In-N-Out: NOT what a hamburger’s all about
Growing up, it seemed as though all of Marin County was obsessed with In-N-Out. In my high school years, all the kids that could drive would zip away to the nearest In-N-Out location during lunch period.
Driving up and down the state of California, I constantly saw the familiar sign of In-N-Out off the side of a freeway.
It seemed as if the yellow, white and red logo was being engraved into my brain and I could never escape it.
If I went on road trips, I’d sit quietly in the back when pulling up to the drive-through, and I’d eat my burger without a single complaint.
It felt like anytime the topic of In-N-Out was brought up, people would lose their minds and drool at the thought of those burgers.
I’ll be the first to say it, In-N-Out doesn’t deserve the hype it gets.
I’m a big fan of hamburgers, and one of my fondest memories as a child is eating a kid’s burger out of a vintage folded up car from the Mel’s Drive-In right off Lombard St. in San Francisco.
When I tried an In-N-Out burger for the first time, I was thoroughly unimpressed. Those burgers could hardly compare to the glorious burger I grew up eating from Mel’s.
Maybe I psychologically didn’t want to follow the crowd and eat at the same burger place that everyone else was eating at. Maybe I was rebelling as a child by saying the food at In-N-Out wasn’t as good as everyone says.
Call me crazy for thinking the thousand island sauce is gross.
Frankly, I think there were several great local burger places back home, and there are several delicious local burger places here in Humboldt County.
I stand by my decision to choose Stars as my favorite burger place up here, and no new construction of In-N-Out will make me say otherwise.
Nowadays, I’m a bit less picky and I’ll be willing to try a new burger place wherever I am, despite having a list of favorites. But, it would be a rare sight to see me stop and eat a burger at In-N-Out.
That being said, El Leñador’s staff compiled a list of top four burger restaurants to eat at.
