(Image: Five Guys)

There is a Five Guys coming to First Hill, the fourth location for the popular hamburger franchise in Seattle. The new Five Guys will bring up two or three memories of the area’s fast food past.

Construction is close to starting to create the burger joint at the corner of Minor and Madison on the ground floor of the Sentral First Hill apartment building next to the neighborhood’s Amazon Go convenience shop.

Eight years ago, the corner was home to McDonald’s before the restaurant’s demolition to make way for the planned 17-story “luxury apartment” project.

CHS was there for the final meals at the fast food institution.

The new Five Guys will neighbor the corner’s Amazon Go grocery that opened in the building in 2019. Amazon has since backtracked on the concept that uses cameras, scanners, and waves of radio-frequency identification for a checkout-free shopping experience but the company tells CHS it is planning to keep the First Hill store open for the immediate future.

Five Guys — named in reference to founder Jerry Murrell and his four songs — has grown from a shopping center burger joint in Arlington, Virginia into a massively popular burger brand that rivals In-N-Out Burger with its customer loyalty and business growth that has reached more than 1,700 locations around the world. But where the California born In-N-Out has centered its expansion around drive-thrus and America’s car and commuter culture, you need to walk inside most Five Guys to be greeted by their signature shelled peanuts to snack on and sacks of potatoes waiting to become Five Guys fries.

On First Hill, the new burger joint will be opening just as the multi-year construction of Madison’s bus rapid transit line RapidRide G is wrapping up.

It’s not clear which Five Guys franchise family the First Hill location fits into. The ownership behind the Westwood Village location also operates in Issaquah. A separate ownership is listed for the Thornton Place and Ballard locations.

The Capitol Hill-area burger scene is rich and diverse. Around the Broadway Dick’s Drive-In core, you’ll also find burger-dedicated Li’l Woody’s, 8oz Burger, Two Doors Down, Katsu Burger, Ox Burger, Bombay Burger, and, the latest addition, the Korean flavors of Galbi Burger.

Five Guys will come in on the mid to upper range of the neighborhood burger price scale. A Five Guys burger in Seattle will cost you $11.39. Add a buck for slice of Kraft cheese.

As for an opening date, construction permitting is still wrapping up. Keep an eye out for the chain’s familiar red and white on First Hill.

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