American
The Last Great Hamburger Stand
Fatburger.
I’ll say it again, Fatburger. The Last Great Hamburger Stand.
I sparked velvety dissention a while ago by soliciting people for their favorite burger joint, not a national chain. Of course, I violated my own criteria by throwing down for Fatburger, reasoning that even though they are growing through many states, and now even have an East Coast presence, they were still limited in overall markets.
Saying that my favorite burger is Fatburger, by implication, means In ‘N’ Out is not my favorite burger. This is frightening heresy to someone from Southern California, but I’m not from Southern California. Yancey Lovie opened the first Mr. Fatburger on the corner of Western and Jefferson in 1952. It has been an institution in LA since then, but honestly obscured by the reputation of In ‘N’ Out.
In a time where internal politics threatens to charbroil the good name of In ‘N’ Out, and the struggle over whether to extend the franchise beyond its cloistered borders, in 1986 Fatburger had already adopted a Machiavelian doctrine of expansion.
Fatburger’s manifest destiny has not sullied nor faded the quality of their burgers, at least not the original locations dotting Los Angeles like yellow pushpins. I haven’t eaten at any of the locations outside of California. Couple to that Magic Johnson’s policy of investing back into the South Central community, proving there is a great deal of profit to be made by investing in lower income areas. Yet, other high profile entertainers are also quietly looking into franchising up and down the East Coast.
While In ‘N’ Out strives for historical purity by not changing its menu, there is a secret menu of modifications that every Californian knows. Its sort of an inside joke to play on the tourists that will never know to order a double-double animal style. Fatburger’s only not-well-kept-secret is you can order it grilled or char-broiled.
Fatburger also has its own tradition known as the Triple Kingburger Challenge. Anyone who finishes a triple Kingburger (1 1/2 pounds) within six minutes wins a T-shirt, free meals for the week and their picture on the Triple Kingburger Challenge Wall of Fame.
Another important distinction is the toppings offered by Fatburger. Of course, I’m talking about the fried egg and chili. Tommy’s may be known for the most widely proliferated chiliburger in LA, but it is also reviled as the worst. In fact, the chili at most burger places leaves much to be desired. Fatburger’s chili is rich, spicy and dense with flavor.
That translates to the chili cheese fries also. Fatburger gets it right every time: they do not drown your food in the chili, after all, it is the meat you want to taste, otherwise you would just buy a bowl of chili. They confidently ration all condiments in perfect portion, so nothing ever overpowers anything else. In many burger chains, all the flavors are competing against each other for dominance of your tastebuds.
There are just so many unique qualities that separates this patty of meat slapped between a bun from all the other chains, but the quality is almost intangible. Everybody offers lettuce, tomato, mustard, pickles, onions.
It’s the atmosphere. It’s the fresh ice cream used in the dreamy shakes. The lemonade swirling through the plastic lemonade machine. Fresh, never frozen, meat. The shaker of salt they sprinkle on the patties while they’re cooking. The fries at absolutely trounce In ‘N’ Out fries.
And their complete lack of advertising. I’ve lived in LA for eight years. Unless I’m blind and/or deaf, I’ve never heard an ad for Fatburger.
So, Fatburger vs. In ‘N’ Out. In ‘N’ Out is clearly dominant, and I started to ask myself why. I’ve eaten both in the same day to make a comparison, and I never got that turned on about the In ‘N’ Out burger. What could have catapulted In ‘N’ Out over Fatburger, a clearly superior product.
I’m going to play the race card. It is my assertion that because Fatburger was located in predominantly African American communities, owned and operated by a black woman, it didn’t get as widespread exposure as In ‘N’ Out did until recent years.
But, it’s really not a race deal, it’s about location. Whites simply weren’t exposed to a Fatburger in their neighborhoods until the 80’s. Blacks had been savoring Fatburger since 1952, hoping, I’m sure, to keep the secret to themselves. All good things eventually get out and expand, and that’s exactly what happened with Fatburger.
How did a white guy from the East Coast learn about Fatburger before he even got to LA?
No helicopter looking for a murder,
Two in the morning got the Fatburger,
Even saw the lights of the Goodyear Blimp
And it read ‘Ice Cube’s a pimp’
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike In ‘N’ Out, I just don’t have that clingy nostalgia that clouds my judgment in these matters. For that, I have White Castle.
By Zteve (see more of his posts). You can find more of Zteve's writing at his own website Gastrologica
Discussion
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Thank you! Finally someone gets it right.
I must agree that Fatburger is better than In-N-Out, though I loves me some In-N-Out. If you have to be cold and hard enough to put numbers on it, I’d say Fatburger was a 9.5 and In-N-Out was a 9.
Anyway, here’s an article I stumbled upon in an Australian paper on Los Angeles fast food dives.
I agreed with most of what they had to say.
http://tinyurl.com/zn5ao
You wont get any argument from me. I prefer Fatburger, but still enjoy In-n-Out. Fatburger has really good turkey burgers (I know, blasphemy) and one of the “secrets” is to get it “on the char” which means that they grill it. You can get the burgers that way too.
When I was growing up in Orange County, my friend who went to Japanese school in LA would rave about a few spots. When we could finally drive, he would take us to the Fatburger on Vermont, late night. Great memories…
There’s a Fatburger in Vegas too, right on the strip, more convenient that the In-n-Out across the freeway. It’s right near MGM.
Fried egg on a burger too.
To assert that Fatburger’s lower ranking in the local burger approval rating is due to racial reasons is totally absurd at best. The vast majority of city residents are not aware it was born in an African American community and are basing their opinions on taste not race.
I promise to have a Fatburger tomorrow (I’d been meaning to anyway) to give it another whirl. I never got into Fatburger years ago because, at that time, the emphasis was on chili … you know, not real chili, but that flour heavy pseudo-chili that blankets some burger favorites.
For that, I’ll go to Jay’s Jayburger for the best.
Terila - I agree basing Fatburger’s lower ranking on race is absurd. I emphasized in the next paragraph that race determines the initial location which ultimately serves to isolate a restaurant from a larger audience. Had Fatburger started in locations like Beverly Hills or Pacific Palisaides, white, wealthy consumers would have been exposed to it much earlier. People who have access to money and media. Do you think the word in the press and on the street would have spread wider? I do.
Let’s also not lose sight of historical relevencies. We are discussing this in 2006. 1952 was a different planet, not only in terms of horrible race relations and oppressive Jim Crow laws, but the chances a white person would frequent a black neighborhood (and visa versa) was far from common.
As I was making that observation, I realized it served as a basis for a much larger piece I will be writing. It will cover this phenomena, which is fundamentally true for any ethnic restaurant in Los Angeles.
When contrasted to other cities, I began to recognize that the territory LA covers prevents wider audiences from discovering ethnically-originated restaurants. In New York or Chicago, where the land area is much smaller, disparate ethnic neighborhoods are right next to each other, or completely integrated. Exposure is decisively more rapid. In LA, it is not until moderate success is enjoyed, for which several locations can afford the restaurant a wider audience, that we see the largest growth and name recognition.
I’m glad you are going to try the Fatburger, it is really a work of art. Please follow up with a comment on what you think about it.
Thank you! For years I have maintained that Fatburger (and not In ‘n Out) is the greatest hamburger in So Cal. I am a native of Santa Monica and my parents would take us to Fatburger for special nights out. It will always be my favorite hamburger joint to go to. In ‘n Out may be good fast food, but for good food it has to be Fatburger.
ps. You forgot to mention the Pin Ball!
Of course Fatburger is the best. At least when I was still eating beef. I only skimmed through some of what was said above, but I don’t get what the point of the Fatburger locations/race etc is. Fatburger locations are not “bad” locations. They’re basic L.A. locations. There was some reference to Beverly Hills, like does something have to be located there to be in a good neighborhood? Who is this out of towner speaking out of turn. Personally I think BH is a bad location bc there are always too many tourists, no place to park, and bad attitudes.
Probably if you’re going to comment on a post you should read the whole thing so you can make your observations contexually relevant.
The irrelevance here is the race/location “issue.” The original post was just a bit pseudo-intellectual and long-winded.
FatBurger used to be #1, before franchising ruined it.
Okay y’all, I ate my 1st FatBurger as a teen in the middle 60’s at its first and then only location, 23rd & Western L A’s Adams District. That was the real FAT Burger, the sistas would grab a hunk of ground meat out the bucket, form a patty and throw it down on the grill, hence FATBURGER. They were Kings, Double Kings and even Triple Kings, bacon, chili, eggs, whatever, when they knew you as a regular, they make the burgers even bigger, thye also had the best sweet tater pies and thick fat fries cut from fresh potatoes, it was the hang, late at night you’d see so called famous folks from all walks of life, especially the brothas n sistas of the night.
Later on they opened the 2nd shop on La Cienaga/Fairfax and St Vincente, this was late 60’s or 1970. The family still owne it. The 23rd and Western Store had 2 locations, first at the back of the parking lot on 23rd and then to the front of the lot onto Western. The first stand was used as storage and prep kitchen after the 2nd lcoation opened.
before Ice Cube rapped about it, Dolomite made his first movie with many scenes in front of Fat Burgers in the 70’s with the Burger Pimp! Too cold!!
I once saw Clyde-Walt Frazier roll up to FatBurger macked out and he and a fox got out of a limo and stood in line to order a Fat delight just like everyone else, since the Lakers had beat the Knicks earlier that evening, peeps were cool with him. I have seen many bad brothas and sistas af the original Fatburger back in the day. In the later 70’s the other location came to be the place to hang in the wee wee hours as since it was close to Hollywierd and West Hollywierd, The Strip, Westwood Village, you’d never know who you would see there in line or in a limo waiting for their flunky to get they food.
When the original owner died, his children thought of franchising out to make money, the health dept forced them to stop grabbing meat out the buckets and it wasn’t long befrore FatBurgers was a shadow of itself. Then Magic bought it out, cool, but it is now just another chain store with slighty better than average burger. For those of us who know the ral Fatburger it is very difficult to go there nowadays
In N Out still is famliy run and refuses to sell out, the same now as 50 plus years ago, so I give them they props for being number 1!!!!!
Art Davez
Baldwin Hills-LA
Thank you, Art, for giving us a good historical perspective. Given that you frequented the original Fatburger, I can’t argue that franchising has watered down the product. It’s hard to maintain high standards of an original product once someone else is in control. Since I wasn’t here, I’ll grant that In ‘n’ Out has maintained the same quality since its inception.
Not that In ‘n’ Out isn’t embroiled in its own controversy about now. In ‘n’ Out has been going through a nasty family fight over franchising, and I’m not sure how it will turn out. My initial feeling is that they will franchise, because money talks. It sucks that you can’t stop the inevitable, but as second and third generations want to make greater profits to support their lifestyles, selling out ensues. You made a good point, but I’d start stocking up on In ‘n’ Outs now, because it won’t be too long before they are mere clones of the originals.
Thanks! I was looking for a cap to cover my bald head on this cold evening and grabbed a Fatburger cap my brother left here some time ago. Curiousity drove me to google Fatburger. Interesting history. I live in the Florida Panhandle so never heard of Fatburger, but I’ve seen In ‘n’Out when I lived in San Diego for a while.
I had been a big fan of Fatburger when I first tried their burgers in Bellevue, WA. Just amazing, mouth watering burgers and onion rings. However, after moving to SoCal, I think I have to give it to In-n-Out.
First of all, the SoCal Fatburger was not as good as the WA one. I went to the one on Wilshire and Highland in LA. The taste and even size appeared slightly smaller than WA!
Most important, the prices are more in SoCal than in LA. This is where I think In-N-Out wins hands down. Walk to Fatburger with a five dollar bill and you’ll most probably walk out hungry. Do the same in In-N-Out and you can get a Hamburger + Fries + Drinks.
Fatburger wins on the options in the menu available. I especially love their onion rings, which In-N-Out does not have. However, I think, price is the one thing that gives the numero uno position to In-N-Out