CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Flowers move in the breeze, music fills the air and the grill is going strong. A community gathers, loaded kimchi dogs in hand, sprawling across the patio and inside the building. Some friends came together, some were made by sharing a table -- and it was all free.
Many have heard the saying: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But at the NoDa Company Store, there is. And it’s every Sunday.
“People ask us what the catch is all the time,” Joey Hewell said. “There’s really not a catch.”
They have a tip jar they leave out, but that’s not expected or required. Sometimes they’ll use it as a fundraiser for a cause they care about, sometimes it goes back into purchasing the food for the next week’s free lunch.
“We’re told that so much that people think there must be something else to it,” Hewell said. “There’s really not anything else to it. We like to cook, we like to talk to people.”
Three years ago in March, Hewell and Scott Lindsley opened the NoDa Company Store right in the heart of the Charlotte neighborhood. They had been open for about a month or so when a beautiful Sunday afternoon was coming up. The two wanted to stay home and cook out, but they both had to work.
So instead, they brought the fun to work.
Hewell suggested they go get a grill, get some buns and hamburgers and do a cookout for whoever would show up -- about 20 to 25 people.
“Then it was super fun,” Hewell said. They decided to do it the next week too. “It just kind of snowballed into what it is today.”
The free lunches had humble beginnings. The grill was originally on their deck, and the two were still working behind the bar. In between flipping burgers, they would run inside to serve someone a drink.
The second time they did the free lunch, they had a few more people show up. They ended up having someone run to the grocery store to get more supplies. They learned then that it was bigger than they imagined.
While they started out with basic hamburgers, the two take pride in how creative they get with their food options. Hewell loves coming up with different combinations of food, and they tend to do a lot of pickled foods -- like kimchi hot dogs. They’ve done tacos, fajitas, wings, dogs, burgers, you name it. And there’s always a vegetarian option, for their meatless friends. In the colder months, they’ll do soups, stews or chilis that they can make and serve inside.
“We’ve learned how to cook all kinds of stuff on a grill,” Lindsley said. “We just like to cook.”
They pick out the meal as late as the day before, depending on what the weather looks like and when inspiration hits. As soon as they pick it, they post it on their Instagram for anyone interested to see.
For the most part, they do it year round. The exception is when football season rolls around. Hewell and Lindsley are loyal Panthers fans and go to the Charlotte games. Sometimes, they’ll still do dinners on Mondays during football season. While they never expected to have this staple in their lives, whenever they don’t do a free lunch one week, they can’t wait to get back to it.
Lindsley said in the nearly three years they’ve been doing the free lunches, they’ve served approximately 20,000 plates. He only remembers five or so complaints.
“It’s people that are getting free food [that] come here, and if we’re not serving what they want … it’s a community event, to be honest, with food in the middle,” Lindsley said. “Most people are happy no matter what.”
But that doesn’t mean they don’t take the food seriously.
“We want it to be good," Hewell said. "The thing is, it’s a free meal but there’s no doubt that we spend a lot of time on it, we want everything to taste good. We want you to come and not just have just a free lunch."
They want it to be the best hot dog, hamburger or taco you’ve ever had. They always try to experiment and try new things.
For the pair, they enjoy cooking and getting to know their clientele. But the main goal behind it all is that people in the community can spend time, meet each other, hang out and talk.
Lindsley said most of the people that attend regularly live in NoDa and walk there, but they’ve seen an increase in people from other parts of Charlotte since the light rail made it’s way to NoDa.
“We want people to come out and try new things,” Hewell said. “So for us, it’s all about trying to figure out what we can do, how we can push ourselves as cooks and how we can introduce people to flavors that, you know, perhaps they’ve never tried before.”
Ryan Hoff and Kristina Odom have been long-time supporters of the NoDa Company Store and the Sunday Funday free lunches. Hoff said he's been coming since the very beginning. They didn't know Hewell and Lindsley before they started coming, but now it feels like a second home to them -- the staff always greets them with smiles or hugs when they arrive.
“It’s definitely our go-to spot,” Odom said. “It’s definitely the place that we go to more than anywhere else in NoDa.”
The two said they've met friends at the lunches, and have brought others to explore NoDa and all it has to offer.
“It’s a very comfortable place,” Hoff said. “It’s a wonderful addition to the neighborhood.”
Hewell and Lindsley hope that in addition to pushing people to try new flavors and styles of food, people get out of their comfort zone with those around them.
“If you can bring people together around food, especially foods that they aren’t familiar with, it opens a conversation,” Hewell said. “And in an atmosphere like that, when you have so many different people that don’t necessarily know each other, it’s a good conversation starter to talk about and then, of course, opens them up to different cultures and different people.”
They believe the free lunches are a good way for people to meet their neighbors. One of the things that actually inspired them to continue doing the free lunches was the sense of community they felt -- they look at NoDa like a small town in the middle of a big city.
“The things that they do are incredible," Hoff said. "The fact that they offer a free lunch is really amazing. It brings a lot of people out to the neighborhood, people who may not be able to have a lunch on a Sunday, they can also partake. It just brings them all together and I think it’s fantastic.”
At the NoDa Company Store, most of the outdoor tables are quite large. The two say this is on purpose -- to increase the likelihood you’ll sit down with a person or group you don’t know.
They’ve had close friends meet at the free lunches, and even two couples have met there that are now planning to get married.
“That’s what this store is all about,” Hewell said. It’s the community, the camaraderie. “Coming and getting a drink with your friends and hanging out on one of the patios.”
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