1. The place is an old establishment (I don't know exactly when Squeeze Inn opened, but from the dumpiness of it, it looks like it's been around for a while).
2. As alluded to in point #1, it is dumpy.
3. The place has been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
Actually, that's how I was introduced to Squeeze Inn, by Guy greedily stuffing this whopper of a burger into his mouth... and I knew I had to have this burger too.
So Wayne and I finally made our way out to Squeeze Inn last weekend (this was precluded by an unsuccessful attempt a while back right after I first watched the episode and we were all on fire to find this mouth-watering burger... only to learn that they close on Sundays. This thwarted our quest up until now). Anyway, so we got to Squeeze Inn at 1pm, hoping to pass the lunch rush, except apparently, at Squeeze Inn, it's more like as unrelenting rush, because even at 1pm, there was a line out the door. But we were on a mission, so we got in line.
During this wait time, we got to take in this place and it's surroundings. Squeeze Inn is indeed a tiny little place that you have to squeeze in to. The inside consists of the grill/kitchen area and the counter, and an area right in front of the counter that is just wide enough for one row of hungry people, waiting for their orders. Oh, and Squeeze Inn is orange--the whole exterior! Very fun, indeed! We also noticed that the falafel place right next door was completely empty... poor falafel place.
So we waited and waited in line, slowly inching our way along the outside wall of the restaurant and then up the steps, through the door, and finally, to the counter, where we placed our order of 2 cheese burgers and an order of fries! Done? Nope, the wait continued as the staff had to prepare all the orders before us, and judging by the number of people packed into the tiny space, waiting for their food, we had a long time to continue waiting.
And wait we did... we played games, Wayne quizzed me on the Pac 10 teams (Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Oregon State, ASU, Arizona, Washington, Washington State), we stared out the window ("wow, look how long the line is now"), stared at the walls, stared at those sitting at the counter, scarfing down their burgers... and then, "Cecilia, your order is ready." We both actually CHEERED! Someone commented that we sounded like we had won a prize, but that's exactly how I felt! "Cecilia! Oh, my goodness! That's ME!!!"
We grabbed our food, couldn't help but smuggly smile at those still waiting in line as we passed them on the way to our car, and then proceeded to DEVOUR our burgers that COMPLETELY lived up to the hype! Squeeze Inn burgers are known for their "cheese skirts" which is created by sprinkling melted cheese onto their burgers while still on the grill, and then covering with a lid so that the cheese melts and bubbles around the patty, creating a little skirt of cheddary goodness! The meat patty itself was thick and juicy, perfectly grilled. There was plenty of lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes--no skimping on the fresh ingredients. And the sesame bun!!! A good burger is made a GREAT burger by its bun. This bun was not just sprinkled with sesame seeds, it was EMBEDDED--ALL OVER! (Like a pimply teenager. yum. :) ). I ate almost the whole 1/3-pound burger (stopped short of a bite, just so I wouldn't feel so bad about eating a whole burger).
So yes, as you can tell by all my all-cap words and the length of this post, we are fans of Squeeze Inn. The wait was about an hour (!), but it was well-worth it. And I would readily do it again for another legendary, cheese-skirted burger.
