Page 4 of 4

For now, most of Charlotte's authentic ethnic restaurants are located in ethnic neighborhoods, since their main customer base is ethnic. But what about the brave souls who have staked out an ethnic position in the netherworld of restaurants, places like Ballantyne? A few years back, Be Pham and Axel Dikkers opened the remarkable Saigon Café. She had been the owner of many successful Vietnamese restaurants in town; he had once owned the French Pastis in SouthEnd. Not only was the rent high in Ballantyne, but the folks who went to Saigon Café didn't like the interactiveness of the food. Dikkers told me, "I think the people didn't want to do things with their hands. They wanted me — the chef — to do it all for them."

And ethnic owners are no different from Charlotte's other independent operators who are besieged by the increasing invasion of chain restaurants. But the ethnic owners' true competitor is the Epnic restaurant, since many Americans find it so much easier to eat in a "kinda authentic" ethnic place.

While today's customer is much savvier about food and is interested in ethnic cuisines, will this same customer support the ethnic restaurants if they move into non-ethnic neighborhoods, or if they move downtown? Remember Tango Argentino? Siboney Cuban? Inka Grille? Pastis? Closed. Closed. Closed. Closed.

The very cool aspect to getting our groove back, or getting it for the first time, is that Charlotte can actually buy its way to being cool. Charlotteans are very good at spending money. Instead of buying the McMansion, perhaps a few dollars could be spared to try all the ethnic eateries in the city. In fact, if you visited one of the 300-plus ethnic restaurants currently open each week, it would take six years to visit all of them. Plus, during that time, more independent restaurants would open — maybe even a Dutch Indonesian place. In any case, the ultimate benefit is not "coolness." The ultimate benefit is that Charlotte might develop a culinary soul.