Taste of Birkdale Returns to a Village With a Different Restaurant Roster

Foxcroft Food & Wine sat near the main lawn and the Plaza stage, in the middle of Birkdale Village. Its Huntersville location served its last meals on Saturday, October 10. Birkdale Village Restaurant Week begins one week later, on October 17. On Saturday, October 24, Taste of Birkdale returns after a three-year hiatus, with food and drinks from ten village restaurants, an open bar and live entertainment.

Three of the ten on this year's ticket opened at Birkdale after the last Taste. Two notable tables nearby closed in the past seven weeks. And the village itself has a new owner. Around Lake Norman this fall, the clearest pattern is Charlotte-area restaurant companies deciding, one location at a time, where they want to be. Taste of Birkdale is where that turnover shows.

Who's on the Ticket, and When They Arrived

Cornelius Today lists the participants as Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, bartaco, Bonefish Grill, Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop, eeZ, Fin & Fino, Kilwins, North Italia, Red Rocks and Suffolk Punch. Four of them have opening dates on record, and those dates span two decades of the village.

CharlotteFive reported that eeZ first opened at Birkdale in 2005, which makes it the anchor of continuity on the list. Fin & Fino replaced Dressler's in early 2024, as Cornelius Today covered at the time. Axios Charlotte marked North Italia's opening in February 2025. Suffolk Punch's lower level opened in December 2025, according to Visit Lake Norman. The brewery's own listings describe an open-air rooftop at 16912 Birkdale Commons Parkway and offered rooftop reservations for July 4 this year.

Taste of Birkdale has been gone for three years, so a good share of this year's lineup is newer than the event itself. Cornelius Today even used a photo of Suffolk Punch, the newest of the four, to illustrate the comeback story. No source we found explains why the event paused or what brought it back.

The Village Changed Hands Twice in About a Year

The restaurant turnover lines up with turnover in ownership. Hines U.S. Property Partners bought Birkdale Village from Jamestown in October 2025. The Charlotte Observer reported the terms were not disclosed and described Hines as the property's second owner in just over a year.

Months before that sale, Huntersville approved Jamestown's rezoning request on March 18, 2025, for a proposed $200 million expansion. Axios Charlotte reported that the plan included an office and retail building replacing Barnes & Noble, a 125-room hotel, 150 apartments replacing Dick's, and expanded parking. Construction was expected no sooner than 2027. The coverage we found does not say whether Hines has kept, revised or set aside that plan, so the timeline is open.

The new ownership is the context for the Foxcroft closing. In a statement to CharlotteFive, a Birkdale Village spokesperson said the closure was part of the "company's larger corporate strategy" and added, "While we are disappointed to see them go, we are grateful for their partnership over the years and wish them continued success." Foxcroft did not give a reason. The same report, citing the Charlotte Business Journal, noted that Birkdale is the third Foxcroft location to close in a year. The brand still has its original SouthPark restaurant on Fairview Road, plus Dilworth and Waverly. No replacement tenant has been named for the Birkdale space.

Across the Parkway, the Same Kind of Decision

Birkdale Crossing, the retail center across from the village, had its own change this summer. Its Hickory Tavern closed on August 25 as part of a wider cut in the chain's Carolinas footprint. That cut included closures in Huntersville, Mooresville, Charlotte and Columbia, South Carolina. According to Cornelius Today, Artistry Restaurants, the Florida company that bought the Hickory Tavern portfolio in 2025, said it was focusing on the locations best positioned for long-term growth.

Hickory Tavern had been an anchor tenant at Birkdale Crossing since 2009. The same report says New South Properties, the Charlotte-based firm that markets the center, has already heard from Charlotte-area restaurants interested in the space as they look to expand in north Mecklenburg.

So two well-known tables near the Birkdale Commons Parkway loop closed between late August and early October. In both cases, the closure was described as part of a broader company strategy.

Where the New Money Is Landing

Little Mama's Italian, the Michelin-recommended Charlotte restaurant, opened its third location on Monday, September 7, at 9623 Bailey Road, Suite 100, in Cornelius. CharlotteFive reported that founder Frank Scibelli called it a "heartfelt project" and said the team was eager to bring its Italian-American food tradition to Cornelius and Lake Norman.

On September 29, Flying Biscuit Café announced plans for a Lake Norman-area location. Prospective owners David and Jimmy Mumby told Cornelius Today they picked the brand for its food, personality and welcoming atmosphere. The site is still being chosen, and no address or opening date has been announced.

Foxcroft's exit, Little Mama's arrival on Bailey Road and the interest New South reports at Birkdale Crossing all come from Charlotte-area operators. Each one decided whether a north Mecklenburg location belongs in its plans, and they did not all decide the same way.

How Restaurant Week and Taste Work This Year

The ten restaurants on the Taste ticket are the ones still investing in the village, and the two-part format gives each of them a full week to show it. Cornelius Today laid out the details:

• Restaurant Week, October 17 to 23. Participating restaurants offer limited-time dishes, pairings and drinks. Scanning a QR code at a participating restaurant enters you to win Taste of Birkdale tickets, Birkdale Village gift cards and merchandise.
• Taste of Birkdale, Saturday, October 24. Tickets are $75 through Freshtix, and the event is limited to guests 21 and older. Jacinda Jacobs emcees, with live entertainment from Split Second Sound DJ & Entertainment and Colby Dobbs.
• The beneficiary. Proceeds go to Community Culinary School of Charlotte, a nonprofit that provides culinary training and job-placement help to adults facing barriers to long-term employment. CCSC students will also host their own table and serve a dish.
• Parking. Free self-parking is in the garages off Birkdale Commons Parkway and Lindholm Drive. Valet costs extra and is located near the Birkdale performance stage.
• Weather. The event may be canceled or rescheduled for severe weather, with full refunds if it is canceled.

The CCSC table fits this year's theme. The other ten tables show which restaurants are investing in the village now, and the students at that one are training for jobs in the industry those restaurants belong to.

The Rest of the Season, by Date

After Taste, the village calendar shifts to Halloween and the holidays. Here is what the Birkdale Village events page currently lists:

The Lighting of Birkdale Village page lists the day as running 2 to 7 p.m. Birkdale on Ice opens at 2 p.m. with a skating performance. The parade starts at 4:30 p.m. and loops Birkdale Commons Parkway, and the tree lighting in The Plaza begins at 6 p.m. The page also lists a Birkdale Biergarten between Red Rocks Cafe and North Italia, pouring seasonal beer from Suffolk Punch Brewing, Hoptown Brewing, Royal Bliss Brewing Co. and Lost Worlds Brewing. Festive drinks are listed from Fin & Fino and bartaco. The parade map linked from that page was uploaded in November 2025, so check the performer and vendor details again closer to November 21.

If that lineup holds, the village's two newest Taste participants, North Italia and Suffolk Punch, mark one end of the holiday Biergarten. A third newcomer, Fin & Fino, serves festive drinks.

Restaurants open and close every season. At Your Property People, we track which ones stay, which ones arrive and which landlords are getting calls, because those changes shape how a place like Birkdale feels to live near. If you'd like to talk through what this season's changes mean around Lake Norman, we're glad to start that conversation over a table at Taste.