I have to give credit to Threes for their attempt at one-upping the average sandwich. Some of the ingredients they use are clearly meant to distinguish this restaurant/cafe from its Uptown competitors.
Take your average turkey sandwich for example. I would normally think of processed slices of turkey with some mustard and kraft cheese on toasted white bread (What would you pay? $3-$4?). Threes offers you the wonderful "Uptown Turkey," which consists of big chunks of roasted turkey with 3 Vermont White Cheddar on a toasted baguette with a red onion marmalade. Now THAT'S a sandwich for kings. Question is, would you pay $7.50? Personally, I would. Most wouldn't. And a lot of sandwiches go up to $8.50, which is wild for Charlotte.
If Threes was just a sandwich shop that specialized in delicious everyday lunch items, this place would hit the ball out of the park (thought the Banh Mi needs a lot of work). Unfortunately, it's trying to accomplish too much by also attempting to be a wine bar and cafe. You can't really combine the three concepts without compromising on some unique aspect of each. By having a deli-style serving station, you lose the classiness of a wine bar. Have you seen the wine bars in Philly or New York? And there's nothing too special about the coffee either.
Perhaps what hurts them the most is their location. People don't have the time to walk or drive all the way over here on a daily basis. So when a bunch of us went here for lunch, it took them a long time to push our orders out since they weren't used to so many clientele at one time. It took 30 min to get a sandwich... though I will admit it was delicious.
All in all, Threes has some nice features to it, but it needs a little tweaking to be truly successful.
3/5