Merced Mysteries & Minutiae: Five Guys burger chain plans opening in May for Merced location

With the new year well underway, Merced residents eagerly await the opening of new businesses that announced they were coming to the city last year.

One of those businesses is Five Guys, a burger joint planned for the 2,100-square-foot space near G Street and East Yosemite Avenue.

The restaurant originally was slated to open by the end of 2015. But, alas, here we are hoping April showers will bring May flowers.

Q: When is Five Guys supposed to open?

A: The new target date for the restaurant to open is early May.

Pete Salinas, a Five Guys shift manager who is helping open the restaurant, said he’s hopeful the restaurant will open May 9.

The eatery will go into the empty building at 3572 G St., what was once a used-textbook store. Salinas said the store also hopes to have three or four outdoor tables with umbrellas for shade.

The Virginia-based chain with a simple menu is nearly 30 years old and has more than 1,000 locations around the country. Forbes magazine named the company the fastest-growing chain in the country in 2012.

Salinas said Five Guys is expanding its presence in the Central Valley. The chain has many locations in the Bay Area and Southern California.

Recently, he helped a new restaurant open in Riverbank and an additional location in Fresno. Hanford, in Kings County, also is slated to get a Five Guys.

With nearly 1 million “likes” on Facebook, Five Guys has its following. It sometimes draws comparisons to In-N-Out Burger, which has about three times as many “likes” on Facebook.

Salinas said Five Guys isn’t your typical burger joint.

“We’re all about our customers,” he said. “It’s a very energetic atmosphere.”

The food was also the focus of a YouTube video that went viral, which featured a man’s commentary on hamburgers as he ate a Five Guys meal in his car.

“The food is top quality,” Salinas said. “You’ll get the best of everything. There’s nothing subpar in the restaurant.”

The menu is fairly simple. It offers eight choices of hamburgers, four types of hotdogs, two styles of fries and four sandwiches. Salinas said a customer favorite is the bacon cheeseburger.

An added perk: You can choose from 15 toppings and add as many as you like. The restaurant’s website boasts more than 250,000 possible ways to order a burger at Five Guys. My personal favorite topping is green bell peppers – yum!

I like the advice Salinas gave: “Just come down and enjoy a great burger and awesome fries.”

This story was originally published April 17, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Merced Mysteries & Minutiae: Five Guys burger chain plans opening in May for Merced location."