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FIVE GUYS BURGERS AND FRIESHours: Monday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.Address: 401 Broad St., 2020 Gunbarrel Road, 5110 Hixson Pike, 124 Stuart Road NE in Cleveland and 1303 W. Walnut Ave. in DaltonPhone: Downtown at 531-8267, Hamilton Place at 664-3500, Hixson at 870-7772, Cleveland at 423-476-4878 and Dalton at 706-229-9147
On a sunny, breezy afternoon, the crisp fragrance of fries drifted out Five Guys’ front door and bounded down Broad Street. As soon as I stepped out of my car, the warming scent beckoned and I followed.
As its name suggests, Five Guys Burgers and Fries is famous for its burgers and fries. But on that particular afternoon, local Five Guys co-owner Jim Richards wanted to talk about a different facet of the fast-but-fresh food joint. From the kitchen, he carried out a box filled with whole peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños, heads of lettuce, onions, lemons and strawberries.
He selected the onion and said, “Still covered it dirt!” as he showed it to me, adding, “So many fast food restaurants process everything somewhere else. Or there’s some giant freezer in the back where people go to chip things out.”
But not Five Guys, which hand-washes, chops, pulls or slices all its own ingredients every day. For example, those peppers, tomatoes and jalapeños are hand-sliced to be used as burger toppings. Likewise, the onions are hand-quartered and chopped; the lettuce is hand-pulled. The lemons are sliced for sweet tea and the berries are hand-blended for milkshakes.
And then, of course, there are the whole Idaho potatoes, which arrive in 50-pound bags. From there, the spuds are hand-cut, soaked — which makes them less starchy — and then fried in peanut oil for a crisp, clean flavor; one that a person can almost taste just by passing by Five Guys’ storefront.
And it is no wonder the fragrance carries. After all, its Broad Street location alone uses between 200-400 pounds of potatoes every day, Jim told me. That’s a lot of fresh food, which would free up a lot of space in the freezer — though that’s not a concern at Five Guys.
“We don’t even have a freezer in the store,” Jim said. “Most people can’t believe it when we say that.”