You know that place you always see? Maybe you should stop there.

Swooooooooooon.

I do not know how many times I've driven past Five Guys on King Street at Beauregard in Alexandria. More than 100, I am certain. I had always noticed the little place with the "Best Burgers in Town" signs, but I figured the signs were hype.

Let me go back a little way. Greg, my hairdresser, doesn't have a car, but wanted to run some errands out in NoVa so he asked if I'd drive. Having nothing important to do today, I couldn't figure out a reason not to. (Greg is fun, and you know how I feel about people who are "fun" being in my car for very long. Or at least you know that now.)

So we ran errands, which consisted of going to Burlington Coat Factory to buy sheets. Burlington Coat Factory is a scary, scary place. I walked through its women's clothing section and was scared, like electro-shock therapy scared. There was this one polyester dress in an extra-extra large size. The print was sort of tropical, and let's just say that, although no man is an island, some women might be.

Also, I learned that the Gayest Man on Television, Christopher Lowell, has a line of "decorative" things for the home, and that it is available at Burlington Coat Factory. Lots of little cherub statuary cast in some sort of plastic, then antiqued. Shudder.

The only thing I was tempted to purchase was a set of crayons shaped like lipsticks, but they were Barbie Lipstick Crayons, and the colors were weird.

Anyway, lunch. Greg offered to buy me lunch and asked where I wanted to go. The operative word was "nearby," because I hadn't yet eaten. I knew Greg liked burgers, so I drove the few blocks to Five Guys.

We walked in over a carpet of peanut shells and glanced at the menu. We ordered. I had the Little Bacon Cheeseburger, because I was saying to Lola last night "don't you wish we had some bacon?" Greg ordered a Little Baconburger and a Little Cheeseburger, and large fries.

We sat on the ledge in the front window for a few minutes, shelling and eating peanuts. I'd forgotten how much I used to like peanuts in the shell.

Lunch came to us in bags, brown paper bags; the burgers were bundled in foil and marked with numerals in the order we had requested them. I took mine out, peeled back the foil, took a bite...

Hell fire and damnation. That's a burger! I asked for mine with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mustard and ketchup. I was impressed with the quality and quantity of the toppings. Greg was as impressed as I.

Look, even if you don't want a burger, go for the fries. They rock just as hard as the burgers. Sodas come in 24 ounce foam cups, you serve 'em yourself.

Apparently people come from all over the country to have a Five Guys burger. It's inside the Beltway, I've lived here for years and I'd never tried them. Now I know exactly what I've been missing.

before - after