Uncategorized | The Los Angeles Burger Project

Displaying IMG_3137.JPG If we’re being honest with ourselves, this saga could only have started here. Since taking Baldwin Park by storm in 1948, In-N-Out has become a staple of life in California. Over the years, it has achieved nationwide fame, even being the subject of an extended, gushing soliloquy by a starstruck Anthony Bourdain. In-N-Out Burger is what most people in Los Angeles think of when they hear the word hamburger. The Los Angeles burger scene started at In-N-Out Burger. It is only fitting, then, that the Los Angeles Burger Project starts there as well.

The Place:
In-N-Out Burger
310 N. Harvey Drive
Glendale, CA 91206

The Order (pictured above): Double-Double (mustard fried, no tomato, onions, extra toast on the bun); French fries, Coke.

Price: $7.41 (including tax).

The Burger
What can I write that most of you don’t already know? In-N-Out has mastered the art of the burger, and executes fresh (never frozen), impossibly consistent masterpieces thousands of times daily. The strength of this burger is in its simplicity. The cheese is melted and gooey without being messy. Wonderfully fresh and crisp lettuce and onions give the burger textural complexity. The lettuce is especially praiseworthy: never wilted, in spite of its proximity to freshly-grilled meat and melted cheese. The spread is tangy without being overpowering.

You could make a pretty strong case that the bun is the strongest element of the burger. Perfectly sized, perfectly absorbent, perfectly toasted, this bun has just enough independent flavor to influence the taste profile of the burger without dominating it. While many gourmet burgers feature a buttery brioche, In-N-Out’s bun is more traditional, but perfectly suited to the fresh simplicity of the offering.

Ultimately though, the meat is the marquee feature. The immaculately seasoned patties are juicy and perfectly cooked – just far enough past medium rare to preserve the meat’s natural flavor and juiciness, while also avoiding being messy or bloody (though, if you prefer a bit more blood and a bit less structure, you are free to request that the meat be medium rare). Notes of crackling fried mustard lingers under the delicate char. The thin patties provide a greater seasoned surface area, which gives the meat much more depth of flavor than a brutish, thick patty might.

In-N-Out is perhaps most impressive, though, for its consistency. This is a restaurant that has never compromised on its core values of making fresh, delicious food. Their commitment is evident in their consistently delicious and perfectly prepared burgers. Pull up to an In-N-Out Burger in the middle of nowhere, and you can be damn certain that you will get the same phenomenal product you would get from them in the heart of Los Angeles.

In-N-Out is not the place to go if you are looking for an inventive, boundary-pushing burger. Their menu is small, their ingredients limited, and their focus narrow. They make no effort to reinvent the wheel. They have a winning formula, and they stick to it. The food here will not challenge you. It will not surprise you. But it is also much more than just a known quantity. In-N-Out never wanted to redefine the burger. They just wanted to master it. And that, they have achieved in spades.

The Ratings
Flavor: 9.70 / 10.00
Freshness/Quality: 9.80 / 10.00
Value: 10.00 / 10.00
Efficiency: 10.00 / 10.00
Creativity/Style: 7.50 / 10.00
Bun: 9.70 / 10.00
Patty: 9.50 / 10.00
Toppings: 8.90 / 10.00
Sauce: 8.80 / 10.00
Balance: 9.10 / 10.00

Total: 93.00 / 100.00

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up, I always loved this place: incredible weather, incredible sports, incredible people, incredible culture, incredible food. At no point in the first quarter century of my life did I ever seriously consider settling anywhere else.

But weirdly enough, Los Angeles never felt quite as much like home as it did after I left and came back. I spent the last three years at law school in Virginia. It was a tough three years, to be sure. There was a ton of work. There were massive cultural differences. I worried about finding a job here in Los Angeles. There were these strange things called “seasons”. My dating life bordered on tragic (that’s for another blog). I missed my family. I missed my friends. I came to appreciate Los Angeles on another, higher, level.

But in spite of all the cultural, social, intellectual, and romantic challenges, I missed one thing about California more than anything else: In-N-Out (pictured above). I came to realize that nothing – nothing – could fill the hole left by the absence of a Double-Double with fried mustard, grilled onions, and a little extra toast on the bun. I could never have imagined how horrifying it was to live around people who thought “animal style” was some deviant Californian sexual practice.

But it wasn’t just In-N-Out. I craved Umami Burger. Father’s Office. The Bowery. Pie ‘N Burger. I missed them all. I missed the Los Angeles burger scene. I had never really thought or spoke about “the Los Angeles burger scene” before I left. Once I was gone, though, I quickly realized L.A. does have a burger scene, and it’s special.

Los Angeles doesn’t really have the traditional “high food” scene that, say, New York has. We don’t a have Michelin-starred restaurant on every block, and we have way fewer places you’d be likely to see on a culinary tourist’s bucket list than New York. But we have an incredible food scene here. Its nucleus is a generation of insanely talented chefs exposed to a huge variety of cultural and ethnic influences and who aren’t enslaved by “the rules” of haute cuisine.

So Los Angeles has become kind of a culinary laboratory. Experimentation, not convention, is at the heart of our cuisine. Ours a food scene built on fusion; chefs here make the counterintuitive feel familiar. The Gorbals’ irreverent bacon-wrapped matzo balls. Kogi’s Korean GI tract-ravaging kimchee quesadillas. Every little delicious thing at Picca, Ricardo Zarate’s Peruvian-Japanese funhouse. Nowhere is this innovative spirit more apparent than in our hamburgers. We have countless ridiculous people in this town who work miracles between two pieces of bread. And the scene is exploding; every month, a new place opens up featuring a burger.

But anyway, back in Virginia, as I thought longingly about all the incredible burgers I had come to love over my time in Los Angeles, it occurred to me: for every burger I adored, there were a few I had never tried but was dying to. I started reading about the (literally) hundreds of places to get a delicious burger in Los Angeles. The more I read, the more I realized that I had to try them all. I needed to know whether they would live up to the hype. So I started making a list.

Now I’m back, and I have a (still-growing) list of about one hundred restaurants. For as long as it takes, I’ll be trying those restaurants’ best burgers, and writing about them here. I won’t be alone. I have a dedicated group of culinary/burger enthusiasts on hand at every shop I go to. This site, then, will be part-journal and part-reference. I’m not on a quest to find The Best Hamburger. I’m taking a trip through my city, my home, to discover – or, rather, re-discover – why this is the best place on the planet to get a hamburger.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy.