So today I'm hard at work and a coworker of mine decides that he wants to go to In and Out Burger for lunch. I decided that I didn't want to go but he reminded me I owed him a lunch on a lost bet, so I had to. We get there and the line to get a parking space was INSANE. Traffic cops, probably about 12 or so and at least a half dozen private security were there to control the crowd and traffic. So what was it like? Let's find out...
This is a picture of the drive through. There were cars waiting in line all the way down the freeway access road. What you are looking at here is a small portion of the line which is 4 lanes across and I can't even tell you how many cars long. The drive through option was out...
We get there and would you believe that there was a line outside to wait to get into line on the inside? Yep, it's 400 degrees outside and this particular "tent" was to provide moderate creature comfort to those who decided to walk to the burger join instead. Finding a parking spot is akin to taking your life into your own hands, but that's a different story. These tents were about 30 yards long next to the side of the building. Thankfully they had employees handing out water from a cooler to keep people from passing out while waiting to get in.
The door girl was handing out free paper hats and bumper stickers for the more enthusiastic customers.
We finally get in and we are greeted by, you guessed it, another line. That makes 3 so far, a line to get a parking space, a line to get into the building and a line to order.
We place our order and then look for a seat. Do you see one? Neither did we. We started hovering around a few tables where it looked like someone was about to leave like buzzards waiting for something to die. Eventually we got one. Now where's our food? They're calling order number 88, I'm order number 6...great. Only 18 orders before mine.
The end result, the famous In-N-Out hamburger. What you are looking at is a burger roughly the size of a Big Mac from McDonalds. It even had a "special sauce" which was a lot like mayo mixed with Thousand Island salad dressing. The meat was largely flavorless though it's hard to be sure as it was buried under a ton of that special sauce. But on the bright side the burger was under $3.00 so it's tough to complain. The french fries on the other hand were terrible, they had a weird almost powdery texture to them kind of like something you would buy frozen from Sams Club and under bake in your oven at home. No Bueno. So was it worth it? In a word...hell no. But it was a curious experience.
I should say thanks to all the In-N-Out employees, for the number of people they had to serve they did exceptionally well. They maintained the crowd well, the food was served hot, we didn't have to wait for the burgers too long and everyone kept an upbeat attitude. That's rare in the fast food industry...so at least these guys are hiring the right people. Now if they'd just do something about that burger.
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