In-N-Out Animal Style is $3.50, two for $7. Very good all around. No complaints.
Five guys with everything is $5. Excellent - except for the inevitably soggy bun. If they could just use stronger bread, or toast it, or whatever, it would be a perfect burger.
In-N-Out makes me think, “good burger.”
Five guys makes me fall into Burgerspace.
It’s the moistness of the Five Guys burger, and seasoning, and size. We all learned to eat burgers as kids. When you’re a kid, burgers are bigger than you are. So even as an adult, there has to be an aspect of being dominated by the burger. In-N-Out lets you dominate the burger. Five Guys lets the burger kick you around a little bit. Not a lot, but enough to bring a smile.
Hey, I’m not making metaphors here. That’s just the way it is. It takes more self-confidence to like a Five Guys burger, because when you eat one, you’re gonna get messy, and there’s no way out of it.
In fact, you could call it 50 Shades of Burger... bwahahaha!
Back when I was a kid, we had a lot of independent mom a pop shops. There was truly a lot of variety back then. Now you can cross the USA having the same exact thing morning noon and night.