The restaurant describes itself as “elevated dining with a twist,” and its website carries the tagline “Say less, taste more.”
The name was chosen for what it implies: the word is used when someone makes a good point or has earned some credit. “It’s a very confident name,” one owner said. “Like, touché — yeah, they did that. You know, say less.”
Why Central Avenue
The owners weren’t broadly critical of Charlotte’s restaurant scene. Good food, hospitality and atmosphere already exist here, they said, but they saw an opportunity to create something distinct on Central Avenue.
“We also wanted to bring just a different energy here,” they said.
The goal was a room versatile enough to shift seamlessly from dinner to a night out.
“One of the goals is to create an environment where people, they don’t want to leave — and the night elevates as it goes,” the owner said.
Touché Restaurant & Lounge cocktail.Touché Restaurant & Lounge
Dinner service starts in the early evening with hookah served outside. A rotating schedule of Charlotte DJs will play R&B, hip-hop, house and jazz most nights. The owners said they haven’t decided whether to clear tables later in the evening to open a dance floor.
“We’re still trying to see what this brings us,” the owner said. “We want to know what the people want from us, too. … We really, really want the community to embrace us here. So it’s important that we understand and evolve with them.”
The restaurant held a soft opening before Friday’s grand opening to collect feedback.
“We wanted to give ourselves the opportunity to bridge gaps that we saw along the way,” the owner said. “We used the soft opening to get a lot of feedback from people, and we put into play any changes we felt would be beneficial. So now that we are kind of full force, we feel like we are ready.”
Dining and Cooking