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Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, a D.C.-based chain that has garnered rave reviews up and down the East Coast recently entered the New York metro area. I visited their Queens location and, despite Five Guy's obsession with cooking all their meat well done, I found the burger quite good.
The Guys recently opened a shop in Hackensack, N.J. Now here's where it starts to get interesting. Überblogger Jason Perlow reports that Burger Boys, an independent joint, has also set up shop in nearby Fairview. They copied Five Guys' menu format. No big deal, right? But that's just the tip of intellectual property rights infringement iceberg. Rather than give these con artists any free advertising, I chose a pic of the Five Guys ordering area from Perlow's site. The shots he took of Burger Boys are pretty shocking.
How shocking you ask? Let's put it this way. Burger Boys didn't stop at copying the Five Guys' menu. They also lovingly reproduced the Guys' interior design, presentation of the food in brown paper bags and its insistence on cooking everything well done. I almost forgot, the Boys dress their staff in red T-shirts and hats, just like the Guys. I'd love to think that this is merely some confluence of East Coast burger synergy, but clearly it's a simple case of out-and-out theft of the Five Guys' concept.
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8-08-2007 @12:25PM Jason Perlow said... Just a clarification, Burger Boys is in Fairview, about 15 minutes from Hackensack.
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8-08-2007 @2:19PM Sara said... We have a similar one in Harrisburg, PA, where a Five Guys recently opened as well. It's called Digs Burgers, and while the primary color usage is different, it is the same concept - from well-done burgers to peanut oil cooked-fries.
I actually just covered both burger joints in a column I write for our local paper (which will be live tomorrow - will post link then).
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8-08-2007 @3:56PM Joe Beese said... The "original" Five Guys concept seems awfully similar to In-n-Out for them to be getting panty-bunched about "infringement".
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8-08-2007 @6:45PM goverland said... Let them have it, Five Guys has greasy and over cooked burgers. They'd be better off copying Burger King as it tastes better than Five Guys.
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8-09-2007 @10:32AM Jason Perlow said... Joe:
Keep in mind that I decided to raise this issue, not Five Guys. So far Five Guys hasn't made any comment on this, and they probably won't, especially if they are considering sending Burger Boys a Cease and Desist order.
In terms of whether or not Five Guys is similar to In-N-Out, there are nearly as many Five Guys stores than In-N-Out -- they have over 180 stores. They also do not compete in the same region, as In-N-Out only has stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. Five Guys does business in many more territories than In-N-Out does, on the East Coast and the Midwest.
It should be noted in terms of litigiousness, In-N-Out recently filed suit against an exact copycat business -- Chadder's Restaurant in American Fork, Utah. Chadder's is violating In-N-Out's trademarks and business model and IP the same way Burger Boys is for Five Guys.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/226410/13/
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8-09-2007 @3:55AM Silver_Potato said... I'm wondering if some of you have actually been to an In-N-Out. This east coast chain is nothing like In-N-Out.
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8-09-2007 @6:43AM Sara said... http://www.pennlive.com/columns/patriotnews/bozich/index.ssf?/base/columnists/1186529115266350.xml&coll=1
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8-11-2007 @11:35PM Mad William Flint said... One of these just opened up a couple blocks from me in Brooklyn. It wasn't so bad. But it was far overpriced for the product quality.
Burger, fries and a coke for over $12? Yeah, no thanks. Not unless I'm going to go to Houston's or some place where I know I"m getting great food.
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