Thomas Keller Loves This Fast Food Chain So Much, He Opened Up His Own Version

There are few American chefs whose reputations loom as large as Thomas Keller's. With more Michelin stars than any other American chef (seven, to be exact) and at the helm of such storied restaurants as French Laundry and Per Se, customers are already salivating when Keller opens a new establishment. His latest concept is somewhat of a departure from his fine dining roots, as it is an homage to his enthusiasm for a beloved fast food chain: In-N-Out.

While it opened in 2025, Burgers & Half Bottles is an idea that has been brewing with Keller since he moved to the West Coast from New York in the early 1990s. As his story goes, he tried an In-N-Out burger that a friend served him with a half bottle of Zinfandel and the food memory clearly stuck. The spot, currently billed as a pop-up, is in the space of Keller's former Mexican restaurant La Calenda in Yountville, California, and gives a complete fast-casual, order-at-the-counter, burger experience, complete with some fancy ingredient upgrades befitting a Michelin star chef. Despite its potential temporary operation, at the time of writing, the restaurant's website still lists its operating hours as Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Though there aren't any of In-N-Out's signature crossed palm trees outside Burgers & Half Bottles, you can expect a unique plant-covered exterior and similar strikingly red decor inside. The menu features a burger that is an ode to In-N-Out's headliner (featuring wagyu beef, of course) along with Thomas Keller's very own secret sauce and the option to make it an iconic double. Burgers & Half Bottles secret sauce is no doubt a play on the ketchup, mayo, relish condiment at In-N-Out, but the specific ingredients, like the eatery's Bouchon Bakery buns, clearly elevate its burger game. If a burger isn't floating your boat, however, the restaurant has a few other items of note, including a grilled cheese (which is a secret menu item at In-N-Out), a fried chicken sandwich, a surf 'n' turf sandwich, a lobster roll, an ice cream sandwich, and, of course, milkshakes.

In-N-Out's playbook of using fresh meat and always cutting its fries in-store certainly suits Keller's style and is echoed in Burgers & Half Bottles crispy, sometimes truffled, sometimes crinkle-cut, fries. The pop-up restaurant even offers catering like In-N-Out, and you can also visit the Brew Bus, a vintage VW bus parked outside, to enjoy a rotating selection of beers from Russian River Brewing or root beer from Lost Coast Brewery, all on tap. And, as an homage to Keller's first experience eating In-N-Out, Burgers & Half Bottles serves, you guessed it, half bottles of wine, as well as wine by the glass.