A steak and fries restaurant chain is expanding to Charlotte. There’s brunch, too.
A steak and fries restaurant chain plans to open in Charlotte as part of its national expansion plans.
Medium Rare Restaurant Group, based in Washington, D.C., is searching properties in Charlotte to open its steak frites concept, co-owner Mark Bucher said in a news release.
“The city has an impressive workforce, great cost of living, great culture and lots of diversity,” Bucher told the Observer Thursday.
Medium Rare will open one location in Charlotte with plans to expand as it did in the D.C. area, Bucher said. The company also is looking at sites in Raleigh, he said.
“It’s always time to expand,” Bucher said. “Now is a good one as some restaurants with good locations may not have weathered the COVID shut down well.”
No timeframe for an opening has been set.
Medium Rare is looking for existing restaurant spaces of 2,700 to 3,000 square feet in affluent, high-density neighborhoods that can be quickly built out, plus outdoor seating areas.
“We want to plant ourselves in places that will not only be great for patrons but also accessible to the folks we’ll hire,” Bucher said.
Medium Rare has three locations — two in Washington, D.C., and one in Bethesda, Maryland — each with up to 35 employees. The company announced earlier this year that it planned to open in 26 new markets nationwide including Atlanta, Nashville, New York City, Boston, San Diego and New Orleans.
Charlotte was added to the list last month.
Throughout the pandemic, Medium Rare has donated free meals to residents hospital staff and first responders in the D.C. metro area through its nonprofit, We Care.
What to expect at Medium Rare
Medium Rare, which opened its first location 10 years ago, is a sit-down restaurant that serves a prix fixe menu of bread, salad, fries and steak.
The $24.95 prix fixe menu also includes a vegan option of grilled portobello, according to the company website.
The brunch menu includes five choices including steak frites, French toast and sausage, or “Medium Rare’s Famous Benedict,” a steak and portobello mushroom hash with a poached egg, topped with its hollandaise sauce and fries. That menu, listed online priced at $27.99, includes bottomless drinks including mimosas, screwdrivers and blood Marys.
The fixed dinner menu and weekend brunch model has “proven to be recession-resistant and economically resilient,” according to the company’s statement.
“Not having a menu to make a meal decision is just one of the ways we make it easier for our guests,” Bucher told the Observer.
The restaurant has French touches throughout the restaurant, such as recorded French lessons (pick-up lines) in the bathroom, according to the news release.
The company’s sauces, dressing, bread and apple pie are sold online.
“The demand for our ‘secret (hollandaise) sauce’ is so high that we had to start selling it by the bottle,” Bucher said.
