Didn't mention the food highlight of yesterday's Ikea roadtrip (and no, it was not Swedish meatballs at Ikea -- I've had them and they are, while passable, definitely not worth a two hour drive). We had lunch at Dish, which was damn tasty. Sarah had a meatloaf sandwich, which was ridiculously good. I had a pimento cheese burger. The menu said the pimento cheese was made in-house. It was very good and the overall sandwich was good (nice ripe tomato on top) but the burger itself was overcooked (solid medium, at least) and not juicy enough to compensate for that. The star of the meal was the potato cake appetizer. It was sorta like mashed potato tempura. Crunchy fried outside and creamy potato inside. What's not to love? Oh yeah and the horseradish-dill dipping sauce was a good addition to the potato cakes.
Too bad it's a multi-hour drive. The staff was heavily inked (some of them, at least) and super nice. The crowd was an interesting mix of families, achingly hipster types, middle aged couples, non-descript college kids. The vibe was kinda like a subdued Lynn's Paradise Café. Worth checking out next time your in Charlotte.