It's time to savor the little burger joint that has fed Charlotte for 50 years

The owner of Brooks’ Sandwich House, an iconic Charlotte hamburger restaurant, is selling the property where they’ve operated for 50 years. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says it’s a moment to consider how Charlotte continues to change.

The news had been coming for a long time now. But it still stung to hear it.

Brooks’ Sandwich House, the best little burger joint in America, is leaving its spot of sacred ground in NoDa.

You notice I didn’t say it’s closing. That’s not quite clear. Whoever runs their Instagram feed posted the other day that they’re planning to have a food truck. But owner David Brooks is planning to retire, and his acre of land between North Davidson Street and the light rail line is officially up for sale.

Let’s stop right here, for the uninitiated, to describe the Brooks’ experience. The sandwich house is 500 square feet and made of cinder blocks. There used to be a little counter inside where you would order, but after COVID you just order at the window. There’s nowhere to sit. Some folks eat at the long warped tables outside, but there aren’t any chairs. Most people just eat in the car. It is not exactly a five-star ambiance.

But there’s a line a dozen deep every day at lunch because Brooks’ makes the best store-bought burger you will ever put in your mouth. You might have heard of the concept of umami, one of the fundamental tastes in food, after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is that savory taste, the sense of flavors blended together to create a luxurious feeling.

A Brooks’ burger "all the way" combines the beef patty with cheese, mustard, onions and chili that soaks into the bun. It all merges into one flavor that is somehow dazzling and comforting at the same time. It’s the ultimate Charlotte taste.

C.T. Brooks Jr. opened the place in 1973, when NoDa was still mostly a mill village — the Johnston Mill up the road wouldn’t close until ’75. It slowly evolved into a neighborhood of dive bars and artists. But when light rail arrived, running right through the neighborhood, NoDa swelled with people seemingly overnight. The few blocks of downtown NoDa are still funky, but now they’re surrounded with thousands of new apartments and condos — including one complex right across the street from Brooks’.

And in all that time, their burgers have tasted exactly the same.

That land is gold now, and David Brooks has earned the right to cash in. He and his twin, Scott, ran the place for years. In 2019, Scott Brooks was killed in an armed robbery early one morning as he opened the store. David kept the place going in his honor, and because that little joint means so much to so many.

Charlotte has lost a lot of its iconic dives over the last few years. Mr. K’s is gone, and Zack’s Hamburgers, and Bill Spoon’s Barbecue, and worst of all, Price’s Chicken Coop. We want those places to last forever. But restaurants have lifespans like people do, and sometimes the time comes to lay down and rest. One thing that gives me hope is that some little dive might open next week and still be here 50 years from now.

For the time being, though, we ought to appreciate and celebrate what we have. What we have at Brooks’ is a rare thing: a bit of Charlotte history you can taste. And if you get it, get it all the way.