The Charlotte EpiCenter (crapicenter) opened sometime last year and is an 'entertainment mecca' in downtown (yeah, I said it, DOWNtown) Charlotte. It's a mostly white stucco structure (hate white) that houses various bars and restaurants on 3 levels. Not interesting, unique bars and restaurants, but your average cheesy, cookie-cutter ones, i.e. a sports bar, a piano bar, a redneck bar (complete with mechanical bull). They've been having free concerts on Thursdays and Saturdays to attract people. The concerts are on temporary stages set up in the breezeways of the building. Bands like Who's Bad the Michael Jackson cover band, Vanilla Ice and Cowboy Mouth have played at the crapicenter.
I've gone twice. Once to the piano bar, which was packed with people I don't want to associate with and once to the sports bar which was packed with people who looked like the people I went to high school with that I don't want to associate with. It's too 90210 meets The Hills. A lot of plastic stuffed into short hoochie outfits.
So why can't I just leave it alone and be content to not go. It's because I feel like Charlotte missed a huge opportunity with this thing. Charlotte has no real stroll district and has lost all of it's southern charm. When I say southern charm, I don't mean small town feel or redneckness (btw Charlotte hasn't lost the redneck element!). I mean a charming stroll district like river street in Savannah. A strip with old brick warehouses that were converted into shops and bars. With cobblestone streets and kiosks full of handmade goods. Sidewalk cafes. No cars allowed on weekends. I wonder if this project had been started after the economy hit the skids if it would have been scaled down to something cool like a stroll district.
A friend of mine argued that Charlotte was going for more big city with this crapicenter and wanting something to lure big city people to it. (I'm sure it was just tax revenue they were going for) But when I've traveled to Chicago, New York, DC, Atlanta, I've never been to anything this cheesy. I've always hit more local, neighborhood pubs. That too me is the way to experience a big city.
The crapicenter is a very popular destination, but I think it's just because that's where everyone is and it's still new. I bet most people who go don't like it either, but like sheep they have to go with the flock. Ridiculous.
3 comments:
First I've heard of the 'Epicenter'. Nothing wrong with a couple of short hoochie outfits but I can live without the plastic surgery. I can only imagine what the Redneck bar is like, maybe speedweek year around?
If someone opened a decent micro brewery, it'd probably be a hit. Is that place still around with the two names (Christopher Michaels or something)? That was a nice place.
Alexander Michaels is still around and it's still popular and cool. Charlotte did the micro brewery thing in the late 90s and most failed. They need a cool stroll district.
They have one. It's called Asheville.
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