That’s what Five Guys Burgers and Fries is banking on as it adds 13 more locations in the Beehive State over the next few years.

Salt Lake City-based franchisee BurgerMeister LLC is opening its first Utah County Five Guys restaurant near the Cinemark at University Mall at the end of the month. It is also opening in Bountiful next week. Each restaurant, about 3,000 square feet in size, will have about 40 workers.

Five Guys, which has 400 restaurants nationwide, first entered the Utah market in June 2008 and now has three restaurants in Midvale, Sandy and West Valley. Several more locations in Lehi, American Fork, Provo and southern Utah County are being planned over the next few years, said BurgerMeister co-founder Steve Hawes.

“People might stop eating at steakhouses or white-linen restaurants, but they still want good-tasting beef burgers, so we’ve actually done very well,” he said. “What we’ve found in these times is people tend to flock to quality. They may not have much to spend, but what they do spend, they want to enjoy.”

The Arlington, Va.-based fast food chain started as a small burger joint in the Washington, D.C., area in 1986, and was named for the five sons of Janie and Jerry Murrell. The company grew rapidly by word of mouth and in 2002, started franchising in Virginia and Maryland. In 2003, it expanded franchise rights to the rest of the nation.

Hawes, a private equity venture capitalist, co-owns Five Guys’ franchise rights in Utah, Idaho and Oklahoma with partner Darryl Neider. They plan to open around 50 restaurants in those states over the next five years.

Connecticut natives Hawes and Neider have been friends for 20 years. In 2004, they began working together on a commercial real estate venture in Salt Lake City and scouting for business development prospects. It was Hawes’s younger brother who stumbled on the Five Guys’ concept at a mall food court he frequented while working in Washington, D.C.

“He told me, ‘There are about 10 to 12 restaurant concepts at this food court, but all I see are Five Guys cups,’ ” Hawes said.

What makes the Five Guys franchise concept appealing was what he calls a “fanatical focus on the quality of food” and the “copious amounts of food” offered at affordable prices.

“Our small fry portion would feed two people and our regular burgers are almost half a pound. And all our toppings, about 15 of them including grilled mushrooms, peppers and onions are free!” he said. Food prices range between $2 and $6, and patrons also get complimentary peanuts while waiting at the restaurants.

Even Federal Bureau of Investigations agents are fans of Five Guys in Salt Lake, Hawes said. “These FBI agents were formerly trained in Quantico, Virginia, and became familiar with Five Guys there, but they are now stationed in Salt Lake City,” he said.

Little wonder that the company doesn’t do much advertising to get the word out.

“Aside from a billboard, we don’t advertise. It’s all about the quality of food, the value and services. No matter how good your advertising is, people won’t come back if the food isn’t good,” he said.

To keep up the chain’s focus on quality, Five Guys’ workers get performance-based bonuses on top of their hourly wages, Hawes said. “We have a secret shopper or third-party company that comes into our restaurants twice a week to check on food quality, service and cleanliness. The bonuses given out depend on how our stores do,” he said.

Meanwhile, Layton-based restaurant chain Iggy’s Sports Grill, which also opened its first Utah County location near the Cinemark at University Mall, plans to open a second Utah County location in American Fork in 2010.

Iggy’s has 10 restaurants in Utah including one in Orem, which opened on Jan. 26.

The 7,200-square-foot restaurant has 86 workers and features the Orem Owlz and other area sports-related memorabilia in its decor and a terraced seating layout so patrons can watch BYU and other sports games on three large screen TVs from almost every angle, said Martin Telaroli, Iggy’s president of franchise.

Both Iggy’s and Five Guys are part of phase one of a multimillion dollar expansion of University Mall. Called the University Mall Village, the outdoor retail center includes a 46,000-square-foot Cinemark that opened in November as well as 78,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space.

Phase two will add another 30,000 square feet. In total, 118,000 square feet of new retail space will be added to the 1.5-million-square-foot mall. University Mall is owned by Salt Lake City-based Woodbury Corp., which also owns The Meadows in American Fork and several other retail and office properties in Utah County and statewide.

Property Manager Rob Kallas said the mall is still searching for a department store tenant for its now-vacated Mervyns building. After Mervyns filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last summer, University Mall acquired the 94,000-square-foot building at an auction in December.

The 60-year old company liquidated all 149 of its stores nationwide after the Christmas holiday season last year as a deepening recession and weak housing and jobs markets hurt consumer spending.