Alexander Michael's snags "2013 Settler's Award"

Uptown mainstay Alexander Michael's Restaurant & Tavern received the "2013 Settler's Award" by Charlotte Center City Partners during the 2013 Vision Awards Thursday evening. 

The Settler's Award "honors the pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit of Center City businesses, institutions or retailers who have been key contributors to Center City's quality of life," the award description says.

The award coincides with Alexander Michael's 30th anniversary next week. 

"I'm grateful to my staff, to the Fourth Ward community for being great neighbors and good customers, and to everyone who walks in our door every day from all over," said owner Steve Casner, who bought the restaurant in 2005 but has run it since it opened in 1983. 

Alexander Copeland III and A. Michael Troiano Jr. (hence "Alexander Michael's") opened the store in 1983 in the newly revitalized Fourth Ward neighborhood. The building is the former Crowley-Berryhill Store that originally opened in 1897.