Abbey Road Grill

The 21^st Century is really cool when it works. However when it doesn't, bad things tend to happen.

Our collective reliance on the internet, cable / satellite television and GPS is probably not a good thing for humankind. Don't get me wrong, having 500 channels including seven ESPNs is pretty nifty. And don't start about the internet because it allows me to work from home. Without broadband, I'd be punching a clock in Long Island – a truly ugly proposition. However, if it goes down, I'm dead in the water. Contracts don't get sent and things grind to a halt. That stated, the local broadband provider (who shall go nameless) is pretty reliable so downtime is kept to a minimum. There is very little hooky being played here.

On a recent excursion to Cary, both her Imperial Majesty and I had GPS failures, or, more correctly, smart phones with GPS failures. We had heard that there were great burgers to be had at the Abbey Road Grill. We had heard that they grind their beef fresh daily so we could have a medium rare burger. We heard that the beer was cold and cheap.

So away from North Raleigh we went, armed with healthy appetites and GPS enabled smart phones to the wilds of Cary. Only halfway there, they both stopped working and went into The Droid™ Reboot Death Spiral that didn't end until we had found the place by dead reckoning and finished our meal.

But Providence was with us and we made it to our destination, despite an intervention from the 21^st Century: the Abbey Road Grill.

From the outside, it looks like it once was a gas station or a C-store or perhaps a combination of the two. No matter. As has been published in this space, former gas stations can crank out genius (see Merritt's Store and Grill).

The atmosphere is relaxed, the beer is cold and the burgers are stupendous. A medium rare burger made with freshly ground beef (10 ounces of Angus, I believe) is something very much out of the ordinary since the state government passed laws dictating how normal citizens can order their sandwiches. Served with French fries or hand cut onion rings (or both in our case), our sandwiches were flavorful and juicy. They were, in a word, marvelous.

The ambiance is that of a quintessentially local joint, where everybody knows everybody else and has for years. Not that they are stuck up; they were very welcoming to my wife and I every time we visited. It is genuinely relaxed environment, where friends gather to root, root, root, for the home team. Comfortable like an old pair of Birkenstocks, it is a place to slip into time and time again, with or without your GPS.

Abbey Road Tavern & Grill
1195 West Chatham Street
Cary, NC 27513
(919) 481-4434

Cuisine: Pub grub done right

Rating: ****

Prices: $

Atmosphere: Relaxed neighborhood tavern

Noise level: low to moderate

Open: Monday - Sunday 11:00 AM - 2:00 AM
Late Night Menu Served Only From 11:00 PM - 2:00 AM
Lunch Menu Available Monday - Friday 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Reservations: Nah, not necessary

Other: Come hungry, leave happy.

We rank restaurants in five categories: Extraordinary***** Excellent**** Above average*** Average** Fair*

The dollar signs defined: $ Entrees average less than $10. $$ Entrees $11 to $16. $$$ Entrees $17 to $25. $$$$ Entrees more than $25.