Food - News
We Finally Know Why Five Guys Is So Expensive
By ROBYN HUNT
Unlike a majority of fast food or fast-casual burger chains, Five Guys is committed to freshness. The company refuses to work with frozen products and they have only coolers — no freezers — located in their kitchens. To keep spoilage minimal, that might mean prepping two to three times a day, which means more deliveries, and hence the final menu is expensive.
Five Guys only invests in premium, high-quality ingredients. Schweid & Sons is the beef purveyor for all the Five Guys locations. The special blend of ground chuck and sirloin used for Five Guys burgers isn't available for retail purchase, which explains the exclusivity. Even the mayonnaise they use is a privately owned brand created by Murrell and the corporate condiment king, Heinz.
Five Guys is known for being super generous with their portions, especially their fries and a small order of fries is still enough for two people. A single burger at Five Guys is almost 50% meatier than their competitor, In-N-Out patties. Moreover, Five Guys' standard hamburger doesn't come with one patty, but two.
Five Guys buns contain nine total ingredients: water, flour, sugar, oil, yeast, eggs, milk, salt, and sesame seeds and compared to your standard burger bread, these buns are distinctly sweet and noticeably eggier. The company contracted 10 professional bakeries around the nation to produce their fabulous cake-like buns, and the bread is baked on a daily basis and picked up at 3 pm every day.
Five Guys uses refined peanut oil which is considered "clean" or refined oils and undergo multiple processes to eliminate any proteins. Peanut oil is one of the most nutrient-dense oils in the world and is high in oleic oils and vitamin E. As a result, peanut oil plays a factor in the pricing of Five Guys' menu.