Friday, December 12, 2008

Uptown burger joint opens today

NIX Burger & Brew opens tonight at the corner of Fifth and Tryon streets, offering a rare mid-range option for dining uptown.


NIX, owned by Nick LaVecchia of LaVecchia's Seafood Grille, offers about 20 different eight-ounce burgers from the traditional cheeseburger to ones topped with fried egg or onion rings. Most burgers are $8.95 and you can choose whether you want turkey, beef or bison as your meat.

Drafts, including Shock Top and Kona Fire Rock, are $5, while bottled beer starts at $3.

I checked it out last night during a pre-opening event and found my buffalo cheeseburger to be perfectly cooked and smothered in blue cheese. I also liked that the bun didn't overwhelm the burger and leave me feeling sickly stuffed.

The place has an industrial feel to it with a keg-inspired ceiling treatment, deconstructed chandeliers and bolts used as accent pieces along the wall. There's a small bar and six flatscreens located throughout the cozy 80-seat space.

LaVecchia said NIX will be open for lunch, dinner and late night (food served until about 1:30 a.m.) seven days a week.

Check out photos here.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool, I will definitely have to check it out. The Penguin is often too packed; the Counter at South Park is kinda "eh" to me; Big Daddy's is OK. But having a good burger joint that I can walk to is yet another good addition to Uptown.

Anonymous said...

I went with three others for lunch today and it took about 1.5 hours to get in and out of NIX, so they definitely have some kinks to work out. On top of the delay, service was not that good - but it is their first day so hopefully will improve. When the burgers finally came out (after 1 hour 10 minutes), 1 of the orders was missing and took about 5 minutes to get the last one.

Food itself was okay.

Anonymous said...

Where is it? From the pictures, it looks like it's in the IJL building. Is it where Zink used to be?

Sarah Aarthun said...

It's between Capital Grille and Feast. Zink is just up the block.

Anonymous said...

This is the worst name ever for a place to eat. NIX is the name of lice treatment. Who does their marketing?!?! http://www.nixlice.com/

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to Groucho's, which used to be in that location? One day they were there, and the next day they were closed.

Anonymous said...

It's called NIX b/c the owner's name is NICK....so,um,no....not really bad marketing there at all.

Anonymous said...

Twice I was told it would be open, twice I went, twice it wasn't. Might be a while before I try again. Get Organized!

Anonymous said...

from the sounds of things I'll be "nix"'ing from my lunch choices for a while

Anonymous said...

Turkey, beef and bison are the only choices? No veggie burger? Man ...

Anonymous said...

to anon @ 4:21...

It doesn't matter what his name is. His name could be "Bestdamnfoodever," if people associate your food with a lice treatment, it's a bad marketing choice.

Anonymous said...

Shock Top is made by Michelob, @ $5 ? .. no thanks.

Burgers sound good though. Beers prices need to come down just a bit for it to be a "mid-range" uptown destination. I don't mind paying $5 or $6 but it better be for a better caliber of beer than that.

I have seen people in there all week long eating. I guess they were just doing trial runs ?

Sarah Aarthun said...

Anon 4:58 -- there is a veggie burger on the menu, but not all of the different preparations come in veggie burger form.

Anonymous said...

I have never had lice so I guess that's why I have never heard of this product. Keep yourself and your grubby lice infested kids out of the uptown please.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous said...

I AM EATING THERE IN LESS THAN 2 HOURS !

I LOVE 'DA BEEF !

Anonymous said...

The burgers were really good. You can get the burgers cooked pink or brown. Pink was juicy. There is a large variety of burgers. I wonder if the burger list is too large to maintain. Regardless, I saw a handful of burgers that I want to try. I wish there was a "Build Your Own" burger section on the menu. The kitchen did accomodate a "Build Your Own" request last night so they are capable of being flexible.

The beer selection is over priced and lacking. Stool Pidgeons has a better beer selection (shocking). Nevertheless, this is something I am sure will evolve at NIX. I realize that Nix has only been open for a short time, but there was no "vibe" or "energy" in the place last night.

Personally, I like Big Daddy's better, BUT NIX makes a good burger and I will definitely go back.

Anonymous said...

I went to NIX for dinner on Friday night and every aspect of this restaurant was excellent. My waitress (Cassey) was awesome...super fast and friendly service; and the food was EXCEPTIONAL!!!!! My burger was cooked perfectly, and absolutely delicious; the crinkle fries were well seasoned and the "secret sauce" was quite flavorful. I also had a dessert which was quite good. The atmosphere is trendy without being stuck up...if you enjoy a great burger and great service, eat at Nix..you will not be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

Do you have to choose "Pink" or "Brown" for the burgers? If so, I assume NIX doesn't even choose or grind their own meat?

I think NC law prohibits restaurants that don't grind their own meat from cooking to order (thus the limited pink or brown selections).

Are they going to deliver uptown? An Observer article back in September suggested they would have delivery.

Anonymous said...

I like PINK !

Anonymous said...

Decent burger for a place that's just a walk around the corner from home.
Beer prices are too high for the selection offered and Big Daddy's blows it out of the water on taste. Not to mention the fact that Big Daddy's uses hormone free beef.

Anonymous said...

Had my first Nix experience today... and IT WILL DEFINITELY BE MY LAST. We literally waited for 45 minutes to get our food as did several other groups of people in our area. We witnessed others have their orders completely screwed up. For a $10 burger, you'd think you'd get more to eat... burgers were small... average in taste. In the end, neither the waitress nor the manager offered anything in compensation... WEAK!!!!!! Avoid it while you can, Charlotte... because it won't be around long. AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I went on Sunday with my boyfriend. It was packed and very loud, although that didn't bother me much because I loved the ambiance. But the burger was horrible! I had the All American Burger... Very dry and no sauce. The burger was small, and not worth the price. I get the 1/3 burger at the Counter for 7.95 and it's huge and tasty. I had the mac and cheese for a side and it wasn't very good either. They ran out of the beer my boyfriend wanted to order (I can understand that due to being such a small area and little storage) and the cheesecake was not worth 6+ dollars. I will try to go back in a month and hopefully the problems will be worked out.

Anonymous said...

I just had lunch at Nix today. I thought it was awesome. The beef was so tender and juicy, and the pimiento cheese...amazing! The waitress was super friendly. The atmosphere was very hip too. This would be an awesome way to start a night out or end one as I see they are open late night. Yummy.

Anonymous said...

i was also there for lunch today and had a similar experience as listed above -- we waited more than half an hour to get our food and then the order was completely wrong. waitress acted like she didn't care. i won't be back. absolutely pathetic.

Unknown said...

I've tried to place a To Go order on two different occasions. No one will answer the phone! Also the website URL that is printed on their menus (www.nixburgers.com) isn't even registered! These people obviously are doing their best to run this business in the ground.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE IT!
Jenn the sexy bartender, and the brautiful brown skinned hostess are the two reasons I'll be sure to come back! Having someone attractive standing at the door welcoming people in was a very wise plan of action! Yes, the beers are expensive, but with a bartender like jenn, I'll stay there and buy beers all day!



Oh yeah, the burgers are good too, but my favorite dish is the NACHO'S!

Anonymous said...

Drove to Big Daddy's last night instead of riding the elevator down to Nix.

Enough said ?

Anonymous said...

If the menu directs you to a website that doesn't exist, do you really expect them to be able to get your order right?

Surprising that this launch is going so poorly given how solid Lavecchia's is.

Unknown said...

Man That's awesome!!!
A hamburger place--WOW.
I'll have to go get me a hamburger.
What next?? A chicken sandwich place--Awesome!!!!

Anonymous said...

ANOTHER FRICKIN HAMBURGER JOINT! TRY ZACK'S ON SCALEYBARK OR
MR. K'S ON SOUTH BOULEVARD. YOU CAN FED YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY AT EITHER OF THESE PLACES FOR THE PRICE OF FEDIGN ONE AT THESE NEW JOINTS. THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO YELL.

top recruiter said...

Our experience last night @ Nix was great-very good food, service and atmosphere. This was far better than our experience at Big Daddy's which wasn't bad, just not good. We'll go back to Nix again.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely wonderful! The best burger I have ever had since I left Chicago and Hackneys. Cooked to perfection and Jen and Jason couldn't have been nicer or more accomodating! The atmosphere is so much nicer than the other burger joints in Charlotte. NIX's will be a destination for our family !

Anonymous said...

disappointing on so many levels... service, value, taste. i won't be back.

Anonymous said...

Evidentaly you anoymous people leaving the negative comments have no idea what it takes to open a new business. Any so-called problems you may have encountered will be resolved. The food is great as is the atmosphere and the service. I will go back as often as possible and enjoy the delicious food. If you haven't tried it, you should, and if you haven't been to LaVecchias Seafood Restaurant, you don't know what you're missing.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the negative anonymous comments. Could that be a competitor trying to black ball new businesses? C'mon, there is enough to go around. I think NIX was good; I will definitely be back for lunch and some beers late night.

Anonymous said...

You people will complain about ANYTHING! PLEASE leave Charlotte and go somewhere that you can be happy... maybe back to your Mother.

Anonymous said...

We ate at NIX last night before the Avett Brothers concert. We got there at 720pm and didnt have to wait. The staff was friendly and pretty fast. They were out of Miller light, which I found odd, but the draft beers are $4. They also have drink specials during the week. We had the fried pickles (chips) which were as good as the Penguins. The burger was good; they asked if we wanted "pink" or "brown". We went pink and it came out medium and was perfectly cooked and juicy. The sweet potato fries weren't spectacular but were decent. I will go back.