The Rainbow Grill

The Rainbow Grill
700 Atando Ave., 704-375-8312
Monday-Friday breakfast
7 a.m.-10:45 a.m.;
Lunch and dinner until 6 p.m., Saturdays 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

Rainbow Grill

A line on the menu at the Rainbow Grill claims "The Best Burger in Charlotte." I asked Willie West, the proprietor for thirty-eight years, where the quote came from. "All my customers." The burgers really are great, made from 80/20 ground beef hand patted every morning on the premises. "The little bit of fat adds flavor," Willie says, "and I don't smash the burger, that keeps them juicy."

The Rainbow Grill is on Atando Avenue between North Tryon and North Graham streets in a gritty industrial area. Big trucks, small pickups, and people pushing shopping carts line the street waiting to sell their scrap metal to one of the yards. The restaurant is in a small building that looks abandoned. Finding the entrance is confusing, but all doors open into burger heaven. Just follow your nose to the counter, where there's a TV playing a soap opera and two women working a clean, well-organized grill. It seems that all the good dives I've discovered and loved have a television playing a soap—American, Chinese, Russian, or Mexican. A steady stream of people come and go, mostly regular customers from the neighborhood. I order a double cheeseburger with tomato, slaw, onions, and lettuce for $6 ($4.55 without the toppings). It is an experience that hearkens back to the origins of the hamburger—a substantial meat sandwich made for people doing physical labor, like swinging a sledgehammer or threading a bobbin. They needed a quick, cheap way to refuel. My burger was twelve ounces and enough to keep me going for a couple of days.

Photographs by Chris Edwards