In-N-Out wants to open in a California town that once rejected it

A California town that once spurned the fast food giant In-N-Out is trying to bring the burger chain back more than two years later.

Back in 2023, the city of Buellton, California shot down a proposal to bring an In-N-Out restaurant, with the Buellton City Council voting 3-1 against the fast food chain.

Now negotiations between the city and the chain have resumed, with plans for the restaurant to be built in a new location, a vacant lot on McMurray Road, according to SF Gate.

The original 2023 proposal called for a vacant movie theater on McMurray Road to be razed and replaced by the In-N-Out, though there were some major concerns.

The Buellton City Council approved the proposal in October 2023, though closer inspection from Caltrans and other agencies revealed that the home of the Double-Double could cause severe traffic congestion.

That led to the City Council rejecting the project from moving forward in December 2023, which was considered quite the surprise at the time.

The Santa Barbara Independent even called the move a, “major about-face,” but now it seems Buellton residents may get an In-N-Out after all.

Buellton city manager Scott Wolfe revealed at a recent Chamber of Commerce event that there is a new location being eyed for the restaurant, which would be able to accommodate the increased traffic better.

The new lot is also on McMurray Road, a vacant lot north of Rufus T. Buell Drive, adjacent to the Firestone Walker Brewing Company.

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This lot on McMurray Road – a frontage road that runs parallel to the freeway – is, “just superior from a traffic perspective,” Wolfe told SF Gate.

He added that In-N-Out walked away from the stalled 2023 plans, “relatively unhappy, understandably so.”

“They spent a lot of time and money putting that project together, and it just didn’t pan out. The location was the problem, not the restaurant,” he added.

Wolfe said that the city’s mayor reached out to In-N-Out after the decision, though, “we didn’t hear much back.”

“We decided we just have to sit and wait. They came here for a reason the first time,” Wolfe said.

If these plans do come together this time, it would close a major gap of In-N-Out restaurants along the 101 freeway.

Buellton is located within a 70-mile gap between the In-N-Out restaurants in Santa Maria and Goleta, and it could fill a big local gap as well.

The town was previously home to a famous roadside diner dubbed Pea Soup Andersen’s, which surprisingly shuttered in January 2024 after nearly a century in business.

There are plans for redeveloping Pea Soup Andersen’s, but it remains in formative stages, with In-N-Out being eyed to fill that gap in the meantime.

“We don’t need that singular focus to make things work. I look at In-N-Out as a great addition to the community,” Wolfe said.

In-N-Out did also bring a whole new team for negotiations this time around, though Wolfe confirmed there is still a long road ahead.

The planning commission’s first look at the new proposed project will happen at the April 2 meeting, though there is optimism about it moving forward.

“”We do hope to open a new restaurant in Buellton,” Mike Abbate, In-N-Out’s vice president of real estate and development, told SF Gate via email.

“We’re currently in the development application process, so it’s too early to say when, or even if, we’ll be able to open a restaurant there,” he added.

“We appreciate our Customers in Buellton and the surrounding area who have shared their anticipation with us,” he added. “And we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to better serve them at this proposed location.”