1 - Supperland (Charlotte, NC)

Alright, episode one. I'm so excited as you heard my intro last time, just why I'm doing this podcast. And this is the first episode where I'm going to feature a place. And this place is called Supperland. I thought it was a really interesting name. So we discovered Supperland, because my husband was going to take me out for our 15-year anniversary. And he knows I love to experience new things like we talked about in the intro episode. And so he asked some of his co-workers where we should go. And one of his co-workers suggested a place in Charlotte, North Carolina called Supperland. And so he got to looking online at it and he was just like, yes, this place is perfect. So he sent me a link so I could check it out. And I was like, Yes, pleeeease.

So their little tagline is "Southern steakhouse meets church potluck." And I really think that was such an accurate description. But even a little more chic than that. So. So yeah, supper land, I guess is a take on Beulah Land. Because this restaurant is actually inside a mid-century church in Plaza Midwood in Charlotte. And so the outside of it, we pulled up, and the outside of it is not much to look at. It's brick, like red brick, it's small looking. It's right on the corner of a very busy intersection. It just did not look like much, honestly. If I did not see the Supperland sign, I would think this was just a little old church. But once you walk inside, well, let me - hold on before we get to that part. 

When we got there, it was incredibly difficult to park. So if I had one complaint about the entire thing, it was that there is very limited parking right there near the restaurant. Adam actually had to drop me off and I walked into the restaurant to ask them where we should park. And so it's like, pretty near a Food Lion across the street. But they are not, you know, they do not encourage their patrons to park in the Food Lion parking lot. And actually, I don't even think there was any parking there. So Adam was just circling and circling until I told him. And I told him where they had suggested to park but he actually found a park parking place right on the street that he chose instead, but I think it was a little bit closer. So that's my one complaint was the parking and of course the Charlotte traffic is no fun either. If you're not, if you're not into the city scene, which we are not - we are country people. 

But once you walk inside, like I said outside, not so much to look at. Inside -it was alive. It was just teeming with people and clanking of dishes. And there were these chandeliers and the lighting was, it was low lit, but they had these beautiful chandeliers up top. And there was as I was sitting down after we had gotten our seats, I was looking around and the wallpaper was so beautiful. I went to the restroom, the restroom was beautiful. I was like, Oh this place is amazing. And so yes, it was like a whole new world from the outside once you stepped inside it. They had old church pews to sit on but they were comfy. They weren't like you know, super uncomfortable. They had candlelight. I mean, they had all these little tea lights on the tables. They had these beautiful little plates, platters things that you would associate with an old-timey church picnic, minus the paper plates or the styrofoam, which you might associate with church picnics, but you know, little floral designs on the plates and the platters and nothing was like super matched or anything like that. 

So let me tell you about the food because the food if the atmosphere wasn't enough for you, the food would be. But I assure you the atmosphere is good enough. Um, even if the meal was mediocre, but it actually was not. So we ordered -so this is like a family-style restaurant. So I mean, you could order your entrees and appetizers individually, but they suggest ordering it family style and sharing it. And that's what we did. So we got an appetizer of sausage gravy croquettes. And so I'm just going to describe to you from their menu, the things that we got, so that you'll get kind of a better picture. Those were sage and black pepper gravy with house ground sausage, panko fried and finished with pickled onion. They were amazing. I was like, okay, I've got to make these at home. I have not yet made them at home. But I definitely need to. When I was sitting down last night to write out the outline for this podcast episode, I was like, my mouth was watering. I was remembering how everything tasted there. I was like, okay, we got to get back. And I told Adam I said, my mouth was watering when I was writing down the stuff that we had eaten there. And he's like, "we gotta go back" because he loved it too. So, and then for our main dish, we got the wagyu pot roast, it's slow-cooked wagyu roast, vegetable gravy, and pickled vegetables. Very, very good. I think Adam was a little more interested in the meat. And I was more interested in the appetizer and the sides that we got. So we got two sides with this - ambrosia salad, which was my favorite thing that we got. And this was so sweet that we didn't even have to order dessert. This was our dessert. So this is ambrosia salad, homemade whip, cream cheese, marshmallows, charred pineapple, toasted coconut, brown sugar pecans, brandied cherry. So, so amazing. I want to make some of this at home. And I have not done that yet. Another thing that I really loved another side that we got was the mushroom risotto. It was Carolina gold rice, crimini -it was several different types of mushrooms, black pepper and creme fraiche. And it was delicious as well. So yes, we didn't need a dessert because the ambrosia salad was good enough. But I wanted to try one of everything in there. I almost wanted to be like "I'm a food critic." And, you know, take my little notebook in so I could just sample everything. I think that would be awesome. That would be another dream job. 

So the service -the food. If your mouth is not watering already, then there's something wrong with you. It was delicious. But the service and the atmosphere were just amazing. I felt like I was in the "Beauty and the Beast" scene where all of the the kitchen is a buzz and serving, serving us. And so they replace the table setting with every course, which you might think is kind of annoying especially if you're trying to talk to somebody. I know sometimes I've been in restaurants before, as I'm sure you have, where you're sitting there talking to your spouse or you're having a serious conversation with somebody and the waiter or waitress will not leave you alone. This was not the case here. We did not feel like they were interrupting us. I mean because we were having, you know a good conversation as well. But we didn't feel like they were interrupting us. They really did not speak to us very much. Unless they were asking if we needed something but really they took care of it. It was such a treat. I just felt so well taken care of, you know, they just came in to replace things when they were used. It might seem a little over the top for people who are not used to that. But I was like, listen, this is our 15-year anniversary. We're out on the town. We drove through the horrible Charlotte traffic to get here. And we have a babysitter with the kids and you know, like I wanted to be treated, you know what I mean? So it did not disappoint in that respect at all. The waiter was very knowledgeable. Adam was asking about the cuts of meat. He was very knowledgeable about that unless, well, Adam was joking that maybe he was just making everything up. But he seemed to know what he was talking about. 

And so for this meal, we paid around $100. But like I said, it was well worth it for the quality of the food, as you probably could tell from the descriptions. They try to source their food from North Carolina that they use. So let me see, let me pull up the website right now so I can tell you how they describe how they source their food. Okay, it says, "here at Supperland, we're looking at Southern cooking in a new way, getting inspiration from Southern steak houses and church potluck picnics. We're proud to partner with Fresh List to source ingredients from over 200 Farms in North Carolina, bringing you closer to your food source." And if you look on the menu, you will see even more examples of how they source like they've got caviar from North Carolina sustainably farmed in North Carolina. Well, I'm not going to look at anymore. Let's see. I mean, they've got seafood. Yep. So you can look online. It's just supper.land is their website if you want to check it out, as well. But I highly recommend this place. Not only do they have the main dining room, which is where we were. But they also have a garden, which we didn't get to see because it was so dark, we couldn't really see anything. And it was getting late and we are not late people, y'all. We are farmers. So we go to bed early and we get up early. And so it was probably pretty, it was pretty late by the time we left there for us anyways. But on their website, you can see some beautiful examples of their food and the platters that they're served on, and just what the atmosphere looks like. You will not be disappointed. I can't sing the praises of Supperland enough so you need to check it out. I hope you've enjoyed this first episode on Supperland in Charlotte, North Carolina. I hope you will join me next time and I hope to hear from you if you have ever visited Supperland or if you visit after this episode. I want to hear what your experience was. I'll see you next time.

(I forgot to mention on the podcast that they brought us candlelit macarons when they found out we were there celebrating our wedding anniversary!)

If you decide to check out Supperland for yourself, please tell them "Biscuits & Gravy Podcast" sent you. Check them out at supper.land.