Didn't Five Guys originate in the DC area ???
In fairness, it's not easy to replicate a specific local dining experience in a national franchise. But, their menu couldn't be more simple, so I assume that helps.
My personal opinions aside, Five Guys appears initially.....by almost every standard I know.....to be a damned popular concept. So, they're obviously satisfying a fair number of people with a "cuisine" that's pretty close to a slam-dunk with the general public. That means it might be a chain with some staying power.
Fuddruckers is/was always a puzzling concept to me. I myself like their food and, in particular, the all-you-can-eat toppings bar.....though I know for a fact that idea just doesn't click with the increasing number of folks with food sanitation concerns. I also wondered from the get-go how much one of their key customer segments.....families.....would really embrace their all self-service concept in what appears from the outside to be a fairly conventional sit-down restaurant.
For all intents and purposes, they're out of business (probably about 5 stores at its peak) in my home market of Cincinnati, and I see shuttered locations rather frequently during my travels around the eastern US. Obviously, it over-expanded a decade+ ago, and has pulled back dramatically. I did notice an open location in Columbus GA when I was passing through back in December.
I'm thinking the Southeast.....and perhaps the Southwest.....may represent the core market(s) which originally put them on the map.
This post was edited on 1/14 9:05 AM by COOL MAN
