My last post dealt with the big three in fast food chain burgers. Today, I’ll delve into the next level of chain restaurants that forgo the whole “fast” in their offerings. These are only the ones available in the local area, and frankly it’s a sad state of affairs. Although I do have to talk to one other that should be here, but for some reason remains south of the columbia river, while having expanded outward from California to Texas.
Yes, I am talking about In-N-Out. I was first introduced to this franchise a few years ago when visiting my daughter in Sacramento. I was blown away with how perfect the burger was. It was a bit on the small side, their signature double double (double meat, double cheese) featured all of the proper fixins I would expect from a cheeseburger. To top it off, it is the least expensive of all of the other chains, so it’s a great value for what you’re getting. If there was an In-N-Out burger joint within an hours drive, I would visit it often. As it stands, I have to make a yearly pilgrimage south while visiting my family.
For around here, I am left with two choices. Five Guys and The Habit.
Five Guys is a bit different, they allow you to specify every single aspect of your burger, including such toppings as mushrooms, jalapenos, green peppers, even A1 steak sauce. Their burgers are cooked to order and are served wrapped and in a brown paper bag. The fries are locally sourced, and each store proudly displays the potatoes and a sign telling you were they came from. The entire process of making your burger is visible in their assembly line from the dining area.
For those of you that have never visited Five Guys, do not order anything but a small order of their french fries. The fries are served in a paper cup, but when placed in the brown paper bag, they always dump a bunch more, where a small order of fries is basically a large order anywhere else.
The burgers are hot and fresh, and only you can be faulted for the topping choices. It’s a great burger.
It’s also wildly overpriced. At the Five Guys here in Silverdale, it’s close to $20 dollars for a cheeseburger fries and a soda. As good as their burgers get, it’s not *that* good.
The Habit is yet another California burger franchise offering that recently opened up here. They offer your standard tier two fresh off the grill burgers called a char burger. Their big deal is a choice of grilled or raw onions but otherwise, it’s similar to all the other burger places. If I was purposely going out to get a burger, this is the place I’d prefer. The burgers are perfectly made, cheese melted properly, and their fries are exceptional. The biggest selling point is the price - comparable to a Wendys or McDonalds and a great value.
There are other chain burger places, but they haven’t managed to make their way out here. There used to be a California Burger that was mostly an overseas franchise that had opened up in the University District in Seattle, but they didn’t last long. I’ve had Whataburger decades ago but they are mainly in the Southwest still, and while decent, they have nothing over the other burger offerings. There is a local franchise called Burgermaster, but as far as I know there are only a small handful of locations found in the Seattle/Bellevue area.
So, there you have it, my go-to burger joint not part of the top three is The Habit. Great burgers, great price. Is there something I missed?
Four other places come to mind:
1. Dick's (the one on Capitol Hill in Seattle, ignore the rest) as mentioned in my comment to the previous post.
2. Pick-Quick in Fife. An interesting place. Tiny, only open in the summer months. No inside seating.
3. Here in Centralia we've got a Brother who owns a BBQ joint. Located well outside of the business district, quite close to VW Clayton's house. Called Mr. T's. Makes an excellent, large burger, the whole shooting match with fries and the whole bit will end up costing less than McD's.
4. In the tiny town of Morton WA, along White Pass there is a small place called Spiffy's. (There is another Spiffy's at the intersection of I-5 and White Pass, and a third at the start of the Pass in Yakima, but all three are owned by different people and are completely different from each other.) Anywhoo, I figure that I can eat more than anyone else on the planet, but the Big Olie burger at Morton's Spiffy's will almost do me in.
Now if you want to talk about Hot Dogs, well the Foot Long with everything from Big Tom's in Olympia has everyone beat!
Living where I do, one can't forget Burgerville. 40 locations in and around Portland.
I think that the one in my little town is the northernmost. So, folks from north of here always want to go there. They seem so excited. But, to be honest, it's an excitement I've never understood, and I'm pretty sure is misplaced!
I'm with you on 5 Guys. Good, but for the price, why not just go to a real restaurant?