Two and a half weeks after opening, Thomas Keller’s Burgers & Half Bottles continues to draw lines of hungry and curious diners to his playful pop-up.

So much so that last Thursday, when my husband and I showed up at the opening time of noon to queue up behind about two dozen people, there were already plenty of diners eating burgers on the front patio. Turns out that the line that morning was already growing so rapidly, that the restaurant decided to open a little early, the manager told me.

Such is the allure when a legendary Michelin three-starred chef decides to build a concept around one of his favorite foods, the In-N-Out burger. When his Mexican restaurant Calenda closed in December 2024, it provided the perfect space for him to realize it, too.

On a torrid morning when it was already close to 90 degrees, a server passed out cups of ice water to those in line. This is a Keller restaurant, after all.

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