Uptown (including the EpiCentre as fxd5122 suggested) is great and has tons of bars, clubs, and restaurants. Personally, it’s not my thing; I’ve found that the bars fill up with college kids and I’m just not a big club guy in general. If you’re looking for non-uptown options, the three neighborhoods you ought to check out are South End, NoDa, and Plaza Midwood. They tend to skew in demographics from mid-20s to early 40s, but anyone should be able to have a good time there.
The one I’m most familiar with is South End. They've got a bunch of great breweries: Olde Mecklenburg, Sugar Creek, Thirsty Nomad, Triple C, Sycamore, and so on. Sycamore Brewing hosts Food Truck Fridays, which always has 10-15 different food trucks, live music, etc. That tends to get packed, which may or may not be what you're looking for. If you want an actual restaurant, some of my favorites include Mac's Speed Shop (BBQ), Futo Buta (ramen), Yamazaru (sushi), Rai Lay (Thai), and Seoul Food (Korean). There are a few bars (like The Broken Spoke, a really chill speakeasy-style bar attached to the Great Wagon Road Distillery) scattered about, but it’s mostly about the breweries and restaurants.
NoDa also has some top-notch breweries like NoDa Brewing, Birdsong, Heist, and Salud Cerveceria. For food you’ve got places like Cabo Fish Taco (self-explanatory), Haberdish (southern cuisine + awesome ****tails), the Crepe Cellar, and Benny Pennello’s (best pizza in town IMO). There’s even a game bar, Abari, and a 24-hour bakery/patisserie/cafe, Amelie’s. Parking sucks in NoDa but if you’re Ubering you’ll be fine.
TBH I don’t make it out to Plaza Midwood as often as I should. It’s one of the trendier parts of town amongst foodies, with places like Midwood Smokehouse and Soul Gastrolounge. Catawba Brewing (kinda halfway between NoDa and Plaza) is possibly my favorite brewery in Charlotte. Legion Brewing is very good, and a new brewery, Resident Culture, just opened up and has some good hype. If you just want to hang out at a bar, there’s Moo and Brew, The Thirsty Beaver, and Workman’s Friend. Again, parking is a nightmare but Ubering trivializes that. Plaza Midwood and NoDa are less than a 10-minute drive from each other (and South End is 15-20 minutes from both), so you could mix and match.
