Five Guys Burgers

Burger #30: Five Guys – Bacon Cheeseburger – $6.49 + $3.5? for fries

Five guys has an awesome transparency in their design.  

Well January is out of the way and man did it fly by.  I am officially a hill person up in Mt. Adams seeing as I’ve gotten my first 100$ parking ticket, I think that’s pretty damn official.  I’ve been to 3 of my new resolution restaurants:  Sung, Honey and Smoq.  Also, I haven’t had time to jog all month.  I want to do the half marathon for the flying pig, but I have to change my priorities so I have time to train.  This means far less partying.  L  Onto the review…

This is review #30 for the year and I’ll be writing about an amazing burger chain that I rarely make it out to, Five Guys.  Five Guys voted #26 in Cincinnati magazine’s top 40 list.  I know burger chains shouldn’t be on my list, but I didn’t put it there, and it is nice to get a real comparison between the “fast food” chain.  This isn’t fast food like you are used to with a drive thru window, but rather a sit down place that doesn’t pre-cook their burgers.  Everything is made fresh right when you order.  This is a recurring theme for the fast food industry and can be seen in the huge expansion of chipotle, culver’s, five guys, and subway as well as Urban Active and other gyms.  Our young professionals are looking for healthier alternatives at a higher quality to Mcdonald’s and taco bell, and we’re willing to spend more to not be the fattest country in the world (if you eat an entire chipotle burrito loaded with cheese and doused with sour cream, you are better off eating 2 big mac’s, not exactly keeping it healthy).  People are demanding more transparency in what they are eating, and taco bell has recently been hit with a huge scandal in the content of the beef like product they serve in their tacos.  I think I read that it was found to have 30% beef in it.  I find it utterly disgusting to start with, but things like this make me remember that the world is a very fucked up place.  Oh, and a lot of the filler is wood products, like SAW DUST, because it has fiber in it, and there is absolutely no law against using saw dust in food.  Mmmm….

So now that I’ve got your attention, I will talk about why Five Guys is a great chain.  When we entered, my friend and I noticed the diner like feel of metal tables and an above the head menu.  One big thing is that there is nothing blocking your view of the entire kitchen.  You have full view of everything going on and most importantly, you can see your food being made from start to finish.  We went on a Saturday afternoon for lunch in Hyde Park/ Rookwood Commons area and it was very busy.  The menu is small and there are basically 4 kinds of burgers in 2 sizes.  There less than a handful of hot dogs with standard toppings, veggie sandwiches* (“note: veggie sandwiches do not contain veggie burger patties”…I don’t even know wtf this can mean), and fries (regular or Cajun). 

Where it becomes your burger is in the 15 or so free toppings you can get, like A.1. steak sauce, bbq, onions, relish, mushrooms, etc. 

There are as many fries still in the greasy, greasy bag. 

My burger for the day was the double bacon cheeseburger.  When we ordered, the guy said it’d be ready in 7 minutes… now, this shocked me.  I’ve never had anyone give me an exact time frame in which my food would be ready, especially during a busy lunch time.  This was refreshing to hear and we kept track of time, it took 5 and a half minutes.  As we waited, we enjoyed the free peanuts, which we found weren’t necessary at all, while listening to some great music (pink floyd) on the radio.  This was a ½ lb of fresh meat, cooked through because they don’t give you choice of cooking it medium.  It wasn’t seasoned much, but the meat had a great flavor and was just perfectly greasy, when the bun gets soaked in the awesome flavors of beef and bacon!  I added grilled onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, and green peppers.  This was a huge burger, and we had to give up on hoping to remain clean after lunch.  I’d say the bacon was average, but enjoyable.  Our side was the large fries, which you share I guess.  Another thing I did notice that the hand written white board noted that today’s fries were from a farm in Warden, WA.  When they came they were in an extremely greasy bag in a cup that would fill up 2 guys, but it turns out Five Guys doesn’t roll like that.  They fill their fry cup up twice, which could’ve filled 4 people easy.  You have to eat them out of the bag because there is nowhere to put them.  I saw one experienced patron shaking his fries with malt vinegar, salt and pepper, which just made me laugh, because he was physically shaking that shit in front of his girlfriend. 

Alright, ending this, some chains do deserve to be on this list, but it wouldn’t be fair to put this up too high on my personal list.  I’ll tell you to go there of course, but try senate, daveed’s, gordo’s, terry’s, mayberry, quarter bistro, etc first. 

Happy February!  I hope you haven’t given up after 1 month with your goals for the year.