I had heard about Five Guys, that they made great burgers, and I stopped by their restaurant at Holllymead Town Center when they first opened. I was pretty hungry and ordered two “regular” cheeseburgers and some fries. They brought me two giant, double cheeseburgers – it was a half of a steer and two counties worth of French Fries from Idaho. I couldn’t eat it all. Not only does Five Guys give you a lot of food, their burgers rank right up there with the best in all of Charlottesville.
Five Guys makes no pretense about being a health food store. Their cheeseburgers, regular size with two patties, have 840 decadent and yummy calories. An order of their fries adds another 1,000 calories, so if you don’t gain a pile of weight at a single sitting, you have a helluva tape worm. But sometimes it’s worth it, and in the case of Five Guys, it is.
The meat is loaded with fat and flavor and their fries are greasy and damned good. The buns they use have more egg and are sweeter than the competition. Five Guys also does a great hot dog – Nathan’s, of course, and they offer 15 toppings for their burgers. Their Vanilla Milkshakes are to die for.
Five Guys was founded by the Murrell family, Jerry, his wife Janie, and their four sons. Yep, Five Guys. The Arlington, VA location opened its doors in 1986. They are now pushing 1,400 locations throughout the world.
If the thought of by-pass surgery from engulfing a Five Guys meal doesn’t scare you off, it’s definitely one of the top hamburger joints in Charlottesville.
