San Francisco Part 4: In & Out Burger

After a long day of touring Napa Valley on a bus and drinking as many free wine samples as I could, what better meal to soak it all up than a good old fashioned American hamburger? Well, I could think of a lot of better options, but In & Out was right there at Fisherman's Wharf, where the bus dropped me off.

Maybe it was the proper finish, because the last winery the bus driver brought us to was none other than Sutter Home, where they pride themselves on White Zinfandel, the Kool-Aid of wines! I actually approached the bus driver and asked him what in God's name we were doing there on a supposedly respectable wine tour, so he pointed me across the street to a smaller winery called Heitz Celler where I gladly drank some lovely wine and even bought a couple bottles. And that's how I escaped from my bus tour...

Anyways, so since my last stint at an In & Out in Vegas, I had learned about the secret menu. Yeah, that's right... there is a secret menu at In & Out that isn't posted and you can only order if you are in the know. So I got a single cheeseburger, only I requested that it be prepared "animal style". The standard burger comes with lettuce, tomato, thousand island-ish "spread" and if you want, onions. Apparently you can get them grilled, but every time I've gotten them they've been big raw things that are way too much on the palate and the breath! Now, if you order your burger "animal style", you get lettuce, tomato, pickle, grilled onions, extra "spread" and your patty is grilled in mustard. Cool, eh?

For good measure, I also got the "protein burger" which omits the bun and wraps up the burger with a bunch of lettuce. Unfortunately I forgot not to put onions on this one, so it was onion breath for me!

Crunchy!

The protein burger was nothing special. I should have ordered the "grilled cheese" instead, which is the burger with no patty, basically. I think I do prefer the "animal style" over the default style, though I should have gone for a double-double because I find the patties are too thin at In & Out. I think it's funny they call it a "double-double", because that expression means something very different in Canada. There were even some backpack street kids bumming for money outside with a side that said "Craving a double-double" which I thought was cute, but they were already chomping down on some burgers when I came out to give them change. With a full belly, onion breath, and a bag full of Napa wine, I had only to dodge the scary "tree guy" and hop on a street car which, on its long journey, encountered street protesters, crack heads, and of course a big naked man at the end of the line when I got off in Castro. Gotta love San Francisco!

They present them so pretty-like!

In & Out Burger

333 Jefferson St.

San Francisco (Fishermen's Wharf)
Website
Wikipedia

Heitz Cellar

Napa Valley
Website