High Five to Five Guys Burgers and Fries
This summer in St. Louis I started hearing a lot of buzz about a new burger joint, along with staggering reports that these burgers rated highest in calories per bite of any known to man. Despite the health warning, or perhaps due to it, our entourage of 8 adults and 7 kids couldn’t resist going for lunch to try it out. I have to say that the burgers at Five Guys Burgers and Fries are so special, I am happy to safely reside over 2,000 miles from the nearest location.
At the time, I thought Five Guys was local, but soon discovered that in fact, Five Guys ranked was fastest growing chain in America in 2009. Along with his sons, Jerry Murrell of Five Guys Burgers and Fries built a 570-store chain that enjoys a cult following. Even Obama’s burger run to Five Guys in D.C. made headline news. How did I miss that? While I obviously can not claim to have discovered the best burger ever at an obscure burger joint in Missouri, I am happy to pass along this great article I discovered in Inc. Magazine; How I Did It: Jerry Murrell, Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
Hungry? Sure, I’d love to have a Five Guys’ Burger right now too. But even more, I’d love to open an old fashioned All-American Diner with great burgers and fries, rollerskating servers and yes of course, a Jukebox, right here in The Netherlands! Jerry Murrell and sons are proof that there is no such thing as it’s all been done before; if you do it right!
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Country Clubbin’ with The Jonses
At the tail end of two weeks and a few days of overindulgence in the US, ironically I caught this film on the flight back to Amsterdam. I had never heard a thing about The Jonses, and I’ll admit it wasn’t the first flick I clicked, but I was so glad I did and I urge you to watch The Jonses. (It is newly released in The Netherlands)
Demi Moore @MrsKutcher and David Duchovny star as Mr. and Mrs. Jones; and the tag line is an understatement. They’re not just living the American Dream, they’re selling it.
Without giving away the plot, we all know people caught in the consumption cycle who are destroying their lives, whether we see the destruction or not, in a never ending quest to keep up with the Jonses. This film is funny, often in a pathetic but true social commentary, and it gives you plenty to ponder about what is real in your life and in the lives of those “closest” to you, maybe even right next door.
If you are a person who can’t stop believing the grass is always greener, maybe after The Jonses you will be able to see the Astroturf next door for what it really is?
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Happy Queen’s Day in France?
You don’t need to be a historian to be scratching your head wondering why the French are celebrating Queen’s Day. (Since the French monarchy was so famously abolished over 300 years ago, poor Marie Antoinette.)
In fact, Queen’s Day is the Dutch National Holiday celebrated every year on April 30, even though H.R.H. Queen Beatrix’s birthday is actually in January. Check out the Flickr photo stream of the wild festivities in Amsterdam to get a better idea what Queen’s Day is really all about! You should experience this once in your life, preferably when you are young and single!
This year we left the Netherlands for Bretagne, France on Queen’s Night and decided to export a bit of Queen’s Day (G- rated) fun with us! If you’d like to celebrate wherever you may be, just polish off your favorite crown or tiara, pop open a few Heinekens, and put on your favorite orange outfit!
I can’t claim to have started an actual trend of celebrating Queen’s Day in Bretagne, but it is always fun to share customs and traditions! The seats around our dinner table are never occupied by Americans on Thanksgiving and this year our Christmas Dinner guests happened to be Muslim. If we all started sharing holidays, we might find something worth celebrating every single day!
Don’t forget Cinco de Mayo is only a few days away, so time to whip up some guacamole and start mixing the margaritas!
The tompouce did not travel well!
Bike Stampede at the Bijenkorf
Second Easter Day is (boring but true) the official name for Easter Monday, a National Holiday here in the Netherlands and across Europe. In the past, only furniture stores were open, but in the last year or two, Supermarkets and Department stores in the bigger Dutch cities started opening too.
There is no tradition of a big blow-out shopping day on the Second Easter Day, but de Bijenkorf, the Dutch high-end department store chain, has set out to stimulate one! Bijenkorf launched a week long shopping event called Maffe Marathon, which featured a “Giveaway” of 100 special Bijenkorf branded bikes to the first customers to spend 200 euro in each open location (Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotterdam, Maastricht).
This morning we arrived at Bijenkorf in The Hague just past 11.30 and joined the crowd in front of one of three entrances. Approximately 20 people were ahead of us, but the crowd swelled as the clock ticked toward noon. Luckily, from a personal safety perspective, they were “giving” away bikes, not cars, but with the crush of the crowd as the doors opened, it was no place for small children (though some parents clearly did not think this through).
My husband wondered aloud,”What the hell am I doing here?” But he too got caught up in the sport and excitement of it all. We chose Champagne as our quick purchase item, based both on their good selection and the proximity to the entrance on the ground floor. We raced through the revolving doors and pointed to a special Moet & Chandon gift set of 229 euros locked behind glass (not recommended in a race, but my husband is French, so he can’t help it)! We then ran through the chaos to the back of the store where the crowd reconvened. Our receipt was stamped and claim number 70 was ours! Yeah! Less than 10 minutes after the doors opened, it was all over. The announcement came that all 100 bikes had been claimed.
As you can see from the photo, we were thrilled! I proudly rode my new neon green bike home and my husband added the Champagne to our collection! No, we would not have otherwise gone to spend more than 200 euros specifically at the Bijenkorf today. This was a very successful stunt for Bijenkorf. I did feel guilty running past a young girl in a wheel chair to claim my bike, but she seemed determined to make it on her own, so who am I to interfere? Luckily, as far as I know there were no injuries.
Bijenkorf made sales of approximately 160,000 euros in 10 minutes this morning across their four participating locations and created a flury of excitement and traffic in their stores that carried over throughout the day. What can you do to get people this excited about your business? Are they lining up to buy from you?
Filed under Adventure, Just for fun | Comments (7)
