Over the past few weeks, three readers have contacted me to ask if I know what's going into the long-closed City Range restaurant location in Ballantye, off Johnston Road.
There's a lot of construction going on there, but no signs, they told me. So I went to Mecklenburg County's building permits website and pulled up the construction permits for the building (this is pretty easy to search online if you have an address).
The permits show a new restaurant being built, "Vine American Kitchen." According to the building permits, the restaurant is about 7,262 square feet.
The owner, listed as William T. Freeman, is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into upgrading the building. I tried to contact Freeman at a number listed on the permit, but only got a voicemail.
Freeman, it turns out, is the former CEO of McCormick & Schmick's. He's a veteran restaurateur and businessman, who ran Fox Sports Grill before McCormick. Freeman has also worked for ESPN and Robert Redford's Sundance Entertainment (short bio here).
According to Dave Tschirhart, who runs Restaurant Traffic, Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano had looked at the building in January. Tschirhart calls that area "the Bermuda Triangle of restaurants," because concepts seem to have a tough time lasting there. Oak Steakhouse also passed on the building.
UPDATE: Vine is hoping to open on Nov. 19, according to their PR firm, Hensley Fontana.
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