Carolina Watershed to open in South Main district

Downtown keeps getting cooler.

Carolina Watershed, a new outdoor/indoor restaurant on half an acre at 141 East Carolina, is slated to open in December.

The restaurant complex owned by Mac Hopper and Brad Barnett includes four converted corrugated steel grain bins. The main bin will house the restaurant with an indoor circular bar. The concrete band interior with a metal studded wall was added.

Another bin will house the kitchen.

A separate bin will be used for the outdoor bar, which will have seating around it. Stacy Kiehl is bar manager.

Other bins will house the restrooms.

Food will be “Southern deli,” said Hopper. You can order a Reuben sandwich, but add a side of mustard greens, buttermilk cornbread or black-eyed peas. “Kind of Southernized a little bit,” he said.

The signature item will be “The Watershed Burger” with locally-grown meat, said executive chef Andy Knight.

Outdoor seating will be picnic tables.

Live music will be featured on an outdoor stage. Hopper described the music as “ambient, acoustic, unplugged.”

“Carolina Watershed” is a combination of the street name and because the property is “gullied out,” which creates a watershed, Hopper said.

In the 1930s, a house that stood on the property was razed. In the ‘40s, the dirt on the property was sold, which is why it’s gullied. “It sat for 70 years,” Hopper said.

Carolina Watershed is just a short distance from Main Street.

“The uniqueness is the style of architecture and the rural feel of it,” Hopper said.

Hopper calls Carolina Watershed “a destination point for people who want to have an experience. Millennials go out and want to have an experience. We’re going to give them one.”

Michael Donahue

A waterfall adds to the rural ambience of Carolina Watershed