Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A little Five Guys History - the Original Five Guys location

I will always regret never visiting the original Five Guys location. I moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1997, and had a couple years in which I possibly could have done so, but I had never heard of the place (it was pre-blog times, and nobody could have shared with me Important Burger News electronically, like they can and do now) and now the location is closed and gone, part of burger legend.

The first Five Guys opened in 1986, in the Westmark strip mall (3235 Columbia Pike, Arlington, Va) at Columbia Pike and Glebe Road in Arlington, Va. Over the next 13 years, 4 more locations opened. In 1998, the original location closed. In 2002, Five Guys started franchising, and now there are over 500 stores - but no mothership, no high temple, no ground zero for 5G fans. (I guess the second store, at 4626 King Street, Alexandria, VA, should assume that role now.)

I went by the original location last week, just to see what I could see. It is now home to a "Dave's Seafood & Subs" The owner said he had assumed the location from his cousin, who ran a store there for just a few months in 1998 after the 5G closed. His place has been open 11 years - almost as long as the original 5G, so good for him. (I don't think he will be franchising, however. But try the sweet tea.) I asked if anything in his store was left over from 5G, or if he had any interesting information about assuming the same space first used by a national chain, but he had nothing to share. Bummer.

Some photos of the location as it is now-

I can not find any pictures to link to of the place as it was. If you know of any, please share.

What is now a car parts store next door used to be an H&R Block, and before that it was a Brenner's Bakery. That bakery used to provided ALL the buns for 5G. The Arlington Brenner's closed on December 31st, 2001. It was owned by family members of the other Northern Virginia Brenner's Bakery, which is in Alexandria. Although the Alexandria store is no longer owned by the Brenner family, and no longer provides all the buns, the person I spoke with there said they do provide for some of the local locations, and also sell the buns in the store. So I am going to go get some of those for home use. (Post to follow, of course)

Since I am forever denied talking about what it was like to go to the first 5G, I solicited reminiscences from a friend, who lived down the street from it and did go. Here is his account:

"I moved to Washington in May of ’97 and lived in an apartment on Columbia Pike right off of 395. As a restaurant junkie I would go around and try to find restaurants I might like. I wasn’t aware of what 5 Guys was or hadn’t gotten to the word of mouth moment. The original was located off of Glebe Road and Columbia Pike tucked out of sight on the Columbia Pike side in a not very nice strip mall. There was a mattress store, a video store a little hole in the wall restaurant named Mom’s that is still there and the bakery next door.

The inside was fine, but felt like a short order place. They had the peanuts and the white and red paint scheme. I want to say they also had the peg board with index cards. It had the smell of peanut oil and grease. There were no places to sit and it was pretty confined, but there was always a line. However, with the peanuts, it just felt like waiting was part of the experience.

Like ninety-something percent of their customers, it took one bite and I was hooked.

A friend of mine who also had moved out here was trying to get into Officer Candidate School and needed letters of recommendation from military officials. My friend was in Durango, Colorado talking to a retired General and told him about living on Columbia Pike. The General told him a story about the best hamburgers he had ever had off of Columbia Pike. My friend was accepted and at the point I knew this place had a real following. If only I had thought enough to try and get in on a franchise early." (Thanks, Jon.)

So, a little trip down Memory Lane, sadly reflecting on what I missed.

33 comments:

  1. Came across this post via a Google Alert for Columbia Pike. There's now a vacancy in that same strip mall (at the Pike and Glebe) -- the space that had been occupied by a video store -- and it could make the perfect flagship location... particularly given the Pike's renaissance.

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  2. Gino Pellegrino owned and operated Brenner's Bakery of Arlington from 1976 to 2002. It was his bakery that made the buns for the original Five Guys. The buns were made by hand then and now there are made by machine. They just don't taste the same!

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  3. They have a photo of the first location here: http://piketowncenter.com/2011/01/five-guys-burgers-fries-were-first-served-on-the-pike/

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  4. I'm pretty sure I've eaten at Dave's. Never knew about 5G though...

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  5. It's just a proof that everything change nowadays, something has to replace for a new one. I have eaten to Dave just like @Smoke assist reviews and they do serve the best seafood, I also been in one of the franchise of 5G in San Fransisco, their fries are great nd I also love the pizza.

    Lydia Nicholson
    http://www.wrinklecreamsreviews.com

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  6. Its true, everything goes through change at some point in time, wether it be a big or a little change it happens. Hope you find what you are looking for at the end of it though. But i was also told that the 5G in San Fransisco is really good....

    Adz @ super quick weight loss

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  7. I moved to Northern VA in 1991 and this was the Five Guys that I used to go to. It was really sad when it closed, but all the locations were adding indoor seating and this one had no place to expand into.

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  8. I have been eating at Five Guys since the opening of your first store in Arlington. Back then, ten or more of us would call in a lunch order from the Pentagon and a gofer would pick up the food and return with the prize. We would sit at our desks and sink our teeth into the tasty cheeseburgers and fries (which were by that time a bit soggy, but still sooooo good!). It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I actually stopped by the store and enjoyed a freshly made burger.

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  9. Are you sure this is the first location? I thought it was the one near the Alexandria Campus for Northern Virginia Community College. Route 7 (Leesburg Pike), Beauregard Street and Seminary Road. I saw the one on Columbia Pike years later. Both are gone now.

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    1. I too remember the Leesburg Pike (King St) and Walter Reed, (across from THI Fridays). I moved to an apartment right around the corner and walk over after work. I also thought it was their first. This was 1987.
      Living in Hawaii now where they just announced the state's first 5G will be going in right down the street. I now have no reason to ever leave the island.

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    3. If you go to the Internet Archive there's a 1988 article about the original store, back when it was the only one, that makes it clear that it was the one on Columbia Pike. It was, "Tucked in next to the auto parts store in a corner of a modest shopping center," two doors down from the bakery that supplied its buns. http://web.archive.org/web/20010222204409/http://www.fiveguys.com:80/images/articles/88-0819.html

      I moved to Woodbridge in 2001, which was home to one of only four Five Guys locations at the time. I've been a fan ever since. I was a little dismayed when the restaurant on Route 1 closed, but happily there are three locations within 2-3 miles at this point. There's also the corporate HQ just across the Occoquan, but they don't serve burgers there. :(

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  10. I ate at this 5Guys often during 1997-8. I worked across Glebe at the bank center. I did not know this was the original location. I don't have any photos, unfortunately. I loved the burgers then and glad I can still get them now! However, it was better for my diet to eat a salad at Boston Market most days!

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  11. http://www.fiveguys.com/-/media/Public-Site/Images/five-guys-matt.ashx?h=469&w=1280&la=en&hash=08B1D021E3A454E1E4C48B7FC2777567FADEF701

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  15. I moved to the Columbia Pike area in 1987. I ate from Five Guys once (not in -- it was a take out place). It was very basic. The burgers were much as what the chain serves now. When I started seeing others open, I wondered if that had been the original one, but I figured it was just the first one that I had seen. Interesting to find out that my first guess was correct.

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  16. I will always regret never visiting the original Five Guys location. I moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1997, and had a couple years in which I possibly could have done so, but I had never heard of the place (it was pre-blog times, and nobody could have shared with me Important Burger News electronically, like they can and do now) and now the location is closed and gone, part of burger legend.

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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