In-N-Out Burger will debut in Washington State this week
In-N-Out Burger will open in its ninth state on Wednesday, Aug. 20, according to a news release from the Southern California-based chain.
The new drive-thru is in Ridgefield, Wash., a city of about 16,000 people. It’s on Interstate 5, less than 20 miles from the Columbia River, which divides Washington from Oregon, and about a half-hour drive from Portland, Ore.
The new restaurant will employ about 80 people with a starting wage of $18.75 an hour. That’s above Washington State’s minimum wage of $16.66 an hour. In-N-Out pays above minimum wage in California as well. Its most recent opening in its home state was in Modesto on July 9, where workers start at $22.
In-N-Out has restaurants in California, where it was founded in 1948, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho.
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It has been less than two years since In-N-Out expanded into its eighth state, Idaho. The opening made national news and drew crowds as well as customers from surrounding states to Meridian, where the restaurant is. The Idaho Stateman reported that customers waited in the drive-thru line for eight hours on opening day, Dec. 12, 2023. Some customers in the dining room got to meet owner and president Lynsi Snyder.
In-N-Out has announced growth in two more states.
It is planning a restaurant in Albuquerque, N.M., that will put the chain “fully in the Four Corners” by 2027.
The chain is also opening an “eastern hub” in Tennessee with a new office building and restaurants under construction. The first restaurants could open early in 2026, according to The Tennessean. The Nashville newspaper reported last week that online job applications for a restaurant in Lebanon could begin in September.
In-N-Out made international news last month when Snyder told a podcaster that she plans to move from California to Tennessee. In-N-Out had already announced in February that it would be closing its Irvine headquarters by 2029 to relocate in the chain’s hometown, Baldwin Park, as well as opening the Tennessee hub.
The Washington State restaurant will be No. 424 in the chain. In-N-Out is listing three more upcoming restaurants on the “opening soon” page of its website. They are in Monrovia, Sylmar and Longmont, Co.
Information: in-n-out.com