Peace & Saint opens a cocktail and hookah lounge in Uptown as Ray’s Country Smokehouse closes in Gastonia after 60 years

Peace & Saint, a cocktail and hookah lounge from Raleigh, opened on Friday, October 2, at 350 E. Sixth St. in Uptown’s First Ward, across from Spectrum Center, Axios reported. The next day, Ray’s Country Smokehouse & Grill in downtown Gastonia closed for good after more than 60 years, Queen City News reported.

This roundup covers both businesses, plus the openings still ahead this fall around Charlotte.

Peace & Saint opens in Uptown

The Charlotte location of Peace & Saint is the brand’s third, after Raleigh and Durham, and fills a space that last held an axe-throwing venue, Hoodline reported. Founder Yama Ahmadi opened the first Peace & Saint in Raleigh in summer 2021, according to Hoodline. The company’s website pitches the brand as elevated cocktails and curated hookah across three cities.

The Raleigh original sits at the corner of Peace and St. Mary’s streets in Glenwood South, according to the company’s website, at 616 St. Mary’s St., and the Durham lounge is in the Golden Belt district at 618 Ramseur St., Hoodline reported. The company describes the Raleigh format as a café by day that turns into a lounge at night. In Charlotte, the posted weekday hours start in the evening.

Axios and Hoodline published the details for the Uptown lounge:

• The address is 350 E. Sixth St., Suite 1, and the phone number is 980-866-3780, according to the lounge’s reservation page.
• Hours are 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 to 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday, Axios reported. The lounge is closed Mondays.
• The menu has about 10 seasonal cocktails starting at $14, including a key lime martini and margaritas, plus beer, wine and nonalcoholic drinks.
• A six-person martini tower is $65, and a strawberry and Hennessy cocktail called Henny Thing Goes is $18, Hoodline reported.
• Flavored hookah is available, and a DJ plays most nights.

A patio is planned but not yet open. The dress code is business casual, and the reservation page puts a typical check at $31 to $50 per person. Axios noted the location is convenient for Spectrum Center events, since visitors are already paying to park Uptown.

Ray’s Country Smokehouse closes in Gastonia

Ray’s Country Smokehouse & Grill served customers for the last time at 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 3, at 219 S. Broad St., at the corner of Second Avenue in downtown Gastonia, according to Queen City News. The owners sold the business and are retiring.

The business traces the restaurant’s history back more than 60 years, starting at a family store, and moved to the Broad Street building in 1997, Hoodline reported, citing the Charlotte Observer and the Gaston Gazette. Ray “Butch” England, his wife, Rhonda, and their son, Casey, run the restaurant, according to Hoodline. Butch England told the Gaston Gazette in 2018 that the restaurant would not serve food the owners would not eat themselves, Hoodline reported. In their announcement, the owners called the restaurant “our second home,” Queen City News reported.

The menu centered on smoked meats. The best-known dishes, as described by Hoodline and Queen City News:

• Brisket smoked for 17 hours.
• Pulled pork and baby back ribs with a house-made, molasses-based rib sauce.
• Half-pound burgers and hamburger steaks.
• Smoked wings, hot dogs and sides including slaw, okra and a baked bean casserole.

Longtime customers posted farewells as the closing approached. Jeffrey McElrath said, “I’ll miss the pulled pork, brisket, dinners and the staff,” according to Hoodline.

The new owners plan a breakfast and lunch restaurant in the space, according to Queen City News, though the name has not been announced.

Openings still ahead this fall

Several openings and conversions are on the calendar for the coming months:

• Food Lion opens on Wednesday, October 7, in the former Harris Teeter at 5706 Wyalong Drive in east Charlotte, with a 7:45 a.m. ribbon cutting, according to an October 5 announcement from the company. The store will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, the first 100 customers get a mystery gift card worth up to $200, and Merima Cuturic is the store manager. Food Lion is also giving $2,500 to Lion of Judah to fight food insecurity. The Oct. 2 report has details on the store.
• Wegmans opens the chain’s first Charlotte-area store on Wednesday, October 14, at 11550 N. Community House Road in Ballantyne, as covered in the Sept. 22 report. The 110,000-square-foot store will employ about 450 people and is the chain’s fifth in North Carolina.
• Texas Roadhouse plans to open a 7,900-square-foot restaurant at 13425 Rigsby Road in Steele Creek on Monday, November 9, with about 220 jobs and starting wages of $14 to $18 an hour, Hoodline reported, citing WBTV. The location is the chain’s first in southwest Mecklenburg County, and the lease was signed in November 2025, according to the same report.
• The Maple Street Biscuit Company on Christenbury Parkway in Concord is expected to become a Biscuit Belly in late fall, as covered in the Sept. 28 report.
• Radish Kitchen, a Nashville salad and grain bowl chain, is building the brand’s first location outside Tennessee at 2820 Selwyn Ave. in Myers Park, with an opening planned for early 2027, WhatNow Charlotte reported.

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