Hours of Happiness
“Hey, you want a beer?” The customary greeting at the Rat’s Nest in NoDa is a complimentary can of PBR.Brian Wilson, owner of the popular used-clothes shop, plays the drums out back as his three-man band kicks into a country ballad for a mix of regulars and those in town for the Gallery Crawl.
Crawl till you fall
Photograph by Armando Bellmas
“Hey, you want a beer?” The customary greeting at the Rat’s Nest in NoDa is a complimentary can of PBR.
Brian Wilson, owner of the popular used-clothes shop, plays the drums out back as his three-man band kicks into a country ballad for a mix of regulars and those in town for the Gallery Crawl. There’s no set itinerary from 6-9 p.m. on the first and third Friday of every month in Charlotte’s laid-back arts district, but this is one of several staples.
The art crowd may turn its nose up at Moondog’s Pizza Pub, but it’s hard to turn down a $1 High Life if you decide to stop for a drink. Waitress Sarah Reinhart offers her own crawl strategy: “I just hit up the bars,” which can get “so crowded you can’t even walk inside.”
At the Smelly Cat coffee shop, the girls behind the counter will direct you to the night’s drum circle and hidden gems. Use the chai shake as an excuse to strike up a conversation.
Check out the street scene between galleries like the Beet, Green Rice, and Hart Witzen. You might find local artist Miles there with a set of his “biomorphic figurative” paintings.
This cultural play land started in 1986 when Ruth Ava Lyons and J. Paul Sires made the district home to their Center of the Earth gallery, which they subsidized for years while averaging one customer a week. “It made our life interesting; that was our return,” Sires says. He says the gallery turns a profit now and attracts artists and buyers from across the country.
First Fridays are the most popular for Gallery Crawl, when exhibits premiere. Check out www.noda.org for a printable map and event information.
Up the street with a paddle
Step into the arena at Thomas Street Tavern. The popular Plaza Midwood spot sees its back patio ping-pong tables swarming when the weather is right. First timers pick up paddles opposite veterans to “get some serious pong going on,” says manager Roger Raymer.
Behind the two tables, complete with overhanging lights that may obstruct the inexperienced but allow play to continue well into summer nights, sits a small set of stadium bleachers brought up from the Atlanta Olympics. This adds to the atmosphere when lines get long and crowds form around the action.
Don’t rush to make happy hour—there isn’t one, but the bar fills up after work and on weekends, and there’s an eclectic array of beer on hand from London porters to $2 cans of Schlitz.
If you need to cool down, check out the faded but always-buzzing Dairy Queen down the road along the way. —Mike Giglio
