1. The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium
City: University, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (704) 568-7253
Address: 9605 North Tryon St.
Description: This chain offers hundreds of beers on tap and in bottles, plus a limited bar menu. But what’s particularly cool is the UFO Club. Members pay $18 to join and receive a T-shirt and membership card. Each time you drink a brand of beer, the card is swiped. Once you’ve enjoyed 200 different beers, you are immortalized with a personal saucer on the wall, including a personal inscription.
2. Midtown Sundries
City: University, NC
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (704) 597-7413
Address: 3425 David Cox Rd.
Description: The original Midtown Sundries, just off Uptown on Kenilworth, was closed to make way for the Little Sugar Creek Greenway. Prior to that, this popular watering hole had branched out to the northern suburbs and it continues to thrive there with locations in University City, Denver, and on Lake Norman. Midtown caters to the 30-and-up crowd that prefers a neighborhood bar. Loyal patrons enjoy trivia nights, karaoke, live music, and shooting pool. The Lake Norman location is very popular with many partiers arriving by boat.
3. Zapata’S Cantina Mexican Restaurant
City: University, NC
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (704) 503-1979
Address: 8927 J. M. Keynes Blvd.
Description: This menu of quality Mexican dishes is quite extensive—appetizers, soups, sides, salads, burritos, tostadas, enchiladas, tacos, meats, chicken, seafood, sandwiches, and the house specialty, fajitas. Small and large combinations are also offered, along with a kids’ menu and a few American items for picky eaters. Atmosphere is Old Mexico, not the fake sombreros and adobe walls of some chain places. Open for lunch and dinner daily.