Vacation Food Stories

So many good stories to tell from vacation to Florida--my family is either eating or drinking or talking about food; very little else!!--but I'll start with the one about Five Guys. We were on our way to the Edison House--yeah, whatever; I guess there is a banyan tree there that is kind of interesting. Anyway, we had barely pulled out of the gate when Deb started to talk from the back seat about the Five Guys she saw on the main road and "oh, I hear it's really good" and "oh, I really love burgers," on and on. Dad didn't help the situation by talking about how good the grilled mushrooms are and the grilled onions. And then.... "Should we give up on Edison House and just go have burgers for lunch?" YES!!

Oh my gosh what an amazing burger! Deb is much more of a burger fan than I am, but this is the best of its breed. Two fresh patties with cheese in the middle topped with my choice of fresh toppings. I chose lettuce, tomato, pickles and ketchup. These burgers taste like the ones we used to get as kids, before too much mass production or over-thinking took over hamburgers. Just fresh, good, perfectly grilled, and on a toasted plain bun. Fries were perfect; not too big, not too small, perfect balance of crisp and tender.  The giveaway bulk peanuts in little paper pockets is cute, too.

Five Guys started in 1986 in the Washington, D.C. area and now has over 450 stores in 30 states. None, sadly, however, in Boston, where we prefer to pay way too much money for over-engineered burgers that are not half as good. Their website says there are more than 250,000 ways to order a Five Guys burger; Deb and I could well make our way through many of those options if we had a Five Guys near by to try.