The Squeeze Inn is something of a Sacramento area legend and I’d be very surprised if you haven’t already heard of it. They’ve expanded quite a bit recently and this Roseville location opened up just about one and a half years ago. They are known for their big cheeseburgers with the signature “skirt” of overflowing cheese. I’ve been to the original (both the original original as well as the current Power Inn location) and this one. The Roseville location dwarfs even the expanded original Squeeze Inn, having taken over a spot previously occupied by Round Table Pizza at North Sunrise and Douglas.
Demand for Squeeze Inn burgers was very high just a few years ago, and with just one tiny little spot it resulted in very long and slow moving lines. Now that they’ve expanded the lines have mostly evaporated, at least at the times I’ve gone. When I arrived today for lunch at noon I was kind of surprised at how empty the place was. There was only a handful of other customers spread around the dining room. I walked right up to the register and after a quick skimming over of the menu I placed my order of a SqueezeBurger (100%Beef, 1/3lb. mayo, mustard, tomato, lettuce, pickles, onion on a sesame seed bun) with cheese, bacon and mushrooms, a small order of fries and a soda.
The dining room has a variety of different seating options including the counter, booths, tall and standard height tables. In addition there is some covered outdoor seating. One really odd thing that I feel compelled to mention about this space is the restrooms. It’s a single person restroom but is enormous. After going through the door you walk another 20 feet or so to the opposite end. It’s weird. While I waited in the dining room for my order I noticed some customers looking at the ceiling and I had a bit of a Keanu “whoa” moment when I noticed what they were looking at. Stuck into the ceiling panels are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of the long toothpicks that come in your burger to hold it together. Later one of the employees showed some children how to use a straw to shoot them up like a blow dart.
My order took between five to ten minutes and was brought out to my table when ready. Today’s cheese skirt was a pretty good sized one, and it had some great dripping-over-the-edge action going on. These burgers are big, messy and above almost all else, greasy. I wish the napkins weren’t as thin as they are because I feel like, when I was done and looking at the small pile on the table, I had killed a few trees. I had asked for no tomatoes or pickles. There was just one large piece of lettuce under the patty but lots of red onions. It was a challenge to hold the burger together while I ate it. Lots of mushrooms and other goodies slipped out the back into the paper tray and had to be shoved back under the bun. I like to tear the cheese skirt off and then put about half of it inside the burger and keep the other half as kind of a side item.
I’ve found the fries at Squeeze Inn to be very hit or miss (much like Five Guys). Often they are undercooked and nearly limp, other times they are perfectly crisp and awesome (like these ones). Today they weren’t exactly undercooked, but they were a lot less crispy than I like. On top of that they were severely lacking in flavor. I sprinkled some salt over them but it really didn’t seem to help much, and even with dipping in ketchup I gave up on them pretty early.
The Squeeze Inn is an interesting place. I don’t find the burgers to be all that outstanding flavor-wise, but they are pretty fascinating and a fun place to take out-of-towners for a fairly unique meal. I didn’t interact with the crew here that much but the people at the Power Inn location are very pleasant and deliver pretty consistently good customer service. I’ve heard mixed stories about our Squeeze Inn, but didn’t experience anything noteworthy this time. If you’ve never been I say try it at least once and get the squeeze with cheese, otherwise why go?
Website: http://thesqueezeinn.com/
Eating Through Roseville 
We walk by their Midtown location all the time and recently visited their West Sacramento location and both places seem less than bustling. Maybe we are just around them at the wrong times. I busted up my cheese skirt and put it in the sandwich and it became a crunchy hamburger. Don’t those toothpicks fall on anyone’s food ever? Also, we think they use Costco hotdogs for their hotdog based items, but who orders hot dogs at Squeeze Inn anyway (Kathy does)?
Re: toothpicks, I was wondering the same thing after I noticed them!