One of the buildings on city plaza would be perfect for this.
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I think it would do really well, and offer an affordable option to late night food in downtown. Although I would probably force them to start using less foam in that location because I can imagine the litter from a bunch of drunk cookout sessions
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Iām a Char-Grill kind of kind of guy, which is already walk-up only. Just sayingā¦
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For what CookOut spends in land and a small building to serve an auto-dependent customer base, Iād think that thereās two parts to this equation. First, thereās the financials for the operation itself. Would a lease in an urban footprint be a comparable expenditure to their suburban locations, and would they get enough walk up business for both daytime and evenings? Iād think that theyād want to find a location where they could get the best of both workers in the daytime and residents at night and weekends. I know that if one was near me, Iād walk there for sure and probably get a lot fatter!
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The notion of a walk up only cookout sounds a lot like Char Grill?
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Well, the model of a walk up fast food joint isnāt anything new, and CharGrill and CookOut already have that in common. They are both places that were designed to drive to, and they can both accommodate walk-up customers. The only difference in the model is that CookOut has a drive-thru.
What we are talking about is the idea of taking away the ādrive-toā part of the business.
An interesting place to test this sort of model would be in a food hall, or in an area with an already busy area/district of possible customers. Maybe Smokey Hollow would work? There will be an office building there. There will be lots of residents there. There will be a grocer next door, and there will be other retail parcels to fill. All of these places can provide customers. To be sure, CharGrill can do the same thing. Both of these businesses should consider options other than a drive-to model.
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Phase 2 of Kaneās Smokey Hollow project would be prefect for this with the walkthrough courtyard area between the commercial building (Harrington side) and apartments (West side). Captive consumers for lunch, dinner and late night (Glenwood crowd).
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Yeah, thatās what I had in mind. 
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Trying not to reveal the trashy portion of my nature too much, but at char grill you canāt get a double cheeseburger with Cajun fries, a quesadilla, and one of 20+ milk shake flavors for $5-$6 lol
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The only part of that order that my stomach would let me eat is the burger 
and even that would have to be well doneā¦Lol 
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We got a CookOut here out in the backwoods of Alabama and its packed, though a lot of folks compare it to carnival/fair food. Man do I miss Char Grill. Those milk shakes are like a meal in and of themselves.
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Welcome to Raleigh food scene.
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Whatever Bench Warmers uses to bind the seasoning to their bagels is full of sugar. Its really disappointing.
Its not Downtown but Angieās in Garner is where my wife and I go for cheap breakfast.
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I personally havenāt felt that they were overly sweet, but everyone has there own palette. Most traditional bagels donāt use anything to adhere seasonings to the dough, but they will use honey in the boil before they bake them which will give them enough tackiness to have things adhere. I overheard that they do use honey when someone asked if the bagels were vegan.
Angieās is amazing! Love to go for breakfast and lunch.
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A NY Times article focused on gentrification with our South Park neighborhood the
center point of the discussion. The Transfer food haul also mentioned.
Thereās an entire thread about this article on the community if you want to check it out.
Yeah when I first moved to East Downtown Raleigh the first thing I said was, āWell, there goes the neighborhood.ā
Haha.