What percentage of stores are franchisee-run? 85 percent.

Why is Five Guys no longer involved with Fransmart? Economics. We realized that we could perform the functions they were doing on our own.

Are franchisees required to use the same premium ingredients company-owned stores use? Yes, all stores source their ingredients from the same distributors.

Has it been difficult to replicate the Five Guys commitment to quality as you bring in franchisees ? The majority buy into the concept. Our training school is well funded and staffed, and we have an extensive district manager program so that our commitment to quality is ingrained in franchisees from the very beginning and then re-enforced daily.

Would the Five Guys model work in a freestanding drive-thru unit? No. The only people who seem to have pulled that off to some extent is In-N-Out Burger. They customize their burgers, but I understand they have a very sophisticated system that identifies something like 80 percent of what people are going to order. We haven’t figured out how to do that. Every burger is cooked to order.

People who go through a drive-thru are used to speed. That’s the reason they’re going through a drive-thru. They’re trying to save some time.

I always had a sign in one of my stores from the very beginning that said: “If you’re in a hurry, there are a whole lot of good burger places within a short distance of here.”

What does the Five Guys tradition mean to you? Quality. Being fanatical about the quality of food and the products you buy. Not trying to save money on food costs. I get real upset when I find a franchisee [penalizing] a manager because of food costs. If you’re not throwing food away, you’re not running a good shop, I figure.

Why is that? When food is on grill too long or fries are not used in short time, throw them away. If roll is not perfect, throw it away. If you fry too much bacon, throw it away, and don’t pay managers on food-cost savings. If you pay your managers on food-cost savings then the customer is most likely the one to pay. No one is perfect, so a burger might sit on the grill too long or fries might be overcooked. Crew members should feel confident that they’re allowed to throw those bad items away and not feel nervous about getting in trouble for wasting an item.

Which is more important to making the Five Guys model work—the people or the system? Both are very important, but people are most important. We believe in spending all of our advertising dollars on employee-incentive systems.