A little bit of California made its way to Orem on Thursday as hundreds of mostly college-aged customers mobbed the new In-N-Out Burger restaurant at 350 E. University Pkwy.

Some who had long awaited the arrival of the venerable Golden State culinary and cultural institution came the night before; some camped out. But most turned out around the lunch hour to whet their appetites at one of In-N-Out's first two Wasatch Front locations.

BYU students Jeff Chapman, of Walnut Creek, Calif., and friend Alissa Pitt, of southern California, were giddy as they waited in line at around 1 p.m. for the first taste of home since the summer.

"It feels like home, ..." Alissa Pitt said. "It's almost as good as Disneyland."

Chapman said he had been sending out Tweets all morning about the much-anticipated opening of the restaurant in Orem. He said In-N-Out is unlike any other burger chain.

"It's fast food, but you don't feel like it's cheap," Chapman said. "They're affordable, clean, good and fresh."

Daniell Gray, a student at UVU from Riverside, Calif., said as a native Californian, she couldn't help coming out for the grand opening. She couldn't exactly put her finger on why people rave so much about the California burger joint with the familiar logo and T-shirts, but she has a theory.

"It's the fries, and the sauce they put on the hamburgers," Gray said.

Eddie Metcalfe, the Orem store manager, said though the restaurant officially opened at 8:50 a.m., that didn't stop people from lining up in the wee hours of the night.

"One person waited in the drive-thru for 30 hours," he said.

An entire grand opening crew was staffing the restaurant with 86 employees serving lunch, directing customers at the doors, and taking orders for the long line of cars in the extended drive-thru in the strip mall's parking lot. Upwards of 115 company employees are assisting with Orem's grand opening. Dine-in waits on Thursday around 1 p.m. were averaging around 30 minutes, Metcalfe said.

But despite the heavy turnout, he said the first In-N-Out in Utah Valley wouldn't' run short on food. Deliveries of fresh ingredients will be made daily during the first week the restaurant is open.

What's the magic behind In-N-Out's fanatical draw? Metcalfe said the restaurant started as a family run operation and has stayed that way. Their straight-forward menu consists of burgers, fries and milk shakes.

"We serve every customer, one burger at a time," he said. "We do our thing and we do it well."

But plenty of those celebrating In-N-Out's arrival in Orem were Utah County folks who have either discovered the restaurant on their travels West or heard the buzz through word-of-mouth, and opted to let their taste buds be the final judge.

Logan Lisle of American Fork had an English teacher who would talk about making runs to California for the sole purpose of scooping up 50 burgers. He and a friend, Jared Skinner of Alpine, wanted to come and see for themselves what all the excitement was about.

Curtis and Emilie Jones of Lindon said they typically make a pit stop at In-N-Out when they're in California. He said they came out for the Orem grand opening "because we like it."

Best menu items? "The Double-Double," Curtis Jones said, along with the "light fries," added his wife, Emilie Jones. They explained the fries are cooked for a shorter amount of time and are greasier, making them more delicious. Certain toppings and ingredients are secret at In-N-Out, and customers have to ask for them using special code words that can be easily be found on the Internet, they said.

Julie Olson, from the San Francisco Bay area and a student at BYU, said she brought her friend, Ben Stoddard, who's never dined at In-N-Out, on Thursday "to show him the ropes."

"It's been like four years," she said since her last meal at the iconic restaurant. "Talk about withdrawal symptoms."

The Orem grand opening coincided with a similar event in Draper. Prior to the two Wasatch Front locations opening, people with a hankering for In-N-Out had to travel to the St. George area or Las Vegas. Two more restaurants are scheduled to open in the coming months in American Fork and West Jordan. The Orem In-N-Out Burger is the company's 235th location in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

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