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Where’s the beef? It’s all over the place on Montague Street

By Christie Rizk
The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg
The burger war begins: Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries is gearing up to take on Happy Days Diner and Grand Canyon, both of which sell burgers and are just a few doors away on Montague Street.

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The Montague Street hamburger wars have begun!

A new burger joint, Five Guys, will soon open on Montague Street, right near two beloved neighborhood greasy spoons, Grand Canyon and Happy Days. And the locals are worried that this Virginia-based interloper will flip their customers as easily as a fresh beef patty on a grill.

“It’s going to take a lot of business from us,” said one Grand Canyon employee who didn’t wish to be named. “They’re opening up too close to us.”

Another employee countered. “Our burgers are better.”

The Brooklyn Heights spot will be the first Brooklyn place for the restaurant chain, which already has one restaurant in Queens and two in upstate New York.

“We’ve been looking to open a place in Brooklyn for quite a while,” Five Guys spokeswoman Molly Catalano said about the summer opening. “Finding real estate in New York is really hard these days, so we’re really excited to be here.”

And Brooklyn Heights is perfectly placed to give Five Guys a jumping off point into the city.

“It’s great that we’re in Brooklyn and Queens first,” said Catalano. “It gives us a chance to explore the urban marketplace before going into Manhattan.”

But local burger joints need not pull out the white flag just yet. Though some residents have started singing the Five Guys anthem, old guard loyalists are making themselves heard.

Of course, the real casualties of this culinary conflict are the waistlines of nabe residents shuttling back and forth between burger joints — you know, just to decide once and for all which burger is the best.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

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