When you want to satisfy an intense burger craving, there's one place to go: Five Guys.
We all know that a Five Guys burger is amazing, but what exactly makes it so good?
Let's talk about the secrets of some of the best burgers around.
Five Guys won The Harris Poll's burger brand of the year award in 2017 and 2018, beating
In-N-Out Burger both years, which is no easy feat considering how passionate people are
about In-N-Out Burger.
“In n out, In n out, that’s what a hamburger is all about!”
They've also come out on top of 17 other burger chains including the usual suspects, like
McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and Carl's Jr., and even the more posh burger spots Whataburger
and Shake Shack.
And that speaks volumes about their legions of fans.
In-N-Out may have regained the title in 2019, but holding that honor for two years is something
to be proud of and it shows just how much people love Five Guys.
Why do we love them so much?
Five Guys is known for two things: burgers and fries.
They also offer hot dogs, and you can get a grilled cheese on the same bun and with
the same cheese that's used for a burger... if you're the type of person who actually
orders grilled cheese at a restaurant.
But here's the thing: Five Guys doesn't serve chicken sandwiches or filet of fish sandwiches
or rib sandwiches or fancy salads.
It's burgers.
And fries.
They focus on making those things great, and they're clearly succeeding.
As of 2013, Americans were eating about 50 billion burgers a year, which equals out to
about three juicy hamburgers per person per week.
"I would like to buy a hamburger"
About 60 percent of all sandwiches purchased worldwide are actually hamburgers, and that
just shows Five Guys has some serious critics to please.
To co-opt another slogan from another burger chain, you can definitely have it your way
at Five Guys, because they offer 15 different toppings to choose from.
These include mayo, ketchup, mustard, A1 Sauce, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, lettuce, tomatoes,
pickles, onions, relish, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, green peppers, and jalapeño peppers.
You can choose as many of these toppings as you want, for free, and heck, you can stick
all 15 of 'em on your burger if that's what you're into.
Compare this to the standard burger you can order at Burger King which comes with ketchup,
mustard, and pickles, or the McDonald's hamburger, which offers the same condiments as BK with
the addition of a few chopped onions.
Sure, there's something to be said for the simplicity of a burger with just ketchup and
mustard, but having the option to add as many as 15 toppings to the situation is one of
the things that makes Five Guys burgers so delicious and crave-worthy.
“I want one.”
And thanks to those 15 toppings, there are a whole lot of ways that customers can satisfy
whatever their cravings are.
The combinations are basically endless, and it doesn't matter how big a fan you are, you're
just never going to get to try them all.
Sorry!
That's because there are more than 250,000 ways to customize a burger.
It's no surprise that fans of this fast food joint are pretty passionate about their favorite
combos.
In fact, just thinking about them is enough to make you grab your car keys and head to
your local Five Guys to explore some of these crazy-delicious sounding options.
“I want one.”
Sure, you can order 15 different toppings and customize your burger about 250,000 ways,
but that doesn't mean all those toppings are going to be piled on all willy-nilly.
That would be chaos and yes, the order really does matter when it comes to quality.
Five Guys has a specific way of placing add-ons onto your burger for the ultimate yum factor:
Onions and bacon go underneath the patty, while tomatoes and pickles go on top of it.
Burger aficionados have many different opinions on what the actual correct placement of condiments
and toppings on a burger are, but it appears that Five Guys does it so the warm toppings
stay with the warm toppings, and the cool toppings mingle together separately.
There's also a lot of speculation about why Five Guys puts your french fry order on top
of your burger in the brown bag it comes in.
When this question was posed on Reddit, a commenter responded,
"I always thought this was so that the burger just gets a little bit warmer.
The cheese melts a little more, the bun gets a little steamy and soft."
Even though you can customize your burger at Five Guys a gazillion different ways, there's
one way you can't customize it: how much it's cooked.
No, you can't get it bloody, or still-mooing, or even medium rare, because every burger
cooked at Five Guys is prepared well-done.
But that's a good thing.
Five Guys hasn't officially explained the reasoning behind this policy, but it's likely
that safety is one of the concerns.
There are some major health risks associated with eating raw meat, including the consumption
of bacteria like E. coli and salmonella.
Because of these risks, the FDA advises that ground beef be cooked to a minimum internal
temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
And even if you opt for making your burger a little differently at home, well, you should
be grateful Five Guys goes a little further with theirs.
No one wants a side of salmonella with their burger.
The hamburger buns used for Five Guys' burgers are the perfect vehicle to get that juicy
slab of meat into your mouth they're soft, fluffy, and perfectly toasted on the grill.
Five Guys doesn't use a standard bun toaster, because it doesn't give you that caramelized
taste that cooking them directly on the grill does.
Can you imagine a Five Guys burger without that slight char on the bun?
Perfect toastiness aside, the buns only contain a few ingredients, and they're basically the
same ingredients that are in your average cake.
They also contain twice as many eggs as normal buns, which explains their dreamy texture.
On Inc., founder Jerry Murrell explains where these magical buns come from.
"We make the same bun we started with.
We hired the old guy who used to bake our bread for the first store, and one of his
partners.
They work in the Virginia bakery.
We have 10 bakeries scattered around the nation.
Our bread is baked daily, picked up by 3 p.m., and put on [a] truck or plane so every store
gets fresh bread every morning, even if they are 400 miles away from the nearest bakery."
As they say, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
Did you know the Green Bay Packers have an official bacon?
Well, they do, and it happens to be the same kind of bacon that Five Guys uses on all of
their burger offerings with bacon.
If it's good enough for the Packers, it's good enough for you.
Just what makes it so special?
Five Guys' bacon is applewood-smoked, and that's important.
Why?
It's all about the flavor.
“Nothing burps better than bacon”
Bacon Today had this to say about what makes applewood smoked bacon incredible:
"Applewood chips result in bacon that is mildly sweet and smoky.
It is the second most popular wood used after hickory as it results in bacon that is perfectly
balanced between smoky and sweet."
You can definitely taste that perfectly balanced flavor on each and every one of Five Guys'
bacon burgers, and if you haven't yet, try out one of the bacon burgers on your next
visit.
Or if you want to skip the burger altogether, you can also simply order a BLT.
With extra bacon, because it's the good stuff.
Not that other stuff...
"Would you like to sample our vegan bacon?
100 percent meatless."
"Yes, please"
You aren't going to get some weird pre-formed, freezer-burned patty when you order a burger
from Five Guys because their stores don't even have freezers.
Everything is made fresh to order.
Five Guys is so committed to freshness that it takes an entire three hours to open the
restaurants each day because everything from the burgers to the produce that is sliced
and chopped to go on your burgers is prepared that morning.
They also use wireless freshness sensors, and to get all technical and fancy about it,
the RFID Journal explains it like this:
"The [system] uses active 900 MHz sensors from Point Six Wireless and helps to ensure
that raw ingredients are stored at a safe temperature and are not served if they have
exceeded their approved temperature threshold."
In other words, technology is making sure you aren't going to get some germ-ridden,
warm, slimy lettuce on your burger that could make you sick.
And that's a great use for today's modern technological marvels.
One of the coolest things about the burgers at Five Guys, and why their burgers are such
a great value, is that their standard burger isn't even a burger at all it's TWO burgers.
That's a lot of beef for your buck!
“There’s two of them!?”
If you just can't deal with that much beef, you can request a "little" burger, which is
a single patty… but let's be honest, it's a double every time, right?
As with all good things, there's a catch.
All this delicious cow comes at a hefty nutritional price point.
If you opt for that little burger, you're going to be getting a meal clocking in at
542 calories and 26 grams of fat, numbers that will, of course, vary with whatever toppings
you decide to layer on.
Upgrade that to a bacon cheeseburger, and you're looking at 1,064 calories and 62 grams
of fat — plus, again, all those toppings you'll pick.
If you’re one of those that likes mayo on your burger, you can add another 100 calories
to that total!
And just in case a double isn't enough, you can definitely pile on another patty or two
for just a tad bit extra, if that's the way you roll.
You only live once, after all.
Oh, that's too much?
Order your burger in a bowl, and cut out the bun altogether.
Any way you slice it, that's still a huge amount of calories for just one meal, but
isn't that a huge part of what makes something taste oh-so-good?
Tomorrow's another day, right?
"This is definitely what I'm having on my cheat day."
Considering the fact your burger is made from scratch, Five Guys does a great job of getting
you fed rather quickly.
Sure, it may take a few minutes longer than ordering a burger from a place with a clown
as their mascot, but Five Guys is more of a fast casual restaurant than a fast-food
joint.
They hand form all the patties.
They grill the bun.
They also don't use any timers in their restaurants, and that's because they always say their cooks
are good enough to know when a burger is just the right amount of done.
Your burger will be served fresh to you when it's done, and it won't sit under some heat
lamp waiting for anyone to come in and order it, and that's a good thing.
No, Five Guys won't take as long as a sit-down restaurant with silverware and cloth napkins,
but if the restaurant is busy, you can expect to wait a bit.
“Anyone want a peanut?”
That's what all of those free peanuts are there for, so you can chow down while you
wait for your burger to be prepared.
Five Guys has two important things going for it: excellent customer service and happy employees.
Both of those things make any meal more enjoyable, and it's impossible to stress just how much
better a burger tastes when it's handed to you by someone who's smiling.
And according to those who have worked there, it's not just an act.
One former employee took to Reddit to talk about just what it was like to work at Five
Guys, saying,
"Fun for the most part, due to the fact that it's an open kitchen, the employees are encouraged
to joke around and have fun, even to the point of all out dancing, as long as you can keep
on track with the job you're doing."
If your food is prepared with happiness it's just going to taste better.
No one wants a burger made by some angry dude who hates their job.
“Food?
I’ll show him dog food!”
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