There are no Waffle Houses in California. Should the Southern chain ever expand to the Golden State, would it be received with as much frenzied enthusiasm as In-N-Out garnered when it announced an expansion to Middle Tennessee?

Would the people of California know that the Waffle House is home to stars and drunks 24/7, 365 days a year and that cooks keep track of an order by marking plates with condiment packets?

Would they realize that the National Weather Service actually relies on whether the Waffle House is forced to close to confirm natural disasters?

Could the hash browns – smothered, covered and chunked – compete with the Double Double Animal Style?

We’re about to find out if the wildly popular hamburger chain with a cultlike following can translate its own iconic place in California history to the Volunteer State. Devotees of the ultra-fresh, made-to-order burgers maintain that Tennesseans have no idea what’s coming.

Harry and Esther Snyder opened the first In-N-Out in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California. Harry would visit the meat and produce markets nearby to select the menu ingredients he prepared by hand. Esther was the bookkeeper. Over time, the restaurant became a chain centered in California.

The menu was – and still is – limited. The beef for its burgers is 100% chuck and fresh, never frozen. The vegetable garnishes look as if they came from a farmers market. There’s a “secret menu” that really isn’t secret – it’s posted on the company’s website. Bible verses are discreetly tucked into crevices of In-N-Out’s packaging.

The humble nature of the business model, coupled with a sense for Californians that In-N-Out represented a cherished time gone by and the unmatched quality of the burgers, drew a cultlike following.

Yes, your everyday Joe could afford a burger there, but Hollywood stars also flocked to In-N-Out. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey loves the place. Nashville native Reese Witherspoon does, too. Julia Child and Anthony Bourdain called themselves fans.

On Oscar night, after the awards and celebrated parties, lots of the winners and losers kick off their heels, hike up their designer gowns and are chauffeured to In-N-Out for early-morning eats.

For many years, the company’s own core values limited its ability to expand. One of them was because the chain only uses fresh hamburger meat, none of the restaurants could be very far away from an In-N-Out processing plant. Pick a number – some estimates are no further than 300 miles, others say 500 miles. Let’s just call it a day’s drive.

Diners wait to order burgers and, perhaps, “animal style” fries at a location in Oxnard, California, one of 386 locations in five states.

-- Photo By Lyle Graves | The Ledger

But as Californians left the state because of the cost of living and restrictive business environment, the company has followed. It opened restaurants in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas and Oregon. Today, there are 386 locations, with 69% located in California.

And where have Californians flocked to in recent years? Tennessee.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports almost 12,000 people left California for Tennessee in 2019. Add that to roughly 17,500 Californians who migrated here in 2017 and 2018.

That’s a lot of people. And they wanted their In-N-Out. Now, they’ll get it.

A warm welcome

Jubilation could fairly describe state and local reaction to In-N-Out’s decision to plant a flag in Middle Tennessee.

In-N-Out’s move is a $125.5 million investment that will create 277 new jobs in Williamson County. The company is building a 100,000-square-foot office in Franklin to house various support departments starting next year, to be completed by 2026. At the same time, it plans to roll out In-N-Out restaurants in Middle Tennessee.

“I’m proud to welcome In-N-Out Burger, an iconic American brand, to the Volunteer State,” said Gov. Bill Lee in a statement. “Tennessee’s unmatched business climate, skilled workforce and central location make our state the ideal place for this family-run company to establish its first eastern United States hub. We thank In-N-Out for planting roots in Williamson County and creating new jobs for Tennesseans.”

Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson was equally effusive. “Few companies are as iconic, or have as many loyal customers, as In-N-Out Burger,” he said. “That they have chosen to expand their office and construct a retail location in our community is terrific news not just for Williamson County residents, but for all Tennesseans.”

And Lynsi Snyder, granddaughter of the founders and now president, chimed in. “This is very exciting for us,” she says. “Our customers are our most important asset at In-N-Out. We get a lot of requests in different states to open, but Tennessee found its way into my heart and our plans. Being near Nashville made sense, and Franklin was the one. God came through.”

In-N-Out is a family-run company, and its sales numbers are private. But Forbes estimates an In-N-Out store generates about $4.5 million in gross sales a year versus McDonald’s $2.6 million.

In-N-Out kitchens are open, providing a little entertainment as your order is prepared.

-- Photo By Lyle Graves |The Ledger

Add to that the chain’s profit margin is estimated to be 20%, a huge number considering other chains that own their locations have half that percentage.

It’s known as a company that attracts and retains employees. It offers competitive salaries, paid vacations, flexible schedules and the ability to move up in the organization.

“It’s something to be excited about in that it’s rated a great company to work for,” says Nikki Taylor Collen, a California transplant to Nashville. “It gives kids a good starting job. It apparently has great customer service and they supposedly use fresher ingredients than other fast-food places.”

Evan Kleiman, a chef and host of Good Food on Los Angeles NPR station KCRW, has always been impressed with the ballet that unfolds in the In-N-Out kitchen in full view of the customers.

“Just looking into those kitchens and watching everybody work and see how the managers interact with the staff it seems pretty OK,” she says. “As a first or second job for a young person it must be tremendous because you’re learning so many fantastic skills you can use your whole life. They famously pay well. My fantasy if things went south for me was becoming a manager at an In-N-Out.”

Gustavo Arellano, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” has a more tempered opinion of In-N-Out.

“In-N-Out is a good burger,” he says. “I’ve always called it overrated because it’s not the best burger you’ll ever have. If people give me In-N-Out, I’ll eat it. My biggest issue with In-N-Out is this religion of nostalgia people just buy into – this is just like the 1950s and everything’s all just wholesome. The reason people want In-N-Out is they want to belong to something.

“The genius of In-N-Out is they know who they are, they know what their fans want and they stick to that,” he says. “And the prices are affordable. I’ll give them that much.”

California-to-Nashville transplant Anthony Calvert is blunter.

“It is super overrated,” he says. “People act like it cures cancer. Their fries are embarrassing. I try to support Christian-based companies, but I just can’t with this one.”

‘Never’ comes to Tennessee

As recently as 2018, In-N-Out president Lynsi Snyder said no how, no way would the chain ever expand east of Texas. “I like that we’re sought after when someone’s coming into town,” she told Forbes. “I like that we’re unique. That we’re not on every corner. You put us in every state and it takes away some of its luster.”

Obviously, that’s changed and the fact that Californians are moving in droves to Tennessee may have been a factor. The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has recruited 25 California-based companies to either relocate here or boost their footprint since 2018. The reasons are many, including taxes, business regulations and the labor market.

But Stuart McWhorter, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, says it’s not because the state has zeroed in on California specifically.

“It’s more about companies that are looking to expand to the East Coast more than anything,” he says. “We’re one of several states that benefit from those expansions. We don’t sit in our office with a target on California. Tennessee, because of our business-friendly environment, we are able to attract companies and there are a lot of reasons they choose Tennessee.

“In some cases, they’re impressions that were made many, many years ago,” he continues. “We just fall in line with their target list. We feel our state, from a business perspective, is well positioned when companies look at the difference between the two.”

As to why Snyder changed her mind about eastern expansion, he’s not quite sure.

“I don’t know what changed her mind or what we did to change her mind,” says McWhorter. “It was really Tennessee that changed her mind. She’s come to the state on vacation, and there was something about Tennessee that spoke to her. It evolved into a conversation we had with them.”

Perhaps not tangentially in In-N-Out’s case, California is attempting to regulate the fast-food industry by creating a Fast Food Council that could raise the minimum wage and set minimum standards for working conditions, maximum hours worked and more for fast-casual and fast-food restaurants with more than 100 locations nationwide.

The proposed law was blocked by a voter referendum, but the possibility still looms and speculation was that In-N-Out was sending a message to California lawmakers by expanding to a business-friendly state.

The chain, along with other fast-food players, donated $1 million to Save Local Restaurants, a coalition opposing the law.

The distribution model for In-N-Out is also a question as far as Tennessee goes. The company wants plants that process the beef for its hamburgers to be within a 300- to 500-mile radius of the restaurants it serves. The closest plant to Middle Tennessee is in Lancaster, Texas, 669 miles away.

“Our production facility in Lancaster, Texas, will enable us to provide freshly ground meat patties and spread to our Tennessee locations for the foreseeable future,” says Snyder. “We’ll operate a distribution center in Tennessee that will receive fresh product from Texas, and that is a path that crosses a few other states that could be in our future.”

If the company were to lease or buy space in Middle Tennessee for a production facility, In-N-Out could easily expand to Knoxville and Chattanooga, both within an easy drive from Nashville and beyond in the Southeast.

For now, the Nashville area will be content with the first In-N-Out’s in the South. Even with his reservations about the chain, Arellano predicts success…kind of.

“In-N-Out will succeed wildly in Nashville because there are so many people from California who miss home,” he says. “But for native Nashvillians, try it and see what you think. It’s a good burger, but it’s not going to change your life. Will it permeate the culture of Nashville? I don’t think so unless the Californians have truly taken over.”