IN THE NEWS: From five stores to three stores to none — Atlanta-based Mellow Mushroom has exited the Charlotte, N.C. market, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. Sources said the original local franchisees, Tom Lockhart and his wife, Dawn, will now run three pizza restaurants they plan to rename Moon Dog Pizza. … The Charlotte Observer’s Kathleen Purvis reports, “Alice Waters (founder and owner of Berkeley, Calif.’s landmark Chez Panisse restaurant), the godmother of the organic and sustainable agriculture movements in America, will come to Charlotte in September for two meals — a lunch and dinner — and a speech at Dana Auditorium, among other events. Waters originally was invited by two farmers, Cassie Parsons and Natalie Veres of Grateful Growers Farm in Denver, N.C. Final arrangements for Waters’ visit are being sponsored by Slow Food Charlotte, a chapter of the international Slow Food organization, and by Charlotte Shout. Waters’ visit, Sept. 26 and 27, won’t be in time for Shout’s Culinary Experience that weekend, but it will serve as a kickoff for the annual food and chef event. … In Charlotte, Waters’ time also will be spent with education. She will do lectures and demonstrations at two of Charlotte’s three culinary schools, Johnson & Wales University and the Art Institute of Charlotte. She’ll also be the featured guest at a Slow Foods dinner at Ratcliffe on the Green and at a lunch at Artisan, the Art Institute’s student-run restaurant. And she’ll tour Grateful Growers farm and meet there with other local farmers. Tickets to her lecture at Dana Auditorium on the Queens University campus will be $15 for farmers and educators and $20 for the public. Ticket prices for the meals haven’t been set. When the tickets go on sale, they’ll be available on www.ggfarms.com” … The Observer also notes the openings of Maddi’s Southern Bistro at Birkdale Village in Huntersville and New England Seafood at 7825 Nations Ford Road. … Creative Loafing’s Besha Rodell chats with Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement. charlotte.creativeloafing.com … USA Today features North Carolina’s Barbecue Historic Trail, the brainchild of Jim Early, an attorney and author of The Best Tar Heel Barbecue: Manteo to Murphy. usatoday.com … Fatz Cafe will open its first restaurant in Charlotte this fall, the Charlotte Business Journal reports. The restaurant will be at 10920 Winds Crossing Drive near Carowinds, a theme park off Interstate 77 at the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

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