My name is Vianey and I am an Ebru artist. The art is a water marbling technique from Turkey. The company that I work with is Culture Palette. I am the lead marbling artist, and I am also the CEO, marketing director, cash register—so that is what I do. An early memory of my childhood that brings me back to Ebru, water marbling, I think when I was around maybe nine years old and I wanted to start my own business. Back then I wanted it to be through drawing coloring pages for o

Listen to their audio story. My name is Melissa Lynn, and I co‑own Sweet Crunch Waffles in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the Market at 7th Street, we specialize in liege waffles. They are a little different than waffles you make at home. It’s not made from a batter—it’s made from a dough that we make in‑house with all fresh ingredients. It rises and rests for about 24 hours, and once it’s ready, we mix in pearl sugar. That’s what makes a liege waffle: the dough and the sugar

Listen to their audio story. My name is Siobhan Redick, and I am one of the owners of the social cow ice cream inside the market at 7th Street. We specialize in creating experiences through ice cream. We have 12 flavors of hand-dipped ice cream and a vintage truck that we do private events with. Funny enough, the dish that brings me back to my childhood is ice cream. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and we just ate ice cream a lot. Like there were a lot of grandkid

Listen to the audio story. My name is Chef Ammalu. I am the owner and the executive chef of Serengeti Kitchen. We are located inside the Market at 7th Street. We specialize in Tanzanian cuisine. The food that brings me back immediately to my childhood memory is chapati. Growing up, we ate a lot of chapati. Chapati is a very popular food that we enjoy during breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Growing up, I remember dipping them in our coconut beans. That is my favorite way of enjoyi

Listen to their audio story. My name is Marissa. I am the general manager of Resident Culture’s uptown location, located in the Market at 7th Street. Resident Culture has been a brewery in Plaza Midwood for almost nine years, and we’ve had our taproom in the uptown location for a little over two years. We’re known for hazy IPAs, but we also expand to everything. We love doing imperial stouts, barrel‑aged beers, funky sours, and light lagers that are approachable. Our motto is

Listen to their audio story. My name is Josh Allen. I'm the manager of Not Just Coffee at the 7th Street Market. I've been managing here for about a year and a half and have been a part of the company for three years now. Since I moved to Charlotte a few years ago, I've been very happy to be a part of this company. I’d say that Not Just Coffee is the highlight of the Charlotte coffee scene for me. Even before I started working here, the environment of all the shops—and Not Ju

My name is Rastelle Patrizzi. I am the chef‑owner of Mano Bell Artisan Food. We are located, of course, in Charlotte, North Carolina. My style of cuisine is classic Italian cuisine. I moved to the States back in 2014. I was born and raised in Rome, Italy, and I have a very big and deep approach to real Italian cuisine. You can eat in my now three restaurants that I own here in Charlotte, North Carolina. My wife is the operator, creator, pretty much designer of everything like

Listen to It's Poppin's audio story. My name is Janelle Doyle. I am the owner of It’s Poppin’ Gourmet Kettle Corn, and we are a gourmet kettle corn company with over 60 delicious flavors. A dish or recipe from my family that immediately brings me back to childhood is barbecue. We used to have big barbecues on holidays—Fourth of July, Juneteenth, Labor Day—and it would bring all of our family together, family that maybe we hadn’t seen in a while. We would meet up at someone’s

Listen to Geno D's audio story. My name is Gina DePaolo. I'm the owner of Geno D's Pizza at the Market at 7th Street. We specialize in old‑school New Jersey–style pizza. Our grandma pizza started in my family. My grandmother and my father’s recipe of our grandma pizza and Sicilian pizza meant we would make the dough in the morning, proof it for midday, cook the shell, and then finish it at night for dinner. So a center pie with fresh mozzarella, strips of sauce, and then a qu

My name is Aubrey Legrand, and my business is Flo’s Grand, where we sell 100% soy wax candles and body products. We also host a number of events—candle‑making events or scent‑centric events—at the 7th Street Market or on location for groups and companies. I think I’ve always been obsessed with smells. Good smells, bad smells. I was that kid who was always putting things to my nose to smell them, to check them out olfactorily. My earliest memory—I couldn’t have been more than

Listen to CLT Find's audio story. My name is Christy Pope. I own CLT Find with my business partner and friend, Tony South. We are going into our 10th year of business. We created CLT Find to be a one‑stop shop for local gifting. We wanted to represent like‑minded makers and artists in our local community who create beautiful items handmade in small batches. What brought both Tony and me to Charlotte were our first jobs out of college. Neither of us are native to Charlotte—we

So, I'm Chef Erick Crawford. I am the executive chef and owner of Chop Chop Red Pot and also Marley Jean's Raw Bar in Davidson, North Carolina and Chop Chop Red Pot on 7th. We'll be opening shortly here April 1st as our go-to date. One dish that I really... have nostalgic feelings about is grits. Growing up in the South, you know, they're going to every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You know, we could have gone in all those directions. So that really, really hits home for me