I don't eat the fries at Five Guys because the peanut oil gives me a slight allergic reaction - normally peanut oil in small quantities doesn't bother me, but the fries just soak it in.

There is now an outlet less than two miles from my home. I find that the newer Five Guys across the country (not just the couple I've been to in Chicagoland but also in upstate NY and other places) are not as good as the NoVa/DC outlets. I think it might be in the meat sourcing. The full cheeseburger is still good, but not extremely better than a $5 cheeseburger from Culver's (which would be a triple with some money left over).

The other thing I've noticed: the Chicago suburban Five Guys are relatively empty. The Bolingbrook location had four people in it at 12:45pm on a Wednesday, and two people in it at 7pm on a Saturday. Multiple Sunday afternoon trips to the Orland Park store rarely have more than seven or eight diners.

Contrast that to a Chicagoland chain like Portillo's, where sometimes the drive-in line alone will be 10-12 deep. It makes me wonder if Five Guys is going to have the flame out factor (pun intended) that Krispy Kreme suffered here after three or four years.