Five Guys Burgers, Lincoln Park

Five Guys
2368 N Clark St
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Victim: Me

The Damage: $10

The Background: Something bad has happened in Chicago. And it scares me. I was up in Lincoln Park buying a mattress (which are freaking expensive these days, by the way) and decided to walk down Clark Street and check out the old ‘hood. (My first Chicago apartment was on Deming. The second on Wrightwood. Both in Lincoln Park.)

Only problem is that all the old places in the ‘hood are OUT OF BUSINESS. Except for Frances’, the brunch/lunch place I used to work at on weekends to make bus money. (The same place that told me I was the best hostess/front-of-house they’d ever had. And in the same breath, they told me that because of that, they couldn’t promote me to waitress. My only consolation is that I was the only staff member to negotiate a turkey club on dark rye with a side of fries in addition to regular pay. And the true true regulars did on occasion slip me a couple of extra bucks to make it to the top of the waiting list.)

Anyhow, I walked down to Fullerton to grab a burger. From Five Guys. Everyone raves about Five Guys.

Now let me be clear…after placing my order, all I’ve done is walk from the counter to my table. And still…the burger looks a little smushed, doesn’t it? I did debate taking a photo of the meat but when I lined up the shot, it was just a bit gross.

So I bite in. This is the small burger by the way. And it’s juicy. Good juicy. But the bun…it’s so soft and gushy. Just a bit of toasting would have made it so much better. But you know I’m biased.

And then there are the fries. Yes, this is them. I’m scheduling my quadruple bypass now.

This is a SMALL fries. I think that has to be at least two whole potatoes in there. BIG potatoes. Really. They are very good fries. They’re fresh cut. Most American places these days do frozen. And in my opinion, there’s nothing better than fresh fries. But then again, I’m spoiled. When I was a kid, we always made our own fries. My brother and I would help crinkle cut the potatoes. None of this frozen-in-the-bag shi*t.

The only thing that could have made these fries better was cooking them for about a minute more to make them nice and crispy. (My childhood spent in food service…don’t take the fries out of the fryter until they float to the top.)

Here. Visual proof. This is the entrance way. Five Guys takes their fries very seriously. Those are all the sacks of potatoes there. (And peanuts. Five guys also takes peanuts seriously.)

The Verdict: Decent. But not like dying to go back. But I admire what they’re doing…everything fresh (not frozen) on premises. The potato thing. The peanut thing. It’s cool.