Beloved restaurant inching toward a comeback

CHARLOTTE — Soul Gastrolounge owner Andy Kastanas needs you to wait just a little longer for the restaurant’s return. The managing partner of that beloved culinary concept says construction is in full swing at its new, 6,400-square-foot space at The Pass in NoDa.

The ground-floor restaurant is tracking to open by early fall, he says.

“It’s taken a long time,” Kastanas says. “I hate that. I wish it would have been done earlier.”

He and wife Lesa are behind Soul, which signed on at The Pass a year ago. The couple has been a fixture in Charlotte’s hospitality scene since the 1990s with Mythos, Cosmos, The Diamond and CLTCH among their ventures. The original Soul, a longtime staple in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood, closed nearly two years ago citing a steep increase in rent.

Soul’s new home will be at 4100 Raleigh Ave.

Read more about plans for the restaurant on CBJ’s website here.