This post was created in collaboration with Chase Freedom Unlimited. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Now that we’ve stretched our Date Night legs with everything from rolling comedy tours to baseball games and everything in between, we thought it was high time to establish our favorite traditional date night spots in town. One of our main goals when setting out to use our Chase Freedom Unlimited cash back credit card to it’s fullest was to get to know the neighborhoods in our new city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Finding the perfect spots for a grown-ups only dinner in our vibrant neighborhoods has been a dream challenge.
We’ve learned through all of our date night adventures that the secret sauce to having a great time exploring new to us places is to have minimal expectations – if we’re together and have a babysitter, then we’ve really already hit date night out of the park! By keeping our expectations low, we don’t stress if we pop into a new place and don’t love the vibe. We just move on to the next idea on our list! Keeping things light and easy has made all of the difference in our adventures together over the past few months. Add in the fact that we’re using our cash back credit card and earning 1.5% on every purchase, and I’m thinking regular date nights are here to stay!
A few nights ago, we took advantage of a new cocktail hour hosted at the Duke Mansion, a historical property in the Myers Park neighborhood here in Charlotte to sneak in some quality time together. The Duke Mansion is known for being a dream spot for special events and occasions (in fact, there was a proposal in the gardens while we were there!). They open their doors on Summer weeknights for a gorgeous cocktail hour that allows you free reign of the grounds. Justin and I hadn’t been to the Duke Mansion in almost a decade and I thought it would be the perfect first stop on our Myers Park date night.
The grounds and gardens are full of tiny enclaves that are perfect for small groups or couples – our favorite spot with a view of the house while still being tucked away out of sight. The bar is inside and fans with a map of the property are passed out to help beat the heat. We made sure to slide our Chase Freedom Unlimited card across the bar to hydrate before we left the main house and began exploring. 
After a drink (or two) and wandering around the gardens, we made our way to our chosen dinner spot just across the street: Staggioni.
Justin and I were so excited to try Staggioni as it’s the preferred date night spot for dear friends of ours, so our hopes were high. We did not have a reservation (oops!) but managed to snag a spot at the pizza bar for dinner after a quick stop at the bar.
Friends, I cannot recommend Stagioni more. We loved sitting at the pizza bar! It was so fun to have the action in the kitchen to spark our conversation. But as a fair warning, sitting at the pizza bar does allow you to see every single order heading out of the kitchen and if you’re anything like us, it will absolutely cause you to impulse order a handful of new plates! We ordered pizza (served straight out of the oven, uncut, with scissors!), pasta, charcuterie, desert, basically everything we laid eyes on because it was all so fresh and well made.

Without a doubt, we have our chosen Myers Park date night spots – an evening in the gardens of the Duke Mansion followed by wine and pasta at the pizza bar of Stagioni gets out stamp of approval! 

You can read more about our Date Night Adventures here and here!