{"id":636677,"date":"2026-05-11T14:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636677\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:16:13","slug":"the-bay-area-tech-worker-whose-100-patty-burger-broke-in-n-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636677\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bay Area tech worker whose 100-patty burger broke In-N-Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Young wasn\u2019t even sure his order was possible. He\u2019d heard rumors, of course, but as a kid who\u2019d grown up on the\u00a0internet of the 1990s<\/a>, he knew that website whispers didn\u2019t always translate to the real world. He and his buddies, out for a meandering night in Las Vegas<\/a>, would just have to ask.<\/p>\n

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So, around dinner time on Halloween night in 2004, Young\u2019s laid-back group, including the late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, stepped up to the counter of a Nevada In-N-Out<\/a> to test their fate. Would it be possible, they wondered, to make a classic double-double, but with 98 extra patties and 98 extra slices of cheese?<\/p>\n

Sure, the workers said after some thought and a chuckle. Why not?<\/p>\n

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In-N-Out\u2019s famous 100-by-100 burger was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was no grand plan,\u201d Young recalled, nearly 22 years later, when reached by phone at his home in Walnut Creek<\/a>. \u201cWe just asked. We thought they\u2019d say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the famously affable workers<\/a> said they\u2019d give the burger a shot. The order took a while, and it must have been hell on the grill cooks, but in the end, the gang got their wish. The evening shift even fashioned an improvised caddy for the behemoth, sliding together cardboard boxes to fit the whole thing. One bun at the top, one at the bottom, and a century of meat and cheese in between.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was the end of our night, of course,\u201d Young said with a laugh, \u201cbecause we ate it, felt terrible and didn\u2019t go out after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Young is a family man. Once a longtime San Francisco resident, he\u2019s got a couple of kids and is happy to have traded the Mission for an East Bay backyard, though he does miss being able to simply walk from his front door to a quality burrito<\/a>. Like many in the greater Bay Area, Young has spent a lifetime at the vague, uncertain nexus of technology and the internet. He\u2019s strategized for startups that ended up going nowhere and programmed for places with sky-high valuations. He\u2019s been an early-stage investor and a guy you\u2019d have to squint to find on an org chart.<\/p>\n

And through it all, he\u2019s never been able to leave that massive burger behind. \u201cSadly, no matter what I do in my career, I\u2019ll probably always best be known for eating a 100×100 at In-n-out,\u201d reads his overflowing LinkedIn profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the crew pose with an In-N-Out staff member and the 100-by-100 burger.<\/p>\n

Picasa 2.0\/Courtesy of Will Young\/Blogspot\"The<\/p>\n

The messy, 100-by-100 burger nearly takes up the whole table.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Will Young\/Blogspot<\/p>\n

A native of Vancouver, Canada, Young moved to the Bay Area to chase the first dot-com boom. \u201cProgrammers back then in San Francisco were still kind of, I wouldn\u2019t say poor, but, you know, like making like $50,000 to $60,000 a year,\u201d he said. As a single man, it was enough money to live on and to chase a few weekends with. Along the way, Young became close friends with Hsieh, playing low-stakes poker and rolling around Las Vegas from time to time.<\/p>\n

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On the Halloween night in question, Young said that he and a group of seven close friends had been planning to go out to a club, or at least a bar, but decided to get dinner at In-N-Out first. It was Hsieh\u2019s brother Andy who suggested the 100-by-100 burger; he\u2019d heard a legend that some college guys had already tried to make one happen, but he wasn\u2019t sure if they\u2019d been able to pull it off.<\/p>\n

So, sheepishly, they asked.<\/p>\n

What arrived, a while later, was an unholy balance of hedonism and heroism. Recounting later on his Blogspot site<\/a>, Young figured the whole thing totaled just under 20,000 calories. Young himself said he probably ate about 20 of the patties in total \u2014 and, likely because the kitchen staff had to hurriedly cook over 12 pounds of beef, a couple of them were nearly raw in the middle. But they ate them all.<\/p>\n

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In perfectly lo-fi digital camera photos from that day, it\u2019s the cheese that stands out. Impossible yellow-orange, it pools in corners like gold in a sluice box. The slices have long since lost their square shape and have picked up a discomforting shine as fat weeps to the surface and tries to escape. But there is no escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was amazing!\u201d Young said happily. \u201cWe had to take a picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

They took many pictures, and eventually, word got around about the 100-patty burger. There was a brief window of time, maybe three years, after that night when Young would be dragged off the\u00a0internet and into the real world to give a quote or two about the unexpected feat. He talked to Maxim and Reuters for stories, and he did a long interview with\u00a0KCRW and the now-defunct website, A Hamburger Today. Eventually, the page view counter on his Blogspot ticked over a million visits.<\/p>\n

At one point, a company pitching itself as the \u201cAustralian Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast\u201d reached out to Young, who was happy to give a quote about the burger. He only asked that, when printed, the magazine ship a couple of copies to his home.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMonths later, I forget about it,\u201d said Young, until his roommate checked the mail and found a brown paper envelope. \u201c[We] open it up, and there\u2019s two porno magazines in there.\u201d Just past the centerfold was Young\u2019s quote and a photo of the sloppy mega-burger, part of a layout about ridiculous meals from around the world.<\/p>\n

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The famous Sunset Boulevard location of\u00a0In-N-Out in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

GDMatt66\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

More than two decades on,\u00a0In-N-Out has not forgotten about Young or his burger.<\/p>\n

Because of the crew\u2019s Las Vegas antics, the company maintains to this day a policy that no burger can be ordered larger than a four-by-four, meaning four patties and four slices of cheese. Much like the company\u2019s recent choice to stop calling out the number 67<\/a> to avoid raucous teenagers, In-N-Out\u2019s top brass decided that endless burger stacking is simply not worth the hassle.<\/p>\n

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Young said that he\u2019s met multiple former In-N-Out managers who confirmed that his Las Vegas burger was the inflection point for corporate change. \u201cI was in meetings where you came up, where we decided to not do this anymore,\u201d Young recalled hearing from a former executive several years ago. Another ex-employee, a district manager, said that the clampdown had unintended consequences with at least one high-profile guest. \u201cA Laker star, I won\u2019t name him, but he would always come in for an eight-by-eight,\u201d the manager told Young. \u201cI had to tell him, \u2018Sorry, we can\u2019t do that anymore. I have to make it two four-by-fours.\u2019 He was really disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Young has found himself straddling the line between his onetime burger infamy and his career in tech, consulting and venture capital. After many years of loving restaurants, Young recently became a part owner himself. He\u2019s part of the founding team<\/a> of Face Plant, a new fast food company out of Portland, Oregon, that has big plans to shake up the industry. Yes, the place sells burgers \u2014 vegan ones.<\/p>\n

The company just celebrated its first anniversary, and it has been gaining traction around the Portland area, selling $4.49 burgers and $9.99 combos that include meatless patties made on-site. It helps that New York Times bestselling author and energetic food personality Molly Baz is Face Plant\u2019s head of culinary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The exterior of Face Plant in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Chris C.\/Yelp<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re super happy with where things are,\u201d Young said. \u201cMarch and April this year [were] our best months ever.\u201d Total growth will take time, and for now, the group isn\u2019t thinking outside of Oregon. But like Bay Area startups and Las Vegas cheeseburgers, Young is known for asking just how big something can realistically get.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHow do we scale this thing?\u201d he asked rhetorically. \u201cHow do we fulfill our mission of being the next most loved fast food brand?\u201d Well, if Face Plant is taking cues from In-N-Out, the answer is simple: have a great product that people love \u2014 and don\u2019t be afraid to say yes to a few unusual customer request from time to time.<\/p>\n

Who knows, they could even end up in the next issue of Australian Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast.<\/p>\n