Or a hamburger. The hamburger of distant memory was put together by a guy in a diner down on the corner, and having it your way wasn't an advertising theme, it was a given.
Now, we're in a time when we're swamped by burgers but low on real hamburgers.
In a world replete with fast-food burgers, Five Guys Burgers and Fries -- which has attained iconic status in Washington, D.C. -- has arrived in the Charlotte area with actual hamburgers, hand-patted from never-frozen beef. They carry a beefy flavor, retaining their juiciness, and instead of the molecularly identical burgers of the fast-food outlets, these flaunt a handmade individuality.
While the buns at some fast-food outlets seem designed to outlast a natural disaster, Five Guys bakes their to a softness that curls around and embraces the beef. The burgers are accompanied by almost the only other thing on the menu: enormous piles of hand-cut, peanut oil-cooked fries with soft starchy centers and skins on the edges.
The price is higher than the chains, with a double-patty cheeseburger coming in at $5.09. The cost is a little more with bacon and a little less for a single-patty "little" hamburger. Fries are $2.79, served heapingly.
According to a sign on the wall, the day's potatoes come from Moses Lake, Wash. Five Guys take their potatoes seriously, not to say personally. The Five Guys' policy is to get out as much information as possible -- unusual for anything originally in the Washington, D.C., area. Along with the potato ID, another sign declares that the hamburgers are all cooked well done yet juicy -- a difficult combination, but one that Five Guys often manages -- and the walls are covered with citations from East Coast media praising the operation.
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