Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened in the Leaside Centre today. The red and white checkerboard burger restaurant is a large international chain, franchising its wares across North America. It’s famous for thick beef sandwiches with as-you-like-it trimmings and fries that come in lots that don’t seem to stop. Five Guys has a comment board at the front of the restaurant. One hapless customer at the new Laird Drive location this noon scribbled “How was I supposed to eat all this?” From appearances, opening day was pretty good. We counted a dozen or so diners at 2.30 pm. The atmosphere is of course friendly and includes an odd war whoop of some kind which goes up from the chief order taker each time someone comes through the door. Wonder if they’ll keep that up. In any case, the arrival of Five Guys is a comment on (if you’ll pardon the expression) the dog-eat-dog nature of the burger business. Up the street is South Street Burgers in the SmartCentre. It has big flags out on the street today to remind eaters that it is still there. A few days ago, many were surprised with McDonald’s poor quarterly results. They were blamed on the economic slowdown and the stronger U.S. dollar. Maybe, but conventional wisdom on fast food places is that they usually do better in tough times. Our guess would be more along the lines of really tough competition for the burger dollar. Five Guys open today in Leaside Village
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Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened in the Leaside Centre today. The red and white checkerboard burger restaurant is a large international chain, franchising its wares across North America. It’s famous for thick beef sandwiches with as-you-like-it trimmings and fries that come in lots that don’t seem to stop. Five Guys has a comment board at the front of the restaurant. One hapless customer at the new Laird Drive location this noon scribbled “How was I supposed to eat all this?” From appearances, opening day was pretty good. We counted a dozen or so diners at 2.30 pm. The atmosphere is of course friendly and includes an odd war whoop of some kind which goes up from the chief order taker each time someone comes through the door. Wonder if they’ll keep that up. In any case, the arrival of Five Guys is a comment on (if you’ll pardon the expression) the dog-eat-dog nature of the burger business. Up the street is South Street Burgers in the SmartCentre. It has big flags out on the street today to remind eaters that it is still there. A few days ago, many were surprised with McDonald’s poor quarterly results. They were blamed on the economic slowdown and the stronger U.S. dollar. Maybe, but conventional wisdom on fast food places is that they usually do better in tough times. Our guess would be more along the lines of really tough competition for the burger dollar. 
