Emeril Lagasse, who expanded his restaurant holdings earlier this year to Charlotte, N.C., with the opening of his new e2 Emeril’s casual-dining eatery, recently created a carryout-only extension of that brand with an adjoining e2 GO.
While executives said Emeril’s Homebase, Lagasse's New Orleans-based company, has no immediate plans to expand e2 Emeril’s, the notable television chef has leapt into the carryout business with e2 GO. Lagasse has 12 other restaurant concepts in Florida, Louisiana, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Marti Dalton, marketing director for Emeril’s Homebase, said e2 opened in late January and e2 GO opened in late March. “We’re really happy with how business is going,” Dalton said. “It’s a new market. It’s in the business district and arts district, so it’s a very urban area.”
Unlike other properties, the e2 Emeril’s offers a variety of crudo. “The design is different too,” Dalton said. “The counter-seating is lower than in our other restaurants. There is also a centerpiece where fish are displayed.”
The e2 GO was planned all along, Dalton added. “The front of the restaurant is located on the Lavine Avenue of the Arts, and the back is on a breezeway, which is next to the Duke Energy Center,” she explained. “So it was in the plans to have the quick-serve restaurant.”
The e2 GO part of the restaurant serves weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it plans to soon offer online and phone ordering. Guests can create salads from greens and produce, proteins such as roasted chicken, roast beef, turkey or poached shrimp, and a selection of housemade dressings and garnishes. Drinks include local beers, wine, iced teas and bottled beverages such as kombucha and sparkling sodas.
At e2 Go, carryout prices range from $5 for Hilda’s Egg Salad sandwich to $9 for a variety items, including a curried shrimp salad sandwich with currants, almonds and green chiles to a sliced chimichurri steak with arugula and oven-dried tomatoes on a tortilla. With a hint to roots in New Orleans, e2 Go also offers gumbo with rice for $6.
In the main dining area, which is open for lunch and dinner, mid-day entrees range from $10 for Fried Ashley Farms Chicken Thigh with buckwheat waffle and sorghum molasses to $14.50 for North Carolina white shrimp and grits with pancetta, tomato, corn and hon-shimeji mushrooms. Dinner entrees range from $20 for farro risotto with seasonal roasted vegetables to $38 for a Painted Hills rib-eye steak with a salad of arugula, fennel, oven-dried tomato and housemade Worcestershire sauce.
In addition to e2 emeril’s and e2 GO, Lagasse’s Emeril’s Homebase also operates: three restaurants in New Orleans (Emeril’s, NOLA and Emeril’s Delmonico); four in Las Vegas (Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House, Delmonico Steakhouse, Table 10 and Lagasse’s Stadium); two in Orlando (Emeril’s Orlando and Emeril’s Tchoup Chop); and three in Bethlehem, Pa. (Emeril’s Chop House, Burgers And More by Emeril and Emeril’s Italian Table).
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