I grew up in the years when McDonalds was starting out. One
day, the director of the farm for boys where I lived said we were going out to
dinner, the only time we ever did. He gave us each a buck and told us if we
really wanted to pig out, to bring another one.
And so we took the school bus to one of the first McDonalds
in New Jersey and we did, pig out that is. Burgers were 19 cents, so were
fries. A large soft drink was about a quarter and milkshakes were 39 cents.
Of course, I became addicted to McDonalds and have about an
extra 50 pounds on my body to prove it.
I’ve tried Wendy’s and Burger King. But they just didn’t
measure up in those days and Mickey D’s has been my preference -- especially when I’m on the road.
In fact, as I write this, the prom date and I are on the
road in Ohio and the Mickey D breakfast menu is just about the only one
designed for a take out breakfast. We drove 11+ hours the day before and so I
picked up a couple of orders of oatmeal and we split a big breakfast. But
McDonalds is rarely a place I go to for burgers anymore. Now it’s Five Guys.
Although one of the smaller burger chains, it’s clearly the
best. The prom date was sick today and she spent much of her time in bed. So at
dinnertime, it was clearly Five Guys and when I came back with the plain brown
bag containing our burgers and fries, she was well pleased.
I first discovered Five Guys somewhere around Milwaukie,
Oregon, where my son and his family live. I was on the way home and a little
hungry and so I stopped and ordered a large fries. The cost was a little high,
until I was handed a bag containing a 20-ounce cup of fries and they took two
extra scoops and put that into a brown bag.
Now that’s a lot of fries. The serving will easily feed four
adults. But the thing was, they were fresh. I mean these fries had never seen a
freezer. On the floor were cartons of raw potatoes with a sign saying where the
spuds were grown. Five guys employees run the potatoes through a French fry
cutter. They don’t peel them so a lot of the fries have skin on them, which not
only make them taste better, but the skin provides better nutrition.
Everything is fried in peanut oil, which is also less greasy
and healthier too since it has no cholostrol. Now I’m not saying that fried foods are good for us, just
that these fries are better than the ones you get out of a freezer at a fast
food joint.
But it is now time to discuss the burgers. A burger is two
third-pound patties, which have been freshly ground and hand shaped. The place
does not have a freezer. You can also get a “junior” burger with one patty for
about a dollar less. There’s an old advertising jingle for McDonald’s Big Mac –
“two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a
sesame seed bun.” But if you order a Big Mac, that’s what you get. With Five
Guys, you choose your toppings ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, barb-b-que, hot
sauce and A-1 sauce are the condiments, then the veggies include lettuce,
tomato, green and jalapeño peppers, pickles, onions (raw or grilled), and
mushrooms (again raw or grilled).
You can order whatever you want and if you want extra onions
or mushrooms, for example, they’re all your’s -- all included with the burger. And because the burgers are
cooked fresh, they come out tender and juicy. Ever looked in the back kitchen
at McDonald’s? They cook burgers in bunches and put them in heating bins. It
just isn’t the same. Most fast food places also season their burgers. Five Guys
has salt and pepper packages if you want the spice.
They also sell hot dogs; also with the condiments you want
and grilled cheese, a veggie special grilled cheese and a BLT. Bacon on the
burgers and dogs cost extra.
As for drinks, they also have home-spun shakes with about
ten different flavors. I sometimes will have a cherry-strawberry-banana shake.
But more often I will have a soft drink chosen from the more than 100 varieties
from Coke’s advanced dispenser system. For example, Sprite Zero can be poured
into your cup with lemon, cherry, orange and other flavors. Today I had a vanilla
diet root beer.
Since everything is cooked to order, you have to sit around
and they offer free peanuts in the shell while you wait.
I usually take out my meal, but there is a dining room. It’s
nothing fancy, but there are plenty of seats and stools.
All I can say about this is that in more than seven years of
blogging, I’ve never endorsed a place to eat (though I did once mention a great
Florida juice stand). Simply put, check it out and you’ll find that instead of
a ‘happy meal,’ you will find yourself quite happy with your meal.
