quote:Originally posted by the ancient mariner
I had no idea that 5 guys have been around 20 years----I had never heard of them
until recently when I read about them here on the World Famous Roadfood site.
Metroplex ( are you related to Multiplex by any chance ) I thank you for your imput
and will give them a try. I will bring another burger expert with me, but I must
tell you she and I have been spoiled by Piper's Kilt. The game is afoot and may
the chips ( fries actually ) fall where they may.
No relation to "Multiplex". The "Metroplex" is the sobriquet for greater Dallas - Ft. Worth. I live in McKinney, the county seat of Collin County which is NE and ajacent to Dallas County. It's the home of Southfork Ranch, little Nastia Liukin, and parking lots that look like a Lexus/Mercedes/Escalade "consolidation sale".
Their original store was a <500 s.f. walk-up that was in the same strip center as the (then) famous Brenner's Bakery: N.E. corner of Columbia Pike and South Glebe in Arlington; no seats, strictly carry-out.
Their "differentiations" were: fresh baked buns by Brenner's, fresh ground beef, fresh hand cut french fries, "free" toppings, and all the in-the-shell peanuts you could eat while your burger was fried. The fries were always "over-served" and malt vinegar was available along with ketchup for the fries.
When you went in the door they'd ask how many patties you wanted so that they could get them on the grill while you waited in line to place your order, eating those peanuts all the while.
They finally opened in Dallas a few months ago and I found the product to be just like what I used to get back in Arlington, VA.
What seems to stick in the craw of what I call the
Gang of Five is that they have a sign that announces that they cook their burgers "well done". They do this in an overabundance on caution born of having started in Arlington, VA where there are more lawyers per sq. ft. than any other place on the face of the earth.
One of my many ventures was hamburger-based fast food. In regard to their sign I wrote elsewhere on Roadfood:
"BTW: if you're a restaurant frying "fresh" ground beef and don't cook the product until the juice starts to run clear, you're a fool. It does you no good to point to SYSCO which has a legion of lawyers to point back at you and/or to their anonymous processors: it's your hard-earned retail name on the line.
Cook it well. There is no other sane choice at this level of the restaurant biz". I really wish that they would say that "
we cook all our fresh product to an internal temperature of 160 degrees", or "
until the juices run clear". That would be far less confrontational than their seeming "
we'll cook it the way we need to in order to cover our a$$es and keep the ambulance chasers at bay" attitude.
In any case, they serve a fresh, moist product that I have enjoyed on many occasions in many locations for 22 years now. As another poster said, risk the 5 bucks and decide for yourself.
(Even though I have written many favorable accounts of them on Roadfood, I have no financial interest in Five Guys and I do not know the principals. The "closest relation" I have to them is that the owner of the strip center at King & Beauregard where their store #2 is located is a friend of mine).
