"Glenn" > wrote in message
. ..
> Boy did you open the gate, but WHAT IS AN IN-N-OUT BURGER??? I live in
> the 4th largest city in the nation and we have never heard of it.


It's a fast food chain, found primarily in Southern California. Take heart
in not knowing about it; I've spent practically my whole life in Texas and
never heard of In-n-Out Burger either, until I visited Los Angeles just a
couple of years ago. It's absolutely unknown over here because we've got
Whataburger, and California folks don't.

In-n-Out Burger gets its name, I think, from the interesting way they serve
their food. The restaurants are built so that they can serve two lanes of
cars at once; one booth, with windows on either side, so the staff can
continuously serve customers. Think of a combination toll booth and burger
joint. Their burgers are pretty good, too.

There are several regional chains of fast-food joints, and there are some
good web sites dedicated to this topic. There are no White Castle
restaurants in Texas, and I never heard of them until ABC News did a story
about their popularity well over a decade ago. I did not know what they
were talking about then, and in fact to this day I still have never been to
one. Krystal's, though, is close enough to White Castle to be a clone, I'm
told; I really like Krystal's burgers but until recently I had to go to
Memphis for them, because they're based primarily in the Deep South while
White Castle is in the Midwest and Northeast (right?). Krystal's is just
now making inroads into Texas; there is one in far north Dallas, and one
just opened up down the road in Grand Prairie... the line went out the door
the day they opened.

I thought Jack in the Box was a nationwide chain, but I've heard they don't
exist in Chicago.

Note: I visited Melbourne, Australia earlier this year and they've got
McDonald's (slightly different menu) and KFC. They also have Burger King,
but it's called "Hungry Jack's" down there.