What style of music are you into (Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, ect)? What's the budget?
You can find a wide variety of really good value to quality options on the budget side with companies like Firefly
If the badge matters to you, Squire makes some good mid level stuff, there's also the players series by Fender starting at about 1k. G&L and Schecter offer some great value instruments as well.
As for grit, it kind of depends what you mean. Some people think of telecasters as being gritty, the bridge pickup gets a "gritty" tone compared to a Strat which some find more shrill. Some might think of a guitar with p90s, or a les paul style guitar.
Do want a trem system? They can be fun, but if you're never going to use is, a hardtail has some advantages with tuning stability, and you don't go out of pitch when bending. If you do want a trem, are you looking for something you can dive bomb on (like a floyd rose) or something more modest like a bigsby setup?
Strats and Teles are pretty versatile, you can play most styles of music with them and have no problems, but if you like heavy distortion, something noise cancelling pickups might be a better choice (you can get noise cancelling single coils, or a humbucker on a tele or Strat too).