foodie

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments
This week’s Excited about Eating visits Fenwick’s in the Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte. 

Comfortable and homey with meals prepared similar to what your mom might cook, this local place offers a variety of food, all homemade. 

I ordered one of the breakfast specials and my favorite, corned beef and poached (my preference. Dora here. Poached? Ick! Only scrambled for me, please. 🙂 ) eggs, potatoes, toast and fruit. The corned beef and eggs were cooked perfectly, and the portions hearty.

Brunch Special: Corned Beef and Poached Eggs

Dora here. The Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwich was chunky and meaty, not overloaded with mayo, but not zinging with flavor, either. I’m not a fan of honeydew, so I was thrilled to find a place that makes a fruit salad minus the dreaded melon. 🙂 

Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwich

Service was friendly and quick. If it’s sunny and warm, plan to linger on the outdoor patio. If not, get there early. Not much indoor seating.

How do you take your eggs?


We rate this restaurant 4 forks out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving great food.


Fenwick's Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

/ Dora Hiers / 4 Comments
This edition of Excited about Eating takes us north to the City of Salisbury and to Palms Cafe. 
This local neighborhood eating establishment offers breakfast, a large variety of sandwiches, and specialty coffees. You must order at the counter (no trouble seeing the menu, it is written all over the walls) and the food is brought to your table.
I chose the New York, New York hot sandwich, roast beef, corn beef, pastrami & turkey stacked high with Swiss cheese, 1000 island dressing served on grilled rye bread with a side of homemade potato chips. Hearty and filling, the different meats mixed well with the dressing. The chips were seasoned well and firm enough to dip in the ranch dressing. Overall, great!
New York, New York hot sandwich
Dora here. The Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad offered a generous portion of chicken salad, fresh greens, cucumbers, sunflower seeds and mandarin oranges with a sesame oriental dressing. I’m pretty picky about salads. I don’t like a lot of extra stuff, and this salad worked for me. The chicken salad was creamy, sweet and delish! I enjoyed the texture of the sunflower seeds, and the oriental dressing rocked! And what a value at less than $8! That leaves a little extra for dessert, right? Especially since I had my heart set on that Palms Java shake…
Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad
The Palms Java shake was a mixture of espresso, java chocolate chips and vanilla Gelato. I would have liked the shake to be a little thicker. 
Palms Java Shake
Dora here. I’m with Ernie on this one. I expected the shake to be thicker and more coffee flavored, but, hey, Gelato and coffee…:sigh: thick, thin, who cares? Nice way to cap off the meal. 

Palms Cafe is one of those comfort restaurants, the kind you go to after a long day and don’t really know what you want. They have a menu with options sure to please everyone.

We rate this restaurant 4 forks out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving great food.

What’s your go-to restaurant for comfort food?

Palms Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

/ Dora Hiers / 9 Comments

This edition of Excited about Eating takes us to The Liberty, advertised as “Charlotte’s First Gastropub” in the South End of Charlotte. The Liberty’s interior is well lit and modern, and their food elevates pub fare to another level.


This is only half the restaurant space.
Dora here. The interior was nice and roomy, but check out their patio. Beautiful! Too bad it was a bit chilly to sit outside.

As a starter, we ordered the house-made pretzels with beer cheese and mustard. These pretzels were great, served warm and buttery with just the right amount of salt. They were soft on the inside and paired well with the beer cheese dipping sauce. Our only regret was we didn’t order the larger size.

Dora here. Yeah! We brought Little Man. Why didn’t we order the tower? Good thing you can’t see the mangled pretzel on the bottom. We dug right in, so excited we forgot to snap a picture! lol. These pretzels were perfect, so soft and fresh. Forget the mustard. Dive right into that cheese. Yummo!

I ordered the Painted Hill’s Natural Crunch Burger. Pimento cheese, smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, and house-made chips stacked high. This burger was huge and so juicy I had to wipe my face after every bite. The combination of the pimento cheese and bacon worked great together and the added crunch from the chips added a unique feature to this burger.

Painted Hill’s Natural Crunch Burger

Dora here. The Irish Hills Black Angus Pub Burger was heaped with three or four thick slices of meaty bacon, cheese, caramelized onions, herb aioli, lettuce and tomato. Humongous! The aioli and the soft bun makes this burger sing, one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted! And the chips? Ohhhhh! Consistently firm, not greasy at all, and seasoned just right. 

Irish Hills Black Angus Pub Burger

The Liberty is kid-friendly, if a tad pricey. The cheese spilled over on the grilled ciabatta, a huge portion (sorry I didn’t get a pic!), and hubby stole gobs of fries off Little Man’s plate. You definitely get your money’s worth on a child’s plate, and probably some food to take home…er, share.

Parking may be an issue since The Liberty shares a lot with Tupelo Honey Cafe, also a hopping place. (See our review of Tupelo here) But on street parking behind the CATS station (just beyond the parking lot) is FREE on Saturday and Sunday. Trust me on this. After you eat, you’ll be glad for the walk. 🙂

We rate this restaurant 5 forks out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving outstanding food.


The Liberty Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato