The StrEATs have a taste for Charlotte culinary arts

CHARLOTTE STREATS

The fourth annual Charlotte StrEATs festival is a celebration of culinary and mixology creativity.

Charlotte StrEATs festival highlights Charlotte’s culinary community.

StrEATs was founded in 2022 by Kristen Wile and Casey Wilson as a one-of-a-kind celebration of the Queen City’s culinary creativity and uniqueness. The showcase will is part of Charlotte SHOUT!, which a celebration of the city’s art, culture and community from April 4-20.

“While Charlotte’s food scene has grown to rival any other southeastern city’s, we felt there wasn’t an event focused solely on highlighting the incredible local and independent restaurants here,” Wile said. “Our hope when dreaming up this event was to fill that gap with the Charlotte StrEATs festival. We’re proud to help give Charlotte a food festival worthy of the chefs and mixologists who are part of it and are excited to show off our culinary scene for a fourth year.”

StrEATs, now in its fourth year, has become a popular staple in Charlotte for food and drink connoisseurs.

“I think Charlotte has such an incredible food city,” Wile said, “and we really haven't had an event that shows off specifically local, independent restaurants in a way that we're trying to do it streets and some other cities do with like euphoria Greenville or Charleston. So, I called Casey Wilson, who I had worked with at Charlotte magazine when I was editor there. She was the events and marketing director, and I was like, ‘Hey, what are your thoughts on this?’ And she was like, ‘Absolutely, let's do it.’ So that's kind of the start of it.”

The restaurants, Wile said, are like partners. StrEATs also partners with Johnson and Wales University, and their students prepare different foods from across the state.

“We also have Johnson and Wales students that come to do different styles of statewide cuisine,” Wile said. “We have Appalachian food, we have coastal food, fish camps, so, just all North Carolina in that one. And we really like involving Johnson and Wales, because they are such a big part of the culinary scene here.”

When Wile and Wilson launched StrEATs, it was out of Wile’s comfort zone. She was a journalist and culinary storyteller, so planning events was a new endeavor and challenge she was unfamiliar with.

“I realized that storytelling can happen in a lot of different forms,” she said. “For me, it's really cool to be able to get so many stories about Charlotte's culinary scene in front of so many people, whether that's an interaction between a chef at a booth giving somebody a taste of something and they're sharing sort of their restaurant or something that happens on stage, like funny moments during the cooking demos, or during the neighborhood cook off. There’s so many different ways to get to know Charlotte's food scene, and I think this was a really needed one, so I'm super proud of what we put together.”

Charlotte StrEATs events:

StrEATs Uncorked: April 4 from 6-9 p.m. at Johnson & Wales University, 801 W. Trade St.

Some of North Carolina’s finest wines will be available for tasting as well as regional cuisine. Whether you are a wine connoisseur or just looking for a fun time out with friends and family, this is an event for everyone. Tickets are $65.

StrEATs Tasting Tour: April 12 from 12-3 p.m. at Gateway Village, 900 W. Trade St.

This is for people 21 years or older. There’ll be cooking demonstrations from local restaurants, craft cocktails created by Charlotte mixologists and live music. Tickets are $85 for general admission and $125 for VIP which grants early access as well as a cookbook with recipes from the participating restaurants.

StrEATs Festival: April 13 from 12-4 p.m. at Gateway Village, 900 W. Trade St.

This free event will feature the area’s top local food and beverage vendors, food trucks, cooking demos and art. There will be wristbands for patrons who are at least 21 to participate in the cocktail tasting. StrEATs is also bringing back the neighborhood cook-off, which will pit chefs against each other for the title of StrEATs neighborhood champion.

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