Remember the curb-side, drive-in hamburger stands? They had neon lights and hot music, and they attracted cool cats in fast cars. They had style and charm.
They were in vogue when gasoline was cheap and cruising in dad`s Buick was cool. The drive-ins were, in some cases, harmless hangouts for kids out cruising, homes away from home for clean-cut, letter-sweater-clad boys and bobby-soxer girls and a few of the black-leather-jacket types, too.
The drive-ins featured freshly made burgers and root beer floats, and some even had car hops who rolled out to the waiting cars on skates, bopping to the piped outdoor tunes of Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley.
They were a slice of Americana that has nearly vanished. But all may not be lost. Maybe, like crew-cuts and mini-skirts, the drive-in hamburger joint is just waiting for a revival.
”It`s a place that should be here forever,” said Kevin Richards of Glenview, as he scarfed down a Texas Triple Burger at the Dog `N Suds on Lake Street in Addison. ”But it probably won`t.”
”I hope he holds out,” Richards said of Larry DeRorri, the owner of the last remaining Dog `N Suds in Du Page County. ”We drove all the way down here from Glenview for this.”
Richards, 36, said he and his family drove for 40 minutes and passed at least 50 McDonald`s, Burger Kings, Taco Bells and assorted other fast-food giants on their way to the only thing that could satisfy their particular craving, the Dog `N Suds.
DeRorri`s Dog `N Suds, a mainstay in Addison for nearly 25 years, truly is a vision of what the drive-in burger bistros of the past were like. Yellow and brown poles indicate where the cars are supposed to park, and the parking stalls are separated by illuminated menus with intercom boxes attached.
”Of course they still work,” said DeRorri, referring to the intercoms.
”They are the originals.”
A radio station plays ”all oldies” to add to the flavor of the menu. If there is enough help on-duty, curb-side service is still available.
”We still make our own root beer,” DeRorri said. The most popular items on the Dog `N Suds menu are the Texas Triple Burger, the Coney Dogs (not to be confused with corny dogs, which are also on the menu), the malted milks and the root beer floats. The food is prepared fresh daily.
At one time there were 22 Dog `N Suds franchises in Du Page County. DeRorri`s is the last one left. Nor are there any in Cook, Kane or Will Counties. But some still dot the landscape in rural areas.
”Around here, though, somebody offers a half million for your property and chances are that you`re going to sell,” DeRorri said.
”I used to come back here for their burgers with the Coney sauce when I
(was visiting from) California,” said customer Dawn Maxwell, now a resident of Addison. ”I`ve been coming here for 20 years.”
”Larry treats you like gold when you come here,” Richards said. ”I used to go to a place like this when I was in high school. It was called Skip`s, and it was in Melrose Park. We used to go down there and look at all the cars, you know, and listen to the `50s and `60s music.”
Well, give another listen, Larry Richards. Have you heard about places like Cruiser`s, a revamped drive-in in Lombard?
Replacing a departed Dog `N Suds at 396 E. St. Charles Road, Cruiser`s is trying to revive the old hamburger-stand mystique. Cruiser`s has kept the drive-in look it inherited from Dog `N Suds, but has added a spruced-up interior to give it a slicker, more modern appearance.
Owner-manager Tim Strand said he wants to re-create the drive-in style at his new place. ”Next summer I plan on having car hops,” he said. Pictures of classic cars and old automobile license plates hang on the wall.
”On Friday and Saturday nights, a lot of old car buffs bring their cars here and enjoy a burger and a few Cokes,” said Strand. ”I want to be a place where people can go and just hang out. Better here than somewhere they could get into trouble.”
Cruiser`s uses ground sirloin in all its hamburgers and offers a high-quality custard for dessert.
Earlier this year the place was hopping like it was 1957 all over again when a classic car show was held in the parking area.
Strand, like other small hamburger stand operaters, admits that its tough to make the business work against the major fast-food chains. ”I`m going to work 100 hours a week if I have to,” he said.
Ed Saylor remembers when the drive-in hamburger stand was more than a place to get fast food.”For the kids who hung out there, it was kind of a ritual,” said Saylor, 40, of Northlake. Two decades ago, he used to hang out at Skip`s, and now he brings his family to the Dog `N Suds.
”It`s the service, really; you`re pampered with this kind of service,”
Saylor said. ”You just sit in your car and they bring everything out to you. The food is as good as you`ll get anywhere else. You just pull up and you get the tray. It`s great.
”The crowd from Skip`s sometimes has reunions,” Saylor added. ”I remember we used to talk a lot about the events of the day, you know, whatever happened. When you`re 17 or 18 years old, you`re at that awkward stage and just being at this place with your friends, you felt like you belonged to something.
”When I was a kid I worked at a place like this, a drive-in hamburger stand,” he continued. ”It wasn`t even like I was working, I enjoyed it so much. It was fun for me to be with the people that hung around there.”
Another oldtime hangout is Hamburger Heaven at York Road and North Avenue in Elmhurst.
”The business has been here for 40 years,” said Angelo Kouretas, owner and manager. ”We opened in the summer of 1948 and originally sold hamburgers and root beer, and from there we went to french fries and ice cream.”
Hamburger Heaven is not a drive-in; it`s more of a walk-up. The family-operated business is open from March to October. ”People around here know it`s spring when we open and fall when we close,” said Kouretas.
The burgers are prepared fresh daily, Kouretas said, and nothing is frozen. There is no precooked food, sitting around in cardboard or styrofoam boxes. There is no inside seating, but several picnic tables outside are available.
Among the area`s oldest surviving stands are two 50-year-old Cock Robin burger and ice cream outlets in Wheaton and Naperville.
”I don`t know of any of the old-time places with the curb girls left anymore,” said owner Rita Harvard. The Wheaton Cock Robin, at Wesley and Hale Streets, famous for its burgers and square-dipper ice cream, was once a Prince Castle store when it opened in the 1930s, Harvard said.
”Kids still come back looking for the square-dipper ice cream,” says Betty Ludwig, manager of the Wheaton Cock Robin.
The old Cock Robin still has red swivel chairs. It has been remodeled but the car-port posts where the cars used to park alongside the building now serve as supports for the structure. ”The building has still retained its old-fashioned quality,” said Ludwig. ”It`s ancient.”
Other establishments have not been able to survive. ”An old A & W root beer stand in town folded up last year,” said Bev Hocker, director of the Wheaton Chamber of Commerce. She added that Bopper`s, another 1950s-style, curb-side burger palace, also shut its doors for good last year.
But a new wave of nostalgia may rise up in the collective consciousness of Americans and what was once on its way out may suddenly be in again.
