A new restaurant will move into the old White Horse space at Rock Hill sports center
A new restaurant will move into the former White Horse space at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center this summer.
Old Town Kitchen & Cocktails will fill the space in the Lowenstein Building, at 300 Technology Way suite 203. White Horse moved into the space in early 2019 after more than 40 years in business in Rock Hill. The restaurant closed in October 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Old Town Kitchen is a concept from the same team behind The Goodyear House in the NoDa area of Charlotte. Chef Chris Coleman and manager Sean Potter are involved with both restaurants.
A new website for Old Town Kitchen states it will offer sandwiches, salads, meat-and-two plates and a locally sourced seasonal menu. It mentions 16 taps of regional beer plus wine and cocktail options.
Coleman, a Charlotte native, said Wednesday morning the American-fare restaurant will be homage to eateries where customers and servers know one another in a welcoming environment.
“Really this is just our ode to our love of the nostalgic, neighborhood restaurant,” he said. “These are places where you’d go in and know your servers by name.”
Fans of the NoDa restaurant will find similar offerings in Rock Hill.
“Lots of smoked meats, seasonal vegetables, and the same kind of attention to detail we’re known for at the Goodyear House,” Coleman said.
Coleman said he isn’t sure yet which menu item will be the showstopper in Rock Hill.
He recalls an offering he thought might be the big hit just before opening Goodyear House, which didn’t make the final cut for the menu. He’ll see what Rock Hill has an appetite for, but there’s spreadable pimento cheese ball with smoked pecans, a t-bone steak and peel and eat shrimp. The salt and pepper catfish takes Coleman back to his earliest days in the restaurant industry, working at fish camps.
“Obviously we’re going to be really proud of everything we put out,” Coleman said.
Potter said the experience and atmosphere in Rock Hill will mirror what Goodyear House has in Charlotte, with focus on food, flavor and families.
“We aim to be a restaurant where the craft is on the plate and in the glass, and where everyone feels instantly welcomed and comfortable,” Potter said.
Coleman is a past winner of Food Network’s “Chopped” cooking competition and is a founding member of the Piedmont Culinary Guild. He twice represented Charlotte at the James Beard House in New York City.
The new space draws tons of visitors with the sports center there, and also drew the restaurant team with its adaptive reuse of a former mill site.
“We’re really excited about the space,” Coleman said. “I had a friend that asked me, why Rock Hill? We kind of said, why not Rock Hill? Rock Hill is booming right now.”
Coleman sees an area covering Winthrop, downtown and more exploding with restaurants, retail, office and residential growth.
“It’s really going to be a hot spot in the next few years,” he said.
A.J. Klenk, founding member of parent group Built on Hospitality, said there’s excitement with the Rock Hill spot that his group sees as a long-term investment in an emerging city.
“There is immense growth in the area as families, students and working professionals all continue to revitalize the original heart of the downtown corridor,” Klenk said.
The Lowenstein Building and 1939 Building are 225,000 square feet of space in University Center at Knowledge Park, the 23-acre site formerly home to the Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Company. Redevelopment includes the large city-owned sports arena along with office, restaurant, retail and other uses.
The new restaurant will serve lunch and dinner daily, with happy hour and weekend brunch offerings to come later. Some light renovations are needed for the new restaurant. The target for opening is late May or early June.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 9:36 AM.
