The popular hamburger chain Five Guys is expanding — but not to a location on Court Street in Downtown, as was wrongly reported by a number of blogs on Thursday.
“It’s not true, but I wish it were,” said Craig Cohen, the owner of the Five Guys Burger and Fries franchises in Brooklyn.
Cohen added that he had been in negotiations for the space, formerly occupied by Busy Chef, whose manager Dan Kaufman was arrested last year for allegedly ripping off customers, but “the landlord wanted way too much money,” he said.
The landlord is Abraham Gerges, the acting administrative judge of the state Supreme Court, who also denied the incessant blog chatter.
“It’s not Five Guys, but I have rented the space already,” Gerges told The Brooklyn Paper.
Gerges would not say who the new tenant will be.
“When they’re ready to release it, they’ll release it,” said Gerges, a former City Councilman who has made recent appearances in The Brooklyn Paper for his current oversight of the Downtown courthouse.
Despite the Court Street deal falling through, Cohen said he is actively looking at other locations to expand on a fast-growing chain that has Brooklyn locations on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, Seventh Avenue in Park Slope and on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge.
Cohen said his Downtown focus is on Metrotech and along Fulton Mall, as well as looking further down Court Street in Cobble Hill, and in Atlantic Terminal in Fort Greene.
“We’re absolutely expanding in Brooklyn, and we’re looking at locations as we speak,” Cohen said. “We’re trying to get inside Metrotech; that’s one of our top priorities.”
Cohen said he hopes to open new locations in about six months, depending on how the market settles.