Crabtree Valley Mall just landed a new heavy hitter in its food court. Five Guys quietly slid into the space once occupied by McDonald’s this week, serving up its hand-cut fries and build-your-own burgers as the mall’s dining lineup keeps shifting under ongoing redevelopment. Shoppers along Glenwood Avenue now have one more big-name burger counter to pick from inside the mall.
The new Five Guys outpost soft-opened Thursday and shifted into full operations Friday, according to The News & Observer. The paper reports the stand opens daily at 9:30 a.m. and dishes out the chain’s breakfast sandwiches in the morning, a detail that quietly nudges the mall’s food court into earlier hours. The News & Observer’s dining coverage tagged the opening as part of a broader wave of new tenants moving into the center.
Part of a broader mall reset
The Crabtree debut is one piece of a much larger reset unfolding under new owner Macerich, which laid out roughly a $60 million renovation plan for the property in company filings. Macerich and local business coverage show the landlord leaning into experience-focused tenants and national brands as the strategy going forward. The Triangle Business Journal has reported leases and announcements for newcomers such as Level99 and Fogo de Chão as examples of that shift.
Menu notes: fries and breakfast
Five Guys is known for its boardwalk-style, hand-cut fries cooked in pure peanut oil, and the chain recently walked through its move to fry bags to help keep those fries crisp on the company’s blog. The Crabtree counter will serve the usual Five Guys lineup of burgers, hot dogs and milkshakes, with the added draw of breakfast sandwiches in the morning that local reporting has highlighted.
According to The News & Observer, Five Guys runs roughly a dozen locations across the Triangle and nearly 50 statewide in North Carolina, so the Crabtree opening is another step in a steady regional expansion. For shoppers weaving through the mall, the new counter is one more visible sign that the food court, and the property around it, is in the middle of a noticeable remake.
