In-N-Out Burger's Secret To Staying Exclusive & Why It Hesitated To Expand Beyond The West Coast

In-N-Out is one of America's hallowed burger joints, beloved by Californians for its enduring 1950s character and fresh ingredients. But while In-N-Out can count many celebrity chefs among its fans — from the infamously discerning Gordon Ramsay to Julia Child, who kept a list of locations in her purse — the fast food chain has never become a truly national brand. Since 1948, the family-owned company has historically kept its expansions close to its original home in Southern California, with a few forays into neighboring states like Nevada and Utah. The Snyder family has always maintained that the chain's regional focus is strategic: In-N-Out prides itself on fresh, never frozen ingredients. In fact, the restaurants don't even have freezers, which means they need to be located within 300 miles of the company's food production facilities.

But the winds of change are blowing, and In-N-Out is set to make contact way out east — in Tennessee. In January 2023, the company announced plans for a new operating office in the city of Franklin, which will manage a fleet of new restaurants in the state. Construction began on the latest headquarters in September 2024, aiming to serve customers at new Tennessee locations by 2026. Until now, Texas was as far east as the chain had expanded, which was already a bold leap for the company in 2011. Since then, it's spread to Colorado and Oregon, with plans to hit Washington, as well. But In-N-Out's latest plans for Tennessee seem to point toward a desire to make a real foothold on the East Coast.

For decades, In-N-Out was adamant that any new restaurant it opened would never be located more than a day's drive from what it calls its "patty-making facilities," in order to ensure the ingredients in menu items like its polarizing french fries were always fresh. This was more than just a quality control or safety policy, it was what the Snyder family had built the In-N-Out brand around. To the company, it was non-negotiable. So what changed?

Well, In-N-Out hasn't announced any change to that policy — if anything, it's underlined its importance by establishing new production facilities outside of California. The first major distribution center was opened in Dallas in 2011 to service eight new Texas restaurants that opened that year. While In-N-Out could feasibly get shipping trucks to reach its new operating office in Franklin, Tennessee, it's more likely that the $125.5 million project will also include a new patty-making facility.

However, the actual decision to make In-N-Out a coast-to-coast chain also reflects a cultural shift at the company. At 17, Lynsi Snyder was the last inheritor of the family business after the deaths of her uncle and father in the 1990s. At 27, she became president of In-N-Out, which by that point had already made its way to neighboring states and would soon land in Texas. Snyder has repeatedly emphasized that any expansion of the business would be a carefully considered project, but the company's commitment to the West Coast has clearly shifted. Under Snyder, one of In-N-Out's two corporate offices in Southern California is set to close, with certain staff expected to transfer to the new headquarters in Franklin.