It’s fun to walk the neighborhoods and find signs that indicate a new restaurant is in the works. One of my favorite taped messages says: “Coming as soon as we can.” Think that summarizes a lot of our dining emotions. We’ll be there if the price is right, if you can do a good job, if you understand your product…as soon as that is all in place, set our table.

Sometimes the news comes via an awning. Not every new enterprise has the money or feels the necessity to cover up the old tenant’s signature so the awning sends the message; this is especially true when a sibling is about to emerge across town. With burgers, the news seems to be most eagerly anticipated. As we’ve noted, the burger concept is alive and well and seems to have little difficulty welcoming the latest entrant. In this case, burgers are just a part of a rather extensive menu!

The number 5 seems to be a magical information conveyance. After all The Five Guys chain took over the Washington DC region before rolling out nationally. Not everyone favors the same 5 toppings so they offer free peanuts while you wait for their cooked-to-order menu. The strategy of filling cooking time seems to work if you judge the space by the crowds!

Plenty of big name chefs have found a second life in the burger business (let’s add to that list Michael Landrum, Marcus Samuelsson, Michael Mina, Hubert Keller, and…the list is long). Why not? After all we’re talking about one of the country’s most hyped food groups. Not everyone serves just the beef variety; there’s the lobster, the lamb, the turkey, the veg, and the house specialty, whatever that is. The price seems to go from reasonable to stratospheric. Plenty in the middle!

No reason not to be a participant in this trendy space. Bring on the toppings.