fiveguys
Originally uploaded by minhi.

I’ve lived in DC for almost 5 years and only recently started eating at 5 guys. They’ve been in the DC area for about 10 years (?) now but they were in Springfield or Woodbridge so it was a pain to get there. Recently they started aggresive expansion, the first 5 guys burger I ate was actually at the location in Richmond VA where my parents live. They just opened a spot in Merrifield near me and another one in Clarendon so a lot more options.

The burger is like you expect, somewhere between a fast food hamburger and a restaurant hamburger. The taste and freshness are about the same as a restaurant burger (fresh beef not frozen, fresh cut potatoes for the fries), the biggest difference is how ‘neat’ the sandwich is when you get it. At a restaurant you get a nicely presented sandwich, not smooshed up like this one.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes a smooshed up sandwich is what you want, i love the burgers from In-N-Out on the west coast–which to me is the perfect fast food hamburger. That last sentence is not a denigration against In-N-Out, fast food is itself a food class and it does not have to be bad.

The other thing I want to talk about is how we look at food. Removed from the context of a meal and viewed with a measured eye most food is gross. I mean this is an exteme example (i did not feel good after eating this, i’m too old to consume this much food on a regular basis…) but even something more sophisticated can look not so appetizing afterwards. For example i just had a nice bowl of pan-seared shrimp with a butter-lemon-garlic-parsley sauce. It was very tasty, but as I looked at it afterwards things didn’t look as appetizing as when i started!

I didn’t take a picture this time but I’ll make it again this week, i’m adjusting the recipe.