Charlotte Brunch Staple Closes Its Doors

I've written this before, but nothing makes me sadder than to see a restaurant closing its doors. Those that run restaurants have a passion for food and a passion for sharing it with people. Shuttering that restaurant is shuttering someone's passion, someone's dream. The latest to fall in this category is LittleSpoon in Myrers Park. The Charlotte brunch staple has had its last day of operation after ten years in business.

LittleSpoon owner, Alesha Stegemeyer came to Charlotte from Los Angeles, California, more than ten years ago. At the time, the dining landscape in the Queen City was far different than what we enjoy today. When Stegemeyer opened LittleSpoon, the eatery was one of the first in town to actually offer brunch. Also, LittleSpoon played hip-hop throughout service and from start to finish was very chef-driven and ingredient focused.

As always with these sorts of things, it's never just one thing than leads to the closing of a restaurant. Let's start with this, the obvious. Running a restaurant is hard. No matter how passionate you are (and as I mentioned, all restauranteurs are passionate), burnout from the stress is almost inevitable. No doubt a huge part of this was the Covid-19 pandemic that was a crushing blow to so many businesses. That, combined with ever-rising food costs and labor issues eventually proved to be too much to overcome. Alesha Stegemeyer tells the Charlotte Business Journal, “It takes a lot of money to keep a restaurant operating, It just got to a point where it wasn’t working anymore. I feel like I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish. It was just time.”

Stegemeyer, who's been splitting her time between Charlotte and her family in Miami, is looking forward to what happens next. And I wish her well on her next passion. And thank her for sharing her food one with us.

You can debate me all you won't but you won't change my mind. Brunch is the perfect meal. You can get a variety of food options from breakfast favorites, to unique offerings, and some lunch options as well.

Mimosas and Bloody Marys give the perfect excuse to day drink which is always superior. Plus you can make brunch super casual, or an excuse to dress up. Truly what is better?

I've also said if I was going to open a restaurant it would be a brunch one. I have rarely ever been to a brunch restaurant that didn’t have a wait. So if they all seem to be popular how do you determine the best brunch in South Carolina?

A good place to start is with Yelp. And the review/rating website recently published a list of the Top 100 Brunch Spots across the United States for 2024. And not one, not two, but FOUR South Carolina brunch restaurants ranked among the best.

So how was this list created?  It is based on Yelp ratings are reviews in the “Breakfast & Brunch category”. Restaurants considered featured a large concentration of reviews mentioning “brunch” and “Mother’s Day” The identified restaurants were then ranked.

Restaurants across the country were considered but Yelp limited the number of businesses per state for geographic diversity. Keep reading to learn about the four spots with the best brunch in South Carolina. You can read the full Yelp list here.