In-N-Out opened its 300th store in Anaheim this week, a major milestone that its usually guarded owner marked by remembering the past -- both professional and personal.
Normally as private as the company's books, Lynsi Snyder ventured into the public eye to honor her grandmother and the people who work at the popular fast-food chain in an exclusive interview with NBC4 Wednesday, as store number 300 opened.
"I'd like people to have the real story, I'd like people to have the truth about who we are," Snyder said.
The first In-N-Out predates the 10 Freeway; the 300th was dedicated to Esther Snyder, who founded the chain with her husband, Harry, in 1948.
Wednesday also would have been Esther Snyder's 95th birthday.
"She would be ecstatic. I can just hear her giggle. She would be proud," her granddaughter said in a rare interview.
Unlike other fast food chains, In-N-Out doesn't sell franchises -- all 300 stores across five states are owned by the Snyder family.
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Though In-N-Out made Snyder the youngest billionaire in the U.S. when she inherited her family's fortune, according to Bloomberg, she almost never speaks publicly.
Her family's path to owning 300 restuarants has been tough -- Snyder's uncle, Rich, died in a plane crash in 1993. Six years later her father died of a drug overdose.
Today Snyder considers the store's employees, called associates, her family.
"I've told the associates at many meetings that I may have lost a family but I gained them and that strength is a bond."
In-N-Out is renowned as a good place to work -- online career community Glassdoor ranked the chain above Apple in its 2015 Employees' Choice Awards -- and the employees have certainly taken notice.
"They bring that right-on attitude," employee Frank Solchaga said. "Everyone loves coming here."
Customers notice too.
"I ordered a three-by-three -- it's a little secret menu kind of thing," said Kurt Zimmerman, who lined up at 2 a.m. to be the first customer at the historic Anaheim location. "I cannot wait."
