Hoke, help is on the way...

[Jenise]

...at least for those needing a fast meal while driving from Portland to San Francisco.

MEDFORD -- In-N-Out Burger opened its first Oregon location today. Unfortunately for Portlanders, it's all the way down in Medford. But judging from the lines, maybe some Portlanders made the trip? According to The Oregonian, the line started at 4 p.m... yesterday.

Saw that!

Since my father-in-law and spouse live there and we visit a few times a year, this is a very good thing.

Next step, Eugene.

[Jenise]

Indeed! And we seem to pass through there at least once a year. I've wondered what it would take to open a franchise in Bellingham. We're a small town, but every truck and RV that heads to Canada or Alaska passes through here, so there's a stronger basis than just our population.

I like In-N-Out, but to wait in long lines for what is STILL a fast food burger?

[Jenise]

That's why you go at non-peak hours. But I'd happily wait in line for 8 minutes to get something that good, especially if the alternative is a McDonalds with almost no wait at all. Funny that the McDonalds and Jack in the Boxes of this world spend so much effort on improving the customer experience with speed, in fact I think it's how they define 'quality'. Where In n Out has huge lines of people happy (or at least willing) to wait, no matter where they open. Obviously, to a huge segment of the population, speed isn't everything.

Just out of curiosity what sets This]company apart? Looking at their website it looks and sounds like your average burger coke fries, except for the "hand-leafed"lettuce whatever that might be. It all looks like Maccas to me, but then I grew up on the great AUssie burger.. So we could talk burgers forever I guess.

Barb, don't go defiling my burger with your nasty beetroot, now!

In n Out is bright, super clean, and focused...they don't do anything but burgers, fries, cokes and shakes. No nuggets or fish sandwiches, nothing. Great quality of product.

No processed/pre-packed fries. Fresh potatoes made right in front of you. Some people don't care for the fries, because they prefer the processed stuff. I prefer actual potatoes.

Beaming and mostly youthful people, with great attitudes, well trained (and paid well too).

The 'hand torn' lettuce? Means they purchase lettuce, not prepped bags, no shredding, French leaves and no wilted stuff. Makes a difference.

[Jenise]

Barb, it's almost hard to define how, but they're better. Yes, it's burgers and fries, but it's JUST burgers and fries. No tacos, no Big Bacon Sriracha Deluxe--they don't spread themselves thin with 30 different selections in an effort to please all people all the time. Nothing is pre-made, wrapped and waiting for the next doofus to order it. They just make burgers and fries--TO ORDER. At other places it's a pain to custom order exceptions to their standards (and I know, because I do, or would if I went to them, always require exceptions), but at In n' Out every order's a custom order. And they do it so well--everything's super fresh, never frozen. The lettuce is actually a big deal--it's washed and torn on site throughout the day where fresh vegetables at most places are prepped in a factory, treated with a preservative to prevent rust and shipped hundreds or even thousands of miles to franchisees in a ready-to-use if somewhat depleted state.

French fries at most fast food outlets are from frozen. At In n Out, the potatoes in your French fries were peeled and cut minutes before they went into the fryer.

In short: the menu is minimalist, but the flavor is maximalist. Nothing made by any of the other chains even comes close.

I guess it wasn't so hard to define after all.

[Jenise]

Hoke, we said all the same things.

Hoke, we said all the same things.

Because I&O has done a fine job of establishing and maintaining their core principles.

[Jenise]

Hoke, we said all the same things.

Because I&O has done a fine job of establishing and maintaining their core principles.

Well, and because we recognize what they are. A lot of people wouldn't have much more to say than "It's good!"

So okay if I got Hoke and Jenise singing praises they must be pretty d@#&good.
Fresh and made to order certainly beats the Maccas etc. of this world, and real chips (ooops fries )
and I do get the premise of doing one thing and doing it really really well.
And Hoke you can order an Aussie burger without beetroot but why would you that little kick of sweetness, and the juice running down your arms and dripping on your white shirt whats not to love.
Thanks for the feedback. Burgers are the big thing here at the moment for some reason, and tiny burgers which they have decided to call sliders. All very strange.

[Jenise]

Ah sliders. I think that's an American term and I believe it was coined by a chain called White Castle (which I've never had). If I ever knew why, I've forgotten (maybe because they're so small they slide down your throat?), but it's because a universal term and popular of late, even as appetizer courses in fine food establishments (wherein the contents might be lobster and pork belly on buns browned with miso butter, to name the last slider I ordered).

[Robin Garr]

Ah sliders. I think that's an American term and I believe it was coined by a chain called White Castle (which I've never had). If I ever knew why, I've forgotten (maybe because they're so small they slide down your throat?)

It is indeed White Castle, Jenise, although some argue for Krystal, which makes an almost identical (but slightly inferior) tiny square burger in the South. Its region only barely overlaps White Castle's Rustbelt territory around Lexington, Kentucky.

Anyway, the name wasn't originally coined by the company, but rose up among a host of slang terms, most lovingly derisive: Sliders, belly bombers, gut bombers, etc. Not too long ago, I think WC corporate gave in to the trend and adopted the term for their own use.

And yes, it's directly related to their tendency to slide right down. They're not really greasy - contrary to critics' charges - but they're "wet" thanks to the technique used to set the top bun down on th grilling meat and onions so it absorbs the steam and flavors coming up.

It's an acquired taste for sure. Most of us in the rgion acquired it as teens and 20-somethings; it's a great pick-me-up on the shank end of a long night out.

And now they have veggie burgers, too!

[Jenise]

Robin, thanks for the backstory.

I saw White Castle burgers in the freezer department of, I think it was, a Rite-Aid. Not that I shop there for food, but I was waiting on a prescription so touring the store to kill time. I came THIS close to buying a box out of sheer curiosity, but was dissuaded by the prospect of me of all people stooping to reheated frozen burgers, even legendary ones.

Sliders basically came from the Navy "gedunks". Thin slices quickly fried on a flat metal grid.

I grew up further south, so Krystal was what I knew; White Castle was the Chicago "Yankee" version. But they were pretty much the same.

When we moved to Louisville I convinced Roxi to try a WC. She saw them plop the top of the roll on the half-cooked slider, soaking up the pinkish-grey juices in the bread, agreed to take one bite...and she never went back to a White Castle again.