Yesterday there was a rumor that was all over Twitter. An account named @InNOutMemphis was tweeting that In-N-Out Burger would soon be coming to Memphis. With the recent addition of Five Guys and BGR the Burger Joint, this seemed like a real score for Memphis. In the six months I lived in San Diego, I ate at the Pacific Beach In-N-Out many times and can tell you, their burgers are the real deal, especially the secret-menu Double Double Animal Style.
Normally, I would have been retweeting that like crazy and I would have done a special after-work blog post with the announcement and an endorsement of how great In-N-Out Burgers are. Something just didn’t seem right, though. It just didn’t seem like they way a burger chain would announce its expansion. Also, it seemed unusual that the West Coast burger chain would expand this far east without some major change to its business model, which they’d likely be touting along with the new location. So I decided to hold up on spreading the information. If I missed a legitimate scoop, oh well.
Sure enough, the account turned out to be a hoax. I have to wonder if it was some journalism student’s project to see how far “news” could spread before anyone bothered to verify it. Kind of reminds me of that Russian bath house that was rumored to be built at Main and Union a couple of years ago (the perpetrators actually recruited me as a participant in that hoax). Tiffany Langston, who writes the excellent food blog Tiffany Tastes, pointed out that there is no way In-N-Out would come here: They don’t believe in freezing their meat, so all locations have to be within a one-day drive of their meat-processing plant. The nearest locations are in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro.
As several people pointed out, even without In-N-Out, Memphis is hardly a burger desert. I still need to hit Roxie’s Grocery in Uptown and give their burger a try. Plus, I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance of Dyer’s, the Majestic Grille, Kooky Canuck, Local, and Huey’s, all of which make very good burgers.
Last night I posted about being hungry for pasta with clams, after reading about Mafiosi devouring it at a New York restaurant. I asked if anyplace Downtown has pasta with clams… well, DUH, I just posted about such a place a month ago. Clams are one of the proteins you can add on Bleu’s Build Your Own Pasta menu, available at lunch. I have some vacation coming up soon (taking the entire week off for BBQ Fest) and will have to eat lunch there one day early in the week.
A friend of mine from Venezuela was among people who joined me to try Goose Island 312, on Fire Sale yesterday at the Flying Saucer. It was her first time there, and she looked over the beer menu. “Why are there no beers from Venezuela?” she asked. It’s a good question. On a larger scale, why are there no beers from anywhere in South America that are widely available in Memphis? There are beers from Asia and Australia, much farther away. If any local beer experts have an answer to this question, I’d love to hear it.
Bass Pro is reconsidering its proposed signage for the Pyramid, according to the MBJ. A lot of people thought its earlier proposal, with huge Bass Pro logos on all four sides of the Pyramid, was too much. They plan to be open by the end of the year, so they need to get the matter settled fairly quickly.
Probably a second news post after work, so check back.