Fenwick’s is a simple place, never a place of pretense. The building on Providence Road in Charlotte’s Eastover neighborhood is a refurbished Steak and Egg from the late 1970s.

The bar and dining areas are small and offer limited seating. With tightly packed tables for two and four, people seated adjacent to you will either quickly become your friends or know all of your business. So, if you’re looking for a place to spend a private moment, Fenwick’s is probably not it.

“Don’t come here to break up,” advises owner Catherine Rabb. She further suggests carpooling, since the parking lot has just 14 spaces. An associate culinary instructor at Johnson & Wales University and at Central Piedmont Community College, Catherine co-owns the restaurant with her husband, Don.

Homemade and hard to beat
If you are looking for great home cooking and topnotch service, you can’t beat Fenwick’s. Nothing on the menu is over the top – no twist of this or fusion of that. It’s just simple, well-prepared American cuisine, served at a fair price by a friendly staff. Ingredients are fresh and most menu items and specials are made from scratch, including burgers, soups, fresh fish and hand-cut steaks. For more than 21 years, Rabb says, staff and management “do what they do and take pride in it. It’s more than a job; it’s home to us.”

Eating at Fenwick’s is like visiting an old friend: Management and staff are warm and welcoming, and after just a couple of visits you’ll be considered a regular.

It’s hard to make a bad choice, either from the menu or from the list of specials posted daily on the large blackboard at the end of the bar. Burgers and fries are superb and steaks are even better. Homemade soups such as the tomato cream bisque and the black bean chili tend to sell out, with many customers ordering quarts and pints to go. Seafood specials like oysters, flounder and the marinated grilled shrimp have become long-term favorites. Looking for comfort food? You’ll find it in Fenwick’s popular chicken and broccoli casserole. Main course salads are light and easy but large enough to serve as a meal. All entrées are accompanied by an assortment of fresh fruit, no matter the time of year, a choice of sides and a wonderfully sweet homemade bran and raisin muffin. A basket of warm rolls comes to the table with most entrées as well. A selection of wines is available both by the bottle and by the glass, and bottles are frequently on special. There is also a full bar. Desserts are homemade – and if you are looking for a suggestion, the pecan cream pie is about as good as it gets.

A colorful past
The building that is now Fenwick’s was originally opened as a Dobbs House in the 1950s. Even then it was a popular Eastover neighborhood dining spot, and many Charlotte locals remember eating there. Sometime in the mid 1970s the Steak and Egg Corporation bought out Dobbs House. In the early 1980s, two men who wanted to open a more upscale neighborhood restaurant bought the building. They named the place Fenwick’s after a bar they had frequented while living in Virginia. But the glamour of the restaurant business quickly faded for them and soon the little neighborhood dining spot was up for sale.

Don and Catherine Rabb had come to Charlotte from New Orleans in 1979 and opened another restaurant, Shenanigans on East Independence Boulevard, with a friend, Sam Esgrow. Catherine had grown up working in restaurants and found herself to be rather good in the kitchen. Don, a professional drummer by trade, had worked in restaurants, bartending when gigs were slim. In 1984 the couple bought the struggling Fenwick’s. “It took everything we had to buy the business,” remembered Catherine. “We didn’t have enough extra money to change the sign, so the name just stuck.”

Big Dave, little Dave
Dave Williams worked with the Rabbs at Shenanigans as the grill chef. For a couple of years, Williams went back and forth between Shenanigans and Fenwick’s, working both restaurants. Eventually he settled in at Fenwick’s and has been there for the duration.

Dedicated to his craft, and much to his credit, Williams has never missed a day of work in 21 years.

“One day Dave was late because he forgot to set his clock back when daylight savings time changed,” explained Catherine. “It was so unlike him. We were all out on the roads looking for him, certain something horrible had happened.”

Williams came to Charlotte after living in New York, cooking at the Hotel Piccadilly on 45th Street. His list of clients included Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Davis Jr. and many politicians, including President John Kennedy. Williams moved to Charlotte with his wife of now 34 years, Jewel, to raise their family of five outside of a big bustling city. In all his years at Fenwick’s, Catherine says she has never seen him mad or attitudinal.

“No matter the circumstances, he just moves forward and never loses his cool,” said Rabb. “Aside from, and perhaps more important than, being an excellent cook, he is an inspiration, a good man and a dear friend. And he has an uncanny memory for faces.”

Often customers ask Williams to cook entrées a certain way. “Just tell Dave it’s for me” is a common request at Fenwick’s. Williams is always happy to oblige.

Recently, Williams was joined at the Fenwick’s grill by his son, Dave Williams Jr., or “Little Dave,” as he is known by the Fenwick’s family. Little Dave had been the chef at the Bayou Kitchen until it closed about a year ago.

“We’ve wanted him to come here for years,” said Catherine. Now Big Dave mans the grill in the evenings and Little Dave does prep work, manages the pantry and handles a lot of general stuff in the kitchen. Grill chef Sam Gill works the grill during the day. Together with Catherine, who still comes in every morning to make all the soups, and Athena LaPane, a culinary student at Johnson & Wales who works the pantry and does prep, the team at Fenwick’s is a happy one.

A family of friends
Don Rabb works the front of the house during the day, while Catherine is enjoying a second career as a culinary instructor.

“My thing is wine,” said Rabb, who teaches a sommelier class for the International Wine Guild at CPCC and beverage and purchasing courses at Johnson & Wales. “I love the restaurant business and have to get my daily fix, but I’ve been amazed at how much fun I have teaching.”

For Rabb, coming back to Fenwick’s in the mornings or at the end of the day is like coming home. “We’ve been blessed with the finest employees anyone could have. Don and I consider them all to be friends. It’s just a nice group of hard working people.”

Don and Catherine modestly see their roles at the restaurant as that of providers. “We just make sure everyone has what they need to do their job, and then we let them do it.”

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "The Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

This article first appeared in "The Charlotte Weekly" on December 16, 2005. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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