Yes, In-N-Out Is Indeed “Looking at a Few Specific Sites in the Dallas Area.” Now, See You at Maple & Motor for Lunch?

Every time some local blog posts that In-N-Out’s coming for sure this time swear to God not lying you’ll see, the Unfair Park in-box fills up with missives from the hopeful and the haters who wonder, yet again, for reals? Pretty sure this latest go-round started with a post on The Advocate‘s blog Sunday night: “In-N-Out update: Six Dallas-area sites said to be under contract.” At which point Nancy Nichols weighed in. At which point KXAS-Channel 5 took a bite.

And so off I went: On Monday I called my old pal Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development for In-N-Out, to whom I spoke last July about those persistent rumors. Back then, he said “we are evaluating as part of our long-term growth planning a variety of
markets, including Dallas, and part of that evaluation involves
investigating sites.” Very non-specific. Very non-promising.

So. I get to the office this morning to find this message from Van Fleet, left on my voice mail at 7:20 p.m. yesterday:

“I know there were a lot of blog reports and Web site reports about us and sites. And we are looking at a few specific sites in the Dallas area — that part is true. But it is way too early for us to get specific about sites and even extremely premature to speculate as to when we might actually … if or when we might actually be selling hamburgers there. We’re still in the early stages of lookin’ at some sites and working on a few deals, and a lot could still change in that regard. I hope that helps. Give me a call if you have any further questions.”

I’ve called him back — sure, I’ve got further questions, why not? You know, when I lived in Los Angeles for about two years in the mid-1990s, I lived two blocks from an In-N-Out. Ate there, like, four times. I mean, it was good-n-all, but …