According to NationalTacoDay.com, Americans ate more than 4.5 billion tacos last year, “that’s 490,000 miles of tacos, which could take you to the moon and back or, if you prefer, could, at 775-million pounds, equal the weight of two Empire State Buildings.”
On October 4th, both local restaurants and national chains will be offering some epic taco deals in and around Charlotte.
Here are the best deals we could find for October 4th – National Taco Day:
Blaze Pizza: today Blaze will be going against the taco-grain with their ‘Noncon4mist Day’ – they’ll be offering $4 pizzas after 4 p.m.
Paco’s Tacos: They’re offering $2 off the 1 taco plate, $3 off the 2 taco plate, and $4 off the 3 taco plate all day today.
Taco Bell: “National Taco Day gift set” – for $5, you get a Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch, Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos and the Crunchy Taco “gift wrapped” in a limited edition wrapper and specially boxed.
RuRu’s Tacos and Tequilla: Select $2 tacos all day today!
Tijuana Flats: $2 tacos and $2 Mexican drafts all day today at the University City and Gastonia locations.
On the Border: Mini tacos are 50 cents each when you dine-in Wednesday at participating locations.
Vida Cantina: $1 tacos today from 11-3pm, and a Taco Eating Contest starting at 7pm – The winner will receives a pair of Panthers tix and all participants will score a Vida gift card for their efforts!
Did I miss any taco deals? Please let me know in the comments below or Email me at Scott@CLTStories.com and I’ll update this list!
This afternoon, an SUV plowed into a brand-new NASCAR show car in Uptown Charlotte near the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday during a media event promoting this weekend’s Bank of America 500.
The video shows the show car pulling out onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in front of an SUV.
As you can see from the video, the SUV had no time to stop:
The street was being directed by an officer due to the media event, but the driver of the SUV seemed to ignore the officer as he sped down MLKJr Blvd and smacked into the side of the show car as it quickly pulled out.
Just as we started speaking with @keselowski, a street car crashed into a show car.
Even though Charlotte’s restaurant selection continues to grow, so does our population, and some restaurants are taking advantage of this growing customer base by letting their health standards slide.
Some of the most common reasons for low scores were food handlers not washing their hands properly, contaminated food containers, and improper food temperatures (many restaurants are starting to use infrared thermometers to avoid this). You can see exactly what the inspectors look for on this blank copy of an inspection report.
These are the top 10 worst currently standing inspection scores in Mecklenburg County (some restaurants scored lower in September but were reinspected with higher scores before October 3rd):
4400 Sharon Rd., Charlotte, NC
Scored 90 (A) on 9/11/2017
They had the following critical violations;
Observed one chef touching aglio butter with bare hand.
Observed several pans of food stored uncovered or left open.
Observed soiled metal pan stored as clean.
Observed several pans of TCS food overstacked resulting in foods at the top of the pan measuring above 45F.
Observed many pans and trays of food with no date marking – diced tomatoes, cooked chicken, pasteurized eggs and whites, milk, half and half, pot roast, pasta, meat sauce, cut lettuce, sliced cheese, shrimp bruschetta, cooked sausage, etc.
Observed several sanitizer buckets unlabeled – painted label had worn away.
3039 South Blvd., Charlotte, NC
Scored 86 (B) on 9/21/2017
They had the following critical violations;
Observed operator handle raw beef with their bare hands then proceed to handle clean equipment without washing their hands.
Observed operator touch walk in cooler with bare hands then handle raw beef without washing their hands in between.
Observed employee handle soiled hot water faucet valve then handle clean equipment.
Observed operator touch cut lettuce held in flip top prep unit with their bare hands.
Observed hot water at 95 degrees F in women’s and women’s restroom (must be over 100F).
Observed raw hamburger meat stored above cooked gyro meat in flip top prep refrigerator.
Observed cut lettuce overstacked in prep unit over 45 degrees F, raw chicken at 52 degrees F, Gyro meat at 47 degrees F, hamburger meat at 52 degrees F on bottom of prep refrigerator. Operator stated foods were recently placed in unit and foods relocated to walk in unit. Ambient air temperature measured 50 degrees F as indicated by thermocouple.
Observed container of garlic/oil with a preparation date of 9/3 under sticker that was relabeled.
Observed 1 spray bottle of Windex stored with single-service towels near pass through window.
A post shared by Dilworth Neighborhood Grille (@dilworthgrille) on
911 E. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC
Scored 85 (B) on 9/28/2017
They had the following critical violations;
Observed an employee don gloves without washing hands. Also observed employees handle soiled equipment and then attempt to work with food after a glove change.
Observed an employee handle raw chicken and then handle ready to eat chicken with the same gloved hand. Observed an employee cut a quesadilla with a knife that was used for opening a sealed raw tuna package. Through conversation an employee stated the knife is used for both activities frequently. EHS also observed packaged cheese stored on top of packaged raw fish.
Observed the bottom of a soiled bowl stored on top of spring mix in a flip top unit.
Observed an employee activity using sanitizer at 50 ppm QUAT.
Observed black build up on the bar ice machine. Also observed tea spouts in need of cleaning do to a brown build up.
Observed roast beef cooked and dated for 9/27 and still at 67F. Head chef stated the item had not been removed from the cooler since it was placed in the cooler. This item did not cool to 45F in six hours. Also observed mac n cheese cooling in the walk-in at 112F. After 120 minutes the mac n cheese was at 72-75F. At this rate the first parameter was missed.
Observed chicken at 110F and pork at 112F.
Observed noodles at 43F and dated for 9/23. At this temperature TCS foods may only be kept for 4 days. Observed corn dated for 9/19. Also observed several pans of chicken and pork with two different dates, improperly labeled.
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14815 Ballantyne Village Way Suite 250, Charlotte, NC
Scored 83.5 (B) on 9/22/2017
They had the following critical violations;
Observed issues with employee hand washing and employees properly cooking PHF twice for same order.
Observed food employee beverages being stored on food preparation counters without a lid and over food.
Observed food employee not washing hands for 20 seconds or using soap.
Observed food employee at ware washing going from dirty to clean without washing hands.
Observed food employee dumping employee drink into hand sink.
Observed raw shrimp overstacked in flip top unit and touching ready to eat cooked peas and carrots.
Observed build-up on ice chute and nails rusting holding ice plate.
Observed steak coming off 97-104 degrees.
Observed 12 containers of shrimp hot holding below 135 degrees.
Observed raw eggs cold holding on counter above 45 degrees.
Observed two containers of mushrooms dated 9/12.
Observed rice not marked at sushi station.
Observed sanitizer reading less than 50 ppm for quat ammonium.
As of October 3rd, the above scores have not changed, but they can be increased (or decreased) at any time, as soon as they have a re-inspection.
If you’d like to monitor heath scores, or do a quick search for a restaurant you’re about to eat at, check out North Carolina’s health inspection database here.
LendingTree just released their findings from a new study on how well residents in the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas are spending within their means – or not.
The company analyzed the average number of credit inquiries, use of revolving credit, non-housing debt balances as a percentage of income and mortgage balances (also as a percentage of income). The study then combined these factors to create a “Spending Within Your Means Score” of 0 to 100, with a higher score designating the cities where residents are more likely to be living within their means.
Greenville, SC took the top score, despite having the second-lowest average income among the 50 cities ranked at $65,503 per household. Greensboro, NC, came in at the #2, Charlotte came in at #5, and Raleigh was ranked #10 – proving that Carolina residents are by far the wisest credit users in the country;
Among the 50 ranked metro areas, residents are, on average, using 30 percent of their revolving credit lines — such as credit cards and home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs. They also have mortgage balances averaging 79 percent of their annual income and non-housing debt balances averaging 44 percent of annual income, and have had five credit inquiries in the last two years.
Charlotte Firefighters were called out to Texland Blvd. yesterday morning for a terrifying situation.
A man was being held over 50 feet in the air by his coworkers who did not have the strength to pull him back up and knew they would soon lose their grip.
Within 20 minutes of Charlotte Fire arriving on the scene, they were able to attach a longer harness onto the man and winch him down with the help of their ladder:
High Angle Rescue; 500 block of Texland Dr; Medical Emergency on Billboard; Station 20 area; Rescue 10 lowering patient to MEDIC pic.twitter.com/Zebe715yLm
This afternoon FedEx officially opened their new ‘Ground Station’ facility in Concord, which will become their new primary distribution hub for the Southeast, according to a recent press release.
The sprawling new 343,000 sqft building is now able to handle over 15,000 packages per hour. They’ve already hired 250 employees for the new facility and they are planning to hire another 100 employees over the next few weeks for the holiday season.
“And as we grow exponentially, this facility allows us to continue to be faster,” commented Bob Holcombe, the vice president of FedEx Ground’s Southern Region. “You have access to the highways and the employee population base is fantastic.”
Cabarrus County is becoming a major distribution hub for the greater Charlotte region, and it still has plenty of room to grow along I-85. There are even currently 5 large-scale shell buildings in industrial parks along the interstate now available for lease, with over a dozen more in various stages of development and planning.
One of Kannapolis’s oldest restaurants, “Varsity Bar-B-Q & Creamery” was recently forced to change its name after Atlanta’s popular “The Varsity” burger chain sued them for having ‘Varsity’ in their name.
The Independent Tribute interviewed owner Conard Haywood after he announced they were going to change their name to ‘Field House Bar-B-Que‘, “We had that name for 20 years. We’ve been here since 1998 and everybody in Kannapolis knows us,” Haywood commented.
“It was crazy. They are about five hours away. They sent me a letter and I ignored it the first several times, then he sent me a certified letter and I got a lawyer.”
The Atlanta chain said that since Varsity Bar-B-Q & Creamery contained the word “varsity”, people were confusing the two. They noted that people were leaving good reviews on Atlanta’s The Varsity Yelp and Facebook pages after visiting Kannapolis’s Varsity Bar-B-Q & Creamery…even though the nearest ‘The Varsity’ restaurant is over 200 miles away;
After over 7 months of back and forth conversations, Haywood’s attorney advised him that it would end up being easier and much cheaper to simply change the name than have to go to court, especially given the fact that Atlanta’s ‘The Varsity’ has a much higher budget for an expert legal team.
Last month he finally made the decision to bite the bullet and change their name after over 20 years of building their local brand loyalty.
The newly rebranded ‘Fieldhouse BBQ’ is now trying to tell all their customers that even though their name has changed, they are still serving the same classic food;
For many customers, however, they will always be Varsity BBQ:
What do you think about the lawsuit and name change?
Sustain Charlotte is excited to announce that they are partnering with Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT), Charlotte Center City Partners (CCCP), Mecklenburg County Park and Rec, and dozens of citizen volunteers to install a two-mile protected bicycle lane spanning all of Uptown on the morning of October 22nd.
The lane, which will run along all of 6th Street and part of 5th Street, will be open for public use at noon, just in time for Sustain Charlotte’s Biketoberfest, and remain in place for one week — until October 29th.
During the demonstration, CDOT will collect data and feedback from users to inform the design of a permanently protected bicycle lane on these streets.In March of 2016, Sustain Charlotte launched a campaign to show public support for safer, and more connected bike facilities so people of all ages and abilities can get where they need to go by bike. To get started, they created a petition asking the City for a protected bike lane through Uptown Charlotte, connecting Irwin Creek Greenway and Little Sugar Creek Greenway. Community support was swift, with more than 4,000 people signing the petition in the two months. This reflects the fact that 77% of Charlotteans worry about getting hit by a vehicle while biking according to a 2016 survey by The Urban Land Institute.
At around the same time, CDOT and CCCP hired a consultant to study how to make Uptown safer and more accessible for people on bikes. One of the consultant’s primary recommendations was a protected bike lane on 6th Street and part of 5th Street to connect the two greenways, which confirmed that this lane, as requested in Sustain Charlotte’s petition, was both feasible and needed.
Sustain Charlotte is seeking volunteers to help install and paint the protected bike lane the morning of October 22. The installation will include creating a physical barrier between the bike lane and other travel lanes using planters, hay bales, and cones. Volunteers will also help paint the lane with colorful designs near intersections and driveways to increase its visibility and to make the street itself more attractive and vibrant. To sign up to volunteer and learn more about the project, visit sustaincharlotte.org/biketoberfest.
Yesterday’s sweet, sweet victory against the New England Patriots (reigning Superbowl Champions) may have marked a turning point for the Carolina Panther’s 2017 season.
While our defense still needs some refinement, our offense truly shined.
Cam Newton’s 7-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter gave the Panthers a 30-16 lead over New England. The Patriots then rallied back to tie Sunday’s game 30-30, but after one last Panthers drive, Graham Gano kicked a 48-year field goal with 4 seconds on the clock to win the game 33-30.
Even without Greg Olsen, Newton still threw for three touchdowns and ran for another. He finished with 44 yards rushing and 350 yards of the team’s 444 yards of offense, many of which came after Patriots mistakes in the secondary (we didn’t even see our first punt until half-way through the 4th quarter).
Yesterday Cam Newton officially became the first quarterback in NFL history to rush for 50 career touchdowns.
Cam Newton is the first QB in NFL history with 50+ career rushing touchdowns @Panthers
He also became the 6th quarterback in NFL history to make three TD passes and a scoring run in a game six times, tying Drew Brees, Jack Kemp, Tobin Rote, Billy Wade and Steve Young.
The victory was also the 54th regular season win for Newton as the Panthers’ starting quarterback, breaking his tie with Jake Delhomme for the most wins by a starting quarterback in Carolina Panthers’ history.
The crew from “WHAT’S THIS – MYSTERIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD” hooked up with Captain Gus Gustafson, a local expert on the creature, and Matt Myers, the creator of LakeNormanMonster.com to search the lake.
The team spent 3 days searching the lake using sonar and deep sea fishing gear:
According to The Herald Weekly, the team spent the first day digging through old footage of the creature and fishing for ‘Normie bait’, including catfish and spotted bass.
Day 1 was used to familiarize the film crew with the lake, plus record footage describing Normie’s background and various locations where he has been spotted. We spent some time catching bait in my cast net and fishing for larger “Normie snacks” in the forms of spotted bass and catfish.
Day 2 was spent fishing for ‘Normie’ down the center of Lake Norman with live fish and whole chickens. At one point, Captain Gus something massive with one of the chickens, and after a lengthy fight, his 250lb line suddenly snapped – everyone onboard agreed that whatever was on the line was much larger than any lake fish they’ve ever heard of.
Day 3 was spent using sonar and scuba equipment searching the bottom of the lake for signs of Normie, with the help of a Catawba County Sheriff’s office investigator. At one point, Captain Gus recorded an unusually large signal on his sonar, but due to the murkiness of the water, the diving crew was never able to spot anything underwater.
Unfortunately, the team did not find any conclusive proof of Normie this time, but the film crew did capture some very interesting moments for their show.
Happy National Taco Day!
Even though Charlotte’s restaurant selection continues to grow, so does our population, and some restaurants are taking advantage of this growing customer base by letting their health standards slide.
This afternoon FedEx officially opened their new ‘Ground Station’ facility in Concord, which will become their new primary distribution hub for the Southeast, according to a recent press release.
One of Kannapolis’s oldest restaurants, “Varsity Bar-B-Q & Creamery” was recently forced to change its name after Atlanta’s popular “The Varsity” burger chain sued them for having ‘Varsity’ in their name.
Sustain Charlotte is excited to announce that they are partnering with Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT), Charlotte Center City Partners (CCCP), Mecklenburg County Park and Rec, and dozens of citizen volunteers to install a two-mile protected bicycle lane spanning all of Uptown on the morning of 
While our defense still needs some refinement, our offense truly shined. 