Call it a Texas-size Bun-Gate.
Southern California fast-food institution In-N-Out Burger has temporarily closed all of its restaurants in Texas after a major bun flap.
The Irvine-Calif.-based chain operates about 36 restaurants in the state, with most locations concentrated in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio markets. The restaurants closed when In-N-Out discovered the restaurants were serving a poor-quality bun. The company made the call to stop serving Texas customers late Monday.
“At In-N-Out Burgers, we have always served the highest quality food with no compromise. We recently discovered that our buns in Texas do not meet the quality standards that we demand,” the company told Nation’s Restaurant News in a statement. “There was and are no food safety concerns.”
In-N-Out did not disclose specifics as to what was wrong with the buns. The company’s old-fashioned sponge dough buns are four inches in diameter. They are slightly dense and designed to be toasted. The company declined to name the bakery providing the buns to Texas.
The chain said restaurants are expected to reopen within the next 24 hours, or as early as Wednesday, as a new “high quality bun” shipment is on its way to Texas.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this closure may cause for our customers,” the company said.
The new batch of buns is likely being shipped from In-N-out’s home base in Southern California, the site of its longtime baker, Puritan Bakery. The Los Angeles-area business has been producing buns for In-N-Out and other fast-food burger chains for decades. In-N-Out’s buns are a proprietary recipe created by Puritan Bakery for better grilling results. Puritan Bakery’s other clients have included Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Islands Restaurants and Original Tommy’s Hamburgers.
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