New Chef, New Dishes at RockSalt

For a restaurant that just celebrated its first anniversary this past February, RockSalt has seen a lot of change, both inside and outside its walls.

Outside, an apparent boom is helping to breathe new life into the Backlot section of Park Road Shopping Center. RockSalt was the first of a new wave of dining and drinking establishments to take a chance on the location—easily accessible but somewhat obscured. When it opened, it almost felt like an outpost, separated from the trendy Montford area and the more established dining scenes of SouthPark and Myers Park. Since then, four more restaurants and a juice bar have opened at the same intersection of Park and Woodlawn Roads, and four more are due to open their doors any day now. Midwood Smokehouse and Amelie’s have announced plans to join the Backlot, and there are rumors of more to come.

Inside, the restaurant has experienced change as well—most notably, the new head chef. Jim Diecchio came to Charlotte in June by way of Washington, D.C., where he worked most recently at Brine, one of RockSalt’s two sister restaurants. Before that, he worked at Iron Gate, Vermillion, and at Zaytinya, one of renowned chef José Andrés’s most popular restaurants. Read full article

Photo and article by Cat Carter, Charlotte Magazine