Burger fans who aren't content with cyber-stalking OnlyBurger to find out where it's going to be on a given day and then goading their S.O.'s into making a run to the truck -- I'm looking at you, Mrs. BCR -- will have been pleased by a report by the team at Carpe Durham that today is the grand opening date for Durham's Char-Grill.
The Raleigh institution ventures westward in the Triangle for the first time with their South Durham outlet, opening in one of the outparcels of the Harris Teeter-helmed center at the confluence of NC 54 and NC 751 near Garrett Road.
See our July story for more comments than you might ever want to read on the Char-Grill expansion to the Bull City.
Update: Char-Grill did in fact open at 10am on Monday, with smoke rising up from the location fronting NC 54. Good luck to you if you tried to even get inside, though. We're not quite sure how so many people learned about the place so fast, but apparently word of mouth travels fast for a shop that's an eastern Triangle legend.
This was the view at 7pm last night. We didn't stick around given time pressures last night:
Char-grill is pretty good, but Durham's own Wimpy's is better by far. Whenever I'm in the neighborhood (Hillsborough and Hicks) I get 2 burgers (with onions) and onion rings. They aren't open on weekends or after 2 (I think) but locals line up every day at lunchtime to recapture the burger experience of yore---beef ground fresh every morning.
Posted by: Steve Bocckino | October 27, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Agree with the comment about Wimpy's being better, but for those of us in south Durham it's very exciting to have a good hamburger option within a mile of the house. Now if I could only find that damn bus I hear so much about...
Posted by: aburtch | October 27, 2008 at 09:31 PM
I love burgers and shakes from Char-grill. I am so glad to have a Durham location. Now I don't have to drive all the way to Cary or Raleigh, especially with gas prices. Just for the record, I have lived in Durham my entire life and Char-grill is far superior to Wimpy's.
Posted by: Sharon | October 29, 2008 at 02:34 PM
I went to Char-Grill today and was underwhelmed. The 1/2 lb steak burger with cheese seemed to be a glorified Whopper. And the fries were nothing to write home about - average fast food fries.
OnlyBurger, in contrast, is fabulous! Both the burgers and fries. I'll chase their truck down before I go back to Char-Grill.
Posted by: Steve | November 13, 2008 at 05:32 PM