FARE, the Chicago-based fast-casual restaurant known for its scratch-made, produce-driven menu, has selected Charlotte for its first expansion beyond Illinois. The company is preparing to open this fall at Queensbridge Collective, 1111 S. Tryon Street, inside the Vivian luxury residential tower. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, the restaurant will be FARE’s first location outside its home market of Chicago and represents an investment of more than $1 million.
Founder and CEO Kasia Bednarz told WhatNow Charlotte that Charlotte’s culture made it an easy choice for the company’s next chapter.
“Charlotte actually reminds me a lot of Chicago. I think people really care about good food, and they also live a very healthy lifestyle,” Bednarz said. “One of our landlords in Chicago is going to be our landlord in Charlotte, and he initially mentioned it to me. I felt really great about that partnership, and that’s when I started looking into Charlotte and spending more time there.”
FARE’s approximately 1,500-square-foot restaurant will feature indoor and outdoor seating and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner with a menu of scratch-made bowls, sandwiches and seasonal dishes. The company currently operates 10 restaurants in the Chicago area, with Charlotte becoming its 11th location.
Charlotte is already shaping up to be more than a single-store market. Bednarz confirmed to WhatNow Charlotte that FARE is actively pursuing a second location in Plaza Midwood, targeting an early 2027 opening. Rather than taking a different approach for future sites, she said the company plans to replicate the mixed-use model used at Queensbridge Collective because it allows FARE to serve customers throughout the day while meeting a variety of dining occasions.
“It is a model that we’re cloning,” Bednarz said. “It accommodates a lot of different dayparts. We have a full breakfast menu, lunch and dinner. We have family meals and meal packs to go, so it really works in a lot of different neighborhoods.”
As FARE expands, Bednarz said protecting the company’s scratch-made approach starts with investing in its people.
“We really treat our team incredibly well, and we care,” she said. “We provide health care, bereavement, maternity, paternity leave, and there’s a profit-sharing program as well. Our goal is that the team sees a bigger vision of really feeding America better.” She added that greater scale will strengthen the business rather than compromise quality through increased purchasing power and sourcing opportunities.
Bednarz said she’s excited about what FARE can bring to Charlotte beyond its restaurant menu. “We’re just really excited to bring FARE to Charlotte. I think that it’s the perfect community for us,” she told WhatNow Charlotte. “We’re excited to bring our catering business there as well. There’s a ton of office buildings, and we do a huge catering business in Chicago, so we’re excited about that.”
According to the Charlotte Business Journal, catering already accounts for roughly a quarter of FARE’s business, making Charlotte’s mix of office, residential and mixed-use development an attractive market as the company begins expanding beyond Illinois.
