So what does it take to unseat the country's reigning No. 1 burger chain?
Apparently an ugly burger slippery with cheese and as many special guests (pickles, jalapeΓ±os, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard ... you get the idea) as you like. Never pretty, but man did it make a splash on the "Oh, I know that place" familiarity scale.
And that oh-so-familiar burger joint is Five Guys Burgers and Fries, according to the just-released Harris Poll annual EquiTrend StudyΒ that asked folks nationwide to rank the country's top burger restaurant/chain based largely on how familiar they were with the brand.
Just four years ago, the Harris Poll found that less than 50 percent of those surveyed could recognize Five Guys. Of course, that was just 10 years after the Washington, D.C., area-based chain, which opened its first location in Arlington, Virginia, in 1986, had started franchising in 2003.
Today, with nearly 1,500 locations nationwide including six in Tucson, Marana and Oro Valley, 68 percent of the survey's respondents were familiar with Five Guys. Among millennials that number is 81 percent, according to the survey. Β
Doug Vaughan, a partner in D&J Holdings LLC that has the Five Guys franchising rights in Southern Arizona, said a seventh Tucson area Five Guys should be open by year's end.
In-N-Out Burger had been ranked No. 1 in the Harris Poll two years running until Five Guys bumped them this year. The California-born In-N-Out came in No. 2 followed by Shake Shack, Wendy's, Culver's, Whataburger, McDonald's, Sonic America's Drive-In, Smashburger and Steak 'n Shake.
Other restaurant categories in the 2017 Harris Poll included best chicken, casual dining, pizza, ice cream and coffee. Yep, Starbucks owned that one.
