In-N-Out Opens Its First Washington State Restaurant

One hundred and one years ago, a teenager working at his dad’s roadside stand in Pasadena, California, slapped a slice of cheese on the traditional hamburger sandwich. Thus young Lionel Sternberger unwittingly midwifed a culinary sensation: the “cheeseburger,” a dish which has swept the nation from sea to shining sea — and has now officially arrived in metro Portland, as In-N-Out is set to open in Ridgefield, Washington, at 10:30 a.m. sharp.

The cheeseburger restaurant, located at 5801 N. Pioneer Canyon Drive, will be sure to draw lines of piqued Portlanders. The arrival of the In-N-Out, a chain hailing from SoCal, where the famed sandwich was birthed, has been hotly anticipated. The local press has followed it closely, updating keen readers on the progress of In-N-Out’s initial announcement, its acquisition of land use permission and permits, and the so-called “secret” menu; the same dogged inkhounds are also tracking the progress of another Portland-area In-N-Out. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens have been taking photos of the restaurant under construction, gawking at it as if it were a two-headed calf.

Portland has no shortage of sandwich shops and restaurants that serve classic hamburgers, which consist of “patties” of ground beef and toppings placed between two halves of a sliced roll. But to date, none have been able to master the “cheeseburger,” and the dish is unknown in the City of Roses, which explains the fervor over In-N-Out. (If cheeseburgers were common, surely there would be no great enthusiasm for yet another “fast food” joint.)

Prior to the opening of the Ridgefield restaurant, the closest In-N-Out was in Keizer, a perilous 45-minute drive from Portland, and it’s safe to say that precious few residents have undertaken that journey.

Cheese on top of meat inside bread isn’t the only novelty that In-N-Out will bring to the Portland area: It will be a “drive-thru,” meaning that customers who choose to arrive by automobile will be able to order, pay, and even eat their cheeseburgers without ever leaving their vehicles!