Five Guys, a fastfood joint nationally renowned for its handcrafted burgers and fries, closed its Wisconsin Ave. storefront in Georgetown on Sunday, Jan. 24.
Five Guys announced it would discontinue its Georgetown location by posting a sign on its door just days before officially closing. The sign read “On Sunday January 24, 2016 at 10pm we will be closing this location. We would like to thank the Georgetown community for allowing us to serve you over all these years.”
Nestled between a Bank of America and a family-owned shoe store, Five Guys sat on the corner of Wisconsin Ave. and Dumbarton St. Feeding families and late-night student cravings alike, Five Guys has been a comforting fixture in Georgetown for over a decade. With its bright red awnings, wooden fixtures and exposed brick interiors, this particular location has forgone cold modernity in favor of a comforting, homey feel.
According to an article in The Georgetown Metropolitan, Five Guys employees were only given a week’s notice that they would lose their jobs. Many have not yet been offered jobs at other District locations.
Five Guys Vice President of Marketing and Communications Molly Catalano could not be reached for comment regarding the Georgetown location’s closure.
Parth Shah (COL ’16) said he was very upset that the Georgetown fastfood storefront closed. He frequented the location for its grilled cheese, which was made with peppers, lettuce and tomatoes, and of course, accompanied by fries. Shah said that he even stopped weighing himself to encourage more meals there.
“I love Five Guys because it gives you a lot of bang for your buck. More importantly, it’s an amazing place to go late at night,” Shah said. “I can’t recall most of my interesting or funny stories [there] for reasons you can probably guess.”
Shah said that he might try to fill the hole in his heart with food from Z-Burger, but that he hopes Five Guys will reopen its old location and an additional storefront on the same block.
“Let’s get rid of that CVS,” Shah said.
Lauren Tucci (SFS ’17) said she was not surprised that the burger chain’s Georgetown location called it quits.
“The quality was like Burger King’s, but two or three times the price,” Tucci said.
For Five Guys’ prices, which average about seven or eight dollars per burger, Tucci said she finds eating at nearby Good Stuff Eatery to be a better deal since it sells burgers of much higher quality for similar prices.
Georgetown Five Guys had a 3.5-star rating on Yelp, falling behind most other D.C. Five Guys locations, which mostly have four-star ratings. Yelp reviewers complained about long wait times, overcooked burgers and scarce seating, particularly on weekends.
The Five Guys closure follows Georgetown’s trend of forgoing its few casual, late-night, budget-friendly eateries like Eat and Joy, Philly Pizza, Chadwicks and Tuscany, and instead welcoming more fine dining restaurants and posh boutiques, like Alice + Olivia and Free People.
Although 1335 Wisconsin Ave. will soon host some other business venture, with eight other locations in D.C. alone, and dozens more in Virginia and Maryland, those Five Guys Cajun fries and free peanuts will never be too far out of reach.