conception to execution, including one final 24-hour push to get the suit finished in time for the ceremony.

“I was just holding my breath,” Nassar says. “I said, ‘Maybe it’s going to happen, maybe it’s not. Maybe she’s going to like it, maybe she’s going to change her mind at the last minute.’”

He didn’t know for sure that Kish would end up wearing the suit until she tagged him on Instagram the night of the Emmys.

“Kristen is a great person. She had shown a whole lot of passion about the shop and the business.”

And Nassar had no trouble adhering to the no-dresses rule.

“We had a long conversation. … She said, ‘I don’t look good in

dresses.’ I said, ‘We’ll go ahead and do whatever you want. We want you to shine, no matter how.’”

STEPPING OUT OF THE BOX

Before each season, Coleman visits the hosts at home to begin the process of building a wardrobe for the show.

“Charlotte knows what I like,” says host and producer Tom Colicchio.

“Given the nature of our show, suits and blazers and stuff just feel appropriate for him,” Coleman says, adding that Colicchio’s off-duty style is sportier, reflecting his passion as an avid fisherman.

Coleman has such a great working relationship with the hosts, she can be highly influential in getting them to step out of their comfort zones.

“There are scenarios where I’m like, ‘I would never’ and she’s like, ‘Just try it,’” Kish says. She cites a recent example: “I saw [the outfit] on the rack. I was like, ‘No way. I’m not wearing it.’” The garment in question? A bright yellow suit that Kish ended up wearing in the promos for Season 23.

“I never want to push them to feel so off-base,” Coleman says. “That’s why I would never put Kristen in a dress or a skirt. And that’s OK for me.

“I feel like people are watching ‘Top Chef,’ and they’re talking about Kristen’s clothes a lot. I’m like, ‘You’ve never seen anything other than pants, but you guys are loving it.’ We try to keep reinventing the wheel.” SP

BLACK-AND-WHITE

AND COLLECTED FROM ALL OVER

A world traveler’s east Charlotte cottage is a dramatic showcase for thrifted finds and treasures from a life of adventure.

by Page Leggett | photographs by Richard Israel

Brenda Schleunes’ home is a reflection of who she is: a lifelong storyteller with a dry wit.

“Everything in my house has a patina of age,” the 86-year-old likes to say. “Including me.”

Schleunes’ (pronounced SCHLOY-ness) background is in theater, and she continues to stage productions for her fellow Givens Aldersgate residents. The Greensboro transplant has called the east Charlotte retirement community home since 2021.

Every item in Brenda’s 1,600-square-foot cottage has a story. She traveled the world with her late husband, Karl Schleunes, a Holocaust historian who taught at UNC Greensboro, and she always brought treasures home. But objects don’t have to be expensive to be precious to Brenda. In fact, one of the most striking picture frames in her home came from Goodwill.

Karl’s rare book collection lines the custom shelves — Brenda had them built when she moved here to be closer to her daughter, Anna, and her two grandsons, who refer to her as “Bubbles.”

Alongside the books are travel mementos and photographs. One black-and-white image that commands attention is of the stylish young couple at the Winter Palace hotel in Luxor, Egypt, in 1989. Brenda found the Jugendstil frame at a flea market in Berlin. (Jugendstil, she explains, is the German and Austrian counterpart to art nouveau.)

In Brenda’s cottage, there’s no bookshelf “filler” — no “Live, Laugh, Love” signs from the clearance shelf at Marshalls or other mass-produced trinkets. It’s not that she doesn’t appreciate a bargain — it’s just that she’s collected too many objects with interesting backstories to need a random gewgaw.

BLACK, WHITE AND THE RED COLLECTION

Brenda’s preferred color scheme is black and white. (Even her 14-year-old shih tzu, Moritz, goes with the décor and, she jokes, also has “the patina of age.”) She’s used the striking combo in each

home where she and Karl lived. Many people would be too timid to paint their walls jet black, but not the woman who scoffs at beige. Brenda isn’t neutral on anything, including décor.

Her flair for the dramatic may stem from her theater career. For her master’s thesis at UNC Chapel Hill, she wrote about the value theatrical productions could have to elementary and middle-school students if the curriculum were reinforced. In 1981, she founded the Greensboro-based nonprofit Touring Theatre of North Carolina to do just that.

She often had to buy furniture on the cheap to use on stage, so she knew everywhere in Greensboro to score a bargain. Her go-to spot was, and remains, The Red Collection. It’s one of the largest consignment stores in the Southeast, and it’s where Brenda found a living room sofa for $350.

A COLLECTOR’S EYE

Brenda sums up her style as “collected.”

Mexican painter Juan Carlos Breceda is one of her favorite artists — Brenda appreciates his sense of humor. He often adds a whimsical, even nonsensical, element to his portraits. The woman featured in the Breceda print hanging above her living room sofa has a chicken on her head.

In the dining room, assorted Zulu baskets were brought home from two trips to South Africa. A collection of antique mirrors enlivens and helps visually expand the small space.

The antique china cabinet hails from England — Brenda discovered it in Chicago in 1968. Among the treasures inside are a set of goblets that were gifted by the staff at a South African game lodge she and Karl visited for their 40th anniversary. Each glass has a different animal — an elephant, a rhinoceros and others — etched on it.

The floor-to-ceiling column Brenda brought from her former home was given pride of place; you notice it when you walk in the front door. Her dear friend, Donnie Dorsett, painted it using a feather

VILLAGE life

‘THE THRILL OF THE HUNT’ Donnie, who died in 2024, loved thrifting and often accompanied Brenda on her shopping expeditions.

“He had an eye,” Brenda says. She describes her friend as an “odd-job man” who could “paint, sew and fix anything.” She and Donny once painted zebra stripes on a foot locker to use as a coffee table. He also made a zebra-patterned slipcover for a Lee Industries chair in her living room.

“Donny and I loved the thrill of the hunt,” she says. “I still do. I don’t need anything, and I certainly shouldn’t buy anything at my age. But when I find the perfect something …”

Brenda doesn’t need to finish the sentence. She’d already pointed out a basket she bought from Slate Interiors simply because it looked African. She’s been to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Morocco and Egypt. Just last year, she traveled to Meru, Kenya, for a niece’s wedding. As a ceremonial welcome, the groom’s family presented her with a white beaded collar, a wearable work of art that’s now hanging in her dining room.

Brenda believes in displaying, rather than hiding, one’s treasures. The beads she brought home from Jerusalem, where she and Karl lived while he was a visiting professor, are displayed on one of the small drink tables Brenda collects. (She loves their flexibility and maneuverability.)

You get the feeling Brenda has never followed rules or colored within the lines. And at 86, she’s not about to start. SP

DARKNESS AND LIGHT

A new Caravaggio exhibit at Mint Museum Uptown explores the far-reaching impact of the Baroque master’s radical light, realism and scandal.

by Michael J. Solender

Though 16th- and 17th-century Baroque realist

Michelangelo Merisi never had Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, he remains one of the world’s greatest cultural and artistic influencers more than four centuries after his death.

Widely known as Caravaggio, the controversial artist’s approach has reverberated across centuries. His bold chiaroscuro (strong contrast between light and dark), intimate compositions and unvarnished, street-worn figures have influenced artists from Rembrandt and Matthias Stom to contemporary

filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Isaac Julien, as well as music videos from R.E.M. to Johnny Cash. Charlotte audiences will have the opportunity to view a rare masterwork by the Italian painter at The Mint Museum, when Caravaggio | Revolution opens April 26. The exhibition consists of holdings on loan from Italy’s Fondazione Roberto Longhi.

Longhi, a late Italian art historian, scholar and curator, played a pivotal role in shaping modern understanding of early Renaissance and Baroque painting. His influential writings and critiques

Valentin de Boulogne, known as Le Valentin (French, 1591–1632).

Denial of St. Peter, 1615–17, oil on canvas. Florence, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi.

helped elevate Baroque masters, most notably Caravaggio. Longhi’s collection is central to the holdings at his foundation in Florence.

Alongside Caravaggio’s complex and homoerotic “Boy Bitten by a Lizard” (c. 1597), the show features more than 30 paintings by leading Baroque masters and Caravaggisti, artists who internalized and reinterpreted Caravaggio’s groundbreaking aesthetic. The show includes works by Jusepe de Ribera of Spain, Dutch master Stom and Valentin de Boulogne of France.

CARAVAGGIO’S STYLE: FOUR DEFINING ELEMENTS

Caravaggio’s style can be distilled into four defining elements, according to Mint Museum President and CEO Todd Herman.

“First is his radical use of light and dark,” Herman says. “Figures emerge sharply from deep shadow, creating drama, focus and psychological intensity. This chiaroscuro heightens emotion and pulls the viewer directly into the scene.”

Caravaggio’s uncompromising naturalism is the second element, Herman notes. “He painted real people with visible flaws — dirty feet, worn faces, imperfect bodies. For religious works, this made sacred stories feel immediate and human rather than distant and idealized.”

Bold composition also characterizes Caravaggio’s style, according to Herman. “He placed figures close to the viewer, used unexpected viewpoints, and reimagined familiar subjects without relying on traditional models, using beggars, prostitutes and even himself in his work.”

Finally, Caravaggio appears to have worked directly on canvas, without preparatory drawings. Influenced by Venetian painters, this method contributed to the immediacy and raw power that defined his work and distinguished him from his contemporaries.

RADICAL INFLUENCE

Beyond the striking intensity of his paintings, Caravaggio’s life was just as dramatic. He was known for his quick temper and involvement in street fights,

Left: Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591–1652). St. Thomas, circa 1612, oil on canvas. Florence, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi.

Right: Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610). Boy Bitten by a Lizard, circa 1597, oil on canvas. Florence, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi.

Matthias Stom or Stomer (Dutch, possibly Flemish, 1600–50). Annunciation of Samson’s Birth, circa 1630–32, oil on canvas. Florence, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi.

and he faced a murder charge that forced him to flee Rome. Stories about his relationships have also added to his intrigue. He died at just 38, and the exact details of his death remain uncertain.

For Herman, the fusion of radical artistic influence and a biography that still feels urgent and contemporary made bringing the exhibition here impossible to resist.

“I’m fascinated by the dramatic aspects of his background and how he was viewed then in contrast to how he’d be viewed today,” Herman says. “Do time and context allow for grace where we wouldn’t necessarily give it today? These are fascinating discussion points for museumgoers to explore.”

“Boy Bitten by a Lizard” is one of two nearly identical works of the same era by Caravaggio; the other is on display at The National Gallery in London. The work features an effete young boy with a flower tucked behind his ear. The figure is cited by some scholars as Bacchus, the Roman version of the Greek god, Dionysus. Some see this as a nod to freedom from social norms.

The boy is clad in an off-shoulder white drape and surrounded by grapes and other luscious fruits. Upon close inspection, he is being bitten by a small

lizard piercing the middle finger of his right hand. Whether or not this is an allegorical painting depicting the pain associated with excess — wine, sex, indulgence — or simply an emotional study of a boy caught by surprise is left to the viewer.

ATMOSPHERE OF MYSTERY

Caravaggio’s stylistic influence continues with many filmmakers and contemporary artists today, Herman notes, when asked about the exhibition’s title, Revolution

“When filmmakers like Martin Scorsese openly credit Caravaggio, saying [the feature film] Mean Streets draws directly from his work, it underscores that Caravaggio’s influence goes beyond dramatic lighting to creating an atmosphere of mystery where action is revealed but never fully explained. [It’s a] cinematic approach that continues to shape photographers, videographers and filmmakers.” SP

WANT TO GO?

Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation runs April 26 – Oct. 25 at Mint Museum Uptown. Tickets are $10 plus regular museum admission.

WOMEN WHO LEAD:

This is the second installment in a four-part series featuring trailblazing women in Charlotte’s culinary scene. From top chefs to bakers, mixologists to food-truck owners, local talents talk passion, perseverance and navigating their industries with grit and grace.

For Tart founder Becca Rankin, desserts are more than an afterthought.

SWEET DREAMS

by Olivia Lee | photographs by Justin Driscoll

Becca Rankin’s love for the kitchen began during childhood. She remembers rushing home from school to watch “Iron Chef” on the Food Network and later sharing meals with her family. Especially near the holidays, Rankin enjoyed sitting at the dinner table alongside her three older siblings and listening as everyone chatted about their day, all the while looking forward to dessert. In particular, she loved her mother’s holiday bars, made with Special K cereal, corn syrup, peanut butter and butterscotch chips. For Rankin, they smelled and tasted like nostalgia.

After graduating from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College’s baking and pastry program, Rankin began baking in the kitchens of Hello, Sailor and Kindred, later moving on to The Goodyear House.

“My greatest joy as a pastry chef is mostly just that feeling of getting to play in the kitchen,” Rankin says. During her five-and-a-half years at The Goodyear House, Rankin began dabbling with the sentimental flavors of her childhood. Using Jello chocolate pudding and Oreos, she revolutionized the dirt cup, a popular no-bake dessert that made frequent appearances at birthday parties in the ’90s. Rankin layered homemade chocolate wafers and pudding, topped with whipped cream and gummy worms and drizzled with a raspberry coulis.

In July 2025, Rankin decided to branch out on her own and start an independent venture, Tart. Instead of working within the bounds of bread and plated desserts on a restaurant menu, Rankin wanted more

creative freedom and to offer a wider variety of items, from cookies, cakes and pies to breakfast pastries.

REFINING RECIPES

“I absolutely love recipe development,” Rankin says. “I think for me, I really, really enjoy the artistic, creative process and kind of troubleshooting. … Like: Those cookies spread a little bit too much because I put too much baking soda in them. Let me go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to make them a little bit chewier or cakier or fudgier.”

For Rankin, research and experimentation started with scouting for the perfect vanilla cake recipe. She wanted a cake that had a depth of flavor, which can be hard to create with such a short list of simple ingredients. It required numerous iterations.

“There are so many different kinds of

methods to making a cake. You can go more of the sponge-method route (with the egg whites folded in separately), or you can do your classic mixing of butter and sugar together, and the eggs go in whole,” Rankin explains. “Each method creates a different texture that can impact how the flavor carries throughout the cake.”

Once she got the recipe just right, it became the base for all the cakes she bakes for weddings, birthdays and baby showers. (Rankin recommends filling her vanilla cake with lemon curd or raspberry jam and topping with a Swiss meringue.)

For one wedding, Rankin recalls making five cakes.

“It was very, very cool to see people going and cutting slices, and watching their faces and hearing them go, ‘Have you tried the key lime cake yet?’ Or ‘Go get a slice of carrot cake,’” Rankin says. “I think that’s

really where my passion lies, is getting to be part of special gatherings and have my food be incorporated into somebody’s most special day.”

A SWEET START

One of Rankin’s favorite offerings is Tart’s breakfast basket.

“I really love breakfast,” she says. “It’s my favorite meal of the day.” But mornings can be hurried and busy with workout classes or school drop-offs, leaving breakfast time overlooked. This inspired Rankin to develop a curated breakfast basket, filled with savory and sweet danishes, muffins, and scones, paired with homemade jam and whipped cream that can be conveniently delivered to the doorstep. Rankin recommends sharing items with a freshly brewed cup of coffee to create an experience that is defined by relaxation and comfort.

Tart’s seasonal menu, available at tartpastries.com, also offers quiches, cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, dinner rolls and focaccia — even homemade ice cream.

“I think what I love so much about food and what I love so much about cooking is that experience of people gathering together and being able to share the same experience.”

CHOOSING DESSERT

Rankin admits she’s become addicted to the satisfying feeling that comes along with making food for friends, family and customers, and seeing the joy that she is able to give them through food. This feeling is also what inspired her to take a risk by leaving her longtime role with Built on Hospitality. Rankin wanted to create a space where the focus is on breakfast pastries and desserts as a part of the culinary experience, rather than an afterthought.

“I think having my own business, I really want people to see that desserts are not just a sweet thing to finish the meal,” Rankin says. “I want people to realize that desserts can offer so much, and I want people to indulge in dessert.”

So, take a risk in life — and with cake — Rankin urges.

“You get one life to live, so let’s not be afraid of eating dessert.” SP

THURSDAYS

APR. 16 – MAY 21 5 – 9 pm at Symphony Park

eat + drink shop

Ladies of Lineage

Bridal at Phillips Place is now the exclusive Carolinas retailer for Danielle Frankel Studio, a New York label known for architectural draping, impeccable tailoring, luxury fabrics and modern-yet-timeless bridal designs.  New retailers coming to SouthPark Mall include TileBar, a wall and floor tile showroom; menswear brand Suitsupply; and a multibrand boutique featuring watchmakers IWC Shaffhausen, Panerai and Jaeger-LeCoultre. SP

Roots Cafe will open at 5033 South Boulevard in Madison Park in two phases. A coffee shop with cocktails, pastries, and limited dine-in and to-go items is slated to open in late spring. A second phase opening this fall will bring more seating and an expanded menu.  CRÚ Wine Bar & Bistro will open at Linea, a 34-story residential tower in South End. Dallas-based CRÚ will offer 30+ wines by the glass and more than 300 bottles, plus charcuterie boards, Italian-style sandwiches, Roman pinsas and more.  Guard and Grace, a Michelinrecommended steakhouse from chef Troy Guard, will open on the 10th floor of Vivian at Queensbridge Collective near uptown. It’s the third Guard and Grace location; others are in Denver and Houston.  The Improper Pig debuted its new Plaza Midwood flagship restaurant, along with a new menu of Asianinfluenced barbecue fare (Spicy Edamame, Kimchi Burger, Smoked Curry Rolls).  The Craic, an Irishinspired neighborhood bar and restaurant, will open at Sharon Square in the former Rusty Bucket location.  Fontana di Vino closed its SouthPark restaurant at Sharon Square. The Davidson location remains open.

Renaissance Patisserie at Specialty Shops

SouthPark expanded with a larger kitchen, more seating and a dedicated space for takeout orders. “We’ve built a community around the art of French pastry, and this allows us to offer even more — more space, more creativity and more of the flavors people love,” says chef and owner Sylvain Rivet. SP

Why Choose

For more arts events, view our Spring Arts Preview online at southparkmagazine.com

EVENTS + SHOWS

Mamma Mia!

through April 5

This tale of love and identity is told through the hits of ABBA. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter searching for her father brings three men back to the Greek island where they knew her mother decades ago. Belk Theater.

Spring Fitness on The SouthPark Loop

Tuesdays I 5:30 – 7 p.m.

Get moving with a free community workout on the lawn at The Colony led by local fitness experts from Solidcore, Hustle House, Motion Fitness and Studio Fire. Recover afterward with a free cold plunge from Sweathouz SouthPark. Don’t forget your water bottle, towel or yoga mat.

Charlotte SHOUT!

April 3 – 19

This annual celebration of art, culture, food and community brings more than 200 events and attractions — many are free — to uptown. Culinary highlights include Charlotte StrEATs (tastings and festival, April 11-12) at First Ward Park and the Carolina BBQ Festival (April 1718) at Victoria Yards.

Heritage Invitational

April 9 – 11

The weekend celebration of motorsports history includes a vintage INDY exhibition, a celebrity Pro-Am, an IROC competition featuring Nascar veterans and an invitational concours.

An evening with Kate Bowler

April 10

Spend an evening with Kate Bowler — bestselling author, Duke professor and

April HAPPENINGS

THAT’S THE TICKET

Concert season kicks off this month, with big-name acts coming to town. Snag tickets to see Eric Church (April 4), Mt. Joy (April 17), Zach Bryan (April 18), Bruno Mars (April 29) and dozens more — scan the QR code for info.

expert at telling the truth about being human. Carolina Theatre; tickets cost around $68.

Second Saturdays Market in SouthPark

April 11 | 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Shop Local QC returns to the green beside Legion Brewing with 20+ vendors selling baked goods, jewelry, candles and more. Monthly through November.

SouthPark After 5

April 16 – May 21

The annual outdoor concert series from SouthPark Community Partners brings free live music to Symphony Park, plus food trucks, drinks and hands-on art experiences.

Charlotte Wine + Food Week

April 15 – 19

This annual collaboration brings together Charlotte chefs and international winemakers. Events include vintner dinners, the Grand Tasting with more than 100 wines and gourmet bites, and a Rosé Brunch. Proceeds benefit children’s charities. Prices vary.

Charlotte Racefest

April 17 – 18

With a half marathon, 10K, mile and a kid’s dash, this SouthPark festival has something for every runner. Now in its 25th year, the race debuts an updated course, plus new branding and partnerships, with proceeds benefiting Go Jen Go. Registration costs vary.

The Medium

April 17 – 19

This Opera Carolina production of Menotti’s drama explores psychological tension and supernatural intrigue with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves starring and making her directorial debut. Tickets start around $33, Belk Theater.

Voices from the Past April 18 | 1 – 4 p.m.

At this event benefiting Historic Elmwood/

Pinewood cemeteries, 25 costumed storytellers share all about Charlotte’s history.

David Spade: I Got a Feel for It

April 18

The actor, comedian and podcaster brings his stand-up to Ovens Auditorium.

MUSEUMS + GALLERIES

Time Slot: Works by Leigh Suggs through April 22

This exhibition includes about a dozen works by Suggs, a Boone native, at the gallery at Arcadia Art Consultancy in Dilworth. Suggs’ intricate, hand-cut patterns and grids sometimes appear like optical illusions, shifting with the viewer’s perspective.

Robert Motherwell: Printmaker through May 9

See works from one of the leading voices of the abstract expressionist movement at Jerald Melberg Gallery in Cotswold. Motherwell’s reputation as a painter is matched by his extensive and pioneering work in the medium of printmaking.

Katrina Sánchez: Soft Grids

Damian Stamer: Angels, Ghosts, and Twins through May 28

Soco Gallery in Eastover presents these two exhibitions. Sánchez is a PanamanianAmerican artist based in Charlotte, who works with fiber, soft sculpture and murals. Stamer, a Durham native who earned his MFA from UNC Chapel Hill, explores themes of time and memory in his paintings. SP

Scan the QR code on your mobile device to stay updated on events at southparkmagazine.com.

Peggy Peterson Team

A royal roundup of the Queen City’s favorite things.

Calling all SouthPark readers! We know you’ve got an eye for design, a palate for great food and drinks, and a knack for identifying who’s at the top of their game in Charlotte. You’ve got your finger on the pulse of this city — and we’re asking you to share your insider knowledge by nominating local people, places and businesses for our inaugural Charlotte’s A-List awards. Cast 25 nominations and you’ll be entered to win a gift card to a top local restaurant!

For advertising information, please contact Jane 704.621.9198 or Lynda 704.891.2222 Get your nominations in today!

Nomination Round: March 17 - April 10

Voting Round: April 28 - May 19

Advertising does not guarantee advancement. Votes are tracked and validated by a third party ballot platform.

APRIL BOOKS

Notable new releases

compiled by Sally Brewster

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Natalie, a social-media celebrity, wife and mother, lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s 8 million followers don’t know won’t hurt them. Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal — and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Suddenly, it’s 1855, and her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is a competent farmer. Just yesterday, Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

Last One Out by Jane Harper

Carralon Ridge, a once vibrant village in rural New South Wales, has become a shell of itself, its houses and buildings bought up and left to rot by the mining company operating at its borders. A decade into its slow death, the skeletal town is all but abandoned, with just a handful of residents clinging onto what remains. After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she’d become one of them. But everything changed five years ago, when her son Sam vanished while visiting during a break from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy. When Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that something important was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure that its secrets die with it.

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by

Patrick Radden Keefe

In the early morning of November 29, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, capture video of a young man jumping to his death from a high balcony of a luxury tower on the bank of the River Thames. In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler is worried about her son, Zac, who said he was staying with a friend but never came home. Days later, two officers relay the dreadful news: Her son is dead. In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband struggle to understand what has happened to Zac. He had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. After his death, however, they learn he had adopted a fictitious alter-ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac became entangled with a slippery London businessman and a murderous gangster. As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac’s life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seems unable — or unwilling — to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley

At Christmas 1857, America’s future is precarious, and civil war looms on the horizon. After her abolitionist husband is murdered in the lawless Kansas Territory, Lidie Newton returns to her hometown of Quincy, Illinois. But her sisters have little comfort to offer, and Lidie is haunted by the memories of her failures — until she takes an interest in her niece, Annie. Beautiful, self-assured and mischievous, Annie becomes an actress at the local theater, and when she is offered the opportunity to perform abroad, she decides to run away. But travel is dangerous for a young unmarried woman, so Lidie, armed with her pistol and her wit, goes with her. The two women embark on a perilous journey across the Atlantic, rushing toward an unknown future in England. Once they arrive in Liverpool, Annie finds her way to a career, while Lidie becomes her lady’s maid. But will either of them be content with her new lot in life? SP

Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road, parkroadbooks.com.

SWEET SPOT

A place to watch the world

by Tommy Tomlinson

Every year I mark it on the calendar when it arrives: porch season. This year, we got a dose in the middle of February. We always get a brief false spring right around then. You know winter is coming back for another round, so you get outside while you can.

It was 74 degrees one day, 83 the next, and my wife and I took to the porch in the afternoons. The porch was one of the main reasons we bought this old house. It was built in 1929, ancient in a modern city of teardowns. When we got the place, the porch was half caved in — it had a big crack in the concrete, running down the middle. We got it resurfaced, and over the last 22 years, and two sets of porch furniture, we’ve spent untold thousands of hours out here.

There are some neighbors we see only when we’re on the porch. They stop by and chat on their way to get a beer down the street, or just on their evening walk. Sometimes they come to browse the books in our Little Free Library. Not long after we put the library in, a young couple with a little girl would stop by a few times a week. An older neighbor noticed, found out the girl’s name, and

started leaving books in there with notes for her. Then the couple discovered that the older woman had a dog and started leaving treats for the dog. I’m not sure that couple and that woman ever met. But those little gifts meant the world to them. And to us.

A year or two ago, a waterlogged branch fell off our oak tree in a storm and knocked out the library. We had it rebuilt. You can’t let go of a thing that gives you a story like that.

The porch is our party line, our message board, the place we catch up on news and gossip. It’s where we learn who moved out and who moved in, who got sick and who’s doing better. We have watched children grow from here, and watched other neighbors age.

This winter was a hard one. We had an ice storm one weekend and 11 inches of snow the next. Other parts of the state got it even worse. We got lucky at our house — the power never went out, and the pipes didn’t freeze. But man, a winter storm in the South can be lonely. We went entire days without seeing another soul. My wife is from Wisconsin and cheerfully tells stories about having to shovel the driveway every hour when they had

HOWARD HANNA ALLEN TATE SOUTHPARK

one of their regular blizzards. Some people down here — mostly transplants — take to the snow like golden retrievers. The rest of us just hunker.

A week or so after the last snow melted, I saw the shoots of one of our daffodils poking through the dirt. And I knew porch weather was coming.

I have spent some time over the years developing a theory about why the South is believed to be, let’s say, more eccentric than other parts of the country. I call it the Crazy Aunt Theory. In colder places, if you have a crazy aunt, you can just stick her in the attic. But our summers are too hot for that. So we put our crazy aunts on the porch where they can talk to God and everybody.

The porch takes us back to those looser, closer times. You don’t have to text anybody from the porch. You don’t need to look up their socials to see what they’ve been doing. They are voice and flesh, standing right in front of you, having real conversations. Sometimes, if somebody has a few minutes, they’ll come up on the porch and actually sit with us. Crazy, right? Spending time together, in person? And we will sit there with glasses of sweet tea, or possibly bourbon, and talk about — well, maybe, nothing. Some days nothing is the best thing to talk about.

And sometimes we are silent because there is so much to see.

There’s a movie from the ’90s called Smoke that features a character named Augie who runs a little tobacco shop in

Brooklyn. Every morning at 8, he takes a single photo of the street corner outside. One of the other characters thinks this is the dumbest thing he’s ever heard … until he looks through an album of Augie’s photos. Slowly, he notices the little differences, the way the light changes, the weather, the people walking through the frame. He is deeply moved.

That’s the way I think about our porch.

In my mind I can flip through the album and watch the magnolia on the corner bloom and fade. I can see the wrens who show up every year to build a nest under one of the eaves, making a warm space for their babies — first eggs, then hatchlings, then gone. I can see the lizards who slink out from under the house to sun themselves on the warm concrete. I can turn around the camera and see Alix sitting next to me. We moved here in our 40s and are now in our 60s and hope to still be around in our 80s.

That second warm day in February, two bluebirds floated into the branches of the ornamental cherry tree in our front yard. Our neighborhood is full of cardinals and robins and swallows. Hawks watch over us from the tops of the trees, and owls call to one another at night. But we don’t get many bluebirds. They felt like a promise. The hard winter was coming to an end. Soon it would be porch season for real. We could live out here again — not virtually, not digitally, but through the rich and beautiful panorama of real life. SP

A GARDEN REBORN

And just maybe, ready for prime time by Jim Dodson

On a warm and dry afternoon last October, as I mulched and watered my front yard’s 35 parched azaleas in the middle of the most punishing drought in memory, a shiny, white Volvo eased into my driveway.

A pair of well-dressed women emerged and introduced themselves as committee members from the local council of garden clubs. They had something to discuss.

For an instant, I wondered what crime I might have unwittingly committed. Unnecessary strain on municipal water supplies? Had neighbors complained about my loud (and entirely inappropriate) oaths issued at a rainless sky?

Instead, the first woman smiled and reached for my grubby hand.

“We understand you have a lovely garden,” she said, “We’ve come hoping to view it and ask if you would be interested in having your garden featured on the 2026 garden tour in June.”

Between us, they could have knocked me over with a packet of Burpee seeds. In my time on this Earth, I’ve built three ambitious landscape gardens and never given a passing thought that somebody might wish to see them. Especially a lot of serious gardening somebodies.

My first garden was built on a heavily forested hilltop in Maine, a classic New England woodland garden created on the remains of a vanished 19th-century farm that my cheeky Scottish motherin-law nicknamed “Slightly Off in the Woods.” It was the perfect

name because the only people who ever saw it were the FedEx guy and tourists who’d taken a wrong turn onto our dirt road.

“Nice layout,” the FedEx guy once remarked with a smirk. “But why build a garden like this that nobody will ever see?”

“Because I see it,” I said. “It keeps me sane in a crazy world.”

He thought I was joking. But any serious gardener will tell you that time spent in their garden is a cure for whatever ails the spirit. Most of us, in fact, never imagine that others will desire to see our gardens. We create them for us. It’s the closest we can get to playing God, as a famous English gardener named Mirabel Osler once said to me.

My second garden belonged to a cute little cottage in Pinehurst that my wife, Wendy, and I rented in hopes of eventually buying. The previous owner, an elderly gardener, had let his 2-acre garden run amok. I spent a year cutting back overgrown azalea bushes and battling wicked wisteria vines and even recovered a “lost” serpentine brick fence that had been swallowed whole by English ivy. I also built a beautiful wooden fence around the fully restored garden — just in time for disaster to hit.

The week we planned to officially buy the place, the kitchen floor collapsed, and we discovered that black mold was running like a medieval plague through the walls and floors. We moved out that same afternoon. At least the garden looked fantastic.

Finally, there is the garden where the women from the garden

council and I stood that afternoon. It is, without question, my final garden and, therefore, a serious labor of love.

A decade ago, we moved back to my hometown, taking possession of a charming midcentury bungalow built in 1951. I grew up two doors away from this lovely old house and always admired it. The owners were my parents’ best friends. Their grown children were thrilled when they learned that a pair of Dodsons would be their childhood home’s second owners.

And so, we set off to fully restore the property.

As Wendy got to work on the interior, I confronted the longneglected garden. It took a year of weekends just to clear dying trees and dead shrubs from the front yard before I could turn my attention to the backyard, which was so wildly overgrown I nicknamed it “The Lost Kingdom.”

Over the next decade, neighbors and friends got used to the sight of me getting gloriously dirty every weekend, rain or shine — digging holes, building beds, hauling in new soil and manure, eventually planting a dozen flowering trees in the front yard alone, with banks of hydrangeas and azalea bushes, inspired by a former neighbor who did the same during my childhood years.

In due course, our “east” garden became a flowering space with a tiered stone pathway and lush beds that are home to autumn sage, Mexican sunflowers, purple salvia, society garlic, Mexican petunias, Gerbera daisies and red-hot pokers. Knock Out and old-garden rose varieties preside over a trio of butterfly

bushes that monarchs swarm upon on late-summer days.

In the former Lost Kingdom out back, I built an Asianthemed shade garden that’s home to nine Japanese maples, scores of autumn ferns and monster-sized hostas. The final touch was a stone pathway that winds through this tranquil, hidden space, though only I and our three dogs have ever followed it.

Which brings me back to the lovely women from the council.

I thanked them for considering my garden for their June tour but pointed out that drought had taken an alarming toll. Moreover, mine was still a young garden, a mere decade old. It needed time to heal and find its way.

“Another year perhaps?” I suggested.

They wouldn’t hear of it. “Everyone’s garden has been beaten up,” one of the women reminded me. “But come spring, they always bounce back like a miracle. Yours will, too.”

So now, friends, April is here and I’m a man in constant motion — fussing, fixing, weeding, mulching, trimming, planting new things and getting gloriously dirty. A garden, of course, is never finished. There is always something to do, to change, to add or subtract, or simply fix. Nature abides no slackers.

Nothing could make me happier than to welcome folks to my reborn garden this spring.

Don’t mind my grubby hands, though. A gardener’s job is never done. SP

johndabbsltd.com

SPLENDID SETTINGS

14 Charlotte designers create knockout tablescapes at the second annual Come to the Table photographs by

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From peonies to poppies, tabletop bouquets were bursting with color at the second annual Come to the Table at Quail Hollow Club. Amid the fine china and bespoke linens, there were also whimsical elements like birdcages, caviar and (faux) cigarettes, and sourdough boules embellished with cheeky abstract faces.

More than 600 guests attended the designer event, which kicked off Feb. 4 with a cocktail reception.

“The energy in there was electric,” says Graylynn Rodrigues of the evening cocktail launch.

“We wanted to take it up a notch from what it was last year,” says Rodrigues, who co-chaired the 2026 event with Jordan Horstman and Beeland Voellinger.

15 16 17 18

15: Sarah Fisher, Matters of Style; 16: Kate Newman, K. Interiors Studio; 17: Laura Park Designs (presenting sponsor); 18: Event co-chairs Graylynn Rodrigues, Beeland Voellinger and Jordan Horstman

“[Event founders Lynn Pitts and DeeDee Dalrymple] did such a great job creating the foundation for this event. We were like, how can we spice things up a little bit?”

The organizers debuted the ticketed cocktail reception as a way of reaching people who were unable to attend the Feb. 5 luncheon — with Dallas lifestyle expert Kimberly Schlegel Whitman as guest speaker — due to work and other constraints.

“It tapped into an area that we couldn’t tap into [with the luncheon],” Rodrigues says. Another popular addition: pop-up shops, including local boutiques Abode, Laura Park and Thirty-One Jane plus Southern faves like Weezie Towels and Hunter Bell.

Come to the Table raised more than $170,000 in its second year. The event supports Beds for Kids, a Charlotte nonprofit that provides beds and furniture to children and their families in need. SP

— Cathy Martin

Almost immediately after Karri Files Paul’s clients moved into their Eastover home in 2023, they wanted to revamp the backyard. The property had a pool and an extensive garden with more than 20 varieties of tea roses, but the space was underutilized and lacked organization. The homeowners sought a pool refresh, hardscape improvements and a more cohesive garden. With three young boys and two dogs, they needed a children’s play area, a pet-friendly zone and clear sight lines to the pool. They also hoped to preserve the rose collection and layer it with a more curated plant palette.

The couple hired Files Paul, owner of KFiles Design, to reinterpret the classic English garden with a modern, livable twist.

“There’s a big difference between a yard for an older couple and a yard for an active young family,” Files Paul says. “My goal is to make sure my clients and their families are utilizing every square inch of their yard.”

Before tackling the cosmetic updates, they eliminated an awkward garage bump-out to open the space. Files Paul also worked with the team at Waxhaw-based Landmark Landscape to remove some trees and overgrown plants and regrade the sloped yard to protect the home from water damage.

They opted for faux turf instead of natural grass for a few reasons: Around a pool, where grass struggles anyway, turf keeps

“I’m not a fan of turf in a super large area, and I’ll never put it in the front yard,” Files Paul says, “but I love using it in smaller spaces for young families with highly active children.”

and roses. It’s a lot of different types of foliage happening, so it keeps your eye moving through the garden bed.”

Contemporary teak furniture from Harbour Outdoor grounds the patio, while topiaries on either side of the door are another nod to the English style. To enhance the existing rose garden, Files Paul incorporated companion plants like nepeta, hydrangeas, astilbe and lavender.

“The fact that we preserved that rose garden is a huge piece of what we did,” she says. “When a client requests cut flowers, it tells me they will hire a gardening team, which (the homeowner) has done, or they have a green thumb, which she definitely does. She was out there the whole time tending to her plants, and very engaged.”

At the end of the eight-month renovation, the homeowners had an elegant backyard with room to gather, swim and savor the rose garden.

“From a plant perspective, I’m proud of how it came together,” Files Paul says. “With the custom masonry and the custom treillage, there’s something beautiful to look at in every direction.” SP

GOING ALL IN

Brooke Adler guides a Myers Park family through a top-tobottom redesign, with only minor structural tweaks. by

Stealing space from an oversized guest bath, Adler created a cabinet with drawers for use as a drop zone by the front door.

After an earlier renovation by previous owners, the Myers Park home functioned fine for the young newlyweds when they bought it in 2012. But busy with work and parenting, the couple hadn’t paid much attention to the home’s design and decor. A decade and two kids later, they decided it was time to make it their own.

family

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“I just wanted to have an adult house,” the homeowner says. “I wanted things to be polished and put together. Frankly, we just didn’t have time.”

Initially planning to renovate in phases, the homeowners decided to go all in and tackle the whole home at once after consulting with contractor Sonoma Builders and interior designer Brooke Adler.

“My goal was to do the upstairs first,” the homeowner says, including the kids’ rooms and an overhaul of the primary suite. “The project expanded a lot more.”

The overall layout flowed well, but the exterior needed a facelift and it was time for new furnishings throughout the home. The home also had a few peculiar features that just didn’t make sense for the young family, including dual fireplaces in the living room and an oversized guest bathroom that felt like a waste of valuable space.

“There were giant columns separating the kitchen from the living room, so we removed those and put up a beam and that really opened things up,” says Adler, principal designer at Brooke Adler Interiors.

The family also wanted to capitalize on the natural light flooding the main living area.

“ ”

I just wanted to have an adult house,” the homeowner says. “I wanted things to be polished and put together.

“We wanted pops of color, but light and airy and comfortable,” the homeowner says. Removing a floor-to-ceiling stacked-stone fireplace surround made the room feel light and freed up space for a built-in cabinet for games and electronics.

“That was a nice functional-but-aesthetic upgrade,” Adler says. A pair of swivel chairs between the living room and kitchen connects the two spaces and provides a comfortable spot for reading or watching TV.

Along one wall, Adler suggested removing a pair of high transoms and adding two larger windows.

“It was a simple change, but it was genius,” the homeowner says. “Just moving those windows completely changed the design of the whole room.”

A corner breakfast nook with a pedestal table and a custom banquette — with faux-leather cushions for easy cleanup — is now a sunny perch for meals and morning coffee.

In the kitchen, new cabinets were installed and an attached breakfast bar with high seating — which the family rarely used — was replaced with a gleaming island and kid-friendly counter-height stools.

The home also lacked a drop zone for shoes, coats and backpacks. To tackle the problem, Adler carved out space from the guest bathroom to create a built-in cabinet and drawers by the front door that blends seamlessly with the design. The bath was across the hall from the guest bedroom, so Adler suggested connecting the two rooms to allow for more privacy.

“It was a simple thing, but very thoughtful,” the homeowner says.

The couple also wanted to ensure that their kids had a say in the design of their own bedrooms.

“They wanted them to feel like them and be fun,” Adler says. “In the process, we found things that they

didn’t know how to put into words early on.” That translated to plaid and Pokemon art for the son, and a botanical accent wall and framed butterfly prints for the daughter.

From start to finish, the project took a little over a year, with the install completed in about six months.

“Everything was open and honest,” the homeowner says about working with Adler. “The biggest thing she pushed me toward, which I did not think I cared about, was lighting — and they make the rooms.”

Starting with minor floorplan adjustments and moving through the design phase, the homeowners’ likes and dislikes began to reveal themselves over time.

“They were more focused on quality and functionality than they were on the design, which was fun for me,” Adler says. “They trusted the process.” SP

TO SPECTACULAR

Designer Britni Antonelli injects color and character into her builder-basic house in NoDa. by Taylor Bowler photographs by Loli Photography

s one half of interior-design firm pep + palm, Britni Antonelli knows how to elevate a home to its full potential. When her family moved to Charlotte from Richmond, Virginia, five years ago, they needed to find a house fast, so they purchased a three-level, 3,100-square-foot home in NoDa. The new build checked a lot of boxes for her family of four, but it lacked personality. So Antonelli flipped the script and became her own client.

“It was a beautiful home, but very builderbasic,” she says. “They were building it to appeal to all buyers, but it was as sterile as an operating room and screaming for color and personality.”

Antonelli made a few key changes before they moved in, like floor-to-ceiling kitchen cabinets and statement chandeliers in place of builder-grade lighting, then tackled the rest room by room.

“To me, it was important to make it not a modern farmhouse,” she says. “I don’t love a total Joanna Gaines look, so how could I, without doing anything major, make this a little more eclectic?”

Her priority was the first floor, where the family spends most of their time. In the living room, she covered the walls in a Thibaut grasscloth.

“It’s a beautiful gold-ish color, but it’s neutral enough that it doesn’t feel sterile,”

she says. “This house needed texture.” She installed a globe pendant light (“my personal disco ball”) from RH and dressed the windows in white linen panels. Since they sold most of their furniture with their home in Richmond, Antonelli had a rare chance to build the design from the ground up. She balanced budget-friendly white sofas from IKEA with a statement wood coffee table from Worlds Away, bamboo chairs and upholstered ottomans from Skyline Furniture.

Antonelli carried the grasscloth wallcovering into the kitchen and added shiplap around the window. She chose quartz for the countertops and backsplash, and finished off the cabinets with gold knobs.

The kitchen island has become a hub for Antonelli’s two kids, from breakfast in the morning to homework in the afternoons.

In the adjacent dining area, the white oval table keeps the small space feeling open, while woven chairs bring in more texture. A cowhide rug visually separates the space from the kitchen, and the framed print by Georgia-based artist Teil Duncan adds a pop of color.

Antonelli gave the primary bedroom “a full-color moment,” by painting the walls and trim in a rich brown.

“I’d been dying to color-drench a room in the house, and this was such a good, saturated color,” she says. She grounded the room with two layered rugs

from Loloi and furnished it with an ochre upholstered bed from Skyline Furniture and bedside tables from Crate & Barrel. A glass bubble chandelier from Regina Andrew adds a touch of whimsy, while brass wall-mounted reading lights keep bedtime practical.

In the primary bathroom, she used the same rich brown for the trim to break up the sea of white and punched up the water closet with a patterned Thibaut wallpaper.

“I loved that bold print because it matched the wall paint so perfectly,” she says. “It’s a fun way to add some personality, and not a heavy lift.”

Antonelli admits her own home is never

truly finished — her designer mind doesn’t rest — but it’s a far cry from the buildergrade box she bought five years ago. It’s also doubled as a pilot project as she’s built her network in Charlotte.

“It allowed me to test the field and the trade vendors before I put them in a client’s home,” says Antonelli, who started pep + palm with Kelsey Peyton in 2021. “I used (my own house) for testing wallpaper installers, electricians and handymen. This has been a whirlwind since we moved and started this business, so I didn’t finish all of these spaces all at once — but it’s definitely part of the portfolio now.” SP

“I love wallpaper — I look at it every single day,”

Antonelli says. “I would put wallpaper everywhere if it wouldn’t make it look like a clown house.”

Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation is generously presented by M.A. Rogers and Bank of America with additional support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Individual sponsorship support for this exhibition is kindly provided by Betsy and Alfred Brand; Jane and Hugh McColl, Pat Rodgers, and Leigh-ann and Martin Sprock; Beverly and Jim Hance, Anna McKeithen Webersen, Laura McKeithen, Susan and Loy McKeithen, Marshelette and Milton Prime, and Rocky and Curtis Trenkelbach; Sarah and Tim Belk, Mary and Charles Bowman, and Jo Ann and Joddy Peer; Marty and Weston Andress, Mary Lou and Jim Babb, and Robin and Bill Branstrom. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the City of Charlotte and the North Carolina Arts Council. Caravaggio | Revolution is organized by the Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi and Civita Mostre e Musei, in collaboration with The Mint Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. IMAGE: Valentin de Boulogne, known as Le Valentin (French, 1591–1632). Denial of St. Peter (detail), 1615–17, oil on canvas. Florence, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi. Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts | 500 South Tryon Street | Charlotte, NC 28202 | 704.337.2000 | mintmuseum.org | @themintmuseum

BY DESIGN

5 Southern hotels where aesthetics take center stage by

Daria Smith

Luxury in the South has always carried a sense of place — a history behind every heirloom. The newest boutique properties tell that story through interiors. Across the modern South, hospitality is in the midst of a design-forward renaissance. No longer content to play a supporting role to cuisine or coastlines, aesthetics have stepped forward as the leading character. Even sporting resorts such as Barnsley in Adairsville, Georgia, and Primland in the Virginia foothills have leaned into a more sophisticated vibe with recent designer-led renovations.

Here are five hotels where design-driven hospitality is redefining luxury in the modern South.

HOTEL BURG LEESBURG, VIRGINIA

In the heart of Virginia’s wine and hunt country, along storied King Street, Hotel Burg derives inspiration from Ralph Lauren’s

ageless aesthetic and Virginia’s natural landscape. Opened in August 2025, the 39-key boutique hotel, conceived by local firm wldwst alongside architect Michael Graves, integrates a preserved 1885 home into downtown Leesburg’s streetscape.

Inside, the lobby’s checkerboard marble floors anchor a sepia-toned mural of pastoral Virginia hills. Exposed beams, antique-brass chandeliers and wainscoting with dentil molding conjure a refined Americana — accompanied by Audubon prints, equestrian portraits, Persian rugs and blue-and-white chinoiserie.

Accommodations feature Morris & Co. wallpaper, velvet drapery and curated libraries stacked with classics. Eight suites reveal wet rooms with soaking tubs in glass-encased showers; two open to private patios with fireplaces for stargazing.

The Hunton, helmed by Michelin-recognized Chef Vincent Badiee, celebrates open-fire cooking and pulls from Loudoun County’s bounty — duck lettuce tacos, lobster Thermidor, “The

Game” pie (a hunter’s stew). The Diana Lounge offers a feminine counterpoint, wrapped in William Morris prints and inky-green walls beneath cascading crystal chandeliers. Two grand limestone fireplaces frame a statue of the lounge’s namesake — Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. Tasteful taxidermy mounts of pheasant, deer and antelope rise above giltframed landscapes.

Away from the hustle and bustle, the real secret is to slip away with your cocktail to the library for a nightcap. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined with curated volumes epitomize a modern gentleman’s study.

A Land Rover Defender ferries guests to Orvis-led fly-fishing and upland-hunting excursions, but it’s the interiors that linger long after the hunt.

THE DOUGLAS SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

The Douglas debuted in July 2025 in a meticulously restored 1853 townhouse, ushering a new chapter at one of the city’s storied addresses. Heart-pine floors gleam beneath restored Murano-glass chandeliers. Stained-glass transoms filter Savannah’s languid light into soft jewel tones. A staircase curves upward like a ribbon of history.

The project marks the latest from Obstinate Hospitality, the team behind Charleston’s Wild Olive and The Obstinate Daughter. Designer Kirby Caldwell envisioned the 16-room property as a warm, eclectic home, in collaboration with Reggie Gibson Architects and Glenn Keyes Architects. French antiques sourced from Round Top, Texas, mingle with tailored silhouettes. Turkish Oushak rugs soften a dusty-rose, sage and aubergine palette inspired by the city’s moss-draped squares.

Above a blush-velvet banquette, a gallery of windswept seascapes ascends, each canvas steeped in maritime lore. The Parlor invites morning coffee beneath tall ceilings; the Drawing Room, a discreet guests-only bar, radiates amber at dusk. Two-time James Beard Award nominee Jacques Larson crafts an a la carte breakfast. Evening receptions encourage guests to linger over canapes and charcuterie.

The building’s 170-year provenance — once a banker’s home, a gentlemen’s club, WWII-era apartments, a Girl Scouts annex — whispers

through preserved Eastlake mantels and replicated Victorian tile. A second phase is underway next door, which will add six rooms and debut Lester’s, Larson’s full-service restaurant, in late spring 2026.

THE GEORGE HOTEL

GEORGETOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA

Along the Sampit River, where shrimp boats idle and seagulls circle low, The George opened in March 2024 as the first new hotel on Front Street in nearly 50 years. An Indigo Road concept envisioned by Charleston designer Jenny Keenan, it signals a new chapter for the historic waterfront.

A jewel-toned, fabric-skirted front desk greets guests beneath lime-washed plank walls. Two-toned hardwoods ground patterned sofas and wingback chairs. Down an arched hallway wrapped in Schumacher’s “Birds Tapestry,” wildlife motifs echo the surrounding marsh.

The George’s 56 guest rooms — 42 of them water-facing — feature bespoke headboards in chintz and pastel stripes, vintage sideboards and ceramic lighting. Greens, blues, slates and creams mirror river and sky.

Culinary anchors deepen the narrative. The Independent, the hotel’s restaurant and raw bar, pays homage to the community’s former seafood market with oysters, red snapper and Grey Fox Farms chicken livers. Deep maroon interiors meet washed coastal blues, while a gilded mirror crowned with sculpted pheasants and delicate foliage commands the room, flanked by vintage oyster plates in rust, jade and ivory hues.

Outside, Eliza’s serves craft cocktails beneath the open sky. The dockside bar is a nod to Eliza Lucas Pinckney, whose indigo enterprise transformed South Carolina’s farming culture. Boaters dock steps from the lobby, easing into safe harbor along their Eastern Seaboard passage.

THE CELESTINE

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Balconies drip with wrought iron, and jazz slips through shuttered win-

dows in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The Celestine occupies the former residence of Antoine Amédée Peychaud, creator of the iconic Peychaud’s Bitters. Tennessee Williams is also rumored to have penned A Streetcar Named Desire within its walls.

Unveiled in February 2024, the 14-room hotel, designed by Sara Ruffin Costello, revels in romantic irreverence while honoring the layered lives that came before it. Now distinguished with a Michelin Key, the inn is the vision of hotelier Robért LeBlanc, a 2024 James Beard Award nominee for Outstanding Restaurateur.

Hallways burst with saturated color. French, Spanish and Afro-Caribbean influences surface throughout, tempered by a glamorous 1950s flair. Antique oil paintings hang beside retro rattan. Bathrooms showcase tile-inlaid room numbers like playful signatures. Personalized wet bars are a nod to Peychaud’s legacy — along with a downstairs cocktail bar led by CureCo.’s Neal Bodenheimer. Select rooms spill onto private balconies overlooking Toulouse Street or the hotel’s leafy courtyard.

THE DUNLIN

JOHNS ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

Just 40 minutes from downtown Charleston, along Kiawah River’s preserved estuary, The Dunlin unfolds like a Southern summer home alive with the color of marsh and sky. Opened in August 2024, the riverfront retreat, designed by Amanda Lindroth in collaboration with architect Robert Glazier, features 72 cottage-style rooms that embody breezy lowcountry elegance — wicker and cane, batik prints, honey-oak floors, and mint-green accents.

Scalloped valances frame double doors that open to wraparound porches. Deep soaking tubs provide river views. The Sweetbay Suite offers an outdoor bathtub and fireplace, where marsh grasses sway and dolphins surface at dusk. Conceived to move with nature, the property harnesses prevailing breezes and captures dappled light

through live oaks, naturally cooling and shading its porches.

Public spaces —The Willet Room bar and Linnette’s wood-fired restaurant — glow in Lindroth’s signature green, with rattan latticework and subtle nods to the dunlin shorebird. At The Cove, a 1950s-inspired pool deck channels a bygone beach-club era as palm shadows flicker across cabanas.

Yet it is the land that leads amid 20 miles of waterfront, with oyster-harvesting workshops, moonrise paddles through tidal creeks, and coastal safaris alongside roseate spoonbills, great blue herons and sea turtles. Guests can learn time-honored fishing techniques, from cast netting and crabbing to bait lining, or venture to the nearby goatery for cheese-making excursions. SP

MORE THAN JUST A CONVERSATION

PARTNER FIRST, PRODUCER SECOND

Evrybdy Studios knows how to tell a story, and they want to tell yours. Robbie Shaw, Founder and CEO of the studio and creator of podcast “Champagne Problems,” realized he had a passion and love for the art of conversation. He wanted the conversations he was having around mental health, adversity, and perseverance to be accessible beyond the scope of a one on one interaction. The answer? Going digital. He founded Evrybdy Studios with a team of “audio/video creators and marketing experts” who are excitingly ahead of the game when it comes to utilizing authentic conversation to establish trust, thought leadership, and brand awareness.

THE FUTURE OF BRANDING

Robbie and the team create full-service podcast solutions for businesses ranging from brand strategy to production and distribution. With today’s shift towards digital-first marketing solutions, Evrybdy Studios hasn’t just jumped on the bandwagon, they’ve started to drive it. In just two years, they’ve curated content from world-class experts, brand sponsorships and renowned guests, and have garnered more than 400k downloads across their client podcasts.

STANDING OUT AND MAKING ROOM

In a world where podcasts and audio/visual services seem saturated, Evrybdy Studios stands out by serving B2B and B2C organizations, helping them reach their target audience. “It’s not about popularity, it’s about getting information, thought leadership, and brand awareness to the exact people you’re trying to reach,” says Robbie about the intention and purpose behind podcasting. They carefully and masterfully create unique packages for each client considering business needs, making room for your stories and sharing your conversations with everybody.

swirl

A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Come to the Table

benefiting Beds for Kids

Quail Hollow Club

February 4-5

Some of Charlotte’s top designers created masterpiece table settings as a fundraiser to help families in need. Guest speaker and author Kimberly Schlegel Whitman shared stories from her career in hosting and entertaining, and signed her book, A Loving Table, for guests. photographs by Daniel Coston

A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Fashion Breathes Life

benefiting Cystic Fibrosis Foundation The Revelry North End

February 21

Host Angie Harmon and Panthers great Thomas Davis lit up the runway as supporters reveled in a night of fun and fashion for a good cause.

photographs by Daniel Coston

Greater Charlotte Heart Ball

benefiting AHA Charlotte Charlotte Convention Center

February 14

Patrons made it a heart-filled evening of dining, bidding and honoring those who make a difference in heart health.

photographs by Daniel Coston

A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Ballantyne Ball

benefiting Baby Bundles

Ballantyne Hotel

February 14

Ballantyne’s signature fundraiser gives back by showcasing a different mission partner each year. This year, the Valentine’s Day masquerade ball shared the love with Baby Bundles, which provides blankets and clothing to new mothers in need.

photographs by Daniel Coston

DSLB Galentine’s Fête

benefiting Sensabaugh Family Foundation

JW Marriott Charlotte

February 13

This evening filled with style and sisterhood started with a cocktail hour and included a fireside chat. A portion of proceeds support local women-led and women-serving organizations.

photographs by Brandon Grate

8th Annual Bank of America

Winter Warm-Up

benefiting Charlotte Wine + Food Bank of America Corporate Center Jan. 29

This cocktail reception and four-course dinner created by executive chef Tom Condron raised more than $130,000 for local children’s charities. The evening featured Shafer Vineyards with CEO Chris Avery as the star guest.

WORTH THE PAPER

A nod to print’s staying power and the enduring value of storytelling by

Taylor Bowler

Igrew up in an era when newsstands brimmed with glossy titles, so I still love the tactile magic of holding a story in my hands. The internet changed that game, of course. Now print is increasingly rare, making it feel more meaningful than ever. I know the back page is some of the most valuable real estate in a magazine, and I realize what a privilege it is to have this platform in a city I’ve called home for almost 13 years.

After two decades covering lifestyle, I only recently stopped to consider the common thread in the stories I love telling. It occurred to me that my favorite assignments centered on athletes, which was a surprising realization given that my primary beats were food, drink, travel and home design. As I dug a little deeper, it became clear that my focus wasn’t the sport itself, but the human story at its center. Because beneath every picture-perfect win is something far more interesting: the messy experience of being human.

thought of himself as making career transitions. Each role felt like an extension of the last.

“Everything was an attempt to be in and around the game,” he says. “So when an opportunity arose for me to follow what I love most, I was able to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Nothing excites me more than a smart, generous conversation with someone who’s dared to live a big life. And Charlotte is full of them. Look at Jay Bilas. The former Duke basketball star earned a law degree and became ESPN’s top college basketball analyst. He’s also a New York Times bestselling author and a frequent speaker, moderator and emcee. Jay moves easily across various media platforms, but storytelling sits at the core of his work.

“Every person that is involved in the sport has their own individual stories and collective stories, and that provides great context to the game,” he says. “People watch a game for the competition, but providing background and individual stories gives a richness to it.”

Despite all of the professional titles he’s held, Jay never

In the same way storytelling transcends print and digital formats, Jay’s love of basketball has endured beyond any single medium. He’s just adapted how he engages with the game. Part of that is inevitable as an athlete’s body ages, but his staying power comes from a steady focus on the thing that’s always defined his work: basketball itself.

As a journalist, that hits me where I live. The formats may change, but I hope to stay rooted in this work, uncovering the unexpected stories of people we think we already know. These are the risk-takers and changemakers I want to highlight on this page. Women succeeding in male-dominated fields. Homegrown chefs who’ve become Food Network fixtures. Creative troublemakers who know art isn’t optional. Athletes committed to the slow, brutal work of greatness. I want to find out what propels these people forward.

I’ve learned that the best interviews rarely follow the plan; they’re the ones meant to last 30 minutes that stretch into two hours. We start with the basics (Where are you from? Where did you go to school? How did you land in Charlotte?), but the real conversation begins when you push further (What part of your identity took the longest to claim? When did you realize you were playing a different game than your peers? What skill mattered more than your title ever did?).

And that’s what I’ll always love most about this job: It gives me permission to say, “Tell me your story.” SP

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