It’s been several months since we told you about the popular burger joint In-N-Out’s purchase of land in Houston, but back in December, KHOU 11 learned the company has no current plans to develop that property.
So we wanted to verify exactly how long will it be until hungry In-N-Out customers can finally satisfy those cravings?
There’s 36 of the fast food restaurants in the entire state of Texas - a straight line of juicy, animal-style goodness all the way from Dallas down to San Antonio, but in Houston, we have a problem.
In May of 2017, it was made official: In-N-Out Burgers finally purchased land here in the Bayou City at 8373 Westminster.
It was great news for Houstonians, except for one little problem - someone already lives there.
And according to a December statement from In-N-Out, that "existing tenant lease is in place for several more years so they are not at this time processing any plans with the city to build a restaurant there."
So how long will we actually have to stand in line waiting to get that double double fix?
What In-N-Out has just told us is they continue to investigate several opportunities in the metro area, but can’t comment on specific locations.
However, they say they are getting closer to opening their first Houston-area restaurant, but say that time is still over a year away.
Unlike other burger joints, In-N-Out likes to own the property they build burgers on, but we’ve searched all 13 surrounding counties and verified that no new properties have been purchased by the chain.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t lease.
And priding itself on “quality you can taste," the chain doesn’t freeze or prepackage any of their food so what they’ve told us is in the future they’ll be busing burgers to Houston straight out of their new Lancaster distribution center near Dallas.
So what can we verify is In-N-Out is coming to Houston - that much is true; but don’t let your mouths water yet.
We’re not talking months, it may be closer to years before you can actually savor that West Coast flavor.
But we will leave you with some food for thought:
One of In-N-Out’s biggest rivalries, Shake Shack, is just days from opening their third location in Houston, offering their new West U'-nicorn Shake at the Rice Village location.
And there's always Whataburger, and you know where to find them. Of the 673 restaurants in Texas, 136 of them are in the Houston area.
We’re not telling you to switch, just giving you all your options!