Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, Georgetown, D.C.

After his great, notorious, and debaucherous Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, my friend Robert reciprocated the hospitality of his Atlanta friend Jason here in D.C. this weekend, and brought him over to meet me tonight. We sat around and chatted a bit whilst we awaited the arrival of the always-late Edward and his friend Sylvester, then we walked over to Georgetown to try to find some restaurant Jason had liked on a previous visit but didn't remember the name, address, or details of the menu (I'm good, but pinpointing a restaurant with a narrow door, a fireplace, and hamburgers somewhere in Georgetown with no more detail than that is too much even for me).

After traversing Wisconsin Avenue from the river all the way up to upper Georgetown, Jason gave up and we decided to dine at Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, not only because they have decent, inexpensive burgers, but mostly because everything in Georgetown was crowded and there was no line at Five Guys.

Now, while I generally like the Five Guys chain, dining at this store always makes me a bit melancholy since I remember decades ago back in my undergraduate days dining at this spot when it was the twin restaurants of Aux Fruits de Mer and Au Pied du Cochon. When the two old French restaurants closed, the Mer location was razed and something with a really deep basement now is being built in the old spot; Five Guys has taken over the Pied location. Au Pied du Cochon ("the foot of the pig") was a Georgetown institution for decades, serving up simple country French food 24 hours a day to locals and drunken college kids alike. It even picked up some international notoriety in 1985 when a KGB colonel "defected back" to the Soviet Union just three months after defecting to the U.S. when he disappeared from his CIA handler while he had allegedly gone to use the men's room, but instead slipped out the back door.

But, enough history....today it's a Five Guys and we old people just have to deal. I did notice, however, that this is one of the slower and dirtier Five Guys locations, which is something given how most of them are rather dirty anyway because of the peanut shells everywhere.

Naturally, we all had burgers except for Edward, who had a little tiny grilled cheese sandwich. Robert had an order of regular fries and Jason had Cajun-spiced fries.


Sylvester, Edward, Jason, and Robert

Rumor has it that the group (plus others) are going to brunch on the morrow, probably sometime after noon. We shall see what transpires.