The Animal Style burger at In-N-Out Burger did not come from a corporate kitchen or a marketing team. It came from a customer watching an employee eat lunch.
"We began serving the Animal Style burger in the early 1960s when a customer watched one of our associates make his own customized burger and asked for one made the same way," In-N-Out Burger chief operating officer Denny Warnick told Fox News Digital.
According to a Fox News report, the Animal Style burger is described on the company's website as a burger with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, a mustard-cooked beef patty, pickle, extra spread, and grilled onions. The name was not planned.
"The name was created there on the spot. Over the years, many of the variations in preparation for our basic menu items were given names, usually by the customers who frequently ordered their burgers that way. The terms were merely used to describe a way of preparing an order or a menu item exactly the way a customer wanted it," Warnick said.
In-N-Out's off-menu tradition reflects a broader customer service philosophy. The company's website says the restaurants accommodate special orders because they are all about making customers happy. Some of those customer-named variations eventually became part of what is known as the secret menu, even though none of them are actually secret.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2004 that In-N-Out customers had known about ordering their burgers Animal Style for years. By 2005, the chain listed some of its most popular off-menu orders on a page it called the Not-So-Secret Menu on its website.
The full off-menu list includes the Double-Meat, with two beef patties; the 3x3, with three beef patties and three slices of American cheese; the 4x4, which adds another patty and cheese slice to the 3x3; the Grilled Cheese, which replaces the beef patty with two slices of American cheese; and Protein Style, which wraps a burger in hand-leafed lettuce instead of a bun.
Warnick said the process has not changed regardless of what a customer orders. "Whether a 'secret menu' order or not, we still cook every burger fresh-to-order, exactly how the customer wants it," he said.
Harry and Esther Snyder opened the first In-N-Out in a suburb of Los Angeles in 1948. It was California's first drive-thru hamburger stand. By 1973 there were 13 locations, all in Los Angeles County. Today the company is still privately owned by the Snyder family and operates more than 400 locations across 10 states.
