US burger giant Five Guys set for June S.Korea debut

Five Guys, one of the top three burger brands in the US, will open in June its first branch in South Korea in Seoul’s posh Gangnam District.

Whether the franchise offers its trademark free peanut service in South Korea, however, remains uncertain.

Hanwha Galleria on Monday said it will open in late June the nation’s first Five Guys store on Gangnam-daero Road between Gangnam Station on Seoul Subway Line 2 and Sinnonhyeon Station on Line 9 in a two-floor building covering 618 square meters.

The store will have about 150 seats.

“Because this is the brand’s first store to be launched in Korea, we chose the Gangnam Station area as it has the largest floating population to allow many consumers to taste the product,” a Hanwha Galleria source said.

From this month, Five Guys will hire employees to work at its first domestic branch. Key personnel will receive culinary and service training in Hong Kong for about six weeks.

The first store’s location has been set, but its operating policy has not. Five Guys features a “customization” service  of unlimited free peanuts at a branch and customer selection of the ingredients for their burgers.

The chain has not said whether it will offer unlimited free peanuts in a box in the country.

Food industry pundits and burger lovers wonder if the delay in this decision is related to negative precedents at the domestic stores of Costco and IKEA. The furniture giant provided free pencils and the warehouse discounter free onions here as in other countries, leading to the derogatory terms “pencil beggar” and “onion beggar.”

Costco, which offered onions free to buyers of its hot dogs at its food court, stopped the service in 2019 after more people took the onions home in plastic bags.

“Our policy is to maximize the originality of ‘original’ from recipe to service,” another Hanwha Galleria source said.

Write to Jeong-Cheol Bae at bjc@hankyung.com