[Pop-Up] The Day In-N-Out Burger Came to London...well, Hendon.

It must be a joke, right? I mean, it MUST be.

In-N-Out, cult burger joint from the West coast of America with the iconic red and yellow arrow logo, who haven't even made it to the East coast, wouldn't do a pop-up in London, right?

And definitely not for just 4 hours, right?

And if they did, it certainly wouldn't be in a greasy spoon called Florence Cafe, on Vivian Avenue, in Hendon, right?

WRONG. They did. I went. And it was glorious.


Last year I wrote to In-N-Out to find out if they were going to send us a London franchise (read my crowdsource an In-N-Out for London post here), this year, they sent us a 4 hour pop-up. So we're getting closer!

And it's not the first time they've popped up in different cities around the world - take a recent post on A Hamburger Today about the In-N-Out Singapore pop-up - same MO, different city.

I rocked up and met half the team from Burger Anarchy at 10am, as well as TV pundit Simon Thompson (who gave me a heads up on Sunday), in the cold outside Florence Italian Cafe, part-way up Vivian Avenue, just outside Hendon Central Tube Station. Set up was taking place, and we were first in the queue with our wristbands:

We had a chance to spend some time talking to the chefs and staff. Here are the answers to some of the questions you may have:

• Yes, they flew their chefs over from the U.S.
• Yes, it was advertised in The Finchley Times

Photo courtesy of @Ibzo

• Yes, it was confirmed by In-N-Out.

Email courtesy of Dan Peters

• Yes, Hendon is in the middle of bloody NOWHERE but it did help manage the potential crowd situation.

At 11 on the dot, In-N-Out opened up shop, and yours truly was first in line for burger-y goodness. 

Time for some Double-Double Animal Style action:

Double-Double > Animal Style. In London.

Imported In-N-Out cups.

Mmm...Double-Double Animal Style

Check out the layer of grilled onions...mmm

I'm an animal, baby.

And the burger was spot on the money, transporting me back to my visit to California, and a lot of time spent troughing In-N-Out burgers around San Francisco.

So, all in all a bit surreal, but I'm bloody glad I made it - here's hoping In-N-Out realise how popular their products are and send us a franchise sometime soon, it'll be a great addition to the London Burger scene.

Visited and written by Nick Andrews, author of Burger Me!