A Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant has made its debut in Spokane Valley, some seven months after the first of its kind opened in the Inland Northwest.

Its word-of-mouth reputation for flavorful juicy hamburgers and loads of fries, along with free peanuts while you wait seems to have followed as well. Activity at the parking lot at the corner of Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road that formerly served Hollywood Video customers appears constant, and restaurant officials say they’ve received a nice welcome to the area.

“We’ve been very busy. We get new people everyday,” said Ron Cerhet, restaurant general manager in charge of opening and employee training for franchise owner Montana Burgers. “We always explain the menu to newcomers so they order the right size burger – I always tell them: “It’s so good you’ll be back tomorrow.”

Five Guys Burgers and Fries is a fast casual style restaurant that prepares most of its menu items on site and cooks to order. Some 350 pounds of 100 percent fresh beef are made into 3.5 ounce patties each day and loads of potatoes are sliced for frying, while mounds of mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes and lettuce are diced for grilling and topping.

Customers can opt for the $5.39 hamburger with two patties or the $3.79 little hamburger with one patty and a choice of any and extra toppings. Menu items also include cheese and bacon burgers, kosher hot dogs, and grilled cheese or veggie sandwiches. Drinks are limited to soft drinks and waters.

Orders typically take about seven minutes to prepare and are wrapped in foil and packaged in brown paper sacks for dining in or ordering take-out.

“Eating here is part of the experience,” Cerhet said. “It’s kind of loud in here. The crew is communicating with each other.”

And Cerhet said he’s received such feedback on an on-site comment board as “great burger,” “awesome,” and “thanks for helping be break my diet.”

A nutritional information chart listing calories and fat content of its items is available on the company’s website under the menu option.

The recently remodeled 2,700-square-foot location seats 88 people and is adorned with a red and white diner-style atmosphere with loads of natural light and rock ’n’ roll music playing in the background. There’s cafe style seating, and customers will find bags of potatoes surrounding some areas. Cerhet estimates employees will fry nearly 5,000 pounds over a weekend.

Montana Burgers opened its first Five Guys franchise on Spokane’s South Hill in September and it expects to open two more in the Spokane area and another six across Eastern Washington, Cerhet said. The Spokane Valley locale opened March 28 and employs 30 people.

The Virginia-based company started in 1986 and began franchising in 2005. Currently, there are about 700 Five Guys restaurants nationwide.