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HURRAH FOR HABIT!
USA TODAY reports ” ‘Congrats on #2’ Habit Shades In-N-Out with Billboard After Burger Ranking Poll,” October 1, 2024. The newspaper’s Anthony Robledo recounts, “Habit Burger & Grill is claiming bragging rights for coming out on top of a burger ranking poll this year, more specifically, above In-N-Out Burger.”
“The billboard,” Robledo describes, “cites a July poll by USA TODAY 10Best ranking favorite burgers by fast food chains. A panel of burger buffs and 10Best editors nominated the best choices, while readers voted for their favorites. Habit’s Double Char came out as the winner and In-N-Out’s Double-Double was the runner-up.”
Full Disclosure: I was not among the burger buffs, 10Best editors or readers involved in this ranking. Indeed, my choice is an outlier of Habit’s offerings: a Portabella Char suitably jazzed up as a Lettuce Wrap with bacon and onions. And I miss McDonald’s occasionally available McRib.
Trolling Online. Robledo notes that “The Irvine-based company did not stop touting its victory with the billboard. On its official Instagram, the account posted a letter trolling In-N-Out.” Sorta tongue in tasty cheek:
“There’s so much emphasis on winning in today’s society. Let’s take a beat celebrate the silver medalists. The runner-ups. There are hundreds—if not thousands—of burger options out there And yours was just voted #2,” the chain wrote. “That’s pretty darn good. So, here’s to you, In-N-Out. Congrats on #2. Your friends, Habit Burger & Grill.”
Double Double Backlash. USA Today reports that “devoted In-N-Out fans… did not hesitate to throw shade right back in the post’s comment section: ‘That’s funny. Meanwhile In-N-Out is slammed packed and has a drive through line around the corner at every location,’ one user noted. ‘Man this ad is really making me crave a Double Double,’ another comment read.”
USA Today’s Top 10. Here are the chain winners. Alas, non-chain burger joints went unrated. Perhaps you have a favorite?
- Double Char: The Habit Burger Grill
- Double-Double: In-N-Out Burger
- BBQ Rodeo Burger: BurgerFi
- Jumbo Jack Cheeseburger: Jack in the Box
- Cheeseburger: Five Guys
- Double Meat Whataburger: Whataburger
- ButterBurger Cheese, Double: Culver’s
- Whopper: Burger King
- Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger: Carl’s Jr.
- The 1921 Slider: White Castle
Burger History. “In 1969,” USA Today reports, “The Habit Burger Grill opened its first location in Santa Barbara, initially named Hamburger Habit. In 1995, the chain opened its second location in Ventura before gradually expanding to more than 20 Southern California spots. By 2014, the company had 109 locations. Today the Irvine-based company has 372 locations, including 30 in the United Kingdom.”
Similarly, he writes, “In-N-Out opened its first location in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California. Now there are about 400 locations in seven states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon and Colorado.”
In-N-Out is highly regarded for its occasional secret offerings: “Animal fries,” for instance, are french fries topped with melted cheese, grilled onions, and In-N-Out’s special sauce.
Among certain rowdy SoCal types, there was a brief and salacious heyday of excising the “B” and “R” from the brand’s logo. Don’t try this at home, kids; mom wants you to exhibit proper upbringing.
Inaugural Indy Grand Prix Sliders. The USA Today’s No. 10 choice of White Castle brings back memories of the 2000 Indianapolis Grand Prix: As noted here at SimanaitisSays, “R&T made a big deal of the inaugural Indianapolis GP, in that the Newport Beach editorial office more or less emptied out and moved to the Midwest. My favorite Indy hotel at the time was a Homewood Suites in the northern part of the city, whereas the Indy Motor Speedway is on its western fringe. The magazine chartered a bus for getting us to and from the circuit and related functions.”
Returning late from one of these, we all realized that our p.r. entertaining had us missing anything resembling dinner. To remedy this, we urged the bus driver to park in a White Castle lot as one of us ran in and ordered a busload’s sliders and fries. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024
Simanaitis Says 
She Who Must Be Obeyed is a In-n-Out fan, though the diet can’t accept more than a couple runs a month. I compromise by getting my burger “protein style” == lettuce wrap; cuts the calories by almost 200. If you really want to punish your gut, try your double-double “animal style” which adds all that stuff to the burger; do it to the fries too and it’s close to triggering an ER run!
As for Habit, yes, I like them more, but even as a lettuce wrap their stuff (I also like the Portabella Char, single, and their tempura veggies as a side) is hard enough on the diet to be a couple times a year visit at most.
Portabella mushrooms are just fine without dead animal. Try Impossible hamburger. It’s good, indistinguishable from the “real” thing, and the faux cheese available today is alright. We had such giant burgers couple weeks ago. Mighty fine.
And….you’ll be around to take advantage of the full synthetic motor oil and DOT 5 silicone brake fluid in the auld dragon in the garage. Most of us here gathered have such, from one side of the Atlantic or Channel, i do believe.
Yep, Impossible is a stew fav. I also have a bag of its “meat”balls in the freezer for mixing with Trader Joe’s Penne Arrabbiata.
Happily, McD’s McRib comes around every December, I too have fond memories of it long long ago, now I only need one every year .
White Castle tried in California back in the 1970’s, they called it “West Castle” but it was the same thing .
The last time I spotted a White Castle whilst crossing America, I stopped in and it didn’t taste as good as I remembered =8-( .
In-N-Out is good but not my favorite .
My Sweet and I go there a few times each Summer .
-Nate