re: New five guys / chipotle in BR

The funny thing about the new wave of "fast casual" restaurants - a morph between fast food and casual dining - is when the concept first hit, people were impressed because of the quality relative to price point and the dining experience would suggest.

Five guys could give you a burger almost as fast as McDonald's (same is true of Cheeburger, Fudruckers, and several others in the same class), but it's a better quality at a slightly higher price point.

People naturally overreacted because of their expectation of what fast food is. So now we're seeing the reaction to the overreaction.

People expecting 5 guys to be something made by an executive chef or Chipotle to be something more than it is will naturally be disappointed. But they are forgetting that it's still just fast food at an inexpensive price.

I think the model for this wave of restaurants is solid though: Up the food quality and the price point and people will react possitively to it, all in all.