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Thursday
March 18, 2010 Since 1922 |
New burger joint entices customers
By Travers La ville
Correspondent Published February 9, 2010 Randy Haney and Kevin Troller were chomping at the bit for the grand opening of Five Guys Burgers, so they made their way to the new restaurant Saturday for an invitation only preview party.
Haney, a world geography teacher at Sterling High School, stood in line with more than 100 other burger lovers, reminiscing about the first time he ate at the chain restaurant when he went to Washington, D.C., on a job interview.
“I was interviewing for the position of Congress-man Jim Ryan’s press secretary and stopped at Five Guys for lunch,” he said. “I didn’t get the job, but it was a great burger.”
Haney said while he was shopping for electronics next door to the restaurant’s 5010 Garth Road location when he saw the marquee and a wave of nostalgia hit that prompted him to stop in for a bite.
“They asked me if I had an invitation,” he said. “I told them no, just a sense of smell.”
What he smelled was 3.3-ounce handmade patties grilling with 18 different toppings, fresh cut Five Guys-style and Cajun-style fries. The chain prides itself on its standard of quality. Customers line themselves around bags of potatoes that employees will actually use during the course of the day, or week, to prepare food.
If customers are too hungry to wait in line, crates of complimentary peanuts are available, stacked at each corner of a potato barricade.
“We make everything fresh here but the bun,” Regional Vice President Bob Higgins said. “Other restaurants have a lot of options, but we only specialize in one thing and that requires perfection.”
The bun is a proprietary recipe made by an outsourced bakery, but Higgins said it still maintains the chain’s standard.
“The buns are shipped in five days a week,” he said. “They are definitely one of our restaurant’s points of distinction.”
The burger joint has 11 menu items, apart from sodas and fries, which include eight styles of burgers and three kinds of hot dogs.
The franchise standard for service is a seven-minute wait, but, even with a full house on Saturday, customers like Theresa Holland and Cole Bergeron experienced just a five-minute wait.
“This is great,” Holland said. “The first thing we noticed was that they sautéed their hot dogs; I think it makes all the difference in the taste.”
“Hot dogs are my favorite,” said 7-year-old Bergeron. “I definitely like this one.”
The eatery’s customer service during the party preview was enough to wow some customers, but that didn’t surprise Haney.
“The courtesy is exactly what I remember in D.C.,” he said. “It’s more like a restaurant than a burger joint.”
Correspondent Published February 9, 2010 Randy Haney and Kevin Troller were chomping at the bit for the grand opening of Five Guys Burgers, so they made their way to the new restaurant Saturday for an invitation only preview party.
Haney, a world geography teacher at Sterling High School, stood in line with more than 100 other burger lovers, reminiscing about the first time he ate at the chain restaurant when he went to Washington, D.C., on a job interview.
“I was interviewing for the position of Congress-man Jim Ryan’s press secretary and stopped at Five Guys for lunch,” he said. “I didn’t get the job, but it was a great burger.”
Haney said while he was shopping for electronics next door to the restaurant’s 5010 Garth Road location when he saw the marquee and a wave of nostalgia hit that prompted him to stop in for a bite.
“They asked me if I had an invitation,” he said. “I told them no, just a sense of smell.”
What he smelled was 3.3-ounce handmade patties grilling with 18 different toppings, fresh cut Five Guys-style and Cajun-style fries. The chain prides itself on its standard of quality. Customers line themselves around bags of potatoes that employees will actually use during the course of the day, or week, to prepare food.
If customers are too hungry to wait in line, crates of complimentary peanuts are available, stacked at each corner of a potato barricade.
“We make everything fresh here but the bun,” Regional Vice President Bob Higgins said. “Other restaurants have a lot of options, but we only specialize in one thing and that requires perfection.”
The bun is a proprietary recipe made by an outsourced bakery, but Higgins said it still maintains the chain’s standard.
“The buns are shipped in five days a week,” he said. “They are definitely one of our restaurant’s points of distinction.”
The burger joint has 11 menu items, apart from sodas and fries, which include eight styles of burgers and three kinds of hot dogs.
The franchise standard for service is a seven-minute wait, but, even with a full house on Saturday, customers like Theresa Holland and Cole Bergeron experienced just a five-minute wait.
“This is great,” Holland said. “The first thing we noticed was that they sautéed their hot dogs; I think it makes all the difference in the taste.”
“Hot dogs are my favorite,” said 7-year-old Bergeron. “I definitely like this one.”
The eatery’s customer service during the party preview was enough to wow some customers, but that didn’t surprise Haney.
“The courtesy is exactly what I remember in D.C.,” he said. “It’s more like a restaurant than a burger joint.”