Charlotte's Upcoming BayHaven Festival to Celebrate Black Chefs and Restaurateurs
Dinners, jazz brunch, and food truck roundups
Posted October 5, 2021
10-05 2021
The BayHaven Food & Wine Festival, North Carolina’s first-ever food festival celebrating Black chefs and restaurants, will make its debut at Camp North End in Charlotte on October 22 - 24, and tickets are still available to some of the weekend’s marquee events.
BayHaven is the brainchild of Subrina and Greg Collier, the couple behind Leah & Louise and Uptown Yolk and one of the driving forces in Charlotte’s growing restaurant scene. Greg Collier is a two-time James Beard Award Nominee, and Leah & Louise was featured in Bon Appetit's annual Restaurant Issue this month.
On the BayHaven website the Colliers write that "Our mission is the economic empowerment and community development through the hospitality industry." Over the course of the three days of the festival they plan to do that with a series of dinners, a Jazz Brunch, a food truck roundup (called a Chuckwagon Carnival), and more.
The marquee event, the Cotton Club Tasting Tent, will feature food and drink from Black chefs and mixologists from around the country, like Chef Osei Blackett of Brooklyn’s Picky Eaters Restaurant and celebrated Miami private chef Troy Tingling.
The Colliers have designed the festival to offer more than just the usual sip, savor, and mingle events that most food festivals focus on. The Black TriAngle Art Summit will showcase the intersection of food, art, and music with what the website calls an “immersive tasting experience with chefs, painters, and singers all in one place.” A series of mixology and cooking classes will be taught by acclaimed culinarians like Chef Keith Rhodes, a James Beard semifinalist, Top Chef contestant, and chef/owner of Wilmington’s Catch.
Check out the full schedule here and make sure to grab tickets quickly as some of the weekend’s events have already sold out. We’ll have a full report on the event here at Southeastern Dispatch at the end of month.
About the Author
Matthew Lardie
Matt Lardie is a food, beverage, and lifestyle writer. Born and raised in New England, he has been exploring and eating his way through the Carolinas since 2008. He has been published in Our State Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, Apartment Therapy, Eater Carolinas, The Kitchn, Durham Magazine, and more. His first book, Unique Eats and Eateries: North Carolina, is due to be published in the fall of 2022. He lives in Durham, NC.