“The burgers will change your life.” Those were the exact words from my hair stylist not too long after Five Guys restaurant opened its doors on North Roan Street. “I’ll just wait for the hype to go down,” I replied. It was 1:53 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon in November when I visited Five Guys for the first time.

I walked in to find that two months later, the “hype” is still buzzing – so much so that I’m convinced that Johnson City’s obsession with the restaurant is not a fad at all. It’s just what happens when Five Guys comes into your town.

Generally, when one dines at a fast food restaurant, they expect the eatery to fulfill three basic components, the cardinal rules of fast food dining: efficiency, convenience and low costs.

In my Five Guys experience, none of these criteria were met. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with customers waiting in an approximately 20-person long line. Nearly every table in sight was occupied and space was tight to say the least.

Finally, a regular cheeseburger alone will run you $4.89. Riding on the nostalgia of the classic burger-n-fries joint, Five Guys offers classic college cuisine (hamburgers and hotdogs) at prices that some college students can’t afford.

I’ll admit, my Five Guys experience brought back some familiar feelings.

When I reached the front of the line, the feeling was similar to the euphoria I experienced after battling crowds at the Financial Aid office.

When the cashier rung me up and I handed over my money, what I felt was similar to that “have-I-just-been-robbed-with-my-consent” feeling that I experience when purchasing textbooks at the first of the semester. However, when I sunk my teeth into that burger, the feeling was one incomparable to any feeling I’ve ever experienced when dining at any other fast food restaurant – satisfaction.

Maybe that’s why Five Guys is exempt from the cardinal rules of the fast food industry – because they meet the one rule that other fast food restaurants tend to leave out – taste.

Still, this economy has me pinching pennies in my pocketbook, and Five Guys cuisine is an indulgence that I can’t afford to give into too frequently. However, it’s one of those places that you have to go to at least once, even if it’s just to say you’ve been.

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