Address: 311 East 23rd St at Park Ave South. 6-Train to 23rd Street.
In-N-Out Burger, a highly-regarded, simple burger chain, only stretches as far east as Nevada and Colorado. Their statement on franchising will probably keep it this way:
"In-N-Out remains privately owned and the Snyder family has no plans to take the company public or franchise any units." - In-N-Out "History"How do you capitalize on this geographic restriction out East? Start a clone of course! First, create a brand name and color scheme similar (but hopefully distinct) enough to draw in cravers of the real thing. Then set up your menu in a similar fashion, and you're all set!
Let's face it: New York City is the capital of borderline cease-and-desist fast food clones. There was the "Subs Ur Way" in a yellow-and-green color scheme in Greenpoint (which lasted all of two months), and, of course, the infamous hundreds of KFC brand capitlizers, be it Kennedy Fried Chicken, Kansas Fried Chicken, or even New Kantaky Fried Chicken.
Enter Fresh-N-Fast, our new In-N-Out clone, which opened its first location by the corner of 23rd St & Park Avenue South.
While In-N-Out's restaurants generally offer spacious seating, this first Fresh-N-Fast location only has a few barstools along a narrow consumption counter along its left side. The menu boards could hardly be a closer match though. The only real dissimilarity is the fact that In-N-Out's grilled cheese sandwich is a "secret menu item" while at Fresh-N-Fast it's out in the open. Take a look at the comparison below:
In-N-Out Menu Board by roboppy via Flickr
Finally, let's get to how the food actually tastes and what the experience is like. Long story short, the burger was very good (perhaps a notch under Shake Shack) and the fries were world class (similar to but a notch above Five Guys). Price was comparable to the other "upscale burger chains", a double cheeseburger and fries will cost you around $8.50. The service staff appeared somewhat confused overall - at one point it seemed they thought they had already cleared my order. The kicker was when the cashier was asked if "Animal Style" was offered here. The response was "Oh, like In-N-Out?" While you can't get "Animal Style" exactly like In-N-Out, the nearly-identical special sauce and liquid cheese is offered on the side.
Diehard In-N-Out fans will probably scoff at this clone. However, unless you plan on flying out to Las Vegas for lunch, this is the next best thing, and it tastes good. What more can matter? Fresh-N-Fast plans on opening further locations throughout the city.