Gallery Restaurant

The Ballantyne Hotel and Lodge may be known for its PGA golf course and spa, but the Gallery Restaurant holds its own: it serves Southern food with unexpected flavors, such as sorghum kettle corn on a poached Asian pear salad, and coffee rub on a 22-oz cowboy ribeye. If you're coming for lunch, don't feel like you have to order fancy -- the NC Local Burger is arguably the most luxurious item on the menu, and comes topped with a sunny side-up egg and local white cheddar soaked in a Charlotte-brewed ale. There's an extensive selection of bourbon, scotch, and whiskey, too, plus a pomegranate cream cheese Bavarian dessert that, really, is the only way to end a meal here.