This Charlotte restaurateur decided to expand locations despite the coronavirus

A Charlotte restaurateur is opening a second Link & Pin location, and plans to open other restaurants despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Link & Pin on Sam Furr Road opened last week for dinner and added lunch this week in the NorthCross Shopping Center, owner Rob Duckworth said Friday. The space covers about 6,300-square-foot in the former upscale Mickey & Mooch building that closed last year.

“There’s a need for that there, I know that because I live there,” Duckworth said.

Link & Pin serves a mix of scratch-made menu items from chicken and waffles, burgers and lobster roll for lunch to artisanal cheese and charcuterie appetizers, and steak and seafood for dinner. On weekends, the brunch menu includes salmon and pimento cheese toast to a branzino duck fat confit.

A third Link & Pin location, also in a former Mickey & Mooch building, will open next year in south Charlotte in Arboretum shopping center on Providence Road, Duckworth said.

The coronavirus put the kibosh on plans to open any restaurant sooner than now because of the statewide 50% capacity restrictions for restaurants.

Duckworth said had already invested into the construction and opening of the Huntersville location when the pandemic hit in March. That site would be able to seat about 200 people at full capacity.

“Times aren’t great but they could be worse,” Duckworth said.

Already, he said there has been a birthday celebration and people coming in to check out the place. Duckworth plans to open more Link & Pin locations in Charlotte but said he’s not sure how many yet.

About Link & Pin

Duckworth opened the first 6,500-square-foot Link & Pin last November on New Bern Street in South End serving lunch, dinner and brunch.

The name comes from a railroad term referring to railcars linked by pins paying homage to Charlotte’s first railroad line in South End and the city’s light rail, according to the company website.

The Huntersville location has about 100 full- and part-time employees, Duckworth said.

Duckworth said the food is fresh, scratch-made and chef driven.

“It’s an elegant gastropub,” he said, where customers are comfortable in jeans and T-shirt or dressed up on date night.

The menu, he said, is brief but diverse and focused on Pittsburgh-style steaks, seafood dishes and tapas, a variety of small plates. That includes $8 or $10 tapas to a 32 ounce Tomahawk steak for $72.

There’s also a strong emphasis on craft cocktails that include classics like whiskey sours and old fashioneds. Other drinks include the Blackberry Button with a Szechuan flower the size of a pencil eraser that you eat first and an old fashioned with ice infused with peanut butter and jelly.

More restaurants planned

Duckworth said Friday he’s expanding his other restaurant concept and opening a cocktail bar, too.

Duckworth operates five Duckworth’s Grill & Taphouse locations in Charlotte and The Cellar at Duckworth’s, a sports bar and speakeasy that has been in the basement of one of his restaurants in uptown since 2015. The first Duckworth restaurant opened in 2004 in Mooresville.

He said he’s under lease contract for a new Duckworth location at Piedmont Town Center in SouthPark.

Like the third Link & Pin site, he said, it will likely open next year, depending on the restrictions and the state of the pandemic.

Duckworth said the new location will fill the void of closing the Park Road location in summer 2019 because it was small.

A new concept, a cocktail bar, is in the works for upstairs at the new SouthPark site. Duckworth said it’s all in the design phase but will be a cozy bar with living room-like lounge spaces to hang out in.

He said it may not be the best time to open a restaurant, but it is a good time to negotiate leases.

“I have confidence in the world going back to normal someday,” he said, “and continue to focus on opportunities out there.”

The Duckworth restaurant remains temporarily closed in uptown on North Tryon Street, he said, because of the lack of foot traffic from sports and theaters, and corporation workers working remotely. However, he said The Cellar at Duckworth’s is open, known for its prohibition-era feel with staff dressed for the part and signature cocktails, is open.

“It’s more of a destination,” he said.

Opening during a pandemic

Duckworth said he’s done promotions and specials during the pandemic, but safety of staff and customers is emphasized.

“We’ve all learned so much how to cope with it, we’re getting used to it,” he said, both personally and in business. “We live by the rules.”

Duckworth’s received a federal Paycheck Protection Program of between $350,000-$1 million, according to a federal database.

Pandemic-related changes include taking staff temperatures before shifts, requiring masks when not seated and being “very liberal” providing alcohol sanitizing wipes at tables and at checkout.

Duckworth said there’s also another new pandemic driven service — delivery — which he was reluctant to start but now here to stay. During the beginning of the pandemic, the Duckworth restaurants offered pre-packaged toilet paper with carryout or delivery when there was a shortage.

”That was a pretty big hit,” he said.

This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 4:09 PM with the headline "This Charlotte restaurateur decided to expand locations despite the coronavirus."