"Five Guys" news and stories

Have you been watching "America's Next Great Restaurant" and thinking it's about time to launch your own dream eatery? Before you quit your day job and take up your toque, you might want to peruse Technomic's annual report on the top 500 restaurant chains in America to see where the restaurant biz is headed.

The good news? Well, the recession seems to pretty much be over, at least if you measure economic recovery in terms of burger and fries. All told, the top 500 restaurant chains in America posted an annual sales increase of 1.8 percent in 2010, a $4 billion gain over 2009. More than half of the chains saw at least some sort of sales growth, a situation that was essentially reversed the year before, reports Nation's Restaurant News.

But if you're thinking that the country is ready for your vision of a vegan-meatball-slash-marinated-tofu emporium, well, it just may behoove you to take a gander at the restaurants that made it into Technomic's top ten fastest-growing chains. The takeaway here? It seems our national appetite is anything but adventurous.

Considering that In-N-Out has had a 38-year lead over its rival, it may seem like this burger popularity contest would be an open and shut case. However, if latest reports are to be believed, not only has Five Guys caught up to the older chain but it's poised to to pass it. To conduct some comparative eating of your own, you'll have to fly coast to coast since the chains reside at the opposite ends of the U.S. -- so TravelInsurance.org has created the side-by-side infographic below to entice you on a burger adventure.

It's a tragicomic lament that hovers like a cartoon thought-bubble over the heads of many fast-food burger eaters these days: Why, oh why, does the Big Mac in my hand look almost nothing like the one pictured in the McDonald's ad?

If any conclusion can be drawn from a new Consumer Reports survey, it may be that customers are getting fed up with chains that tantalize with mouth-watering pictures of plump, juicy burgers perfectly trimmed with all the fixings only to deliver a pallid simulacrum in reality -- sad, gray little patties topped with a loveless smear of ketchup and sandwiched between two tasteless buns.

Because when you look at who fared worst in the survey of more than 28,000 Consumer Reports subscribers on their fast-food burger preferences, they seem to have one thing in common (other than, apparently, terrible burgers): outsized advertising budgets.

Consumer Reports asked participants to rate the burgers at 18 different chains on a classic 1-to-10 scale. With a miserable average score of 6.3, Burger King and Jack in the Box both tied, vying for second-to-last place. (Maybe that's a sign that Jack in the Box needs to pick a "CEO"/spokesman that doesn't have an oversized ping-pong ball for a head.)

New York's golden child, Shake Shack is growing slowly (seven locations in three cities). Washington D.C.'s favorite Five Guys is growing not so slowly (620 locations in 48 states). And the ubiquitous Burger King (12,000 locations worldwide) is attempting to innovate with the Whopper Bar. But which comes out on top?

We caught up with FOX Business Network Reporter Chris Cotter following his Burger Battle tour of New York City.

Round 1 Shake Shack:
The Argument: Founder Danny Meyer says they're about, "community, great ingredient sourcing, and warm hospitality." Shake Shack purchases wind offsets for 100% of consumed energy, composts restaurant waste and sources their meat from vegetarian-fed, non-antibiotic Black Angus cows.
On Five Guys: The Shack is moving into Guys' D.C. territory, but not before the Guys came NYC. "We love when they came to our backyard and I don't think that Washingtonians are going to stop eating Five Guys just because Shake Shack comes."
On Burger King: "I don't think that we're taking on giants." Meyer says he's committed to building burger shacks "where people come together to be with people. Not...where people drive through quickly to eat cheap calories."
Cotter says: "Meyer isn't focused on the big guys. He's looking at quality with details like proprietary wine and beer."

More after the jump ...

If you're trying to trim down, french fries are probably not the best idea, but which fries are a little indulgence and which are downright diet busters?

The authors of "Eat This, Not That!" have ranked some of America's most fattening, unhealthy French fries -- and picked the "Best French Fries in America." And the winner may surprise you, Men's Health reported.

Which are the Worst Fries in America?