The appeal of Five Guys: big juicy burgers and tasty fries.
It's a familiar one: burgers. The big juicy burger purveyor Five Guys is about to open its first restaurant in Paris.
Five Guys was launched by a bunch of brothers outside of Washington, DC in 1986 and now has 1,000 locations across the US and Canada. Another 1,500 are in development and one of them is slated for France.
Burgers have been around in France for about 40 years. That's when McDonalds and Burger King entered the picture. But a renewed appetite for burgers seems to be hitting the country.
According to Ulla Majoube, food writer for L'Express in Paris, one meal out of four in France is a hamburger and almost three burger restaurants open every week.
"You've got MacDonalds, you've got Quick [French fast food restaurant] and you've got Burger King now. Those are the three main actors in France, so is there a place for another one? That's a good question," Majoube says.
In France the classic American burger has morphed into something that could be called "burger à la française" with French meat, cheese and traditional products. Majoube thinks Five Guys will probably have to adapt their burgers to the French taste.
"You get probably better homemade burgers from French brasseries and bistros for the same price [as Five Guys]. So where would you go… a place where you know it's homemade with good meat and good products, or Five Guys?" Majoube says.
No specific location or menu has been released from Five Guys yet but some "hipsters," as Majoube calls them, are looking forward to eating a real American burger in Paris.
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