I have The History Channel on, and they’re talking about the history of drive-through windows at fast-food restaurants. If I’m interpreting what they’re saying correctly, they seem to be giving the impression that “drive-thru” windows are predominantly a 1970s phenomenon. I thought I heard the year 1977 as the date of the first “drive-thru” at a major burger chain. A window manufacturer says his company displayed a “drive-thru” window at a convention in 1979 and people didn’t know what it was. They thought, he said, the windows were models of a full-size thing that cars could drive through.
But I remember going through the “drive-thru” at Jack-in-the-Box with my grandmother, who died in 1969. So it must have been around 1968. I know I went to JitB with dad before then, but memory gets fuzzy that young.
I remember driving through Picnic’n Chicken in San Diego in the early 1970s with my mom.
So what’s the deal? When did "drive-thru"s become widespread? I can’t believe it was so late as the middle-1970s.
But that runs counter to my own experiences. As I said, one of my grandmothers died in 1969. It was at least a year prior that we went through the “drive-thru” of a Jack-in-the-Box in Anaheim, CA. I remember it clearly because she ordered a hamburger. When the voice-in-the-clown asked, “Would you like anything else?” she said, “No, I just want a plain hamburger.” Which is what she got – a bun with meat in it. She was angry about it, since she expected a plain hamburger with the normal toppings but without a side of fries and a coke. Anyway, it’s clear in my memory.
Also, I would get sick occasionally as a child. We’re talking five or so, which would have been in the latter part of the mid-1960s. Dad would take me to the Jack-in-the-Box “drive-thru” in San Diego – I think it was on Balboa and Kearny Mesa Rd. (obviously I didn’t drive then, and I don’t know the roads very well). There was definitely a “drive-thru” with a clown-thing to take the order.
According to the Jack in the Box website they were one of the first restaurants to use a drive-thru.Wendy’s probably just had a larger implementation of the concept.
I remember the JitB drive thru in Carlsbad about the same time. Perhaps SoCal was on the cutting edge… But my fave was In-N-Out, which I’m sure Johnny L.A. must be familiar with. http://www.inandout.com/ implies they were doing it in 1948.
Yes, I’m familiar with In-N-Out; but I prefer Fatburger. I like the taste of the burgers better, and the fries are good as well (inlike In-N-Out’s fries). But INO does have a pretty good burger.
I agree, In-n-Out Burger’s drive through in 1948 trumps Jack’s in 1951 by three years, and Wendy’s isn’t even in the running with 1970. In-n-Out also has the best burger by far.
They began as carhop service in 1921. That article claims:
Although one wonders about the accuracy of the chronology when the article opens with:
oops. At any rate, I’m willing to believe that there were a few drive-thru windows in the early 30’s, though most places would have had carhop service through the 50’s.