A burger worth talking about: Five Guys

If you haven't heard the hype surrounding the up-and-coming chain, Five Guys, you will soon! A fellow coworker of mine mentioned it to me prior to my trip and told me there was one in Charleston. Once I told Wes it was all over. Let's see, a hamburger joint with a cult following and national notoriety, please it was over before it ever began. So to appease him, I decided to get it over with and go the very first night we were there. There were a few trials and tribulations with the directions but we made it. The menu is somewhat limited as far as the burgers, but the toppings are plentiful. For the burger, you can either get a hamburger, cheeseburger, or bacon cheeseburger. They come in 2 sizes, regular or little. The regular is a double and the "little" is a perfectly big enough single. They are also known for their fries that they cook in peanut oil. If you've ever had the fries from Penn Station, they are one in the same. What caught my attention immediately upon entering the restaurant (which was in a strip mall) was how clean the place was. It was white and red and you would have been hard pressed to find a crumb anywhere! They even have large barrels of peanuts for the taking, yet still there were no shells on the floor. I did see a boy walking around practically the whole time with a broom and dustpan, so I guess cleanliness is important to them.

On to the food. I got a little cheeseburger with sauteed onions and mushrooms, lettuce, ketchup, and mustard (no tomatoes because they weren't offering them do to the salmonella outbreak). Wes and I split an order of regular fries - which were enough for a small family! The burger was in fact quite tasty. It actually lived up to the hype. I'm not sure what set it apart from others but it did taste grilled, it was real meat, and it was a decent size. Perhaps those attributes made it excel but I'm not sure. It could also be that we were all also starving, but we'll assume it was actually the taste of the burger. The burgers come wrapped in foil and the fries come in a brown paper bag. My burger was $3.49 and the fries were $2.19.

Look out Lexington, I understand that someone has already bought the rights to the franchise for our area. So keep your eyes peeled because we might be getting our very own Five Guys! You won't have to drive all the way to Charleston to get a $3 burger!

4.5* - That's based on a "fast food" rating scale.