Five Guys revive American love affair with the hamburger

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — America's hundred-billion-dollar fast-food market is already crowded and battling to retain health-conscious customers, but one company has people lining up to feast on its hamburgers and fries.

Unlike most of corporate America, its owners shun publicity -- they politely declined an interview request -- and even more remarkably do not believe in advertising, but Five Guys is riding a wave of popularity.

Jerry and Janie Murrell opened the first Five Guys restaurant in 1986 in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia. The brand name relates to the Murrell's five sons, who have since grown up and help manage the expanding burger and fries chain.

Shoot forward 20 years and the family formula of cooking customers' burgers while they wait,...