- 3 minutes ago
In the mid-20th century, there were 40,000 drive-in restaurants across America, complete with intercoms for ordering and carhops who brought out food on steel trays. They were the beating heart of the US's emerging car culture.
But today, there are only a handful of family-owned drive-ins left in America. Superdawg is Chicago's last remaining one. Its carhops ferry out its famous "dawgs" 362 days a year.
An hour north, the Miller family has kept the Dog N Suds name alive thanks to foot-long hot dogs, classic car cruise nights, and homemade root beer. Chief correspondent Abby Narishkin visits these two legendary spots to see how they've kept cars pulling into their lots and what the future might hold for the dying drive-in.
But today, there are only a handful of family-owned drive-ins left in America. Superdawg is Chicago's last remaining one. Its carhops ferry out its famous "dawgs" 362 days a year.
An hour north, the Miller family has kept the Dog N Suds name alive thanks to foot-long hot dogs, classic car cruise nights, and homemade root beer. Chief correspondent Abby Narishkin visits these two legendary spots to see how they've kept cars pulling into their lots and what the future might hold for the dying drive-in.
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00:01This drive-in restaurant serves up 15,000 pounds of fries a week and can cook up
00:07to 360 dogs at once. Super Dog is the only drive-in restaurant left in
00:13Chicago, complete with car hops and a strict no-catch-up rule.
00:19We'll make fun of you. You're in Chicago. In the mid-20th century, drive-in
00:24restaurants like this were king. You could order, pay, and eat without ever
00:28stepping foot outside your car. At their peak, there were 40,000 in the U.S.
00:34led by chains like A&W. They were the beating heart of America's new car
00:39culture. But today, traditional family-owned drive-ins are facing extinction.
00:46Dog & Suds, a Midwest chain, once boasted over 600 locations. Now it's down to about
00:52a dozen. As drive-ins have dwindled, we're one of not so many that are still left.
00:57We headed out to these two legendary spots to find out exactly how they've kept the engines
01:03roaring. And why the classic art of eating in your car is primed for a massive comeback.
01:11Super Dog in the northwest side of Chicago opened its drive-in lanes in 1948. And not much has
01:18changed since. Inside the original building, chefs slice fries on a machine from the 1960s.
01:25My name is Alberto Hernandez, and I've been here for eight years. And they call me the
01:31Spud Muscles. So this is our potato slicer, which enables us to get a fresh cut potato that
01:39are crinkled on all four sides. That's Don Drucker, co-owner of SuperDog. And why haven't
01:45you switched to something automatic? The companies that make the automated machines, they don't
01:50custom-make them to get the right depth of the cuts. It's not as easy as it looks.
01:56With one hand. With one hand? Yeah. That's your challenge. You can't do it. I got it. It
02:02just takes three. Oh, wow. That's... And then all the way back. That's actually harder. Okay,
02:09I'm gonna do it. You should've taken my job. You're taking your job. What am I gonna say?
02:21I guess I'm out of the job now. See, you won't need a gym membership after you work here. No,
02:26no. I mean, I can see why everyone has muscles that works here. Once the potatoes are cut, cooks rinse
02:33them to get all the starch off. And then we'll blanch them, which is like hard cooking. Get
02:40them about halfway through. This whole stack of blanched potatoes will be gone by this afternoon.
02:45When we're busy, we just need to finish them, which means we're dropping them to get them to crisp up,
02:51get golden, rather than having to cook it all the way through from start to finish, which takes a lot
02:58longer.
03:00It all comes together on this triangular steam table from the 1950s. We can cook and dress on all three
03:07sides of the steam table. You can expand it so that you can have as many as, you know, 360
03:14super dogs cooking at a time, or you can collapse it down to one side and be 60. The building's
03:22only
03:2212 by 20, so we can get from here to there, get the sandwich pretty easily and come back and
03:28dress it. It's the beauty of being small and compact. There's a lot of efficiency in that. So we're
03:35able to do high volume with less people. The star of the menu is the iconic super dog. Whatever you
03:43do, don't call it a hot dog. You can get a hot dog anywhere, but you can only get a
03:48super dog here.
03:48It's made for us to our recipe. They boil in one of two chambers on the steam table. This tag
03:54tells chefs
03:55which chamber is currently cooking. They are a plumper dog. The dog will plump more when it is
04:02boiled as opposed to when it's charred. That dog will meet a warm poppy seed bun. They're
04:08baked fresh daily, right up the road at the Chicago Institution Alpha Baking Company. Chefs
04:14slice them in the back of the kitchen and store them in another compartment on the steam table.
04:18We have the traditional condiments, the mustard, the bright neon green relish, white chopped
04:25onions, kosher dill pickle spear. We use a green pickled tomato. It's unique to us. Hotspore
04:33peppers if you like. Okay, I don't see any ketchup anywhere. No. This is Chicago. You know, you
04:40just know not to do that. Supposedly, this tradition comes from the Depression era, when all people
04:47could afford were low quality hot dogs. So they used ketchup to cover up the taste. The
04:52acidity of the ketchup kind of overpowers and doesn't really blend well with the other condiments.
05:00The fries from earlier get tucked under a super dog in a custom box. We buy these by the hundreds
05:06of thousands. They come in flat. So we're going to pull it out, pop it open, put the dog in,
05:14and then behind it, I'm going to put the fries. And then you'll see as we close this, the vents
05:21open up so that we can let some of that steam out so that it doesn't become overly soggy.
05:27I notice they have their own language in here. Cheesies four, one grilled, mid-cheese one.
05:33If they say, I've got two whooper cheeses that have grilled onions on them, that's going to take
05:39forever. So we just call them whoopsie cheeses a pear grilled. Or we'll say burger dark. It means we
05:47want a burger, no cheese, on dark bread. I'll put a dog down and I'll tell Oliver, hold the relish
05:54including. It means don't put relish on it. Including means put peppers on it. This guy holds the record
06:02for making seven super dogs at once. My name is Jose Dolores, but everybody calls me Lolo.
06:08Now I'm working here 31 years. I heard you're also called the wizard of dogs. Oh, no, no, no, no.
06:14The Houdini of hot dogs, the wizard of dogs. Yeah, I got different nicknames.
06:20After watching all this, I wanted to put in an order for myself. But of course, I had to get
06:25in my car.
06:26Oh, these spots are so tight. And I overshot it. There we go. Okay. Um, I guess I, yeah.
06:38Press button for service. Okay.
06:42Hiya, thanks for stopping. May I take your order, please?
06:45Hi, um, can I get a Superdog with everything on it?
06:49Did you want hot peppers on there?
06:51Yeah, sure.
06:52Okay.
06:52Superdog still uses metal speaker boxes from the 1950s.
06:56And a super burger.
06:58Okay, did you want cheese on that?
07:00Cheese, yes.
07:01That's going to be a super cheesy. Do you want everything on that?
07:04Mustard, relish, onion, pickle, hot pepper?
07:09Um, just onions. And can I have them grilled?
07:12Sure.
07:14My order goes to Dawn's wife, Lisa Drucker, in the switchboard room.
07:18Our parking lot is numbered so that every space outside has a
07:22number which corresponds inside to our switchboard.
07:25And we use a foot pedal here.
07:28So I press the foot pedal down when I'm talking to them.
07:32That way you always have a hand free to write.
07:35So we use our order ticket that, again, was designed in 1948 by my folks.
07:41I would like to try a vanilla shake.
07:43Sure.
07:44Um, a chocolate super malt.
07:46Sure.
07:46And then a tamale.
07:49I'll try the special one.
07:51Okay, now we wait.
07:52And I fear I overordered, which is classic.
07:55Classic Abby.
07:56But I have to try everything for the sake of journalism.
08:00While we wait, I popped in to watch Lisa in action.
08:04Hiya, thanks for stopping.
08:05May I take your order, please?
08:06Why do you say hiya?
08:10My dad was a cute, goofy, 1948 kind of guy.
08:16And it was just a friendly way of greeting customers.
08:19And why have you decided to keep it going?
08:22It makes you feel when you come back like you've never been away.
08:25Lisa's parents opened Superdog nearly 80 years ago.
08:30As a young child, I fondly remember sitting at my mom's feet at the switchboard
08:36and drawing and coloring on paper and learning letters and numbers
08:42because our parking lot is designed that way.
08:46She and her brother Scott watched their parents run this joint for 100 hours a week.
08:50Their dad was a returning veteran, and their mom was a schoolteacher.
08:54The G.I. Bill only paid for a portion of their lives as a newly married couple in 1947.
09:01So to supplement the G.I. Bill, they opened this little 12 by 20 hot dog stand.
09:06Many G.I.s were coming back from the war and opening hot dog stands.
09:10They were usually like an old Airstream trailer with a flip front, and those were called G.I. wagons.
09:16But they wanted something a little more permanent, so they built this little cinder block building
09:20on rented space, which is where we still are.
09:22This was a perfect spot.
09:24They were at the end of the train line and right across the street from one of the largest in
09:28-ground pools in the world at the time.
09:30And they wanted those kids coming off the bus with a rolled-up towel.
09:34What was meant to be a one-time summer business went year-round by 1950.
09:39By then, they'd shifted to a drive-in, complete with intercoms and carhops.
09:44They still ferry out the food to this day, and Lisa's put her kids to work.
09:49Oh, I haven't seen him in two whole days, so I didn't know what he looked like.
09:55Carhops run food 362 days a year, no matter the weather.
10:00You're working in thunderstorms.
10:02You're working in blizzards.
10:04You're working in great days, 70-degree days, 102-degree days.
10:10Every day there is, you're working in it.
10:13How long have you been doing it?
10:1427 years.
10:15That's huge!
10:16What is that?
10:17It's beautiful!
10:18It's prettier when it's in a for-here bowl.
10:21I like that!
10:23I never wanted to be like an office worker.
10:27I like being on my feet, moving around.
10:31I mean, I like my customers.
10:33In 27 years, I've seen a lot.
10:38I've seen new births.
10:41I've seen deaths.
10:47And when you know somebody really well, and then they come in without their spouse one day, and you're like,
10:52don't tell me.
10:55Yeah, that's happened quite a few times.
10:57I can't imagine being anywhere else.
10:59I'm 60 years old.
11:01This is going to be it for me.
11:02When I retire, it's going to be from here.
11:06After all of my patience, it was finally time to dig in.
11:10Alright!
11:11I see a super dog!
11:13It's hefty!
11:14This actually has a lot of weight to it.
11:17Alright.
11:18Going in.
11:20I'm going to admit something out loud.
11:22I'm not a huge yellow mustard person, and I don't love pickles.
11:27As a certified yellow mustard hater, I actually liked it.
11:32I feel like all of the acidity from the onions and the relish kind of negate just the punch that
11:41is yellow mustard to me.
11:43I'm going to take a second bite.
11:46It's a good third bigger than an actual hot dog normally is.
11:49So it's way more moist, super juicy.
11:53Great.
11:54For science.
12:01I like it.
12:04I like this pickle.
12:06It's like a young pickle, so it's not really pickly pungent.
12:10I think I'm most impressed by these fries, though, because they actually have held their form pretty well, considering they've
12:16been sitting in this box with a hot hot dog.
12:19With a hot super dog.
12:22It's a super dog.
12:24The vegan tamale on the menu was a skip for me.
12:27But the onion chips?
12:30Mmm.
12:31This is really good.
12:33I would like to point out that this is, I mean, that's my lap.
12:37Like, this is the collateral damage that is.
12:41Oh my God.
12:42Yep, these pants are probably toast.
12:44Like, I was trying to eat so clean.
12:47I look like a toddler.
12:51That's okay.
12:52I have a really good burger to distract me.
12:58Classic.
12:59It's good.
13:02The onions are the best part of that, for sure.
13:04It's cool to go to a place that, you know, its reputation precedes it, and then it lives up to
13:09that reputation.
13:09And I'm eating in a car.
13:11So I can, like, do my own thing.
13:13I can blast my own music.
13:14I could sit here in silence.
13:16Call my mom.
13:17Yes, you're eating in your own separate vehicles, but I feel like there's more humanity here.
13:23Not only in the people that are hand cutting the fries, but in the service itself.
13:29That service, whether on foot or on roller skates, has been a staple of drive-ins from the beginning.
13:35The first one in the U.S. opened up in Dallas, Texas in 1921, just as car ownership was taking
13:41off across America.
13:43But drivers didn't want to park and walk inside.
13:46They wanted convenience.
13:47So the drive-in chain A&W employed tray boys to provide curb service.
13:53Enter the carhops.
13:55They got the name because they'd hop on the running boards of early automobiles to take orders.
14:00The word was likely based on hotel bellhops.
14:03During World War II, civilian car production was halted to produce military equipment.
14:08With men away at war, more women took over car hop duties.
14:13Post-World War II, the economy was booming and Americans were rushing to buy cars.
14:19By 1948, automakers were rolling out nearly $4 million a year to meet demand.
14:24Drive-ins represented we had arrived, we Americans had arrived.
14:29They were able to buy homes, suburbs were beginning to blossom and grow, and people were able to buy cars.
14:36By then, cars had heaters and radios, making it more appealing to eat behind the wheel.
14:41In the 1950s, the U.S. introduced its interstate highway system.
14:46With more people on the road than ever before, drive-ins entered their golden era.
14:51Drive-ins were convenient and affordable. A whole meal cost less than 50 cents.
14:55Their layout, with rows of parking stalls and car hop service, encouraged people to stick around rather than rush off.
15:02Most homes didn't have air conditioning, so people who were crowded and hot in the urban areas would take a
15:08ride to the country, enjoy a super dog.
15:12Car hops began strapping on roller skates to get orders out faster.
15:16Architects designed circular drive-ins to fit as many customers as possible.
15:20Some even introduced automated systems, which delivered food trays on tracks.
15:25At their peak, there were about 40,000 drive-ins in America, with the chain A&W leading the pack.
15:32You had movie stars showing up to eat in them. In movies themselves, rowdy teenagers at car hops were a
15:38Hollywood trope.
15:39This was around the time the chain Dog & Suds launched in the Midwest.
15:44Some music teachers from the University of Illinois opened up the first location.
15:48Dog & Suds meant they served hot dogs and root beer.
15:52In its heyday in the 1960s, there were locations across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, making it one of the
15:59biggest drive-in chains in America.
16:01My parents built it and opened in 1967 and has been in our family full time ever since.
16:09That's Roy Miller, former owner of this location in Ingleside, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago.
16:15Back in those days in 67, Fox Lake was a much smaller town, so they started off with a bang.
16:22They were unique. The evenings here were crazy busy because people didn't have air conditioning.
16:29They'd come to Dog & Suds to get ice cream and root beer floats and to cool off.
16:34But by the 1960s, Roy had started to notice a new kind of format taking over, fast food.
16:42McDonald's actually started as a drive-in, but it abandoned the model in 1948 in favor of a self-service
16:48counter.
16:49Without the need for car hops, it could be cheaper.
16:52In 1955, it started rolling out franchises across the country.
16:57Ten years later, McDonald's had 700 locations.
17:01McDonald's introduced the speedy service system.
17:03Its kitchens were designed like factory lines, so they could pump out food quickly.
17:08Workers could make an entire meal in as little as 20 seconds.
17:13McDonald's franchise model made it affordable and accessible for entrepreneurs to get into the business,
17:18helping the chain spread rapidly across the U.S.
17:22Then, drive-throughs roared onto the scene with a two-way speaker system invented by the founder of In-N
17:28-Out.
17:29Drive-throughs gained traction as a faster, more efficient alternative to drive-ins.
17:34Wendy's adopted the drive-through in 1970.
17:37Burger King and McDonald's followed suit five years later.
17:41And slowly, independent drive-ins started to dry up.
17:45Now, Sonic is one of the last chains keeping the drive-in alive in America.
17:50It has over 3,000 locations and is famous for its giant slushies, burgers, tater tots, and limeades.
17:58In a lot of ways, Sonic feels like half drive-in, half fast food concept.
18:03It introduced drive-ins at most locations and kept growing its menu.
18:07But I've heard some news that some locations are shutting down.
18:11Sonic isn't the only chain that has closed some stores.
18:14There's still about a dozen or so of us left.
18:17Meaning over 98% of Dog & Sud's locations have shuttered since its peak.
18:2259 years later, I'm happy we're still here.
18:25One thing that sets this location apart from the few other remaining Dog & Sud's is that it still makes
18:31a lot from scratch,
18:32including its root beer, which flows into a frosty mug.
18:36There we go. Nice and pretty.
18:38And the coleslaw.
18:39We go through about 100 pounds of cabbage a week.
18:42Bradley Miller is Roy's grandson and the fourth generation to work here.
18:46This is my grandfather's recipe. We've been doing it since 1967.
18:50We can't go wrong with making everything in a house.
18:53Cabbage usually smells like farts.
18:56Especially after you shred it.
18:58I don't know why. I don't know why.
19:00I wish I educated myself more.
19:01But in final coleslaw form, what does it smell like?
19:03Oh, it smells like coleslaw sauce in just heaven.
19:07Just smells like heaven.
19:09They also make that sauce from scratch, too.
19:11The base is two gallons of mayo.
19:13Is that the most things you spend your money on, is mayo?
19:16Mayo, hot dogs, french fries, and ice cream mix.
19:21Bradley's dad was set to buy the business from Roy in 2022.
19:25He was actually about to sign the papers right before he passed away.
19:29It was a big loss.
19:31My dad was rocking the family.
19:33He was one of the hardest workers.
19:35He dealt with a lot of perseverance.
19:37He had a genetic disorder, the same one I have, ankylosing spondylitis.
19:43And it's a hard disease to live with.
19:45It is.
19:46And seeing how he dealt with it is helping me how I have to deal with it as well.
19:51Bradley and his mom purchased the family dog and suds from Roy instead.
19:55I took over because when my father passed away, nobody else could do it.
20:01He stepped right in and he's doing an absolutely amazing job.
20:05He's young.
20:07He's energetic.
20:08He's got ideas.
20:09This is his life's calling.
20:11He grew up in the business.
20:12He knows this is what he wants to do.
20:14I'm very fortunate for that.
20:17Today, that legacy continues with dog and suds fifth generation.
20:21Roy's great grand daughter slurping up ice cream.
20:24And these are probably going to be the only great grandchildren.
20:27I often look up and I think if my parents could see what their dog and suds has become over
20:34all these years,
20:35they would cry and they would just be joyful for us as a family to continue the legacy that they
20:42started for us.
20:45When Bradley's not running around after his three daughters, he spends his day in the kitchen.
20:50I'm a true owner operator.
20:51Something breaks, I fix it.
20:53I try to do everything myself.
20:55I'm only open for seven months out of the year.
20:58I'm like a reverse teacher.
21:00I'm working during the summer and the winters, I'm a lot more laid back.
21:04Do you just go to like Jamaica for free events in the winter?
21:07Actually, no.
21:08So I coach youth wrestling.
21:10I'm an assistant head coach over at the middle school over here.
21:14And I also snow plow.
21:16Just like at Super Dog, the kitchen split up with fryers on one side,
21:20the grill lined with burgers on another, and the steam table.
21:23But these hot dogs, yes, hot dogs, can be a foot long.
21:28Cooks keep this famous coney sauce on top using a tool from the 1960s.
21:33That is our version of a chili dog.
21:35It doesn't have beans.
21:37It's not spicy.
21:38It's on the sweeter side.
21:39The most popular thing on the menu is the Texas burger.
21:42While they sell 40,000 hot dogs a year, they'll sell 50,000 burgers.
21:47It's two all-beef patties, a third of a pound of meat with cheese, coney sauce, special sandwich sauce, and
21:55lettuce.
21:55Two different kinds of sauces.
21:57Yes.
21:58Orders come through the intercom system at the front of the building.
22:01So when a call comes in, it has a loud beep to it, and it also shows which intercom is
22:07pressing the button.
22:08I have 32 intercom stalls all together, though.
22:11That's like the equivalent of 32 drive-thrus out of McDonald's, right?
22:15That is indeed correct.
22:17Welcome to Miller's Dog & Suds in Ingleside. May I take your order, please?
22:20Can I get a Texas burger, order fries, and a large root beer plate?
22:25Would you like that root beer in a frosted mug or a paper cup?
22:29Is there any other way to have it in a cup?
22:33No, ma'am.
22:34I like how it's almost sing-songy.
22:37Okay, and welcome to Sogs and Suds.
22:39Like, it's almost like a cadence to how you speak over the intercom.
22:42Yes, yes.
22:43Is that something you teach people, or?
22:45We teach repetition, repetition.
22:47We want every customer coming in, we want the same experience as they had 60 years ago when my great
22:52-grandparents opened the place.
22:54All the food comes together on these old-fashioned trays.
22:57These trays will sit on each and every window on each car.
23:01What happens if a car comes in and it's very, very thick?
23:05The glass?
23:06Yeah.
23:07We haven't had that problem yet.
23:08No?
23:08The president hasn't come here yet with his thick glass cars.
23:12No bulletproof cars yet?
23:14No, no.
23:15And here, too, the carhops are the lifeblood of the business.
23:19Started working here when I was 13, the first year they opened up.
23:22It used to be that people couldn't wait to get a job here.
23:25They'd have to stand, you know, we had a waiting list because everybody wanted to work here.
23:28When I got to carhop, which was a big deal, to make $150 a shift in 1968 was like, wow.
23:35Yeah.
23:36Kendall Jurek has been running food here for 10 years.
23:39My best friend and I got our first job here.
23:42Kendall even met her soon-to-be husband here.
23:45My fiancé and I started working around the same time.
23:49He was a cook and I was a carhop and the love story sprouted from there.
23:54The first time he made a burger, you were like, that's the one?
23:57That's my man.
23:59I had to try one of these love-inducing burgers, so I hopped into my car.
24:04God, I'm not a good enough driver for this.
24:07Do not hit anything.
24:10Welcome to Miller's Dog & Son's.
24:12May I take your order, please?
24:14Hi.
24:14Can I get a Texas burger, but make it a basket, please?
24:19And I'm going to try a Coney Dog, the foot-long one.
24:23Sure thing.
24:24And the world's creamiest root beer, medium.
24:30Oh my God.
24:31That tray is packed.
24:33That's perfect, actually.
24:37Look at how cute this is.
24:39Oh my gosh.
24:41That is beautiful.
24:44Oh my God.
24:45It just keeps coming out.
24:49It's so long.
24:50Basically, my entire forearm in hot dog form.
24:55Logistically, I'm terrified of ruining my clothes because I'm a very messy person.
24:59And I have no barrier of a table between me and the food, so it's a bit of a risk.
25:09Mmm.
25:10The Coney sauce is way sweeter than I would have expected, but in a good way.
25:15It's like sweet, salty from the hot dog, pillowy bun, delicious.
25:21It's not that much resistance, so I could see why someone could finish this whole thing.
25:24That is a big burger.
25:30Mmm.
25:31I have no idea how to describe these because there's so much going on, but somehow it all works.
25:37I thought the two sauces would fight each other because one's sweet and one's very salty, but they actually work
25:42in harmony pretty well.
25:43This is a good burger.
25:45Here we go.
25:48Oh, that's so good.
25:52I know root beer is basically just straight sugar, but somehow the bubbliness of the root beer actually kind of
25:58balances out the sweetness of the soft serve.
26:01So it's not as heavy as one would expect, which is kind of dangerous.
26:08And it's landed on me.
26:10And there you have it.
26:18The Millers credit the town of Ingleside for their relevance at a time when so many other drive-ins have
26:23nosedived.
26:24They're wonderful people and they appreciate what we have here and they help make it what it is.
26:30Every Saturday during the summer, the lot transforms into a classic car cruise night.
26:35See some of the different cars that might come in and hang around with all the pals here and be
26:40friends.
26:41Yeah.
26:42Enjoy Roy's company now and then.
26:45Aw.
26:46Aggravates us once in a while.
26:47We have a good time here.
26:49But I do it on purpose.
26:50Yeah, I know.
26:53As well known as we were before that as a wholesome family restaurant, when we did the cruise nights, it
26:59gave us exposure we didn't have before.
27:01So it's really been a big boon to our business.
27:04I always felt they liked me as a person and I was their friend and their next door neighbor, not
27:12a customer.
27:13I'm spending my money, but it was a good place to spend my money.
27:18Just like Dog & Suds, Superdog has become a pillar in its community.
27:22It's a great place for great people with great food.
27:25This would always be the place we'd come for the night before our first day of school.
27:31It's nostalgic for a time I wasn't alive for.
27:34And it reminds me of my child because he's coming here all the time.
27:37Come for the dog.
27:38And the atomic relish.
27:41While many Dog & Suds locations have shuttered, Superdog has expanded.
27:46It built a second location 20 minutes up the road in Wheeling, Illinois in 2010.
27:52It has a similar look to the original, but it's a lot bigger.
27:56This lot has 34 spaces in Wheeling. We have 100 parking spaces.
27:59It's two acres and we have six picnic tables here. There we have 18 picnic tables.
28:05That wasn't the only thing they changed.
28:07They also put beer on the menu and added a drive-through.
28:12Today, successful drive-ins like Superdog are few and far between, but the habit they helped popularize never disappeared.
28:2087% of Americans eat in their cars.
28:23Gen Z alone is averaging up to four meals in their cars per week, more than any other generation.
28:29But unlike at the drive-ins of the 1950s, a lot of these meals are eaten alone.
28:35In the age of social media, food reviews in our cars and mukbangs have racked up millions of views.
28:41I feel like our cars have transformed into a private sanctuary, like a second living room or a filming location
28:48or another dining room.
28:51And I think probably the biggest thing is if you're eating alone, you don't have to feel awkward if you're
28:56doing it in your own car.
28:58Now you've even seen fast food chains like Taco Bell and Chick-fil-A redesigning their restaurants to focus more
29:04on car lanes, cutting down on traditional dining rooms.
29:09Bojangles added EV charging stations where people can juice up their cars while they eat.
29:13I mean, when you're eating in your car alone, at least if you're going to do it here, you get
29:17to enjoy a true 50s style experience and you're always going to have good company here.
29:23Maybe this is the drive-ins chance to stage a comeback.
29:26And I think what's lost nationally is the Americana.
29:29I think not only is a drive-in part of that and drive-in movies likewise, but movie theaters.
29:35I think all of that is part of the American community experience that if people would do, they would enjoy
29:42themselves more.
29:43Even though they might sit alone in their car, they're part of a communal eating experience.
29:47That's what I think drive-ins are and were and should be.
29:50A lot of things in life have cycles.
29:53Maybe this will come back. Time will tell.
29:57You guys, you were a pleasure. You really were. No, you were.
30:01Aw, thank you. You were. We appreciate it.
30:03So, stay easy going.
30:05Thank you, Ian.
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