Burger Fever

The Code SG

Burger
fever

Queue at US burger
chain's pop-up store
starts four hours
before it opens

LONG QUEUE: (Top) The queue at the pop-up store. (Above) Mr Dominic (left) and Mr Marc joined the queue at 8.30am. TNP PHOTOS: NICOLE QUEK

Report by CHOO MEI FANG

This fast food wasn't that fast after all.

Yesterday, eager fans in Singapore queued for up to four hours to get a bite of the famous meat patties from In-N-Out Burger, a popular US burger fastfood restaurant chain which set up a pop-up store at Timbre @ Gillman, a restaurant and live music venue near Labrador Park.

Many customers were well-prepared for the wait, and brought umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

The burgers were sold from 11am to 3pm, but Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Alicia Lim, 19, was the first to arrive at 7am.

While on a visit to the US in 2012, she tried out every famous burger joint except In-N-Out Burger.

When she saw a news article circulating on Twitter that it was having a popup store, she had to try it.

Her verdict after waiting more than four hours?

"The ingredients were really fresh, but I found the beef patty a bit too dry," she said.
"I would say it's overrated, but I didn't regret queueing."

Miss Lim added: "I hope they set up a store in Singapore soon, with the same quality burgers they sell in America."

Another two In-N-Out fans, who wanted to be known only as Mr Dominic D and Mr Marc R, did not just queue from 8.30am.

They also bought In-N-Out T-shirts for $4 each at the pop-up store and had brought foldable chairs, a cooler box with cans of beer and a packet of chips.

Mr Marc, 29, who works in operations, went to his office early to clear his work so he could step out to join the queue.

He told The New Paper: "We knew it was going to be a long queue, so we decided to wait in comfort."

SECOND TIME HERE

This is the second time the franchise has set up a pop-up store in Singapore.

A similar one appeared in July 2012, which saw 300 burgers selling out in five minutes.

Yesterday, there were three types of burgers on sale, the Double-Double (a burger with two beef patties), cheeseburgers and hamburgers.

The burgers can be prepared Protein Style (hand-leafed lettuce instead of a bun) or Animal Style (a bun with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato and a mustard cooked beef patty).

A burger cost between $3 and $5 and set meals, which came with chips and a drink, ranged from $5 to $7.

Mr Dominic, 28, a project manager, first tried In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles last year.
He said: "The burgers are not readily available here, so I wanted to get a taste of them again."

They were later joined by their friend, Ms Scarlett, 26, who works in marketing. In her haste to join them, she walked so quickly that her right shoe heel broke.

"My friends wouldn't stop talking about it, so I had to try the burgers," she said.

After biting into the burger which he had waited about three hours for, Mr Dominic said: "It tastes heavenly."

When TNP arrived at the venue at 9am, there were about 50 people in line.

Representatives started handing out wristbands at about 9.30am. One wristband entitled a person to buy one burger. By 10.45am, all the wristbands were given out.

Although the event organiser declined to give the exact number of wristbands given out or whether In-N-Out Burger would open a permanent outlet in Singapore, it is believed that there were about 300 people at the event.

Ms Esther Yee was among the latecomers who left disappointed, as she did not manage to get a wristband despite taking a cab from her office at Raffles Place and reaching around 10.50am.