JUNE 2019 // CHARLOTTE 45
StarChefs’ Rising Star Chef, OpenTable
Top 100, and Andrew Harper’s Restau rant
of the Year.
Bill considers North Carolina home, but
he’s spent a life mixing avors and cul-
tures. He was born in Korea and adopted
at age three from an orphanage in Seoul.
His American parents raised him in
Banner Elk, where, at age 12, he began
working as a dishwasher at Grandfather
Golf and Country Club. He graduated from
the Culinary Institute of America and, in
1996, landed a job at Le Cirque 2000, the
famed circus-themed French restaurant
in midtown Manhattan. A year later, he
was promoted to sous chef. In 1998, he
went to work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
under renowned chef Laurent Gras. Then,
in early 2001, he came home to care for his
sick mother, who died later that year.
Bill worked in the kitchens of several
country clubs in Avery County, and in the
o -season he landed a job at Upstream in
Charlotte, where he met his wife, Anita.
Bill says he and Anita spent more than
four years searching for the right location
to open a restaurant in Charlotte.
Many of his rst-time guests ask: What’s
a peppervine? “We collectively wanted
a representation of something hearty,
something a bit wild, and something that
will endure,” Bill explains. “Together, we
came across peppervine, also known as
kudzu, which is a vine that grows wild in
North America and just takes over.”
The menu changes constantly—they
print a new one every day—and typically
includes 18 shareable plates and six larger
entreés. Most guests start with an order
of pimento cheese scones, baked to order
and served with sorghum butter and pep-
per jelly. And anyone who loves the yeast
rolls at Artisanal will be thrilled to know
the warm Japanese milk bread—aka “ele-
vated King’s Hawaiian rolls”—will be a
xture on the menu at Peppervine, too.
Other small plates include baked sun-
choke with crème fraîche, shallot butter,
and malt vinegar; Georges Bank sea scal-
lops; big eye tuna tartare; and squid ink
bucatini with Spanish octopus, bone mar-
row, and kale. For dessert, there’s sticky
to ee pudding, strawberry crostata, and
lactée chocolate mousse.
The restaurant’s design “came from our
desire to lighten up what was originally a
very dark space,” Bill says. “We wanted to
incorporate many tones of so¥ neutrals,
balancing it with tons of texture.” The
7,800-square-foot interior has lo¥ y ceil-
ings, a mezzanine lounge, a 10-seat bar
area, and, in the center of the room, a
glass-enclosed wine display. There’s also
a private dining room for 25 in the back,behind another glass wine display.
If you sit in the main dining area,
look up. Paper light xtures by Jocelyn
Chateauvert and a mammoth wood
installation by Alex Pate hang from the
ceiling. “Art was a huge inspiration for
us, whether that’s the culinary art on
the plate or our partnership with Shain
Gallery,” Bill says. They’ll have new art
on a quarterly rotation throughout the
restaurant; each piece is for sale, with
information on the artists available on
Peppervine’s website.
There’s a long, horizontal window into
the kitchen, where diners can see the
cooks preparing and plating their meals,
and planters above it with succulents and
greenery. Outside is more seating and a
re pit. Bill and Anita’s 10-year-old son,
Alex, will make cameos, too—you might
see him at the host stand greeting cus-
tomers (if it’s not a school night).
If you want to come on a weekend,
though, make a reservation. Just like
Artisanal, tables at Peppervine book up
fast.
Then plan to come back again, be cause
it’ll be totally di erent if you do.TAYLOR BOWLER is associate editor of this
magazine.(Left) Sticky toffee
pudding with
baked pecans
and bourbon ice
cream; (above)
strawberry crostata
with whipped
marscapone.