I can speak mainly for the Lake Norman, Huntersville area.
You left right as soon as this area was peeking and let put it this way about 4 months it seems that I have a new restaurant to go check out.
The restaurant industry will do good for now in this area because it still growing so the need is there despite the economy and also less people are cooking at home than they use to.
I only know of two restaurants that have closed within this past year and basically for both the restaurants they was in a bad location.
This is the latest apartment complex that has open this past fall.
Colonial Properties Trust - Colonial Grand at Huntersville
Good luck getting interview process setup. One of the biggest challenges I see on this site is people with an out of state address and both fields you are looking into are generally posistions that the employer needs to fill quickly with the quickest method.
Good luck.