🟢 Hamptons Lobster Roll

Presented by:

By Ted Williams

Hello Thursday. I picked up my 9-year-old daughter from camp in Virginia last weekend. Glad I wore my sunglasses because I started to cry when I saw her. Awkward, but whatever. 3 weeks feels sooo long! She’s the sweetest.

After scooping her from the 100-year-old camp with worn bunk bed cabins, we drove 30 minutes to The Homestead for 1 night. Quite the opposite!

The Homestead isn’t boutique. There are a whopping 483 rooms. It’s about $400 per night and has Disney World vibes with 8 restaurants and a lazy river. Anyways.

The Homestead, where 24 U.S. Presidents have vacationed

💼 Hot Job: Brauhaus General Manager at OMB Riverview ($85K+ bonus). It's their upcoming $6M+ restaurant biergarten in Mount Holly on the Catawba. Free beer. 401(k) match. Healthcare. Reports to CEO Jim Birch.

🧑‍🍳 Shout-out: Andy Smith, founder of Andy’s Print Shop, for growing a shocking 17% MoM, buying a second $100K printer, and debuting limited-edition “Print Drops” with local artists. Bullish.

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

S&P 500

7,509

+9.49%

Nasdaq

25,837

+11.20%

NOW OPEN

Hamptons-based restaurant opens in South End with $42 lobster roll

$42 New England-style lobster roll, Flora’s No. 1 seller in the summer

Now open: Flora opened a few days ago in South End’s Atherton Mill. It took the space formerly occupied by Eagle Beer Hall.

It’s the restaurant’s first location outside of the Hamptons in New York. Owners used to live in South Charlotte.

Popular dishes: Favorites on Flora’s New American menu👇

$17 Edamame Hummus
$17 Truffle Mushroom Arancini (crispy rice balls)
$42 Lobster Roll
$42 Seared Scallops
$28 Soba Noodles
$15 Flower Pot (dessert in a literal flower pot)

Tiny take: It’s got Flower Child meets Barcelona Wine Bar vibes.

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SIDE HUSTLE DIARIES

31-year-old couple builds mahjong tables in carport, sells 30 at about $2,750 each

Husband-and-wife Carlton and Bailey Jester, founders of Jester Craft

How it started: Carlton, a tech exec, built his wife Bailey a mahjong table — but then sold it on Facebook Marketplace. Haha. Bailey told him, "You have to build me a new one, and we should start selling them!"

How it's going: Their company, The Jester Craft, has sold 30 tables in the last 9 months. Price is $2,750 for their original game table.

"Wood is expensive," Carlton told me. "A quality mahjong table costs about $1,000 to build!"

Market size: The global mahjong industry is a $2.5B market. It's exploding. There are now 2 private mahjong clubs in Charlotte.

Day jobs: Carlton is the director of mobile banking at Ally Bank. Bailey is a pediatric occupational therapist.

What’s next: “Both of us love building and creating,” says Carlton. “We have reinvested almost all of what we’ve made so far into new tools to keep improving our craft!”

TINY MONEY JOB BOARD

Who’s hiring in Charlotte? 5 Trending jobs

VP, Commercial Finance at Scout Motors ($245K – $298K). Lead FP&A and reporting. 30 PTO days. Complimentary car.
Manager, Social & Influencer Marketing at Credit Karma ($213K – $289K). Own social strategy across organic, paid social, and influencer.
President of Truist Foundation at Truist. Lead governance and grantmaking. Around $550M in assets. Work with Namrata Yadav.
Senior Specialist, Digital Marketing at Bank of America ($71K – $119K). Partner with ad agency. Bonus eligible.
Director, Owned Media at Belk ($130K – $160K). Hybrid. Lead website, email, push notifications, and SMS.

Hiring? Post a job

Hunting? View all 99 open jobs on the Tiny Money Job Board💰

MONEY TALKS

19-year-old student making $20 per hour at gutter company, splurges on $65 print edition WSJ

Halal Food Cart, this student’s No. 1 favorite spot

Money Talks is a weekly series showcasing how real people in Charlotte approach money. Participate.

Living situation: “Rent. I pay $640 per month. I've got 3 roommates.”

Job: “Full-time student. Door-to-door marketer for LeafFilter and online freelance writing. If you subtract school tuition, I'll net about $15K this year.”

Salary journey: Breakdown by age👇

$7.25 per hour at Jimmy John's at age 15
$10.50 per hour at Papa John's at age 16
$16 per hour at a local cafe at age 17
$20 per hour at LeafFilter going door-to-door (current)

Work-life balance: “Does not exist!! I'm working and studying non-stop. But I do occasionally schedule intentional ‘Do-Nothing’ blocks on my calendar to try and relax.”

Budgeting: “Rocket Money. I make my own DIY monthly report that I print and hang on my wall. It's 3 pages. I track spending, total income, investment growth, key business milestones, and other fun metrics like credit score.”

Splurge: “$65 annual subscription to the WSJ in print. I spend all day on my phone, iPad, and laptop, so I don't want to read news on screens.”

Best decision: “Working hard throughout high school. Sure, I missed out on the low-stress, carefree life of a teenager, but now I've built an investment portfolio at a young age.”

Rich in Charlotte: “Paying for parking in Uptown. It’s wild. If I had to give a number, I'd say $1M net worth to ball on a budget and $2.5M to sleep easy at night forever.”

Full story: 19-year-old student breaks down his $45K portfolio

MONEY SNACKS

5 other financial headlines I’m snacking on

Digital ad agency for sale asking $1.1M. Revenue $1M. Cash flow $300K. 50% recurring revenue. 7 employees. Established in 2019.
Conveyor belt sushi opens in Stonecrest. $2.5M investment. 100 menu options. Sushi plates $3.75. Kura Sushi has 90 locations.
Sweet July Cafe opens at The Ritz in Uptown. Brainchild of Ayesha and Steph Curry. Breakfast, lunch, and bougie coffee.
CEO parents spending $250K on childcare team. One nanny not enough. Wild! One concierge membership runs $25K per year.
Retail flower shop in Lake Norman for sale asking $350K. Revenue $415K. Cash flow $151K. 13 years old. 3 employees.

HOUSEKEEPING

RIP Cotswold Pizza Peel. Hello to The Belly of the Whale with $95 Lobster Pizza

Taking the former Pizza Peel space, which was there for 17 years

Now open: The Belly of the Whale quietly opened 5 days ago in Cotswold's former Pizza Peel location.

The seafood restaurant offers just 12 dishes, focused on fresh fish from the North Carolina coast.
Owned by husband-and-wife team Tatiana and Raymond Mendizabal.

Crazy dish: $95 Lobster Pizza. It’s literally a pizza with a giant lobster on top! “It’s quickly become popular,” Tatiana told me. I had the $26 fresh ceviche.

Happy Thursday! I'm teeing it up at Dormie Club and Linville Golf Club this weekend. Very excited.

– Ted

P.S. No newsletter next week. Vacation mode.