Enlarge Mauro Scotto, manager of Portofino's on Eastway prepares a couple of slices.

Posted: September 30th, 2009 Rhiannon Bowman

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Portofino's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria
3124 Eastway Drive

Mauro Scotto, manager

A native of Naples, Italy, Mauro Scotto was "born and raised" with the owners, Gino Vellano and Josh Coppola, of the five-restaurant chain known to most in Charlotte only as "Portofino's." As young men, they even emigrated to New Jersey together.

That's why, when Gino needed someone to watch the Eastway location while he returned to Italy for his wedding, Scotto was glad to help. He immediately packed up and came to Charlotte.

That was two and a half years ago, and now, he says, he's definitely here to stay. Today, he's the manager of the restaurant's Eastway Drive location.

"The weather is delicious," he says, though he does miss the snow. "There is no Christmas without snow."

But, the friendly, interesting people and growing city more than make up for the lack of frozen precipitation, he says. "It's not a crazy life, like in New York and New Jersey," he says, "Everybody's in a rush up there."

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Posted: September 29th, 2009 Rhiannon Bowman

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Mama's Caribbean Grill
1504 Central Ave.

Vinroy Reid, owner

Born and raised in Jamaica, Vinroy Reid now splits his time between Brooklyn, NY, and Charlotte. "I came down for a visit and fell in love with the country life," he says. "I used to listen to a lot of country western music back home. Charlotte took me back to that frame of mind."

Growing up in a vacation destination allowed him to meet people from all over the world. Many of them, he says, told him he would do well in America, so in 1992 he decided to give the country a try. Plus, he says, he grew up reading Mark Twain, who he credits with his "adventurous mentality."

Once he got here, he says, "I noticed people don't eat healthy because there aren't many restaurants that serve the proper nutrients. I was a victim of that, too; I ate a lot of junk."

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Posted: September 29th, 2009 James Willamor

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“Look at ourselves and think about whom we want to be,” said artist Rose Hawley. She encouraged those who passed her table in the Emerging Artists tent at Festival in the Park to participate in her mosaic.

Hawley pointed the half-dozen onlookers to a table covered in small glass cubes of various colors. “Choose a piece that represents you now or in the future and place it in the glass bowl.”

Children and adults alike joined in until a bowl of vivid colors began to take shape. "Think about how your piece fits into the bowl. Do you want your green piece to form a community with similar green pieces, or do you want it to be with a red piece so they both stand out?"

The artists who participated in this Crossroads Charlotte event each worked on a piece that represented one of six driving forces that will shape our community: civic engagement and leadership, growth and development, allocation of community resources, demographics, the economy, and education.

Paint, mosaic, clay, and cloth were used to convey these ideas non-verbally; conversations were an important part of the Emerging Artists tent.

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Posted: September 29th, 2009 Rhiannon Bowman

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Middle East Deli
4508 E. Independence Blvd.

Hany Solh, co-owner and chef

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Though his heritage is Lebanese, Hany Solh, 23, was born and raised in Charlotte. His father, Alex, moved to Charlotte from Lebanon when he was a teenager because Alex's family had run out of money.

Alex's first job was as a dishwasher in Uptown. From there, he worked his way up to bus boy, then sous chef and soon moved on to become the restaurant manager at the Raintree Country Club, then Charlotte Country Club and, finally, the Adam's Mark (now the Blake) Hotel in Uptown.

In the early 1990s, Alex opened a "little grocery store on Central Avenue," says Hany. Then, one day, "My dad was making food for me and my mom when a customer came in and wanted some, too."Since they didn't have a license or equipment to make food, Alex closed the store and opened the Middle East Deli on Independence Boulevard.

It was different back then, says Hany. Independence Boulevard was the center of everything. The corner deli attracted Middle Eastern students from the University of North Carolina Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College, both only a few miles away. Most of those students, says Hany, were of Middle Eastern descent; young men who came to the Queen City to study but didn't have time to cook for themselves.

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