Emma eating her burger at Five Guys Burgers and Fries
Five Guys Burgers and Fries just came to town in the Twin Cities. It’s a fast-food joint that, as one customer put it, is apparently always packed. We checked it out recently because of its claim that everything in their restaurant is gluten-free except for the buns.
I first heard of the company when I blogged about where people get gluten-free french fries way back in February. It was one of the most common places where celiacs got a gluten-free french fry fix. I will say there appears to be no threat of cross contamination there, because they don’t deep fry anything else!
Emma loved her cheeseburger sans bun. My only worry was about using the same spatula as all of the other burgers. All of the hamburgers are gluten free, but the buns the spatula is putting them on are not. Emma never got sick. But the place was so busy that there was very little way I was going to be able to manage the spatula. So that bothered me a bit and I’m wondering how other gluten-free customers have dealt with this.
I am sure we won’t be going there very often anyway because we don’t live nearby. But it is nice to have another option. If you’ve figured out a way to avoid the bun/burger cross contamination I’d love to hear!
Tags: 5 guys burgers and fries, cheeseburger, fast food, french fries
September 21st, 2010 at 10:39 am
I have seen an employee at Five Guys handle wheat buns with gloves on and then with the same gloves still on pick up fries and put them into the fryer. I believe contamination to be a big issue until they are better educated about gluten-free.
April 8th, 2011 at 11:26 am
At my local 5 guys, I let them know I was allergic to wheat/gluten and they specially prepared my burger away from everything else. They even called out real loud “allergy!” so all the workers would know to be careful. I felt special 🙂
April 15th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
For the last year, I have been going to the 5 Guys in North Brunswick, NJ every Tuesday and Thursdays for dinner and the staff all know me by name now and know that I am a Celiac so one person usually prepares all my food and prior to doing so he/she changes his/her gloves and using a clean spatula… so you can ask them to do this for you and they are very willing and helpful…. Gluten Free since 2002!