Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Friday, July 20, 2007

Better Than?

I'll admit, this is meant to be a shameless provocation, but I had the chance the other day to sample the fine fare at a Five Guys hamburger place. Dee-lish! The burgers were tasty and substantial, the fries were fresh-cut and done just right, and, well, the prices meant there was a very high penny-to-calorie ratio. (That's always an important food question for me. I hate those sissy places where they put a teensy bit of food on some huge plate as a way of making some "artistic" statement. If I want artistry with my food, I'll watch Giada).

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, and I think Five Guys might even beat out some other place that at least a couple of folks around here might have heard of...nah, probably not?

Mr. Watson?

7 comments:

Tom Van Dyke said...

Cruel, Simpson. No Five Guys here on the West Coast.

If it ain't on the Jack-in-the_Box dollar menu, I don't eat it.

Matt Huisman said...

I know nothing of Five Guys, but I knew which restaurant you were referring to when you said, "some other place" before following the link. I don't care how many "Guys" you've got, they can't touch the Double-Double.

Matt Huisman said...

Oh, and no crying about not having a fast food joint on the Left Coast, Van Dyke. I'd be happy if we could round up a stinkin Carl's Jr. here in Chicago.

Kathy Hutchins said...

I'll have to ask my husband; he lived in San Diego for years and has mentioned In-n-Out, and he loves Five Guys, but I've never heard a head-to-head comparison from him.

Five Guys is unbelievable. They have a whiteboard by the cash register where they tell you what podunk town in Idaho today's fries left in cwt. potato sacks. The decor is, basically, tile and potato sacks. And open cardboard boxes of peanuts. And they have Fanta in the soda machine. We used to drive 45 minutes out of our way to eat at the Five Guys in Lexington Park every time we went to Lookout Point; it was the closest one to us. When they opened one in the strip mall where I go grocery shopping I did a happy dance in the parking lot.

The Five Guys Hutchins Burger(tm) is a cheeseburger with fried onions, mushrooms, pickles, and A-1 sauce. A tip: there is no point in ordering the large fries. I have seen four people fail to finish a regular order of fries. They are supposed to come in a styrofoam cup, a la Thrasher's in Ocean City, but they put the cup in a paper bag and then dump some more in, so it's basically a grocery sack full of fries. For the large size to be larger they'd have to come in a lawn and leaf bag.

Defensor Pacis said...

I have not been to 5 guys. I take this email as a serious provocation however. I will have to sample them the next time I can.

Tom Van Dyke said...

Matt, I have a heresy to confess. As a native Philadelphian, the cheesesteak is of course a god. But a Chicago Italian Beef with sport peppers is the greatest thing in the history of the universe.

If I lived in Chicago, I'd never go near a hamburger.

Matt Huisman said...

Ahh, outsiders are not supposed to know about that. Most think of us as a pizza/hot dog town; but the beef is very, very kind here.

But you can't lump a beef into the world of fast food (you have to go to a "joint" to get one here). SoCal is where the fast food is at.