Char-grill which is a Raleigh original (they even say so on their site) is bringing their char-burgers to Cary. Details don’t seem to be available on the Char-grill site, but I have seen a sign by the new Fresh Market on Cary Parkway announcing Char-grill is opening soon. Although I do admit that I’m thrilled at the thought of a 1/4lb Hamburger Steak Jr. within 5 minutes of my office, I am a bit perplexed at this new direction Char-grill is taking.
By all appearances this Cary branch will be in a sort of strip mall location and not a freestanding building like all the other Char-grills. Also, this seems to indicate that there will be indoor seating. Indoor seating? At Char-grill? A place that by its own description evokes the “glory days of drive-ins.” It just doesn’t seem right. It’s one thing to take a Raleigh icon to Cary but quite another to also make changes to the tried and true format. Maybe I’m wrong about this — certainly I don’t have any substantiating facts – but from the location of the Coming Soon signage I just can’t see this as the same sort of establishment as the Raleigh Char-grills. Changing the format of Char-grill seems a bit like sacrilege. Will this Cary location make it or will it meet the same fate as the Cary Krispy Kreme? Only time will tell, but a part of me hates to see this “Raleigh” place make the move to suburbia.
