Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Emeril closing in uptown Charlotte



e2 emeril’s eatery and e2GO will close April 26, the company announced this morning. "It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of e2 emeril’s eatery,” chef Emeril Lagasse, owner and executive chef of the restaurant, says in a statement. The concept, at 135 Levine Avenue of the Arts, opened in 2012 and was a departure for the celebrity chef, who was one of the first Food Network stars (catchphrase: "Bam!") and first came to prominence with his New Orleans restaurants and food from that region. He eventually branched out to everything from burgers to steakhouses, in places from Bethlehem, Pa., to Las Vegas. Here, the menu was eclectic.

The Week quoted him in September as saying: "I have nowhere to go, really — other than broke" at an event to promote a TNT reality series, saying the industry was becoming increasingly difficult. The show's website seems to be not functional, and its Facebook page hasn't been posted to since December.

The Charlotte restaurant announced its closing on both its Twitter account ("The restaurant was never able to achieve the volume projected when we came to Charlotte" and its Facebook page.

It will maintain regular hours of operation for lunch and dinner through April 25. 704-414-4787; www.emerilsrestaurants.com/e2-emerils-eatery.

8 comments:

Str3 said...

It's unfortunate; however, the food was always over salted and overpriced for the portion sizes. It was doomed from the start.

Julie Allen said...

I have eaten there 3 times (because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment) and each time was worse then the time before. I went there first time for restaurant week and figured they might just overwhelmed by that crowd. Then I went back for after work drinks and apps and we were there for nearly 4 hours just to get appetizers. And the final time I went because a friend raved about the bar manager, and while he was awesome the food was still sub par. I haven't been back since.

Anonymous said...

Not surprising, my wife and I went once shortly after it opened - extremely noisy, unable to hold a conversation sitting side by side at a table and after a 30 minute wait after being seated and no one coming by to even take a drink order we walked out.

Anonymous said...

Also gave it three shots, overrated and over priced. Good news is the space is available for better restaurant

Unknown said...

Yet another pin in Michael Smith's tin foil balloon that there are no $50-a-plate restaurants for the tens of thousands of millionaires to eat.

What uptown needs is some more mid-priced restaurants that neither require a small home equity line of credit loan to eat a good meal in nor are a fast-food joint. I would dearly love for Pizzaria Uno to come back to uptown, and perhaps a nice Mexican place (more real Mexican than Moe's or Salsarita's).

Anonymous said...

Last Panthers-Saints game here they held a pregame "street party" for obnoxious Saints fans.

Enough said, good riddance.

Anonymous said...

This is very unfortunate, but I can see the reasoning behind it. People don't realize that Charlotte is still a budget conscious city in which people are not going to consistently pay big money for upscale dining that does not tickle the tummy consistently.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Schwab reviewed e2 early on and complained about the Knight Theater digital sign shining through the window - great review, Ms. Schwab.

When it comes to the typical Charlottean's palate, I'm not surprised that folks are wanting more "mid-priced" chains. Unfortunately, Charlotte will always behind other Southern food cities like Charleston and Atlanta.