New restaurants popping up

Catching up on openings, coming-up openings (and a reopening): 
Coming up:
Block & Grinder, a long-awaited restaurant from Jed Kampe (former owner of the New York Butcher Shoppe on Selwyn), with chef Kent Graham (who's spent time at the French Laundry and Plaza hotel), has a target opening date of March 11, if all goes according to plan. Says Kampe: "We're still going to have a butcher shop, but ... it will also be just a really nice neighborhood restaurant." Plan on high-end burgers of beef ground daily (and all through the day, from a recipe he and Graham played around with for quite some time), plenty of steaks, and housemade deli meats from smoked turkey to pastrami. Prices on steaks, he says, will run about $15 to the low 30s; he and Graham are still working on the lineup. There'll be a full bar, but also a wine retail section in the back of the place, which should seat about 70, with 20 on the patio.
2935 Providence Road (in the former Panda Express, at the corner of South Sharon Amity); 704-364-2100; www.blockandgrinder.com.

Carrburritos will offer margarita specials at its grand opening, Jan. 16: $4 house ones and $6 specialty ones, plus T-shirt giveaways and gift certificate sweepstakes. This is the second location for a Carrboro taqueria-style spot and is at 445 S. Main St. in Davidson, within the Wooden Stone Gallery. 704-237-3040; www.carrburritos.com.

Crisp is slated to open its third salad-centric spot, at Latta Arcade, within the month. It'll be takeout only, focus on salads primarily (with a few sandwiches, but no pizzas), and open 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. weekdays. 320 S. Tryon St.; 704-376-0015.

Luciano's, part of the Georgia-based Italian chain, is looking to open by the end of February, according to general manager Polo Castro. That's at 1910 South Blvd., the former La Paz spot; www.lucianositaly.com.

Now open:

Letty Ketner now has Letty's in the former Foskoskies at 2121 Shamrock Drive, serving shrimp creole, honey pecan chicken, "neatloaf" (veggie meatloaf) and more, including Sunday brunch. You may recall Ketner from the old Hotel Charlotte; she says several other longtime Hotel Charlotte staffers are here, including "my better half Ron Ketner" as bar manager. First wine tasting event will be Jan. 27, with six courses and six wines for $35. 704-817-8702.

Joe Hooper's Beverage and Sandwich Exchange is open at 1300 Central Ave. (formerly Stackers), with what it calls "a unique take on bar food," including deviled eggs, fried bologna sandwich and a burger with bacon and fried mac 'n cheese. The place is sibling to All American Pub, Braswells, Whiskey Warehouse and Jack’s Corner Tap in Cornelius. 704-334-2434.

Miyagi's menu offers a handful of Korean entrees, plus an array of Asian starters and pan-Asian starters (ahi tuna tacos, edamame, crab rangoon, and a sort-of-Thai version of pigs in blankets), and a short sushi lineup, too. In NoDa at 3220 N. Davidson St.; 980-949-8171;
miyagisnoda.com.

Vine American Kitchen (in the former City Range spot) serves a straightforward menu of burgers and sandwiches; entrees such as ribs, salmon, steak and jambalaya (note: it's got rotisserie roast beef and chicken); and more. 13735 Conlan Circle; 704-469-5282; vinekitchen.com.

And reopened: 131 Main in Dilworth, at 1315 East Blvd. This outpost of the area chain had been closed for months after a fire, then car accident, but is back up for both lunch and dinner. 704-343-0131.

5Church group plans new spot

The guys who put together 5Church uptown plan to open Nan and Byron’s in the former Vinnie's Sardine in South End this summer. MAP management is Mills Howell, Alejandro Torio and Patrick Whalen, with executive chef and partner Jamie Lynch. "Traditional American" is the plan right now. Torio says this means "food we grew up with" -- such as chicken pot pie, spaghetti and meatballs, barbecue meatloaf -- and prices that are "affordable"; think an entree price range with the top in the vicinity of $15. The title comes from Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and that aesthetic will also influence the decor. (Interesting!)

The address: 1714 South Blvd., where Vinnie's closed, rather suddenly, in December, after 20 years. (A Vinnie's is still open in Mooresville.)

Weigh in on Tournament of Food

OK, food fans.

Which food shall we assess in this year's timed-with-NCAA-basketball Observer Tournament of Food?

Promising Twitter suggestions (@helenschwab) include mac 'n cheese, tacos and grilled cheese sandwiches. Past tourneys have covered wings, pizza, fries, burgers and sandwiches. (And if you don't remember, you can see how those turned out by going to links on the Observer's dining page here.) Comment here, or email me at hschwab@charlotteobserver.com, and we'll get this party started...

How is this not already here?

French Fry Heaven is, according to its own press, "the first and best concept in the gourmet fry category" -- thereby introducing said gourmet fry market. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., this is a franchise concept that offers what it calls "Angels" and "Saints." Those are Belgian-style fries (crunchy outside, fluffy inside, regular potato) and sweet potato fries. Each can be topped with a choice of more than 50 toppings, from garlic parmesan with black truffle salt to "the Festival": a treatment that makes sweet potato fries taste like funnel cake. The original opened in October 2011. Now three locations are open, with 69 "in the pipeline," planned from Texas to Massachusetts, according to the company. www.FrenchFryHeaven.com.

'Pourhouse Points': a house oyster at Growlers

Growlers Pourhouse now has its own "house oyster": It's called a Pourhouse Point, it's what's called a triploid, and it's being grown just outside Harker's Island in floating baskets, one of several techniques used to bring young oysters (called spat) to edible maturity.
Paul Manley (left), partner in the restaurant, says he has relied on Gulf oysters for years in various ventures, and found them inconsistent (for lots of reasons, including weather and diminished amounts of product). He pursued the idea of working with someone to come up with a particular oyster to be served on the half shell: He wanted a deep (shell) cup with a sturdy top shell that wouldn't sliver or flake when you open it, medium body and a medium-high salt finish. (Oyster lovers can rival wine geeks in descriptive terms, but Manley keeps it pretty simple.)
He says he worked with James Morris Jr., a scientist who does research for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to choose the strain and develop the process. Triploid oysters are sterile, so they don't get "spawny" (milky) in summer or "spawned out" (reduced in size) in fall the way reproducing diploids do.
They are Crassostrea virginicus (the Eastern oyster) and are spawned in a Virginia hatchery, then planted at the N.C. coast spot.
"It's the best N.C. oyster I've had," says Manley. On the half shell at Growlers, they're $10 for six, $17 per dozen (cheaper than the Bluepoints and Beausoleils that go for $19 a dozen). The sibling Crepe Cellar is also using them, in a Rockefeller-like appetizer using brie, spinach and Coppa Americana that's six for $12.
Growlers: 3120 N. Davidson St.; 704-910-6566.

Restaurant Week returns

Jan. 18-27 is the next Charlotte Restaurant Week, with more than 110 restaurants in the area taking part in this three-courses-for-$30 deal. You can see the specific lineups offered by each restaurant and make reservations, at the event website here.

Some distinctions to watch for:
* Some places offer a bonus course, glass of wine or discounted bottles or glasses of wine accompanying the deal. Typically, those are places with lower regular sticker prices on the food, but not always.
* If you’re a bargain hunter, you’ll want to pull up the place’s menu; links to restaurants’ websites are conveniently located on each restaurant’s page within the Restaurant Week site. Some places include signature dishes and regular menu items in the three-for-$30 lineup; some do more off-menu dishes. Some do smaller versions of what’s on the regular menu (check steak weights, in particular).
* Some places let you mix and match from their entire regular menus, which is the most efficient way to see if you’d want to become a regular customer. (Lots of diners do the three-for-$30 as a novelty, a reason to go somewhere they haven’t been before. Others do it for the bargain angle. But some really are auditioning a new regular destination.)

Expect places to be busy, and remember that drinks (for the most part) and tips are not included in the $30.

Places new on the CRW landscape include Amor de Brazil, Dean & DeLuca Wine Room, Heist Brewery, Napa on Providence (formerly Providence Cafe) and Peculiar Rabbit.

Excited about a particular one, or have thoughts or questions on the lineup? Let me know in the comments.

Free pancakes coming

IHOP will give away a free stack of buttermilk pancakes to each diner 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Feb. 5, National Pancake Day. The chain hopes to raise $3 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals this way -- guests will be encouraged to make a donation during their visit. IHOP has raised more than $10 million in the last seven years of doing the event. More info: www.ihoppancakeday.com.