Texas isn't a better place because a California-based fast food chain came to our state.
But it isn't worse either, I suppose.
And I'll admit, I was intrigued enough to drive to Dallas today in order to eat at In-N-Out Burger. That's not the only reason I made the drive. I also met up with my friends Brian Patterson and Josh Hicks to watch the little Mavericks open the NBA Western Conference Finals against some team from Oklahoma, of all places.
Still, it was worth a try to chomp on a burger during the first week of In-N-Out's existence in Texas. Alas, the line at In-N-Out stretched out the doors and down the sidewalk at the location we visited in Allen. The drive-through line went down the street and required City of Allen police officers to direct traffic around the restaurant. And this was six days after the restaurant officially opened.
Since I am not the type of person to wait more than 20 minutes for a cheeseburger, especially when other comparable cheeseburgers are readily available, we skipped In-N-Out and opted for a nearby Mooyah, which serves — guess what — cheeseburgers. Some DFW residents have been more, well, I guess the right word is adventurous in the last week. Camping out for days before In-N-Out opened in order to be the first in line. I don't really understand the mentality. I mean, I'll stand in line for prime location at a rock concert or sporting event. But not for a cheeseburger. I suppose those people don't own grills.
At any rate, In-N-Out Burgers opened up its first two Texas stores last week to phenomenal response.
The burger chain made its Texas debut in the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and Allen. The Frisco Enterprise website quoted the Frisco store manager in saying that the In-N-Out drive through had 150 cars lined up by 10 a.m. after the store opened at 9 a.m. on May 11.
According to an article published in October on dallasnews.com, one of the major components of the In-N-Out burger brand is that it produces all of its own burger patties to ensure freshness and quality. As such, one distribution center in Baldwin Park, Calif., produces the hamburger patties for all 247 In-N-Out burger locations. That's a heck of a task considering In-N-Out has locations throughout California as well as Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
So the idea behind expanding to Texas is to open a second hamburger patty distribution center in the Dallas area. The dallasnews.com article cited plans for a 60,000-plus-square-foot facility. So, obviously, In-N-Out has plans to go way beyond the two locations that opened last week. It's possible up to 8 locations could open by the end of this year.
Given this expansion model, I see positive connotations for Waco. If In-N-Out is building stores throughout Texas and stocking them with hamburger patties from the DFW patty factory, then perhaps geography will play as big a role in the placement of future stores as population. So maybe this won't be one of those places that has to go to Houston and Austin and San Antonio long before it comes to us. If the patty factory in Los Angeles is serving stores in Utah, then surely a patty factory in Dallas could bring fresh meat to Waco. Right?
I'm willing to drive more than 100 miles to experience In-N-Out (though I'm not willing to stand in line for more than 30 minutes to actually eat one when I get there). Here's hoping we don't get bypassed on the drive down I-35.
