In-n-Out Burger

Had a doctor appointment today. I hadn't had a physical in a long time so the purpose of the appointment was to get the full check-out to see if there's anything wrong with my 33 year old body. Cholesterol checked out, blood pressure was fine, I was told I had better start taking vitamins though. Since I got the clean bill of health I thought the best way to celebrate was to check out the new In-n-Out Burger that opened a 1/2 mile north of my office.

Back at Michigan State I can remember my good friend Jon Wood extolling the virtues of In-n-Out Burger. Jon's from Southern California where the chain got it's start (as did McDonalds, Carl Jr. and several other defunct fast food chains). While everyone knows about the national saturation of McDonalds not very many people outside of California are familar with In-n-Out Burger. Wanting to see what the local hype was all about I decided to visit after work.

The In-n-Out in Reno has been open for about 2 weeks now. The first day it opened there was a line down the sidewalk outside the restaurant for about 50 yards. The city had set up orange cones to direct traffic off the main street towards the drive-thru and the parking lot. Whoa!! All this for fast food with a slight retro flair? I managed to use my big city driving skills to snake into the parking lot and wedge the Outback into an open spot designated for compact cars. The initial mission of simply getting into the parking lot was accomplished. The line outside the main entrance door had shortened up in the past 2 weeks. There were approximately a dozen hungry customer (most of them probably ex-Californians) waiting in line to christen the new burger joint. Once inside I was immediately impressed with the flurry of activity. At one point, peeking behind the counter, I counted at least 25 employees cooking fries and assembling burgers. In-n-Out looks like it does it the old fashion way with manpower instead of high tech grills and toasters. The menu was pretty simple. Three basic types of burgers, fries, drinks, and milkshakes. At least I wasn't hunting though twenty different value meals trying to decode what I would actually get for my $5. Since I was living it up after the good report from the doctor I ordered a Double-Double Cheeseburger, fries, and medium drink (geeze - better not tell the doc about the blog here!). I was given a receipt and waited 4-5 minutes for my dinner.

In-n-Out does some stuff that is fairly unique in the fast food industry; they take a natural approach. The fries are hand peeled and cut on site. The burgers are not frozen patties (read Fast Food Nation about the burger meat in most fast food chains if you want a scare). The buns use no preservatives to improve their shelf life. All and all the food is probably just like it was back in 1948 when In-n-Out started.

So based on my extensive fast food experience over the years you might wonder "what's the verdict"? For all the initial hassle, In-n-Out has some pretty good burgers and fries! What's actually funny is that I have heard several people mention that they don't like the fries at In-n-Out. This is probably due to the fact that the fries are real and not pre-cooked, pre-coated, flash frozen potatoes that count on various addititives to achieve their taste. The employees (who are paid much better then any other chain) all seemed friendly and smiling despite the non-stop business. With all that said I also felt the food was comparable with SuperDawg, Hub's, or Ronny's (and I mean those comparisons as a complement to In-n-Out).

Man! Eating at In-n-Out I'm slowly starting to feel like a local!? Wonder if Jon Wood will read and agree?