Enlarge John Kaltsounis, co-owner, Landmark Restaurant

Posted: October 2nd, 2009 Ayofemi Kirby

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Landmark Restaurant and Diner
4429 Central Ave.
John Kaltsounis, Co-Owner; Milton Polemicle, Head Chef

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John Kaltsounis and his wife Sofia arrived in New York City from Karpensi, Greece, more than 40 years ago.

Joined by his brothers Larry and Tommy the family had no money, no jobs, and a limited ability to speak or to understand English. So, the brothers searched for opportunities to do the only thing they knew – work hard.

Not long after their arrival, Kaltsounis and his brothers found a place in the burgeoning New York food-service business – a collection of restaurants offering food reflective of the diverse population of the city.

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Posted: October 2nd, 2009 Ayofemi Kirby

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Dim Sum
2920 Central Ave.

Yee Kam, Owner

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Walking through the doors of Dim Sum Chinese Restaurant on Central Avenue, feelings of warmth immediately change the mood.

Golden poppy toned walls decorated with Asian inspired paintings absorb soft overhead lighting. There is no need for windows as streams of scarlet radiating from empty seats energize the intimate space.

Dim Sum, translated from Chinese into English, literally means “touch of the heart,” and if one imagines how a journey into the inside of life’s center would feel, the dining room at Yee Kam’s restaurant would be a suitable taste.

“It is like a food from the heart,” said Yee Kam, owner of Dim Sum.” I love Dim Sum, there was nothing like it here, so I wanted to start it.”

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Posted: October 1st, 2009 Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Woodlands Vegetarian Indian Cuisine
7128-A Albemarle Rd.

Joe Estibeiro, co-owner

Six months after Joe Estibeiro arrived in Charlotte to work at Woodlands Vegetarian Indian Cuisine, then owned by family friends, his brother died in an accident at sea. Like Joe, he was a merchant marine for Mobile Oil. Now, the only son, his family decreed that he could never work at sea again.

A native of Bombay (now Mumbai), India, he says he decided to give the restaurant business a sincere try after his brother's death and because he was trying to establish himself in America. Bombay, he explains, is a huge city, much like New York City, so when he first arrived in Charlotte he says he thought, "This is a village."

So, after two years in Charlotte, Estiberio decided to try his luck as co-owner of a restaurant in Staten Island, N.Y. It didn't take long, though, before he returned to his American hometown. "There was something about Charlotte that kept knocking on my heart," he says.

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