It’s difficult to find the right comparison to draw for the hype that accompanied the opening of Idaho’s first In-N-Out Burger this week. A papal visit? A Taylor Swift concert?
Those analogies might not quite capture the hubbub that accompanied the Tuesday arrival of the chain’s vaunted double-double burgers and “animal-style” fries to Meridian, a suburb of Boise.
Local news was all over the story: Fans lined up outside, braving the near-freezing temperatures. Some pitched tents for shelter. One set up a fire pit to keep warm. A number of eager burger-seekers camped out overnight in their cars to be among the first to hit the drive-through. While a sign cautioned that the wait could be as long as eight hours, the Idaho State Journal cited an In-N-Out official who estimated that it was more like six hours for the drive-through and three to four hours for indoor patrons on foot.
Advertisement
People waiting in line grew impatient. “It’s straight-up ‘The Hunger Games’ out here,” complained a TikTok user named Paulina Garcia, who documented her four-hour wait and eventual meal. Others created a faux-dramatic video on TikTok about waiting in line.
Why the collective freakout?
Share this articleShareFor starters, In-N-Out fans are a loyal bunch prone to rave about the chain’s burgers and its not-so-secret “secret menu” of customized patties and fries. Although the chain’s menu is relatively small, anything can be ordered animal-style — that is, topped with melted American cheese, grilled onions and the chain’s special sauce — and burgers can be layered (the “four-by-four,” a.k.a. a quadruple stack, is not for the faint-hearted).
For decades, an In-N-Out burger was strictly a West Coast experience. The chain was founded 75 years ago in the suburbs of Los Angeles and remained in California for decades. In recent years, it had spread to Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon and Colorado, though its owners said there was no plan for a nationwide expansion. “I don’t see us stretched across the whole U.S.,” owner and president Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson said in a 2018 interview, vowing never in her lifetime to expand any farther east than its Texas outposts. “You put us in every state and it takes away some of its luster.”
But in January, the company announced that it would open corporate headquarters in Tennessee and eventually its first locations east of the Mississippi. The Meridian location is the company’s 400th restaurant.
Advertisement
News of the Idaho hoopla naturally kindled the flames of the ever-present Burger Discourse that extends far beyond the state’s borders. Some online commenters called the In-N-Out burger overrated. “In-N-Out being good is a psyop and we need to honest about that it’s literally an okay fast food burger,” one posted to X, formerly Twitter. “Absolutely nothing about in n out warrants this,” another sniffed.
But, of course, it has its defenders. “I’m convinced people who don’t like In-N-Out only dislike In-N-Out because they think it’s cool to dislike something that everyone loves,” one wrote.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLOwu8NoaWlqY2R%2Bc3uQbWaipl2jerDB02aZrqqXmr9utcOan6hln6Wyr7XNoGY%3D