This last weekend I decided I needed a break from the uptown scene. Some friends and I decided to explore a new area of Charlotte and agreed on a bar we’d heard a great deal about in Southend: All American Pub
We started the night a little bit earlier in order to sample their dinner menu. Their menu sells a standard variety of bar food, but with several innovative twists thrown in that I found very refreshing. I ordered a bacon cheese burger, their “southwestern burger” which had a little extra flair added with a healthy scoop of guacamole thrown on under the bun. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the combination of avocado and spice worked very nicely with the burger. I would definitely recommend it again, and the rest of my friends seemed to enjoy their meals just as much.
The servers and waitstaff were all very polite. All American Pub is known as the Charlotte FSU hangout, and I decided to wear some school spirit. Both hostesses were polite enough to provide some FSU support and gave me some good info on the football season atmosphere. I will definitely be back here for next season’s football games. On a related note, there are plenty of big TVs to watch sporting events on.
While AAP has a fully stocked liquor bar, and a large selection of your standard domestic and import beers, i was glad to see that AAB also carried a decent selection of craft beer on their menu. I tried several local beers from Old Mecklenburg Brewery that were very unique and paired well with a southwest burger. My friend who fancies himself “a girl-drink-drunk” said the mixers were also very good as well.
As the dinner hour ends, AAP starts pulling up the chairs and tables through part of the restaurant to make room for a dance floor. They do slowly bring up the volume of the music to push out the last of the dinner stragglers and get the nightlife started. I don’t fault them on this, and would only warn any dinner customers to get there early enough to avoid this happening mid-dessert. If memory serves, this happened after 9:30pm, so you have plenty of time.
The nightlife at AAP is a great fun atmosphere. They started the night with an upbeat variety of pop and R&B music that’s easy for anybody from the ages of 21 to 40 to recognize and dance to. The dance floor is very big, and the crowd tends to end up on the young side of young-professional. I really enjoyed meeting people here and people watching. When you are getting ready, I would say aim for the dressy side of casual for AAP’s atmosphere, especially if you want to meet new people.
The only frustration I had was that once AAP started moving tables off the dance floor, they were still very rigid at assigning seating in the rest of the building and outside on the patio. This ended up causing us complications trying to move from a table on the dance floor to one on the patio so we could continue drinking and socializing. I would recommend that if you’re planning on staying through this transition you start with a table that isn’t on the dance floor, either closer to the bar or out on the patio. This will avoid the mess of having to get back in line at the front door for another table half way through the evening.
These last few things may have added a few bumps to my AAP experience, but overall the food, drinks, and music were all superb. I am excited to find an FSU hangout here in Charlotte and I am now even more excited about football season. The atmosphere seems more my style, dressy and out for fun, but a touch more laid back than your standard Uptown scene.
Oh, and one last note for future All American Pub customers. There is parking available behind the pub, but you have to enter the parking lot from the opposite end of the block. Circle the block and keep a look out for the signs on where to turn in. Several of my friends were unaware of this and parked a short hike away when they didn’t have to.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did
Filed under: Charlotte Nightlife, All American Pub, Bar, beer, Charlotte, Club, Dance Club, Florida State University, Football, FSU, nightlife, Pub, Restaurant, review
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