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Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
In Arlington, Michael Landrum continues to build on his bovine consumption empire (Ray's the Steaks, Ray's the Classics) with tonight's opening of Ray's Hell-Burgers. Although the shop's official name is Ray's Butcher Burgers, the "hell" is more appropriate with their 10 oz., char-grilled, prime beef burger. A bevy of toppings are available, too, including: sauteed mushrooms, grilled red onions, sauteed peppers, charred jalapenos, beefsteak tomatoes, roasted garlic, and dill or bread and butter pickle chips. Specialty cheeses will also be available. (Stinky epoisse!)
If the burger weren't enough, your meal will also include buttered corn on the cob and a slice of watermelon, all for $7 throughout the summer. For now, the shop, located at 1713 Wilson Boulevard in the same strip mall as Ray's the Steaks, will open at 5 p.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends.
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working hard to destroy the DC area's ranking of having a relatively healthy populace...
Five Guys ROCK!!! When I die I hope heaven is just one big FIVE GUYS.
Wake me when they open a Five Goys Self-Serve Burger joint where you shoot, slaughter, and cook your own meat.
You don't even want to know about the "special sauce" at the Five Gays Burgers.
Perfect, I can go to Best Buy to buy Wii Fit and then get a Five Guys burger on the way home. Now that's a good combo.
Daaaamn...Monkeye! You so nasty!
I wasn't sure what I wanted for dinner. Thanks DCist!
I'm annoyed at Five Guys -- yesterday they were still not serving tomatoes. A burger without a tomato is just not worth eating. And the fries didn't have any salt on them. Bastards.
But this Ray's Hell-Burger thing is going to be the death of me. It's only about a half mile, down hill, from my place. Anyone have some arteries to spare?
I won't be going to Five Guys, as tasty as the burgers are - I'm sticking to my diet. All I'm allowed to eat in terms of fast food are the healthier Subway sandwiches, and the veggie salad at Potbelly.
Oh shit. This is like one block from my apartment. Now I'm just gonna balloon to 450 pounds :(
Thanks for the link, Eddie. I was wondering why so many guests were on my website - it didn't take me long to figure out it was because of DCist.
Cheers,
Don Rockwell
Damn it! When does the Nando's in Chinatown open?
I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a Hell-Burger today.
Wait.. today is Tuesday. Damn this food addiction. And damn my friends for being such bad role models. Look at Olive Oyl and tell me that she doesn't have food issues as well.. Popeye clearly adds something to his spinach that you can't get over the counter (not to mention his diction) and Bluto would have been locked up for domestic violence years ago in any decent society.
-Wimpy
Nando's??? As in, the Earl's Court Nando's???????
Nando's is open -- at least there were people sitting inside today at about 2:30.
Verdict on this 5 Guys:
Burgers are better than average. More meat and they don't fall apart.
The prices are higher than even the one in Chinatown.
They're extreme stingy with the fries.
Just got back from Ray's Hell-Burgers. No sign on the door, not much on the walls (aside from a creepy "Freaks" poster) but one hell of a burger. A full 10 ounces of prime steak ground and grilled to order. The free toppings were abundant, with more than 15 cheese options, novelty sodas, chips and a Dominion root beer tap serving pitchers and filling ice cream floats. The burgers were garnished half a cob of buttered corn and a triangle of fresh watermelon.
And the best part...it was all FREE! On the first night of business, the owner decided to foot the bill. Service was slow, even with quite a few hands in the kitchen, but things will pick up in a hurry...and they'd better. After serving about 30 people, a lined formed outside the front door while they tried to catch up on orders. When I left, the owner had taped a sign to the door asking people to come back at 7:45. So if you haven't had dinner yet, there's still time...
They're extreme stingy with the fries.
Oh snap! Now that ain't right. That's like saying the Pope is stingy with the stupid pronouncements. As weak as the burgers can be, at least the fries (once you get them out of the bag) can help you fold space.
The fries must flow!
I went over to Ray's with visions of a burger in my head but when I got here, I was greeted by the sign that said to come back at 7:45pm. It was only 7pm!
Dear Five Guys:
Love your product.
But in DC it's all about the staffing.
I've never had a bad meal in your suburban locations.
But several times I've seen your quality suffer in your Chinatown location. The staff can be a bit dismissive (I've seen them belittle elderly people who were having a hard time ordering), and your products are sometimes stale (specifically the buns, stale more often than not, in my admittedly unscientific sampling).
Is it the end of the world? No. But if you expect to maintain your stellar reputation you need to start doing a bit more spot-checking of your DC locations.
The Navy Yard location, on the other hand, is very good.
The Five Guys at Nationals Park is also excellent. They aren't stingy with the fries there, either.
I was hoping the Columbia Heights would be staffed by the same folks from the late Georgia Avenue location, which I thought was the best in the city and on par with the King & Beauregard and Old Town locations. These early reviews are disheartening.
It seems that the Five Guys Franchise is beginning to wear a bit thin.
Whoever owns the licensing operation these days (any of the original, possibly-mythical, Five Guys?) might need to enforce some quality control.
I'm from upstate and was surprised to see, a couple/few years ago, one of the first franchises show up near my hometown. It was authentically echoing what I experienced in Georgetown and NoVa.
Now they can't even get it right inside D.C.
Hey look- Free bikes!!!
Monkey, maybe there could a Wii game where you do that while eating the burger? Or is virtual still too removed from visceral?
The problem with 5G franchises is that you can't buy just one store. You have to buy something like 3 or 5 stores in a service area. With that kind of buy-in, unless you're flush with investors, you end up cash poor really quick. So you gotta skimp somewhere, and it's usually labor. The Navy Yard shop is decent if you get there early enough, but the Howard University and most of the Route 1 stores are hit-or-miss.
Anyway, I read that they have some "just press once" rule when they make their burgers. You shouldn't press a burger AT ALL. All that juice running out of the burger? That's flavor country. That's the final, death throes of the beast that makes burgers X-TRA delicious. Their agony is our endorphin.
Where the hell's DC's Counter Burger goddammit!
"But in DC it's all about the staffing."
Sadly, yes, this is true. And it shows.
But in DC it's all about the staffing.
As much as I would like to argue with you about this generalization; I have to admit that you are maybe, possibly correct about the customer service ethos in DC. I'm halfway through a cross-country trip (not all the way, only to Fargo) but dammit if every transaction I've had since I left Pennsyltucky hasn't begun with a smile and a few pleasantries as opposed to the usual DC teeth-suck, complimented by a cocked head and barely intelligible, "What?"
Here's the weird/interesting part. As far as I can tell the staff at the Navy Yard location isn't appreciably different from the Chinatown one, so what accounts for the difference in quality at the two stores? Could it be that one is right around fanny-pack junction and the other is pretty much a "locals only" joint? I don't really have a point, I'm really soliciting input.
Also, the Navy Yard 5 Guys might be the safest burger joint in the world. I've been there dozens of times and without fail there are multiple cops cars there from a variety of police forces.
Hillman - viz, the cops at Navy Yard 5 Guys. It's the same deal with Mangialardo's. When they're open, the place is crawling with cops, security guards, g-men, Treasury agents. It's the safest sandwich shop on the Hill.
Small Business Lesson 101: during the 1968 riots, Mangialardo's gave out free sammitches to the firemen, cops, and National Guardsmen. They've been coming back ever since; that's forty years and counting.
Also, just got back from a trip to Knoxville and damned if every server, from the Waffle House to the hotel to the friggin Cracker Barrel, acted like they was pleased as punch to see us and could they do anything else to help? Unlike DC, where every "Can I take your order?" actually means "WTF do you WANT?" Once you get out of DC, you really have to lower your personal-space forcefield and make nice like the locals. Mighty refreshing.
The burgers at Ray's are not worth the wait. This is not the best the DC metro area can do.