Restaurants with local flavor

Want to eat at a place with lots of local character? Start at Pike's Old Fashioned Soda Shop at 1930 Camden Road in Charlotte's South End.

It has an old-fashioned soda fountain, thick milkshakes, and yummy grilled pimento cheese sandwiches (get one on whole wheat to appease your guilt). It was featured in the 2001 movie "Shallow Hal," which the Farrelly brothers filmed in Charlotte with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black.

It's just down the street from another local treasure, Price's Chicken Coop (1614 Camden Road), where you pull up to buy the best fried chicken in town, served in a cardboard box.

For more restaurant suggestions around the region from our Living Here magazine, click here. Or, you can check out restaurant writer Helen Schwab's dining guide in our Friday E&T section. We're in the process of compiling a new restaurant list for the 2006-7 Living Here, which publishes Sept. 24 (it'll be included in newspapers that day, and you can click here if you want to pre-order a pile of extra copies for a business or club). If you have recommendations of other favorite local eateries, e-mail me.