Bite Your Tongue opens in South End

N'awlins food arrives in South End with the grand opening this week of Martine and Lucius Johnson's Bite Your Tongue at 222 E. Bland St. Their place had been tucked inside a medical building on Randolph Road, but the new space, along the light rail line at Bland and Rensselaer, gives room for sit-down dining and a larger menu.

Right now they're in "soft opening mode" - which means that the menu has been trimmed down and will change as they go, as will hours. Look for seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, jambalaya, shrimp stuffed with crab, and beignets (the classic light donut-like confections, pronounced bay-nyays) and chicory coffee served in the morning.

Other, lesser-known New Orleans cuisine may show up along the way, from Ya-Ka-Mein (also called Old Sober, this is a kind of beef noodle soup) to crawfish pie to bananas Foster French toast.

The family's backstory is dramatic: They fled New Orleans (leaving their original Bite Your Tongue) and came to North Carolina the day before Katrina hit. Imagining how difficult it would be for their children to return as the city healed, they decided to stay and begin anew in Charlotte.

Breakfast ($3-$3.25), lunch ($6-$10) and dinner (entrees $7-$12) are served right now 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 704-376-0333; charlottecajunrestaurant.com. (Photos from Bite Your Tongue's website.)

Coming up: Brewer's Ball, Tavern 24

Sept. 8 at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is The Brewer's Ball, a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Charlotte. Tickets are $75 (with $30 of that tax-deductible). You'll get to sample ales and lagers from area microbrewers, along with food from area restaurants, and a silent auction is planned. Featured brewers: Big Boss Brewing, Birdsong Brewing, Carolina Brewery, Four Friends Brewing, Highland Brewing, LoneRider Brewery, NoDa Brewing, Olde Hickory Brewery, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, Triple C Brewing World of Beer and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly. Restaurants and food purveyors include All American Pub, Cupcrazed Cakery, East Blvd. Bar & Grill, Flatiron Kitchen and Taphouse, JJ’s Red Hots, Kickstand, The Liberty, Midwood Smokehouse and Whiskey Warehouse. Info: Email Dede Brand at dbrand@cff.org or call 704-321-7852.

Tavern 24 will open in December at 421 Cox Road in Gastonia, if all goes according to plan for Cafe Enterprises Inc. (parent company of FATZ). The tagline: Tavern 24 is "for anyone who'd rather drink in a restaurant than eat in a bar." Described as a laid-back tavern environment with American cuisine, it's slated to seat about 260. Its name comes from the "unlikely coincidence" that there are 24 hours in a day and 24 beers in a case. So you get its drift. Fare includes a stuffed beer burger (marinated with stout and stuffed with Monterey Jack and cheddar), baked wings, thin-crust pizza and salads.

Coming up

The Wine Shop hosts a Solena dinner Aug. 21 with Solena's Doug Cohen on hand. Among the courses: pan-seared scallops and succotash medley with 2009 Elvenglade Chardonnay, and pork rillettes with cherry compote and 2010 Domaine Danielle Laurent Pinot Noir. $60; 7824 Fairview Road; 704-365-6550.

Arthur's Uptown closing

Arthur's Uptown at One Wells Fargo -- 301 S. College St. -- will close after lunch Aug. 17. There's been an Arthur's at that location since the building opened, in 1988, says Arthur's John Balsley, and there's been at Arthur's in uptown for more than 40 years. It was originally in the Ivey's building.

UPDATE: Balsley confirms it was a volume-based decision: "We leased 4600 square feet of prime Uptown retail space," he wrote me in an e-mail. "To make the business model work with only one meal per day and weekdays only, our volume was no longer sufficient to support the rent structure. We have had an incredible run Uptown and are grateful for many loyal customers and wonderful memories of serving them. We plan to operate in Belk at SouthPark for many years to come."

That's the Arthur's in Belk at SouthPark, which will continue to operate as both restaurant and wine shop; Balsley notes it's been in Belk since '91, and at SouthPark since '74 (formerly, again, in Ivey's).

Have a favorite memory of Arthur's as an uptown place? Feel free to share. Old-timers may remember the Observer's Lew Powell rooting up who Arthur was: Arthur Pressman, who had a wine and gourmet shop on West Fifth Street in the old Clayton Hotel. "I decided to retire, and two young fellows bought my inventory," Pressman told Powell. "They asked if they could use my name and I said of course ... I feel good the boys are doing good." That was in 1984; Pressman was 77. The young fellows were brothers John and Robert Balsley, who added sandwiches, moved Arthur's into Ivey's and had expanded to five locations by the mid-80s.

Art, lunch, discount

Through August, try the new tuna sandwich on focaccia ($9) at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art's cafe and you get 10 percent off your total purchase in the museum store (you must buy within two days of eating). The cafe's open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Saturday; 420 S. Tryon St.; 704-353-9200. Here's the menu.

Vegan wine dinner at Fern

Fern will focus on Carmel Road white wines for a five-course vegan dinner Aug. 20, beginning with Lenny Boy Kombucha cocktails and appetizers on the patio. (Wondering about kombucha? It's essentially a sparkling fermented tea.) In the lineup: chilled apple, melon and fennel soup with "Liberated" Chardonnay; smoked chickpea-stuffed baby eggplant with Monterey Riesling; olive oil cake with housemade vegan ricotta and Solletico Prosecco; and more. $60; reservations: 704-377-1825; 1323 Central Ave.

BlackFinn offers prizes

For its four-year anniversary, BlackFinn at the EpiCentre plans a party 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Aug. 24 (into Aug. 25), with giveaways, including an "Ultimate Charlotte Prize Pack." That's four passes to a Panthers game, a Bobcats game, a NASCAR race, the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament "and more!" 210 E. Trade St.; 704-971-4440.