In-N-Out Burger will go ahead with plans to close its Oakland restaurant this weekend, the Irvine-based fast food chain confirmed in an email Thursday.
The drive-thru’s last day will be Sunday, March 24, as the company announced in late January, citing crime in the area as endangering customers and employees. Statistics show the crime situation is starting to improve, city leaders have said recently.
The announcement made national news In-N-Out’s “first time ever” permanent closure, as CNN put it. In-N-Out was founded in Baldwin Park in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder and in the following 75 years grew to 401 locations.
There were, however, restaurants early in the chain’s history that no longer exist.
That’s because from 1948 to 1952 the Snyders had a partner named Charles Noddin. When the Snyders split with Noddin, there were six restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. The Snyders kept three, and the three that Noddin got were renamed and eventually closed, as Lynsi Snyder, granddaughter of the founders as well as current owner and president, explains in her 2023 book “The In-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger.”
The Oakland restaurant is No. 193 and opened in 2005, according to In-N-Out’s list.
Restaurants are numbered chronologically, No 1 being in Baldwin Park, although the original stand was closed in 1954 and rebuilt nearby due to the construction of the 10 Freeway. Store No. 401 opened in Madera on Jan. 5.
In-N-Out didn’t say what if anything would happen to Oakland’s store number.